"Marcus, I don't want to hear about problems. I want to hear about solutions!" Deborah snapped at the CEO, walking out on him.
"O-kay," he remained in the office.
"You alright?" Damien's head popped around the door and asked.
"Did I miss something? Why is she being especially difficult?" this earned him a shrug from her personal assistant.
"She's been like this since Ava left," Damien remarked, perhaps not as oblivious as he often seemed. "I mean, since she visited. Maybe they had a fight?"
Marcus considered the possibility for a moment, rubbing his head in frustration. This wasn't the Deborah Vance he endured after Ava had quit or been fired, he still wasn't entirely sure what happened, and gone back to Boston. It was also not the unbearable Deborah they all lived with after Ava's email came to light. This Deborah was much more familiar. She was behaving like the Deborah from after she sent Ava away and the team had returned to Vegas without the girl. "Interesting," he said under his breath.
"Ask Kiki," Damien advised before disappearing.
Kiki might know something, but so might Marcus if he suspended disbelief.
…
"Did you know it cost that much more to film in California versus Georgia?" Ava was rambling on about work while Deborah was reading through the day's emails on her tablet. She was listening, but not adding much to the conversation. "Deb?"
"Yeah," Deborah's response was half-hearted.
"Hey, am I bothering you? You can always tell me to shut up."
"Not having your permission hasn't kept me from doing so before now," Deborah was dry, always with that dry wit.
"Is everything okay with you?" Ava pushed for an explanation.
"Yes, Ava. It's been a long day. I am listening," Deborah put the tablet aside. Her fingers ran through her hair. She was sitting in bed, her back against the headboard, but she was fighting settling in for bed because she knew the silence of an empty house would make her miss Ava all the more.
"You should get some sleep," the voice stated, misreading her mind. She meant for it to be received as a suggestion but the way she said it was sharp.
"Ava…" the woman warned.
"What? I can't tell you what you should do? You are always telling me. Hell, you have me living a life I don't want because it's supposedly best for me," Ava's voice maintained a sharpness through the speaker, one that might not have existed had they been in the same room. However, them not being in the same room was precisely what fueled her.
"Not tonight," Deb's voice could be equally sharp and she was naturally as defensive as piranhas in a castle moat.
"Yeah, sure. Get some sleep, Deborah," Ava was angry and dejected. "Goodnight."
The call ended before Deborah could speak another word.
"Fuck!" she spat.
If it hadn't been for the fact that it would be at least twelve hours before Damien could get her a replacement, she might have thrown her phone as hard as she could at the wall. That thought alone made her think of Sedona and the crystals she had thrown at Ava.
"Fuck," she whispered this time. The sound echoed in the empty house.
…
"Did something happen while Ava was here? Deborah has been a bear since the kid went home," Marcus asked Kiki, an unconventional ally. He had met her at the end of shift and was sitting with her outside the Palmetto near a loading bay.
"Hmm…Ava didn't say anything, but then again she didn't really want to talk about what it was like to see Deborah again."
Marcus took the information in. He knew Ava was a talker, chronic verbal vomiting, and if she didn't say anything about it to Kiki, her best friend, something was definitely off.
"Do you think you could ask her?" he felt ridiculous. They weren't in junior high. He was the CEO of Deborah Vance's company, after all. But he was also her friend. A friend who had been witness to her personal pain.
"You know, you could ask Deborah," Kiki smiled.
"I would like to keep my head."
Kiki thought about it for a moment. Knowing that she had told Ava to talk to the woman and work through the pain they had caused each other, she decided it might be okay to confide a bit more in Marcus. He cared for Deborah, too. They all did. That was one thing that Ava's email got one-hundred-percent wrong: Deborah's employees were family. They were not there for the paycheck alone.
"I think there is more to Deborah sending Ava back to Los Angeles, Marcus," she shared her assumption.
He nodded his head somewhat reluctantly. Admitting that there was more to the situation than he had been allowing for was not a comfortable position to be in.
"People are complicated," Kiki observed.
"That's the truth."
Kiki hopped down off the cement structure they had been sitting on.
"Come on," she said. "You can buy me dinner. I'll drive."
He could only shake his head. He didn't have other plans.
…
"Are you drunk?" Deb was in the kitchen getting the dogs their bedtime snack when Ava called.
"I was at a party."
"And that answers my question?" Deb countered with obvious annoyance.
"Well, yeah. I did have a couple of drinks. But I wouldn't say I'm drunk, no."
"I don't recall you telling me you were going to a party tonight," Deb bent down, offering treats as well as a few scratches.
"Goodnight, Barry and Cara!" Ava yelled through the speaker, startling the poor Corgis.
"You scared them," Deborah couldn't keep herself from smiling at the level of absurdity Ava brought to her life.
"I miss them," she used as her excuse. "And I didn't tell you I was going to a party because I didn't know I was going to a party until a few hours ago."
"Work?" Deborah asked.
"No, actually. Ruby, uh, my ex. It was a party for her," Ava's voice carried anxiety which was misinterpreted by Deb.
"Ah, I see. Well, I hope you had a nice time. Did you give her a show or will you try sending nudes later?"
The bite in Deborah Vance's tone was enough to intimidate even the most confident person. It shut Ava right down. A prolonged silence between them further seeped away Ava's confidence. She finally spoke the single word—"no."
The presence of the fake chuckle that Deb employed when she was bothered by something was further evidence that the woman had misinterpreted mere mention of Ava's ex. Ava decided to end the conversation before it got out of hand.
"I called to say goodnight, D," she sighed, deflated. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."
And the phone went dead.
…
Josephina and Damien were on the terrace when Deborah walked into the kitchen a bit after breakfast. Showing the personal assistant something on her phone, Josephina was loudly commenting on someone's dress.
"Do I pay you to do fashion commentary now?" Deborah startled them both from her place just inside the kitchen door.
"Sorry, Deborah," Josephina quickly slid her phone into her apron and looked to Damien to make an excuse for what they had been caught doing, but by then the boss had already slipped back inside.
"She is moving to Vancouver?" Damien could be heard asking Josephina.
"I guess so. Vulture says it's a long-term contract," Josephina answered matter-of-factly. Deborah couldn't keep from rolling her eyes at the omnipresence of gossip in the entertainment business. "The franchise is huge worldwide."
"I thought that she and Ava were…" Damien tried lowering his voice, but Deborah still caught what he said and paid closer attention. She was now very interested in the gossiping of her employees. Lowering their voices was something they had done a lot in the days after she fired Ava. They resumed the habit.
Josephina shook her head and gathered the remainder of the breakfast items to return to the kitchen. Deborah hurried into the hallway, lingering out of sight, to continue eavesdropping.
"She didn't tell you?" Josephina's surprise was palpable. "She rejected Ruby when they spent time together in L.A. Right before Ava came back early for the filming of Deborah's special."
"Another instance of that girl acting impulsively. Ruby is a catch. Can you imagine how much money she has? You're right, that franchise is huge. I mean, that dress alone looks like it cost more than I make in a year."
"You didn't hear it from me," Josephina required his discretion despite being the bigger gossip between them.
Deborah remained standing there, digesting it all. Marcus appeared in the hallway.
"Deb?" he asked with concern. "Is everything okay? Do I need to take care of that?"
He nodded toward the two employees in the kitchen and she shook her head, making her way past him and out of the hallway without saying a word. Her employees were harmless. She, on the other hand, was not.
…
Sitting behind the closed door of her office, Deborah massaged her temples. She stared at her phone as it sat before her on the desk. She had reacted out of distrust and jealousy the night before, probably even insecurity, and Ava hadn't deserved any of it. If only Deb had actually listened to her.
Picking up the phone, Deb opened the messaging app and typed out a simple note before hitting send. I'm sorry, was what it read.
Deborah stared at the phone knowing she wouldn't be left waiting for a response. As she thought about what she had said the night before, embarrassment set in for her awfully immature behavior. Ava wasn't interested in Ruby. The thought that she might still be had made for a sleepless night. It was long past time she figured out what exactly her feelings were, because misunderstandings like this were going to continue. They both had to own their shit.
Her phone pinged. Don't worry about it, Ava's response read.
Deborah leaned back in her chair; her phone being held tightly in both hands now. Ava revealed nothing about how she felt in the tone of her text. This left one of two scenarios: Either Ava was unbothered by the phone call the night before or Ava was pretending to be unbothered.
I do worry about it. You didn't deserve that. And I am sorry, Deborah typed out. Texting apologies might be easier than in-person apologies, but no apology was easy for her. She couldn't remember the last time she had so quickly apologized for behaving badly. It shouldn't have taken the conversation amongst her staff for Deborah to recognize that she had been wrong to assume anything of Ava's life away from Las Vegas. Besides, she was the reason for Ava being out of sight.
You couldn't have known, D. She's my ex and that is all. We have a similar circle these days. But she knows my heart is elsewhere. The blush reached Deb's cheeks instantly. She would not question Ava's love for her again.
Can I call you tonight? Deborah found herself asking and received an immediate affirmative response.
Deborah placed her phone back on the desk and exhaled shakily. A knock at the door pulled her attention away from the emotional realm she seemed to slip into anytime Ava was involved.
"Come in," she called.
Marcus came into the room, tablet in hand and a determined look on his face.
"Can we go over the taping schedule for Philadelphia?" he asked.
She nodded and hoped that his rundown of her QVC responsibilities would take her mind off of a certain young woman in Hollywood.
…
"What is your on-set schedule the next few days?" Deborah asked, biting her lip nervously.
"If I get the edits to this week's script off tonight, I have to be reachable for questions in the next few days while they do their table read and run-through. On set for punch-ups after that. Why?" Ava answered, mouth full of dinner.
"Swallow whatever it is you are chomping on before I say what I'm going to," Deb instructed the girl.
Ava gulped. "All clear."
"What would you think about flying out to meet me in Philadelphia?"
Of all the things Deborah Vance had asked of her in the time they had known each other, nothing else had held quite as much promise. Had her mouth been full, she would have choked.
To be continued…