Escapade

"Okay, I'll be on the sofa if you need anything." Adrian said and left the room.

************

"Damn girl!" Mavin grinned when she saw Eva strolling out to the waiting area. "You lookin' good."

"Hey Doc, it's always good to see you." Eva hugged Mavin tightly.

"Mmm, well that explains why your ass couldn't take a cab." Mavin smiled.

"You know you'd rather have my ass in your car." Eva retorted as they made their way to the parking area.

"You know that's a pretty confident thing to say considering how much ass I've had in this car."

"Don't flatter yourself sweetie."

"I don't need to, I have you and a mystery stalker to handle that." Mavin replied and got a shove from Eva.

After Eva's bags were loaded into the trunk, Mavin maneuvered through the airport traffic and drove Eva to her apartment in the city. Mavin parked her car and got the luggage out of the trunk. Eva fished for the keys to her apartment.

"So this party..." Eva began as they made their way into the lavish spread of Eva's Big Apple niche.

"Is a popper." Mavin interrupted, "Jasmine just got the place hooked up and I haven't seen it yet."

"Oh, that's cool." Eva dropped herself into the plush velvet sofa and kicked her feet up after having flung her snow boots off. "Is she coming?"

"Why not? She own's the damn place!" Mavin said and eyed Eva. "What did you drink on the plane?"

"I'm not drunk. Or even tipsy. I'm talking about the love of your life." Eva smiled mischievously.

"Oh come on, Eva. Don't get into that."

"You ain't even gonna deny it?" Eva jumped out of her relaxed pose, her big brown eyes, wide.

"Deny what?!" Mavin said and wore an innocent look of confusion.

"Holy shit, hell don' froze over."

"Eva, quit your yakking, you don't know what you're talking about." Mavin said and turned to the bar. "Your ass is probably jet lagged, you want a drink?"

"Don't try to get me drunk. Oh my goodness, you...you...you're.. .I can't even say it. It sounds too unbelievable in my own head."

"See, that there, is what I like about you." Mavin whipped up a concoction and handed it to her friend. "You can separate fact from romance novel."

"Well, you do a damn good job of mixing the two." Eva said after tasting her drink. "So spill it Doc. This kinda detail cannot be ignored."

"I'm telling you now to ignore it. It's all in your head."

"No it ain't. It's in your eyes, your voice. Shit, you even walk different." Eva teased.

"Okay madame shrink. Looks like you got a jump point. Feel free to imagine this woman."

"Mavin, don't shut down. Gimme some credit, I've known you for a long time, I know when you're all bent about someone."

"Oh really?" Mavin grinned.

"Yes, now tell me." Eva said and leaned back into a comfortable position as if she was about to hear a bedtime story.

Mavin watched Eva and ran the past four months with Bellinda through her head, she wound up at Bellinda's confession and didn't know what she wanted to do with it all. She was accustomed to tangible tension, hot sex and no strings. But the redhead's feelings were a different ball game. They were intangible, abstract and beyond Mavin's control. She refocused her gaze on Eva and cleared her throat. She shifted in her seat across Eva and sighed.

"This must be serious." Eva quipped as she studied her tall friend.

"No it's not. I mean, I don't think it is." Mavin said defensively.

"And her? What does she think?"

"She thinks it's love."

"Okay, okay define 'it', and remember, I want details."

Mavin smiled, "You want popcorn too?"

"Mavin!"

"Aight, aight, ease up." Mavin cleared her throat again. "She's independent...attractive...completely luscious."

Eva watched Mavin's eyes take on a dreamy expression and smiled. She badly wanted to prod on but decided against it, lest Mavin deny her any details.

"....She owns an art gallery, she's very ambitious and how we met is a funny lil' story." Mavin grinned and went to recount the tale of the dark alley bum, and how she'd almost killed someone for a total stranger. How unbelievable it was that in spite of her drunkenness that night, she hadn't imagined the redhead with the brilliant emerald orbs for eyes, the delicate lips that begged to be kissed. And how they quivered with her fear.

"I can't really explain that first time I laid eyes on her. Damn, she was so scared and she was screaming about something. I was too busy kicking the shit outta that fool but when I did hear her, man oh man...it was something else. I don't know how to describe it. Her in that state of panic and me wasted outta my senses....she still got to me. I had to fight myself to keep from just grabbing her and holding her and ahh...but the place was already a fucking crime scene so I just got my ass outta there."

"Wow, it's already like a fairytale." Eva giggled. "But keep going."

"Yeah, well a few weeks go by and I've pretty much forgotten about all that. So she shows up at the lab and I was like a deer in headlights. At first, I thought she came for litigation so I'm already on my toes. I couldn't tell whether or not she even recognized me but I'm just keeping my mouth shut. So guess who pops up in a jolly rancher mood? José. I find out, that they're related and just when I think I'm about to lose my job, she hands some design project to her uncle, my boss....And then she leaves after we're introduced. Her name's Bellinda."

"And it even gets better." Eva sighed and Mavin shot her a cheeky grin.

"Say what you want. But yeah, Bellinda. Now for some reason José does that thing he does and I wind up at her birthday party about a month later. Turns out, she did remember and her intentions were not legal." Mavin chuckled and leaned back into the chair and closed her eyes and relived Bellinda's party.

"So what did she want?" Eva wiggled her eyebrows.

"You gotta ask?" Mavin said and continued. "She wanted to thank me for saving her life. And you know I don't do mercy-debts. So I kinda turned her down but like I said, she's ambitious. Girl didn't back down. She kept the heat up, wasn't too hard considering how I am. So she tells me, we'll take things slow, have a little chat and get to know each other. Next thing I know, she's standing in front of me, straight-up skin. You know how I get when a woman does that...I lose my damn mind." Mavin paused when she heard a crunching sound.

"What? You said I could have popcorn. This is a damn good story." Eva teased.

"Ah well, it goes on. She's good company, we have a good time together. You know, the usual. Go out, fuck and stay simple. And I told her all that from the start. I'm not looking to get tied down. I told her about Cecelia."

"What?! You never do that!" Eva said, her voice strained with surprise and shock.

"I know, that's why it's kinda freaking me out now, when she says she's falling in love with me."

"She said that?"

"Yup, she just dropped that on me today. Shit, I'm still in shock." Mavin rose up and went to fix herself a drink.

"How do you feel about that, I mean, besides the shock?" Eva said as Mavin made her way back to the sofa.

"The hell if I know. Don't get me wrong, I do care about her and I know she's not like the others..."

"But?"

"But I don't know." Mavin said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "There's so much shit that needs to be stripped off. And that's one of the things bugging me. I never cared about stripping anything."

"Oh, you mean like the ethics of her, your boss-"

"Former boss."

"Okay, that's a start. She's not tied to your work. So what else is there?"

Mavin stayed silent for a minute as she enjoyed the straight shot of bourbon. She set her glass down and laid her gaze on her best friend. "Me."

End of Chapter 3