Avery didn’t want to hurt her boyfriend but it looked like she was going to have to in order to get away without explaining her plan. Which she couldn’t do because that sort of carelessness was how villains got caught. He would be on the lookout for her stealing insulin again if he knew what she was doing was a regular occurrence.

If her plans remained a secret Mercury might assume she had a one-time purpose for it. She really hoped that was the case. She didn’t want to shut down her insulin delivery system.

“I’m really sorry about this,” Avery mumbled as she finally managed to gain the upper hand by climbing on top of him, grabbing the box, and using him as a springboard instead of a building to make her next jump.

The force was powerful enough to throw him backwards and make him break through another window on the opposite side of the street. She didn’t stop to see if he was okay this time and jumped right into an alley, retracting the suit as soon as she made sure no one was around. She was going to have to take a taxi to that pho place from here and out to the meeting spot with Jorge to be safe.

She was already worn out from her encounter with her boyfriend and potentially letting a crucial piece of information slip by accident. And she had been so careful all this time!

Unfortunately, she was going to have to tell Angelo what happened so he could find a warehouse outside of New York City next month to be safe. Mercury would be much less likely to look for her across the river in New Jersey.

Avery ate her pho in a bad mood and because she couldn’t jump around on her way to meet Jorge she didn’t get there until nearly midnight. He wasn’t happy about that either because they had a lot of deliveries to make.

“What held you up, Güera?! I thought I would be waiting here all night,” he complained.

“I’m so sorry; Mercury was tailing me so I had to get out of the suit and take a taxi. Let’s get cracking so we can hopefully get home before sunrise.”

Angelo had already texted her the list so they got to work as quickly as they could, making sure to load the car up to max capacity while Jorge was still able to see out of the rear window. Unfortunately, they still had to take several trips.

They didn’t manage to finish by 6 AM and both groaned when they saw the sun coming up. There was way too much left to get it done before people would be waking up and see them. They were going to have to go out again tonight.

“You owe me big time for this,” Jorge said wearily. “I expect a full cake from you.”

Avery yawned. “I’ll get it to you Monday night, alright? What flavor do you want? Any specific decorations?”

“I’ll text you. I’m too tired to think right now.”

That was totally fair. She could barely think at the moment either. When she got home it was a miracle she didn’t slip and fall in the shower but she felt disgusting and needed to be clean before she fell asleep.

When she crashed she didn’t wake up until 3:30 PM and needed to save her energy for later so she straight up kept her phone on airplane mode. If anyone had an emergency they were going to need to go to someone else. She wasn’t taking anything from anybody today and would relax until she needed to head out and meet with Jorge to finish the deliveries.

Avery needed some time to herself once in a while. That didn’t mean she didn’t love Vanessa because she did.

She didn’t turn airplane mode off until she needed to text Jorge about the time and place to meet. Since all that was left was one carful of insulin boxes at this point he decided to come get her so they could go from there. That was fine but she also had a flood of messages from Vanessa and even a few from Christian.

Oops. Maybe she shouldn’t have kept her phone off all day.

She sent a generic apology to Vanessa saying she was sleeping all day because she was sick but that she should be better by Tuesday. When she got to his messages she winced. He wanted to know if she was able to hang out because his usual plans had been canceled.

Avery knew what his ‘usual plans’ were. If they got canceled it meant he was hurt. Was that her fault? Using him as a springboard may have been too much for his body to take.

She tried comforting herself with the fact that he wouldn’t have wanted to hang out if he was completely incapacitated. It didn’t help much. She was worried about whatever injury he sustained but it wasn’t like she could ask him about it because she wouldn’t be able to explain how she knew he was hurt.

She couldn’t use the same excuse she used on Vanessa because he would most likely think she was contagious and not want to come over tomorrow. She couldn’t let that happen because she needed to see how bad his injury was for herself.

Her text to him read, ‘Sorry, I just saw this. My phone died and I was busy with other things so I didn’t even notice’

Christian replied immediately. ‘No worries. What were you doing?’

‘I was out with a friend’ It was partially true. She had been out with Jorge until early this morning. She sent a follow-up text. ‘What about you?’

‘Driving Liam crazy because he’s used to having the apartment to himself on the weekends. I think he felt a bit sorry for me though because he invited me to play video games with him’

Definitely injured. Avery had heard many stories about Christian’s brother at this point and knew they weren’t exactly best friends. It would take a lot for Liam to feel sorry enough for him to willingly spend time with him.

‘Hopefully he didn’t mock you too much’

‘Define too much’ he replied.

She cracked a smile. It couldn’t be too bad for him to be joking about it. She supposed she would have to see for herself tomorrow. Maybe she could try to make up for it somehow considering she was the one that hurt him in the first place even if it had been an accident.

Avery didn’t get the chance to respond because she got a text from Jorge telling her he had arrived. He didn’t seem terribly happy about this, especially since he was supposed to have tonight off so he could hang out with his girlfriend.

He hadn’t gotten around to texting her about what sort of cake he wanted so she asked him about it then and that kept them occupied for a good part of the drive. He wanted a Mexican chocolate cake with cinnamon in it with chocolate frosting and the words ‘I love you Maribel’ written on it surrounded by rosettes.

Maribel was his girlfriend. It seemed that she wasn’t happy about not being able to see him tonight too and he was trying to placate her.

She thought that was sweet. Considering her profession it would be a bit redundant for her boyfriend to send her a cake but that didn’t change the fact that it was a romantic gesture. Christian had bought her a flower from a street vendor when they were out and about once but that was the only romancing she had been on the receiving end of since before her father died.

They hadn’t been dating for long though. There was more time for romantic gestures later.

Avery told herself to focus once they arrived at the first apartment building they needed to drop insulin off in. Thankfully, they managed to get everything done before 1 AM this time. Her sleep schedule was wrecked but if she wanted to be able to wake up for work on Tuesday she needed to go to sleep as soon as she got home.

The next morning she woke up at ten and decided to get started on that cake once she had eaten breakfast. She would need the ingredients for it though so she got dressed and headed to the store to get a few things she was missing such as powdered sugar.

She bought a generic bakery box too since she didn’t work today and couldn’t borrow one. It was the kind with a clear film window on the top rather than solid with the bakery’s logo but they were both white.

When it was done Avery texted Jorge to come get it when he could since he had a car and she didn’t. He didn’t text her back, most likely because he was working. That wasn’t a problem; he would see it eventually.