Avery felt less guilty about taking up Angelo’s time than she did about taking up Christian’s. He didn’t know her so he really wasn’t responsible for her well-being. And she had potentially ruined his suit.

Mortified as she was, part of her never wanted to see him again but knew that wouldn’t happen because they worked in the same building. She really should do something to thank him/apologize. Maybe she could make him an apology cake after all.

That would have to wait until tomorrow. She could buy the ingredients on her way home and pick up a spare bakery box at work.

In the meantime she needed to cheer herself up post injury/embarrassment. Time to watch some Mercury compilation videos. Those never failed. The first one she saw was a compilation of every time he saved a cat in a tree or a dog about to run into the street and get hit by a car. That happened surprisingly often.

He was so good with them too, always baby-talking them to get them to calm down afterwards and petting them before handing them off to their owners. He was such a good guy!

Avery wished she didn’t have to wait until Saturday to see him again. This week was an infiltration mission they had been prepping for ages. She needed to destroy a computer mainframe they were reliably told didn’t have any backups because of the top-secret information on it.

Sneaking in there wouldn’t be easy but it needed to be done. It would significantly slow down Hunsacher’s plans and that was exactly what their band of renegades needed. Failing this one wasn’t an option.

She had to be prepared for any contingency…especially regarding Mercury. He couldn’t thwart her on this one. Security would be tightened afterward or backups would be created. They would never get another shot at crippling their enemy to the same extent so it absolutely had to be done.

She hated when she had to give him minor injuries in order to get away but if she got caught everything her father and Horatio gave their lives for would be meaningless. It wasn’t personal.

Avery wished she could explain that to him but it wasn’t like it mattered. He didn’t know she was the one in the suit. He probably didn’t remember saving someone named Avery West at all. She was one of a million nameless, meaningless rescues.

How horrified would he be if he found out he saved his archnemesis once? Not that it would ever happen. Her tracks were covered too well.

Connecting a “man” he had been fighting (and losing to) for years to a helpless woman who couldn’t fully fend off a would-be rapist on her own would be impossible. It was for the best that he didn’t know the truth but it also meant he would never understand she was flirting with him every time they met.

Oh well. Villains weren’t supposed to get close to anyone that might be let in on their secret anyway. It was part of why Angelo claimed he didn’t have a girlfriend.

Avery knew the real reason though. He was too picky. He wanted someone noticeably shorter than him and that ruled out a significant part of the female population. That wasn’t his only criteria either—she had been forced to listen to the entire list of what he wanted in a woman before and she wasn’t impressed. He could be incredibly shallow sometimes. Fitting of a villain.

Jorge had a girlfriend but she knew he was a trucker and had odd hours already. Because of that his role in their schemes wasn’t suspicious in the slightest.

Even if Avery wasn’t in love with her nemesis she knew dating wasn’t a real option for her because of the way her weekends worked. Anyone who spent enough time with her would know something was up if she was never free on her days off.

They probably wouldn’t jump straight to her being a villain though. More likely than not they would think she was cheating. Ironic considering how loyal a person she actually was.

It was better not to get involved. At least not until Hunsacher was brought to its metaphorical knees or she found someone willing to join the fight with her. Like that would ever happen. She couldn’t even talk about this stuff.

Angelo was in charge of recruitment for a reason. He monitored things people put online and was able to sift out those who had a genuine grudge against Hunsacher. She couldn’t do anything like that so talking about it at all was a major risk she wasn’t willing to take.

Avery sighed and closed her eyes. Thinking about all of this was pointless. She was never going to be able to date the person she wanted so why bother?

===

Christian had panicked when he saw Avery get hurt and worried even more when he found out she had issues with blood clotting. She seemed pretty blasé about it despite how weak she looked.

Needing to be carried out of the subway station even after so much time sitting down wasn’t a good sign. And he couldn’t deny he wondered who it was that did the carrying. They looked absolutely nothing alike but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. That guy still could have been a relative of some sort. He desperately tried to convince himself of that because he didn’t want to be jealous.

He didn’t know a thing about Avery aside from where she worked until they had that conversation and she got embarrassed about oversharing. He didn’t mind at all—he had wanted to know more about her. He wanted to know everything. But a good place to start would be whether or not she had a boyfriend.

She may be the least boring thing in his highly repetitive life but he wanted to cut things off at the source if she was taken. If she wasn’t now that they had talked a bit more he might be able to move forward.

He didn’t expect a real relationship; that would be difficult considering he was a hero and had almost no free time. But it was nice to dream.

At the very least he would like to spend more time with her. She was a lot more interesting to talk to than he had anticipated. Now that he had learned a little more about her his curiosity had only grown.

Christian wanted to ask if she was feeling better the next day but he didn’t see her when he went to the bakery at lunchtime. Disappointment threatened to swallow him. He shouldn’t have been surprised; he didn’t see her most days. But he had been worried about her and wanted to see if she was okay.

He got his answer in the most bizarre way the following day. He was sitting in his office working on some paperwork after lunch when the front desk buzzed him.

“Christian, you have a delivery.”

“I didn’t order anything,” he said in confusion.

Cheryl, the secretary, wasn’t fazed by this. “Someone must have ordered it for you then. Come out and get it before I eat it for you.”

Before she ate it for him? Someone brought him food? He didn’t know who would do that or why. Curiosity drove him from the paperwork he was finally getting into the groove for and he headed out front.

Christian’s delivery was in a white bakery box with Carmine’s logo on it. He might not know who it was from but if it was from there he knew it would be delicious. He eagerly took it back to his office and opened the box to see what it was.

He laughed out loud when he saw it, knowing who sent it instantly. It was a red drip cake with white cursive letters on top that read ‘Sorry I fell on you and bled on your suit’ with a frowny face.

Avery’s sense of humor was even better than he originally thought. He had never seen something so hilarious in his entire life.

It took him a solid ten minutes to collect himself and he got back to his paperwork with a permanent grin on his face. He was still full from lunch but he would take advantage of this undoubtedly delicious cake as soon as he got home. There was no explicit rule about not having cake for dinner.