It must be love

Chapter 12

Ava

"So how did your date go?" Jen asked as she put her menu down, probably knowing what she wanted to order.

I sat with her in a booth at the same diner Nigel took me to last night. I couldn't sleep last night thinking about what he had told me about the whole Shelby thing. I could tell that he still carried the guilt of what happened to her and it bothered me because it wasn't his fault and I know that seeing her last night had brought all of those feelings back and I wanted to help in some way, so here I was. Of course Jen didn’t know the real reason why we were here except that I wanted to catch up, I felt kind of bad for bringing her here under false pretences but hey, I had to do this.

"It went well" I finally answered ask I discreetly looked around for Shelby, I even made sure to sit at the same booth we sat at last night to ensure that we got her as a waitress.

"Just well?" Jen looked incredulous and I bit back a smile should have known that it wouldn't be too long before she started interrogating me. "Gosh, you and Nigel are just two peas in a pod. He, too was being vague about it last night when he came to get Kayla. I refuse for you to be the same, come on!”

I smiled and shook my head, my cousin was one nosy chick so I decided to put her out of her misery and tell her everything about the date, excluding the whole Shelby thing so I stuck to the ice rink part and how we had good and honest conversation which was refreshing.

"Aw, Nigel and Ava sitting in a tree…"

"You're so damn immature." I laughed and then looked up and saw our waitress approaching but much to my dismay, it was not Shelby but rather a perky teenager whose name was Celeste and also happened to be a fan. A couple of pictures later she finally took our order and shortly thereafter came back with our Coffee.

"Don't you get tired of that?" Jen asked putting sugar into her cup.

"It is what it is." I shrugged, "Without fans to keep me relevant and to hype me up I don't think I'd be that famous so taking pictures with them is a small price to pay."

"Speaking of," she took a sip of her drink, "When are you going back?”

"I haven't decided yet, I have a talk show and photo shoot in New York next week so I guess I can still stick around for longer plus Mike, my manager knows not to book me into anything for a while so…"

"This thing between you and Nigel … What happens when you have to leave?"

"Wow Jenifer, aren't you just one for the tough questions." I sighed, "I don't know what will happen plus we just started dating."

"I'm just concerned," She shrugged, "He seems to be really into you and I don't want either one of you to get hurt, I know what he went through with Tracy and it was rough losing her, he didn’t take it too well and I remember you and Justin's break up, you weren't all that great either. I don't want to see either one of you in that place again.”

"Thanks Jen," I then smiled "Well on a lighter note, how's the wedding planning going?" I asked and she groaned shaking her head.

"Nick's mother, Melanie and my mom are being horrible. I swear they think that it's their wedding."

"What happened?" I asked amused.

"So yesterday they pitch at the office with a whole scrapbook, bridal magazines and materials. They are being so… I don't even know what word to use" She said burying her head I her hands. "I think we'll just elope."

I laughed out loud at that, knowing my aunt she would kill both her and Nick if they eloped seeing that Jen was her only child that would probably get married since my cousin, Jen's older brother, Cameron who lived the charmed Manhattan playboy life in New York was not about that marriage life. He was content with being a male w***e. He was a big shot lawyer and was named one of New York’s most eligible bachelors.

"Oh damn! I forgot to ask." she said looking up and smiled at me, "Ava Gertrude Monroe," she smirked and I narrowed my eyes at her use of my horrible middle name. "Will you do me the honour of being my Maid of Honour?" She asked and I resisted the urge to squeal, my face split into a wide grin and I nodded vigorously and wiped fake tears from my eyes.

"I'd like to thank Nick for getting his head out of his ass and finally marrying my cousin. I'd like to also like to say that I'm not wearing a hideous dress and that-"

"Ha ha, shut up." She said, interrupting my Oscar worthy speech. Rude!

"I'd love to be honoured to be your Maid of honour" I said seriously.

The waitress brought our food and we immediately dug in while talking and laughing the entire time. Spending this time with her made me realise how much I missed her and how much I missed us together.

"I'll get it" I said as the bill came and she nodded, grabbing her purse.

"You know, I have a good feeling about you and Nigel" she said out of the blue as we walked out of the restaurant.

"Really now?" I asked amused arching an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah totally. Who knows, maybe the two of you will be walking down the aisle shortly after Nick and I."

My head snapped over to her and I wasn't paying attention to where I was walking and I bumped into someone, I immediately started to apologise then I saw who it was and almost jumped for joy since she was the reason I was at this diner to begin with. I also realised that she was in her work uniform meaning that her shift was about to start, why had I not thought of shifts when coming up with this idea?

"Shelby!" Jen gasped, “Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you in forever. It's me, Jenifer, Nick's girlfriend." She pulled her into a tight hug.

“I remember you Jen.” Shelby smiled and pulled out of the hug, “You were always at the Hamilton BBQs.”

“That's me.” Jen grinned then turned to me, “This is my cousin Ava.”

Shelby gave me a tight smile, her eyes sparking with recognition, “You're the girl from last night.”

Jen gave us a curious stare but before she could answer I started speaking, “Listen Shelby, it's no coincidence that I'm here again. I mean I came here to see you but then you weren't here and… I'm rambling” I sighed “What I'm trying to say is, can we please talk?”