Monthly Bonus Content #3 - 'Where Leaves Fall' (Ava Special) (Patreon)

Leaves in shades of burnt oranges, mustard yellows, and crimson reds fall like droplets of liquid gems from the trees. The air is crisper than the ripest apple and just as sweet.

I hold out my hand to catch one of the leaves, holding it gently as it settles against my palm. It’s so beautiful but so fragile, one gust of strong wind and the whole thing might crumble, its golden veins turning to dust.

How strangely fitting that comparison is to my relationship with Ava is not on lost on me. I let the leaf dance from palm, pushing my hands into my coat pockets, wondering when the next gust will come along to crumble the fragile bridges we’ve managed to build these past few weeks.

As I walk beside Ava through the Square, the autumn day perfect, and the company just as much so, I smile. Things have been easy lately. No threat of death or kidnap. And things have been easy between us too. I’m not sure why, but whatever walls she usually keeps built around her seem smaller.

“Is there a reason you seem so transfixed upon staring at me, Detective?” she asks suddenly, drawing me out of my thought as she tugs the thick collar of her grey woolen coat further up around her neck.

I smirk, turning my focus back to the cobbled street, and shrug. “Maybe I just enjoy the sight.”

There’s only a half second of silence before she replies, “Then you are welcome to continue to do so.”

I almost fall over my feet at not only the response but the slight flicker of flirtation. Even after hearing more and more lately, it’s difficult to get used to after months of, well, nothing.

We make it to Haley’s Bakery, and I hold the door open for her to enter before joining her inside the café.

Warmth embraces us.

Accompanied by the sharp crash of smashing ceramic. I wince as I notice Haley come pottering out of the kitchen behind the glass counters.

“Everything all right?” I call.

She waves a hand, the pink waffle towel grasped in it flapping the same way a surrender flag might. “All fine. I’ve hired some help, and he’s a little—” Another crash. “New.”

“If your aid causes you more nuisance than help, then there is no use in keeping them in your employ,” Ava states.

Haley lifts her brows and wipes at her flour-dusted cheeks. “But…how will he learn if I don’t teach him? Everyone has to start somewhere.”

“And you’re one to talk with all the things you’ve broken,” I comment with a tilt of my head. “My desk is still missing a chunk out of the corner, by the way.”

Ava clears her throat. “Are you going to make your order?”

I give a half-smile of triumph before turning back to Haley.

She pulls her notebook from her lacy apron. “Your usual? Just for you?”

“Yes, please—”

“I shall take something this time as well, please,” Ava interrupts.

We both stare at her wide-eyed.

“You will?” I splutter.

Now it’s her turn to give a gentle smile, eyes sparking a brighter green with amusement before softening to a gentle emerald. “I shall. I will take a chamomile tea with honey.”

Haley jots the order down in her pale lilac notebook before smiling. “Take a seat. I’ll bring it over when it’s ready.”

We do as suggested, taking a small round table with filagree wire legs that’s set by the large front window. It’s a little smaller than expected, and we have to fit our legs together beneath the oak-effect tabletop. Unusually, she’s not as careful at keeping her legs from brushing against mine as she usually would be in this kind of situation.

The feel of her thigh brushing against the inside of mine has my throat parched, and I’m glad it won’t be long until my drink arrives.

“I don’t think you’ve ever ordered anything here,” I comment, trying to distract from the way her eyes linger on me for a few seconds longer than usual.

“I felt like joining you in this moment,” she says, leaning slightly forward as though drawn towards my space without realizing. “We have no missions, no patrols, no urgent tasks. All we need do is enjoy this moment.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “Who are you and what have you done with the real Ava?”

She laughs. Loud and true. It affects me to my core, drawing a smile out of me that shines throughout my entire being.

“Here you go,” Haley says, placing our orders down in front of us. Her honeyed tea steams from a pumpkin mug, the handle twisting up like a vine. My own has arrived inside of cream mug that’s decorated with a swirl of hand painted autumnal leaves. They look so real it’s as though the artist captured them and sunk them into the glaze somehow.

“Thanks,” I reply, taking a sip of my drink, the warmth of it not even touching the heat that Ava’s easy company is stoking in me this day.

Ava leans back into her chair as she drinks her tea, still perfectly postured, but far more casual than I’ve seen her in a long time. Her gaze sweeps across the street outside, painted sepia beneath the afternoon’s autumnal dappled light. She draws in a deep breath that makes her chest rise and bring the smile back to her lips.

“I am sorry that I cannot take joy in these moments more often,” she mutters. I’m not sure if she’s saying it to herself or me.

“You could you know. If you let yourself,” I remind her, being the one to lean in this time, this already intimate space apparently not close enough.

She glances at me. “To be what I am, to do what I do…” Her gaze dips to the table as she hunches over it, her fingers wrapping around her mug. “No. I’m afraid it’s not within my nature.”

I let my fingertips curl out and brush against her knuckles. “But you’re doing it now, so that’s obviously not true. Maybe it’s more a case that you’ve just forgotten how.”

“Perhaps you are right,” she says easily. “But how would I help myself remember?”

I ease my fingers further across the top of hers, eventually resting my hand completely over them. “Practice.”

She lifts a brow.

I ease my lips into a smirk. “Lots and lots of it.”

She angles herself in closer until I can almost taste the sweet temptation of the honey from her lips. Her mouth parts in a seriously distracting way. “Detective, I—"

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Her phone shouts for attention from her coat pocket.

She ignores it, her attention focused solely on me as her legs sweep against mine closer beneath the table.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A low growl reverberates from her before she snatches the phone from her pocket and springs to stand.

“What is it?” she demands. Her shoulders drop an inch as she rubs at her forehead. “Fine. I shall be there soon.”

I take a gulp of my drink, partly to help suppress the thumping of my pulse beneath my skin. “Do we need to go?”

She holds out a hand. “Please stay. I hope you can still enjoy this. For both of us.”

I nod but deflate a little into my seat as I watch her leave. She pauses outside of the window, our gazes locked through the glass, as leaves rain around her.

If I could capture this moment forever I would. The thought that another mission could mean a return to being cast outside of the fortress she’s built around her heart has an ache stirring deep within me.

But in that moment, all I can feel is the way she makes my heart sing.