Chapter 2 Sweeping

• I got more nervous, I wasn't used to being the centre of attention, but I remembered that I wasn't that shy and introverted Ava anymore, so I decided to move forward wiggling my whole body.
• “I can't believe it!” Cecil was the first to hug me.
• “And we were making plans to comfort you!” Paula kissed me on the cheek.
• “You look...! You look amazing!” Maggie hugged me.
• “What happened to you?” Paula asked as I took my place in one of the chairs around the table.
• “Well, I shook my head” I shook my head slightly. “I'm tired of suffering, what good does that do me? I'm willing to skip all the stages of grief and start enjoying myself for once” I shrugged my shoulders.
• “Wooooow” All the girls cheered for me.
• The waiter arrived, took our order and within a minute arrived with several rounds of drinks, tonight would be a night to celebrate.
• No more crying, no more Mike and no more mourning my exes. Although that morning I thought I would end up celebrating my engagement, I now planned to celebrate my freedom.
• We drank a lot, round after round, I began to feel the elixir starting to take effect in my body, I felt more alert, extroverted, as if my brain finally accepted the idea that I had been trying to introduce all day, that I was an independent, strong and brave woman.
• But not only that, another sensation accompanied me, I felt watched.
• I drank the drink that was in front of me and trying to dissimulate, I turned to look for that look on my back that had me uneasy, when I found beautiful and intense blue eyes that were fixed on me, it was an extremely attractive man who was watching me in the distance. A shiver ran through my body.
• How could a person produce such a sensation with nothing more than a glance? I immediately turned back to the table, feeling flushed.
• One of the girls noticed the moment the man and I exchanged glances and quickly walked over to me, whispering in my ear.
• “Ava, you seem to be killing it today” Maggie.
• “Mmmm?” I pretended to be clueless.
• “Don't be, I saw you noticed” She pointed her lips to a spot in the club. “That that spectacular specimen has been staring at you for a while now” He settled back in his seat as if he hadn't said anything.
• I turned again, taking a closer look at the owner of those blue eyes. He was a truly handsome man, with shapely features, a shapely nose, thick dark eyebrows and dark hair, which contrasted with white skin and brought out those intense blue eyes. I noticed that he was dressed casually and that he was accompanied by a couple of guys, also quite handsome.
• I took advantage of the fact that they seemed to be engaged in a conversation and were making a toast, I was enraptured contemplating them, when I heard giggles from my own table, they were my friends talking about how handsome those guys were, I ignored their comments.
• After the toast, the man with the blue eyes turned to me once more and when he met my gaze, he cocked a smile and raised his glass in my direction. I turned again, flustered, surprised by this guy, I saw my friends whispering to each other and laughing.
• “What are you doing, Ava?” Maggie leaned back on the table to talk to me quietly. “Why are you freaking out? That man seems to be interested in you”.
• “You don't have to be afraid of him, you're single and beautiful tonight, go on the attack” Cecil continued with a smile.
• “He's very handsome, maybe you should talk to him a bit” Paula added.
• They were all over me, muttering like those little devils on the shoulder of cartoon characters. I nodded, sipped my drink and smiled at them in response.
• Yes, I had said I was a new me, but for the moment, I dared not go that far. Arriving at the table of strangers to approach them in a conquest plan was not my thing. Just thinking about it made my cheeks heat up.
• I did want to be a new me, but I didn't feel ready to go that far either.
• I tried to ignore it, forced myself not to turn around and changed the subject radically, focusing on asking the girls about work. Well, we all worked in the same company, we had met there, but in different departments, so it was common to include that topic in our chats.
• A minute later, the waiter came back with a bottle, which was strange because he had recently left us a round of drinks.
• “I bring you a gift, from the gentlemen at that table”.
• He put the bottle on our table and pointed to the table where the handsome men were. We all turned to look at them, the guys smiled at us. While the handsome blue-eyed man stared at me, raising his glass in my direction. Again, a shiver ran through my body, I looked away and turned to the waiter, thanking him.
• “Hey, Ava, why don't you ask him to dance?” Paula whispered to me.
• “No, I... I can't...”
• “Come on! Don't be a prude! You've got to enjoy yourself” Cecil.
• “Yeah, okay, okay” I tried to calm them down, they were getting their hormones raging again with those men. “I'll think about it, okay?”
• We continued drinking, we continued enjoying ourselves, I couldn't stop thinking about that handsome man and every now and then a furtive glance towards his table escaped me, it made me nervous just by the fact that he would catch me off guard looking at him.
• After a while more, I heard a person clearing his throat behind me.
• “Good evening”.
• A husky, manly voice echoed behind me, causing all the hairs on my skin to stand on end. I closed my eyes tightly, sensing who it was.
• A second later, I turned around and there stood the handsome blue-eyed man, he was much taller than I expected, about 6'2". My heart skipped a beat just looking at him.
• “I was wondering if you would like to dance with me”.
• The guy stretched out his hand towards me and with my mouth open I turned to the girls, I was stunned, my mind blank, I didn't know what to answer.
• My friends were waving at me, shaking their heads, opening their eyes, nodding at me, giving me all kinds of winks, encouraging me to accept the invitation, while I was looking around, nervous, with my pulse racing, and intimidated by such a spectacular specimen.
• Finally, I accepted with a slight nod of my head, still with my mouth open, I took his hand and almost shuffling in my high heels and nerves, I went to the dance floor with the man. We danced a little, keeping our distance.
• “My name is Alex” He suddenly blurted out, in the middle of the dance, in his husky voice.
• “My name is Ava” I replied, looking up slightly, blushing.
• “It's a pleasure, Ava” He reached his hand towards my waist, pulling me closer to him.
• After the song ended, he invited me over to the bar to get a drink, the girls looked up at me from the table smiling, with an approving expression, I figured they wouldn't mind if I chatted for a while with the new acquaintance, so I accepted.