16| Knowledge is Power, Young Padawan

POINT: Theo.

Getting Ava to come to dinner was a win enough for me. Spotting her and Maverick from across the street was a win, too, for both me and Matteo.

Seeing her with her brown hair down, as usual, sitting next to Maverick with her head down and his arm around her looking vaguely upset and bothered, was enough for me to make my way across the street and ask her to join us for dinner. Matteo was more than happy to oblige and ask them to join us; He liked Ava and it was obvious how much he liked Maverick, he always had.

I knew Ava wouldn't have wanted my parents to know who she was, so that's why I offered to keep it a secret. My parents hadn't seen Ava since she was young, and it was likely that they wouldn't recognize her or ask too many questions. And if they did recognize her, it's not like they would go off and be pissed about it. My mom and dad didn't care about the ongoing Montgomery-Cunningham feud. The only reason it was still a legitimate feud was because of Ava's side.

We were just a minute away from the restaurant and as we walked, I slowed down to wait for Ava, who had been trailing behind. I nudged her just barely and she looked up at me.

"What?"

I smirked. "Dinner with the Montgomery's," I said. "Who would've thought?"

"Dinner with the enemy."

"Oh, Juliet, how you amuse me..."

"Don't call me that. You can't," she said. Her tone told me that she was serious and the way she looked into my eyes with her deep brown ones – they looked vaguely hazel under the sunlight, gold flecks in her pupils that were shining up at me – told me that she was actually pleading. She really didn't want a slip-up. She really didn't want my family to know who she was. It probably had more to do with the thought of betraying her parents or whatever than anything else.

"I won't," I told her. I held out my pinky. "I promise."

Ava rolled her eyes and looked away, ignoring my pinky. "I'm not pinky promising you like a 5-year-old."

"Then, no promises, I guess."

She glared at me and I smiled. I loved it. When she glared at me, it felt like a win. Teasing her to the point that she felt the need to shoot daggers at me with her eyes felt like another point to Theo Montgomery.

Reluctantly, she lifted up her hand and wrapped her pinky around mine for a split second. The minuscule physical contact was just enough to send a wave of warmth down my body. Something about Ava...

We walked into the restaurant and the host immediately recognized me (my family came here a lot since I moved to Syracuse for school), "Theodore! Buongiorno!" he exclaimed, his thick Italian accent sticking out.

"Gio," I greeted, accepting his hug as usual. Gio, or Giovanni, loved me. The first time I came here with my family, he was the host and waiter for our table and we all immediately hit it off.

We'd never been to this restaurant before (a place called Gio's — go figure) and Gio talked us through most of the menu, hitting all his favorite dishes and drinks and highlighting all of the best traditional Italian favorites. He told us about his life in Italy and his husband Messico. He showed us photos of Rome and Venice and all of his favorite small towns and I swear, that night, we stayed at the restaurant for more than 4 hours. Gio captured people. He made it feel like home. We were close now since I'd been coming here religiously for over a year. If I came alone, I had the courage to tell him things and gossip when necessary. Gio loved a bit of gossip.

"The table, right this way!" Gio exclaimed when he pulled away. Then, he noticed Ava. "One girl trapped in a group of all men? My my, bellissima. We must save you. Come, come."

Gio waved for us to follow him and we did. Ava's cheeks were bright pink when I looked at her.

Matteo muttered to her, "Bellissima, Ava! We must save you from the group of only men by taking you to a larger table where it is still mostly men! 71.4 percent ish."

"Of course you calculated that."

"Simple math, Theo," Matteo said, pressing down on his temple. "Knowledge is power, young padawan."

We reached the table and my parents immediately stood up to hug me. They hugged Matteo, too, which was normal. I took a seat next to Nic and everyone else sat down as well; My dad at the end of the table, mom to his right, then Nic to his left. I sat next to Nic and next to me was, of course, Ava. Then, Maverick and Matteo sat next to each other across the table, with Matteo at the other end. It was a large table.

It was going to be a fun dinner.

"Hope you don't mind I brought a few extras," I said.

"Couldn't help ourselves, really. We found these homeless hoodwinks on the streets and decided to do charity," Matteo said. Maverick rolled his eyes I think he lightly kicked Matteo's leg under the table. Matteo ate it up and grinned wider as he grabbed for the fresh focaccia towards the center of the table.

"Always too eager to begin feasting," Gio tsked Matteo. "The boy is pazzo. Crazy. Crazy for food, especially." Gio helped Matteo reach the bread. "I will get everybody water and Italian soda. You will love whether you think it or not!"

Gio disappeared and left us alone. The table we were sat at was rather secluded, on a platform with a wall separating us from most of the restaurant. It was best for big parties. Best so we could hear everyone speak and pay attention to conversation.

"We don't mind that you brought more friends," my mom said, smiling earnestly. "And we do always enjoy when Maverick makes an appearance."

Maverick smiled at my mom. They had met multiple times before since he was in the frat. And any time Matteo came to a family thing, he invited Mav to join. Only a few times had Maverick actually taken him up on the offer.

"But I'd love to know who you are, darling." My mom turned her attention to Ava. My mom looked at me for one second to raise her eyebrows. I knew what she was thinking.

"I think we would all love to know," Nic added. He sent me an evil smirk. The bastard.

"That's my friend, Ava," Matteo said. "And Mav's friend. And Theo's acquaintance."

I shot him a dirty look and Ava held back a laugh beside me. I nudged her with my knee under the table and she raised her eyebrows at me. I did the same. I was challenging her.

She looked away from me. "I'm Ava. It's my first year at Syracuse," she said to my mom.

"Oh, how lovely!" my mom exclaimed. "I hope our little Teddy isn't bothering you too much."

My cheeks were hot and I looked at my mom with wide eyes while Matteo ate it up and cackled from across the table. Nic couldn't help but laugh, too. "Mom," I grumbled, "please no Teddy's at the dinner table. With my friends around."

"Oh! Sorry!" she said, locking her lips and grabbing a roll from the basket on the table.

This time, Ava nudged me under the table. Then, she muttered, "Teddy, huh?"

"It's a dumb nickname I've had since I was literally a fetus," I told her quietly, everyone else in the middle of their own conversations. "Do not hold that against me."

"I'm going to hold it against you."

"I had a feeling you'd say that." I took a sip of water and then rested my hand on top of Ava's under the table. "Are you going to hold this against me?"

Ava placed her other hand on top of mine, only to grab my hand and move it away. I saw her face. She was hiding behind a red blush I could make out on her cheeks, and there was a forced curve of her lips downward, just so that she wasn't smiling in my presence.

"Stop," she whispered, "before you draw attention that is absolutely unnecessary. I don't want your parents knowing me, but I also don't want them assuming that we're not just friends."

"Oh, they've already assumed that, I'm afraid," I whispered back. "I know my parents. They always bug me about girls. A girl sitting right next to me so suddenly? I know what's going through their heads."

"Set them straight when you can," Ava said. She made a point to look into my eyes. "Please."

I nodded and then Nic's voice interrupted our quiet moment. My parents were enveloped in a conversation with Matteo and Maverick about the fraternity, so Nic made conversation with me and Ava in the meantime.

"So, dumbass," Nic said, "is this the girl you're finally going to bring home?"

"No," Ava answered for me. "I would like to make that very clear."

Nic raised his eyebrows in question. "Oh my. She's not interested. How awkward."

"It's only awkward because she hasn't realized she's interested yet," I said. I felt Ava kick my shin.

Nic rolled his eyes at the same time as Ava. Maybe their eyes were in sync. Nic focused on Ava, purely looking at her for a few moments before speaking up again.

"You look familiar," he said. I could practically feel Ava go still beside me. I wasn't a dick. She'd asked me to keep her identity a secret and I wasn't planning on betraying that. I felt the urge to squeeze her hand or some shit to be supportive, but then Nic finished his sentence. "Are you an Instagram model or something?"

Ava breathed again. "That's the last thing I am."

Nic relaxed back in his seat. "Very interesting," he mused. He grabbed a roll and stuffed it in his mouth. "If Ava's not interested, that must mean that she doesn't prefer her meat raw."

I shoved Nic while he laughed and Ava held back significant embarrassment. She focused on drinking the water in front of her.

"Nicolas," I warned.

He held up his hands. "Hey. Just trying to stir some d-r-a-m-a," he said. "Though, I'm sure you already have a fair share of that. It'll be a fun dinner, now won't it, Teddy?"

I was ready to sink into a hole.

❥❥❥

Dinner was honestly a relief. I had been craving Gio's cooking for months on end and when I finally got a bite of his famous osso buco, I was in heaven.

"What does that mean?" Ava asked me. I was surprised that she was actually willingly talking to me and asking me questions, leaning in to speak quietly since everyone else was immersed in conversation.

"Osso buco?" I asked and she nodded. "Osso means bone and buco means hole. It basically means bone hole."

If only Nic or Matteo had heard me say that and the wheels in their heads would have been turning rapidly, searching for any and all sexual innuendos.

"It's a slow braising veal shank served with risotto alla Milanese," I told her. "It's one of Gio's favorites from Milan. "Care for a little history?"

Ava pondered the thought and then nodded, which felt like yet another point.

"Locals call it l'oss bus a la Milanesa, mostly a classic in Northern Italy. The first recipe for the dish was found in Pellegrino Artusi's 1891 cooking manual, La Scienza in Cucina e l'Arte di Mangiar Bene."

"That was a lot of Italian," she said. "You have a good accent."

I smirked and whispered, "Is it sexy when I speak Italian?"

She flushed and cracked a small smile. "Shut up. So what is it?"

"It's a cut of veal sliced horizontally to expose the marrow, which helps with the buttery richness. It's slow-cooked to perfect softness and topped with gremolada, which is an herb relish made with mashed anchovies," Ava crinkled her nose, "minced garlic, parsley, and lemon zest. And, of course, risotto on the side."

"The anchovies don't sound appealing."

I chuckled. "They never do. I admit, I was skeptical," I grabbed my fork and took a slice of the veal, some risotto, and a good bit of the sauce, "but then I tried it. And it's better than most things that have ever been in my mouth." I winked.

Ava rolled her eyes and then I offered her my fork. "You should try it before you die."

She reluctantly took my fork and enclosed her mouth over the food, chewing. I took my fork back to take my own bite and I saw the moment Ava's eyes widened and she looked at me, eyebrows raised.

"It's amazing," she said when she finished.

"I told you," I said, shrugging and taking another bite. "Maybe you should listen to me more often..."

She brushed that comment right off.

Once everyone finished eating, Gio sent for dessert without even asking. He said it would take around 20 minutes for dessert to be done, which gave us 20 minutes more of conversations around the table.

Nic peered over at me and nodded towards the door behind us, an exit to the outside balcony of the two-story restaurant. I furrowed my eyebrows and he said, "Let's go talk. Brotherly fun. Yeah?"

I shrugged and got up from the table, following Nic out onto the balcony of the restaurant. There were tables set up underneath rows of string lights, dim yellow bulbs overhead each table. There was one spot on the balcony that remained empty where Nic and I went and stood to talk, leaning against the black railings which mocked traditional Italian balconies and were draped with ivy leaves. In front of us, a beautiful view of Syracuse. The sun going down and the city as quiet as can be besides the people at the restaurant or the tiny groups walking the streets.

"You and Juliet seem to be getting along swimmingly," he said.

I smiled. Unconsciously. Her name made me smile. "I've been trying to get her to like me. She is just incredibly stubborn when it comes to me, but I think we're in a good place tonight. And—" I paused and then came to a halt. I turned and faced Nic, lips turned up in a smirk that seemed everlasting on his face. "Did you call her Juliet?"

"I'm not dull," Nic said. "She's not an Instagram model, but she's still on Instagram. And I just so happen to have stumbled upon Juliet Ava Cunningham's profile a month or two ago."

"What? And you followed her?"

"No, she would never accept my request, her profile is private," Nic said, then pulled out his phone. "Marina followed her for me and I'm logged into her account."

Marina was Nic's best friend, a girl who pretty much everyone assumed Nic was dating. Even though they were always strictly "just friends." They were the kind of friends that were so close they knew every secret about one another, so close that they flirted with each other like second nature, and so close that their friendship was never really just a friendship. Something stronger and more intimate always loomed over their relationship.

He handed me his phone with Ava's instagram profile pulled up: @/avacunningham. I swiped briefly down her pictures and it was definitely her. And I was going to have to request to follow her later so I could do a proper online look-through. (Oh come on, everyone does the whole profile-stalking thing, don't they?)

I gave him his phone back. "Did you tell the parents?"

"Tell them what? T, they don't care if she's a Cunningham," Nic said.

"But she cares," I pressed. "She asked me to keep it a secret for her own reasons."

"Because her family is crazy. Or her mother is absolutely bonkers."

I sighed. "Yeah, pretty much. I don't know, she hasn't told me much, but I know that it's complicated with her family and the business and shit. Like I said, I'm just trying to get her to like me and let me in."

"She wants to take over C&C," Nic said.

"Jesus. How do you know everything?"

"I text her brother, Will. Or, we DM occasionally," he told me, which just about blew my mind. "We send each other weird gifs and videos we find that are funny. Sometimes we talk."

"Are you dating her brother?"

Nic gagged. "Nasty son of a bitch," he muttered. "No. I'm fucking straight as a... I don't know, something incredibly straight and unbendable. We're just friends. I talk to him about lacrosse and he tells me about his theater shit. And then I get to talk trash about you."

"Okay, number one: I can't believe you never told me. Number two: there is nothing to talk trash about with me," I said.

"There's a lot to talk trash about," Nic argued. "This is one of those things. Here," he pulled out his phone and showed me texts between him and Will from a week ago, "Will came up and saw Ava last week and he told me that she mentioned you. She mentioned that she'd already met you and that you were all up in her business."

I wish I was all up in her business.

He took his phone back again. "Will said he wanted to start a bet. On whether you'd be able to swing her or not."

"You started a bet on my possible love life?" I asked, bewildered. Me and Nic weren't as close as two siblings could be, but I felt like we were pretty damn close. Except for right now when it felt like Nic was a secret spy and I was just learning about all of his plots.

"No, I didn't. I said Will wanted to start a bet. I told him we shouldn't because—"

"—it's wrong to bet on the girls I like?" I suggested.

"Because I don't want to bet that you woo the shit out of her and trap her in your Theo-glory," he said.

"Excuse me?"

Nic shrugged like it didn't matter that he just took a stab at me. "T, I know her family better than you because I have an in. I talk to Will. We're actual homies. I know that Ava doesn't fuck around. You, on the other hand, don't take jack shit seriously."

"I—"

He held his hand up to stop me. "Can you seriously stand here and tell me that you take things seriously? Especially relationships?"

I gulped. I guess I couldn't say that.

But I was young. There was no reason to take things, especially relationships, so seriously.

"You see a shiny pretty thing and your eyes go wide and you don't stop the pursuit until it ends in what you want. So what do you want out of Ava?" Nic said, making me think.

"You don't know what she wants, either."

"No, I don't. I don't know her, alright? I really don't know shit and I don't run your life. I'm just saying... You have a reputation for being with girls for no more than a few weeks and then you end it before it can get real. You do you, T, but don't mess with my friend's sister. And especially not when her family is in competition with ours. Just 'cause our parents don't hate the Cunningham's doesn't change the fact that our businesses compete. If you fuck with Ava to the point that you hurt her heart and she goes off and tells her psycho mother..." Nic trailed off and sighed. "Don't give her family another reason to hate us." He patted my shoulder. "I love you, T. I do. I just don't want you to fuck yourself over for the rest of your life because you don't know where the jokes end and reality begins."

Nic, before I could get another word out, disappeared back into the restaurant and I stayed outside, contemplating. Thinking.

What did I want from Ava? She was gorgeous, she had an enticing personality I couldn't seem to shake, an energy that somehow magnetized me towards her. I knew for sure that I wanted to find any excuse to touch her or to make her crack a smile or roll her eyes at me. I wanted to kiss her. I wanted to do much more than that.

But then, I didn't know if that meant I wanted something that was going to be serious or if I just wanted those specific things and then that would be enough. I never knew what I wanted: in a relationship or in life in general. It was grey area for me. A space unexplored and untouched. A confusing space.

I ran a hand through my hair and thinking about it all made my head ache. I knew that Ava claimed to want me to leave her alone, but the way she opened to me occasionally made me think otherwise. I was just conflicted.

But I suppose Nic was right. The Cunningham's could find a way to destroy my family's business reputation if something shitty happened. I didn't think I was capable of something like that, though.

I sighed. I needed dessert.

And then I'd figure out just what Ava wanted before working through the complicated mess of what I wanted.

❥❥❥

NICOLAS MONTGOMERY COMING IN WITH THE HEATTTTTTTTTT JESUS!!!

He is calling our man Theo OUT. That's all I have to say. Aaaand the fact that Nicolas and Will are secretly friends. Wack turn of events.

Does it seem like Ava is warming up to Theo at all? Hehehe :) And Theo with all of his knowledge on random history shit... Idk I think a man with random facts is always hot as shit. I die. I die so much.

GOD I LOVE UPDATING. I WOULD UPDATE EVERYDAY IF I COULD.

I shall bless you with shirtless Tom Holland (aka Nic) because yes. Yes yes yes.