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<div style="text-align: right"><span style="font-size: 22px">aven miller</span><br/>
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<i>He's sexy when he's angry.</i><br/>
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Aven attempted to shove the thought away, but like the sweetest fragrance, the idea melded and sat on her skin. It had to be his eyes that made Rafael so hypnotizing - that made it so that Aven couldn't look away even when she so desperately wanted to. Despite all that threatened to spill, Aven's expression betrayed none of the grienvances she felt except for mild frustration.<br/>
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"I don't know, Rafael. Can you?" The bluntness was harsh, but Aven wouldn't take it back. She wouldn't diminish the consequential nature of his addiction. Rafael had a problem. And it had been a bad one. Aven hadn't kept up with Rafael over the year to know if he was doing well or not, but she did know that seeing the drink in his hand had left a bitter taste on her tongue. That and the topic of their conversation was a heavy storm that Aven wanted to run from. Maybe her not giving him a straight answer would hurt, but Aven wasn't going to give him the comfort of a sweet lie. She had no right to tell him to stop, and yet Aven did anyway. When she saw him push the drink away, a soft breath left Aven's lips. Maybe he really was better. The other Rafael would have downed the drink immediately. <br/>
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What she hadn't expected the was the clarity of Rafael's question. <br/>
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Aven's body which had been wired and buzzing with hot energy hollowed. Her heart plunged down to her toes, and Aven's eyes focused on Rafael. Did she miss him? Of course she did. He was her first love, and Aven had thought he would be her last. It had been agony the first few weeks. And then it had been a different kind of hell to work at the restaurant without him. Aven was only glad that because Rafael would go back to his now wife at nights that Aven had no memories of him in her bedroom - of him casually setting up some coffee or taking her back to her bed with his lips firmly pressed on hers.<br/>
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But Aven had more respect for herself than to admit that to him. He was a married man and if she said 'yes', if she acted like the foolish  girl she had been before than all that she had built for herself in Seattle would be for nothing. Rafael's mere presence threatened to unravel the whirlwind of emotions she felt, and Aven wasn't ready to admit that she cared. Not to him and especially not to herself. She had Sebastian to be faithful to. Her heart should belong fully to him because he deserved it. because he was kind and good, and Sebastian wouldn't hurt her. Not the way Rafael did. Not the way Rafael could with this exact conversation.<br/>
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<i>What do you want from me, Raf? What do you wanna hear?</i><br/>
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A petty part of her desired to know just so that she could tell him the exact opposite. She should tell him no to end whatever this was that was happening between them. Maybe after, they would be able to actually move on and continue as coworkers did. But Aven couldn't say no, even if the lie would help in the long run. Too much history burdened their vices and at the end of it all, there hadn't even been any closure. Aven had left without a single tantrum, a single 'how could you?'. Just recalling the way she had seen get down on one knee for another woman had teared at Aven like nothing she had ever felt. Rafael hadn't just been the love of her life, he had been her best friend and mentor. But if he had thought of her a single bit as she had thought of him, then he wouldn't have done that to Aven. He wouldn't have throw away every single sacred conversation about a future with her, and then taken a part of that conversation to do with another woman. <br/>
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Aven may have moved on with someone who was ten times better for her, but that didn't mean that Aven wasn't going to reign down some type of hell on this man. <br/>
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"Did you?" Aven finally asked. "When I left, did you think once about me?" <i>Did I plague you the way you plagued me? Did you ever regret it?</i>​</div><br/>
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