“Well, I don’t know about adorable,” He answered cheerfully. “But, you know…. Friends.”

“Exactly!” she said, poking him in the chest. Friends. Guys. It was adorable. They tried so hard to be tough but then she heard stories like this and it was just precious. Girls were girls and it just made sense for them to be all…girlie about their relationships. But when guys talked about their friends…it was just so much more adorable. Maybe because it was pure. Girls were conniving at times after all.

But ffleurbert had brought a valid point, even if it was unintentional: they didn’t know a lot about each other. Yes, she liked what she saw. Yes, she knew enough. He was sweet, funny, energetic…all good things. But she really didn’t know a whole lot about is life and vice versa. Mostly the latter was her own fault but that was just because she never really talked about her personal life…at least not where her family was concerned, as she was exhibiting quite well in this conversation. At least she was learning more about him.

“Ah! So they are like … kind of old school friends, only family. And your aunty lived down the street?”

She nodded. Yes. They lived just down the street. It was like a five minute walk. Maybe ten if she was being particularly slow. It was nice to have family close by. It meant that she got to see more of Theo and her aunt and uncle. It also made for an easy and reasonable place to disappear to when her father was…in a mood.

The funny thing with ffleurbert was that he was never shy to share any information about himself and his family. Ava loved listening to him talk. And she sat with him there as he talked about his family and where they were from and what they were like. She giggled when he kissed her. “Yes, I most definitely am a friend.” Much more than that of course. Avaline then shrugged. “I’m from Ireland…Galway. Along the outskirts, close to the country but not quite there.” She shrugged again. ‘I like it. Lots of room for me and Theo and Gormley to…goof off with.” They were definite pros at that. “I think I spend more time at Theo’s than I do my home.”

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