the new help
Who: Ava and Roy
When: Jan. 23, afternoon
Where: Chinatown
Last night had been the most fun she'd had in a long, long time. Ava had been dying for the sheer companionship of someone that was one, not pushing 100 years old, and two(although to a lesser extent), able to keep up with her and she'd found both in Andrei. Not only was he gorgeous, but he was Russian. Russian and seemingly searching for something that she could provide as well. She'd found herself curled up to him in The Green Fairy, whispering words of temptation in his ear. Ava had become very proficient with boosting a male ego to get what she wanted from the man, but there was something slightly different when she did it with Andrei. There was a look in his eyes that she'd never seen before. Like she was actually facilitating a change, however small, rather than just working the man up so he'd do something for her. She liked that. But not as much as she liked the idea of Andrei in her bed.
So they'd gone back to her penthouse and spent the entire night doing the one thing Ava had wanted to do since she laid eyes upon Andrei. The expression 'a tall drink of water' had never been more fitting for her. Andrei had quenched her thirst and more. She reluctantly said her farewells to him the next morning, spent most of the morning lazing around in bed, replaying the previous night over and over, and letting a wicked grin of satisfaction fix itself to her face. Perfect.
But when simply lying in her bed became too boring for her, Ava was hit with a sudden need to go out and spend some more of Irving's hard earned money. And she knew just what to spend it on. What do you get the girl who had everything already? Why, you got her new Alpha a reason to return. A present for Andrei was the perfect excuse for her to go shopping, not that she needed one. And who knew, she'd more than likely find something nice out there for herself too.
So after a luxurious bath, Ava set out on the town, beyond pleased that the rain had stopped. She pulled her fur coat tighter around her, this one made of white fur that was speckled with little black spots. She hailed the first cab she saw and instructed the driver to take her to Chinatown. Like always, she paid him just the minimum once she arrived there and headed out into the market that never slept. She'd been to this specific part of Chinatown before, knew the man she was looking for, and knew exactly what she wanted. It took her very little time to select the best knife they had there, pay the man what she really owed and not the pumped-up price that the man was trying to sell it to her for, gave him a knowing grin, and headed back out to the market once more to immerse herself in the wonderful world of Chinese silk robes.
Roy was a very unhappy bunny. His day was not in any way going well. Not by even the farthest stretched definition. And it had all been ruined by Madeline, and he couldn't pull himself out of it. He was in a truly black mood, something that was projected in his entire being. Roy was like that when he was in any strong frame of mind--you could tell just by glancing at him. So, people were kind of moving out of his way as he stalked along, hood of his coat pulled up and obscuring his eyes in shadow. His shoulders were hunched against the wind, his hands shoved into his pockets.
He couldn't get his mind to stop grinding along everything that had happened earlier. How he'd been there, made promises, and she just...fuck. He didn't know. He couldn't get over the part where she told him she loved him, and yet pulled the shit she did. Where she wouldn't answer the question about whether or not she wanted to be a whore for fucking sick bastards.
It was a whole lot to try and swallow. Because jesus, shouldn't that have been an easy answer? Shouldn't that have been an immediate, kneejerk reaction of 'hell no'? The fact that she hadn't answered really just led him to believe the answer was yes. That she wanted to do that, that she wanted to put herself into such a fucked up situation. It was still making him sick, too. Sick, angry, upset, and all that mixed in with that horrible broken, vulnerable feeling. Roy wasn't ever someone who could be described as the most stable puppy in the park, and today he was particularly volatile. It wasn't really a stellar combination.
Ava had just bought what she thought was a particularly lovely robe. The baby blue color of it wasn't something she tended to gravitate towards and was possibly the entire reason she'd bought it in the first place. She didn't have any baby blue and thus, she'd wanted something baby blue. So now with her bright, shiny, new baby blue robe in her hands, she was ready to move along the market and see what else was there.
But she wouldn't get that far. It wasn't Roy's fault that Ava backed straight up without looking or caring to look behind her. It wasn't his fault that she'd run into him. But it was his fault that she dropped her nice new robe into a puddle of dirty ice water. And it was Roy would Ava was going to take it out on. She whirled, already spouting off in Russian about how idiotic someone had to be to not look where they were going, until she realized that it was a boy she'd bumped into.
Great. Now, not only had Roy ruined her robe, but he wasn't even rich enough to replace it. With one eyebrow raised and a truly annoyed look in her green eyes, Ava settled her glare on Roy. "...Pick that up. You owe me a new robe, boy."
Roy hadn't been paying enough attention. Or, that was what he thought, anyways, even if the bumping into Ava thing had been entirely accidental on both of their parts. Roy did sometimes lose focus enough to not be that aware of his surroundings, and he assumed, with what she said, that that was the case here. He did step back immediately, once he realized what was going on, and he looked at her, that stormy mood still really clear in his eyes. He ticked his gaze back down to the puddle, and the robe, and he bent to pick it up.
It was expensive. He could tell that. But then they were in kind of a better area of Chinatown, which granted, didn't look better, but the wares for sale were more pricey than say, closer to the sixth street bridge. He looked it up and down, then started to wring it out. "Sorry, ma'am." he said, voice unreadable.
Ava watched the boy with sheer anger at first, but as he started to wring out her robe, it changed to curiosity. Whenever she blamed someone for something that was obviously an accident, she usually got an annoyed answer straight back, but here was this boy who was willing to take the brunt of her anger with no retaliation. It was interesting and suddenly, she felt the need to know why he acted this way. Ava wasn't a genius when it came to emotions so Roy's sadness was basically lost on her.
She only took the robe back once it was sufficiently wrung out of any dirty water, hiding the disgust she felt that she didn't have some sort of bag to put it in. Instead, she focused on Roy, turning on the charm she'd developed over the years. "Now, tell me why you have such the long face?" Whether she intended for the saying to sound a little off or it had actually been lost in translation somewhere, Ava would never tell. She had different kinds of charm for different situations and besides wanting to see why Roy had been so nonchalant over the whole ordeal, she actually liked playing this kind of role. "Maybe Ava can help, hm?"
Roy wasn't sure what to make of that, both because he was out of sorts himself, and because it seemed like she went from angry to sympathetic and helpful in the span of a breath. But then, maybe she was just irritated by her garment being wet, and that was understandable. He wasn't sure. At the moment, he wouldn't trust his assessment on the color of the sky, let alone a stranger's behavior. "Doubt it, ma'am." he said, ducking his head slightly. "Don't think there's much help for anything these days." which was true enough. The whole city was a place that continually ate itself alive.
Ava placed a soft hand on his shoulder, the look in her eyes full of the best sympathy she could muster. "You make me feel old," She said with a small laugh. "Do I really look like a 'ma'am' to you?" There was a slight twinge in her, the anger preparing itself to come back out if he said yes. But she proceeded with a clicking on her tongue as she shook her head, almost a 'tsk, tsk' sort of behavior. "Come now. It's the first day it hasn't rained in a long time. That at least should put a bounce in your step. Whatever has you upset? It's not worth ruining the whole day over." She continued, still trying to pry and see what actually was bothering him.
He glanced at her hand on his shoulder, not having expected that, and that much was clear. Roy--not always a master of hiding his feelings. Especially when he was having an unstable sort of day. He also glanced around, though, thinking this wasn't exactly the most appropriate place in the world to have an indepth 'what's on your mind' conversation. "You look like someone who deserves respect." he answered her, going with that. Really, he treated everyone older than him with that same respect, but it was true enough as well. She did in fact, look like someone who really deserved that polite sort of demeanor directed at her. She was clearly well put together, well dressed, the robe he'd picked up had been worth more than he'd make in a hell of a long time. Yeah. Ma'am it was.
She'd never been pacified by a boy before, but Roy definitely knew the right thing to say when it came to Ava. Why yes, she did like to believe that she commanded respect, but even so she still didn't want to be called 'Ma'am'. "How sweet of you to say, but call me Ava instead. 'Ma'am' is something I call my mother," she lied. She hadn't seen her mother in years. "And your name is?"
Roy had real problems dropping things like 'ma'am' and 'sir', but he'd try. he ducked his head again, lower this time eyes more on the ground than her. Another wicked gust of wind kicked up, and he sort of shifted to block the wind for her a little, an automatic gesture he didn't even think about. "Roy." he answered. "I didn't mean to bump into you or ruin your..." he made a vague gesture at the robe.
That was another shock for Ava, that he would try his best to shield her from the wind...especially considering the jacket he had and the fur coat she was sporting. Maybe Ava just didn't understand real kindness, because now it was starting to annoy her. Why was he doing all these things for her and not asking for something in return?
"It's only a robe," She said, but her hands clenched around it. The only baby blue robe they had. She forced her hands to relax, forced her jaw to unclench, and watched him again. "Roy. You look like you could use a...what do they call it...a warm chocolate?" A hot chocolate would cost her...well, nothing if she could convince the server to give it to her for free, and she'd maybe find out what exactly was making this boy tick. Having decided that the benefits would outweigh the cost, Ava smiled to Roy. "Yes?"
So, he was a bit confused, still. Why she'd want to get him something, after he wrecked her robe was a little beyond him, but he was cold, exhausted mentally, a bit, and emotionally all sorts of fucked. So, he was in less of a mood to overthink everything. He'd overthought everything else today and it had done him no good. "Sure." he said at last. "Where to?" he added, totally unsure where she wanted to take him.
She didn't really think there were places in Chinatown to get a hot chocolate, so she nudged him in the direction of Chinatown's outskirts. "There is a place down this street." Ava was content to let Roy think that she was just doing this to be nice. Or at least, that's what she figured he was thinking, even if she really did just want information out of him. And a hot chocolate of her own. "So tell me, Roy, what a nice boy like you is doing all by himself on a day like today?"
No one ever said I was a nice boy. Roy thought, but didn't share. He also didn't answer immediately even if he fell into step with her. He was sure to take the side the wind was strongest as well, just because it was his nature. "Needed a little time away from some people." he said. Or, specifically, one person. He still didn't know what to do there. If he believed her that she wasn't going to go back. If he was even just doing something futile, trying to get her not to, if it was what she wanted. God, that still made him sick to his stomach. He also had to avoid saying he was avoiding home, because he didn't so much have one of those.
"I hope I did not ruin your plans," She smiled at him again, still watching him with curiosity. There was something big weighing on him, it wasn't hard to see, but it was what was weighing on him that she wanted to know. Ava remembered this coffee shop being slightly further away, but if she was correct, she could see it coming up around the bend. It was good, too, because the wind was picking up and Roy, despite his efforts, wasn't really much of a shield for Ava. She deliberately slowed her step as they came close to the shop, seeing if he would open the door first.
"I didn't have any plans." Roy said. Which wasn't strictly true. He was still considering going to his 'employers' and seeing if they had anything that would be better paying than what he did now. He also did reach out to hold the door for her, another automatic gesture. His manners were firmly ingrained, and he really had to fight against that sort of thing to get around it. At the moment he didn't have anything resembling the motivation not to go with it, so he did instead. "You're not ruining anything." he assured her.
"Good, good. Find us a table." If his manners were ingrained, then her lack of manners were ingrained just the same. She slipped off her jacket and handed it to Roy, leaving her in her tight, black pencil skirt and open, white, willowy button-up blouse. Lucky for her, there was man working at the register. Time to shine. She sauntered up to the counter, leaned over it just enough for him to obviously be able to see straight down her shirt, and put her charm to good use this time. It didn't take long for her to have two steaming cups of hot chocolate in her hands, or for her to be walking back to their table with another obvious sway of her hips. She leaned over and placed Roy's cup infront of him then took her seat, fingers dancing around rim of the cup. "He put extra marshmallows in it for us," She said, as if it was a triumph. "So now, Roy, you should tell me. Why is there a black cloud above your head?"
Roy couldn't help but watch her. He had found them a table, and had hung her coat up--though his he kept on, since he was still freezing, and he was sure that his clothes would betray the fact that he was a poor person. He didn't really want to advertize that in front of this woman. He smiled a little when she said the bit about the marshmellows, and ticked his gaze down to the mug, so he could stop staring, watching. It was more difficult than he would have liked, really. "Thank you ma--" he started. "...Ava." he corrected himself, picking up the mug to take a sip. "And it's just issues with a friend." He was aware just then about the bruises that were still in the process of fading on his face. They were far less obvious than they had been at one point, but they were there, and he wondered if she'd noticed them. Maybe they were lighter than before still. He didn't know. "I guess I'm also trying to figure out how to get myself a better paying job." he added, tone quieter there.
If there was one thing Ava knew, it was when a man was watching her. So know, with the cashier's eyes on her, as well as Roy's tell-tall signs of the same thing, her smile grew smug. Grabbing the attention of men was her favorite pastime. So she sipped carefully at the hot chocolate, letting her smirk disappear behind the mug. But after he spoke, she put her mug down on the table and leaned closer to Roy, as if she was going to tell him a secret...but really just to see if he would glance down her shirt too. She didn't often toy with boys, but this was turning out to be more entertaining than she'd expected. "If a friend makes you look like that," She said, circling her finger at his face, "Then they are not much of a friend, I do not think. And if you want more money?" She couldn't exactly give him her own advice because, somehow, she figured Roy wouldn't be as willing to go to Babylon and win money the way she did. "Show your employers that they need you. They'll be willing to pay you more if you are indispensable to them."
He didn't glance down, but it was due to effort on his part. He tried very hard to not do things of that nature, really, but man was he ever aware she'd leaned into a position where he could look if he wanted to. So he just averted his eyes, ticked them to the table instead. "She just gets to me sometimes." he said, feeling the need to defend Madeline a little. Even if his tone wasn't pointed or anything. Mostly it came off as matter of fact. He laughed a little and looked out the window at the last bit. "I'm about as expendable as you can get with my employers." he admitted.
It was cute how he was trying so hard not to look down. "And you let her 'get to you' because...?" Ava asked, her smile still in place. "From what I see, you let her get to you too much." She leaned back to take another sip of her drink. Ava didn't really have many friends so she wasn't familiar with Roy's situation. She didn't tend to let people get under her skin. Instead, she moved on to his work situation. "...That's the point. You become indispensable to them. You find a way to make then need you around. It's the only way you will get more money."
Roy glanced up, mild confusion on his face. "It's not really a matter of choice." he said. "You care about someone, and they do something awful and it's going to get to you. That's...that's just how it is." he said, betraying that now he didn't know. He'd always thought that was the way it was, how human nature worked. How his nature worked. He sighed when she was back on the job thing, and he took another drink of hot chocolate--which he had to admit was very good. "I guess I don't really have a job that can't be replaced. When you work for a bigger sort of organization, the guys on the bottom? They can get cut because tomorrow, six others'll be there straight away to get that same job." Which was very true, and not even just in conjunction with the mafia. Work wasn't exactly abundant in the city these days. Everyone was vying for their jobs. "I don't suppose you've got any use for someone, would you?" he asked. She looked rich enough. Like she'd have money to have people around that did maintenance, or something. Then he realized he might need to tell her the maintenance part. "I fix things." he said, ducking his head again, sort of realizing that he probably shouldn't have said anything.
Roy was right. That generally was how humans worked. But Ava didn't really care much about other people and so she tended to not let them get under her skin simply because she didn't have enough close relationships for someone to get under her skin. The last close relationship she'd had was Eris and she was dead now. So she tended not to think about close relationships. But Roy's next proposition caught her off guard and she lifted an eyebrow. Every time she had something broken, she'd let Irving call someone to fix it, and without Irving around, she'd been lucky that not many big things had broken. But what if her heater broke down? Or what if her water pipes burst "What, exactly, do you fix, Roy? Could you fix a heat pump? Could you fix leaky faucets? What if a pipe burst in my home, could you fix that?"
Roy thought about that, then shrugged one shoulder. "I could fix most of that, yeah." he said. "Pretty sure I could fix any of that, if I had the right tools. I've been told I can fix anything. Including cars." he added, since he worked as a mechanic part time too. Fixing broken objects was his forte...really it was kinda too bad he sucked at fixing people. He couldn't do that worth a damn.
"How do I know you can fix these things? Am I supposed to just take your word for it? I tell you what. My shower is leaky...leaking...it leaks. You come to my penthouse tomorrow and fix it, then I'll hire you as my handyman." And besides, Ava sure as hell wasn't going to fix her showerhead herself. It wasn't so much as Roy needed the money and she was being nice. Honesty, she doubt she'd even pay him all that much, but this was convenient. Now she didn't have to go looking for a repair man.
"You asked, and it wouldn't actually do me any good to lie about it, since it'd be pretty obvious really fast that I was lying?" Roy suggested to her first questions. "But okay. I can do that. Or I could fix it today, after we're done here." he suggested. Then at least he wouldn't have to find her place. With his reading comprehension way the hell down, he didn't trust that he'd be able to. But if he was taken there, he could remember.
"Today then." She said after another sip of her hot chocolate. "Keep your other job," She started, glancing up at him over her mug. "Because I don't need a resident handyman. How will I get in touch with you when I need something fixed?"
"I dunno, guess we'll have to work on that one. Maybe leave word at the Drake?" he suggested. That was probably the easiest way. He had to report there more often than anywhere else. It wasn't like he had a phone. Or a mailing address. Or anything else that might constitute a reasonable way to contact him. "I could come by and just check to see if you need anything every few days, too." he added, thinking that might work as well.
Ava nodded once and extended her hand to him in the offer of a handshake. "You have a deal." She was nearly done with her hot chocolate now, taking the last of it in a big gulp, before she stood and reached for her jacket. "Are you ready?" Not that it mattered to her. He'd have to be if he wanted to come with her to her home; she wasn't about to wait around here while he languidly sipped at the free drink she'd gotten him.
Roy was having a real hard time getting a bead on her. She kind of just seemed really all over the place, and he blinked when abruptly they were apparently leaving. He took a second to finish his drink, though, before he stood. "Yeah." he answered, leaving off the 'I guess' that naturally would have come after that with so randomly being rushed. Yeah, he just didn't quite know what to make of her. But he held the door again on the way out.
With her thick fur jacket on again, Ava stepped through the door and out onto the street. She came to the nearest corner and put her hand up instantly, waiting only a few moments before a cab rolled around to them. By the time she'd slipped into the backseat of the cab, she was already telling the driver her address, trusting Roy to not dilly-dally outside in the street. "Shouldn't take too long to get home. So why don't you tell me more about yourself, Roy, until we get there?"
He got in behind her, and sat down, sort of keeping an eye on where they were headed, so he could remember later. "There's not a whole lot to tell, ma'am." he said, slipping into his usual politeness without even realizing it. "I'm eighteen, do odd jobs around town for various people or establishments, I work at a garage part time..." he trailed off. That was kind of it for things he wanted to say about himself. Everything else wasn't things you told strangers, or anyone you wanted to work for.
"A garage? I have been thinking about getting my own car and driver." That was a lie. She hadn't really thought about it until now, but the idea sure did sound nice. She didn't have to deal with all these smelly cabbies day in and out and her driver would take her anywhere without question. "...Would you be able to fix my car if I had one? Where would I purchase a car in this town? You know these things, don't you, Roy?"
The overly rich weren't people Roy spent a lot of time speaking with. Doing errands for, sure. Like with his business at the Drake and running numbers and the like. But sitting around, talking with them? Not so much. So it was a little weird for him to hear someone just nonchalantly talk about getting a car and a driver. Weird. Jarring, slightly, even if it didn't show. "I would probably be able to fix your car. You'd have to bring it to the garage, all the tools I would need are there, but most likely." he told her, at least confident in that about himself. "As for where you'd get one, I'm not sure." he said honestly.
And while Ava didn't start off rich, she found out from a very early age that that was what she needed to be, so she couldn't sympathize with Roy's class-separation. "If you can fix my leaky faucet, then you can fix the car I get." She decided, already mulling over what model car she might invest in and where she could possibly find a good driver. Before she knew it, the cabbie had pulled up outside of her apartment building. Begrudgingly, Ava fished in her purse for enough money to cover their fare and stepped out, heading toward the door. "You can write down the address when we are inside," She told Roy, stepping easily through the door that the doorman now held for them both. She breezed through the lobby as if she owned it, which in her mind she really did, and headed straight into the elevator. "Top floor," She instructed the man inside the elevator, but turned her attention back to Roy. She wanted to see his reaction to this place because she was damn proud of her home. She'd worked very hard to obtain this.
Roy had been paying attention to pretty much everything around him, the building--so he'd be able to return later, and really that wouldn't be a problem, considering. It was like walking into the Drake, only more posh, because it wasn't a hotel, it was a private building. He did garner a few looks as they headed to the elevator, which he ducked his head down and tried not to take personally.
Once the elevator came to a halt at the top of the building, Ava headed out and straight to the door leading to her penthouse. She opened it and easily shrugged out of her coat, placing it on the gilded golden hanger just inside the hallway. "This way," She motioned for him to follow her through the expertly decorated sitting room, the state-of-the-art kitchen, and into the part of the apartment that was more unkempt than the rest. Her bedroom, large and redecorated to suit her style after Irving kicked the bucket. Underneath the various blouses and skirts was actually a nice duvet of white with golden stitching, but she didn't dwell in there too long. She headed straight to the bathroom and pointed at the shower which was producing a steady, but small, stream of water. "You can fix that?"
Roy was looking around as they walked through, again just wondering what the hell was up with this woman. Seriously, now. But if she had the money it looked like she had, then maybe it would be worth dealing with her. When they got to the bathroom, he looked at the shower and smiled. "yeah, I can fix that." he told her. Really fixing something like that would be pretty much no problem.
"You can fix it now?" She asked him, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you fix it now, I'll pay you now." She looked over his head, back into her disaster-zone of a bedroom, and sighed a little. "...Do you clean, Roy? Perhaps it's time I get a maid..." Really, a maid would have been an easy choice. Why hadn't she gotten one before?
"I don't clean. But this? Yeah I can fix this right now if you have tools around the house." he said, turning back towards her. Then he eyed past Ava to the room. "I might know someone who could do that." he said. Maybe. He didn't know if Maddy would do it or not. "How well would you pay? Actually, how well are you going to pay me?" he asked, even if he'd already said he'd fix the faucet. And he still would. His was more just a question and less of anything else.
"Depends on how good a job you do," She grinned as she stepped by him and back into the hallway, to a closet there. "There should be some tools in here...What do you need?" She never used the tools so she wasn't sure she'd know what he was talking about if he told her the name of one, but Irving had had a collection of them and of course she hadn't thrown them out. "What is the proper rate of exchange for a handyman fixing a faucet?"
"Do you have a tool box? I could just use what's in there." he said, thinking that'd be easier than having her play tool-go-getter. He followed to look past her into the closet, then smiled, reaching for the kit. "That I couldn't tell you. The rate, I mean. If I was doing it professionally, I'd probably be making a decent wage." he said, heading back to the bathroom. "I'm sure you can afford it." Since hello--penthouse.
Ava didn't really appreciate being told what she could or couldn't afford, but she chose not to say that yet. "Well, like I said, what you get depends on how well you work." She'd find an appropriate amount of money for him, but it would have been easier to figure out how much she would pay him versus how much she should pay him if she had some sort of fact to base her choice off of. Walking back into the bathroom, she pulled herself up to sit on the sink counter, crossing her legs as she watched the faucet leak. "Let's see you work your magic then?"
Roy pushed the shower curtain back out of his way and stepped into the tub, setting the tool kit on the ledge of it so he could start working. This kind of thing was easy for him. It wasn't that hard a fix--but you did have to know what you were doing, which was the thing. It was a little time consuming, to do a good job, but Roy always made sure he did a good job. It was just an ethics thing with him, something that was as ingrained as his manners. "You asked me about myself...what about you?" he asked as he worked, not really comfortable with being watched if they weren't at least speaking.
Talking about herself was one of Ava's favorite subjects. She didn't do it often because men tended to lose interest when you went on and on about yourself, but she grinned when Roy asked her. "What do you want to know?" Ava asked with an eyebrow lifted. "There are many, many interesting things about me."
"Anything you want to tell me." Roy said, looking over at her and giving her a little half smile. At least he was in a mildly better frame of mind than earlier, even if it wasn't a whole lot. He was working, and that usually helped, since it focused him much more efficiently than anything else. "Tell me interesting things." he invited. He'd listen. Roy was a good listener a lot of the time. Plus, it'd fill in that silence, and he'd feel better for that.
"We'll start with the easy things, then." He was a cute kid, there was no reason to scare him off with talk of prostitution...yet. "I'm Russian. I speak Russian. Do you speak any other languages? Perhaps I will teach you Russian someday, yes?" She mulled over what to tell him in this situation. "I do not know what tools you have in your hands. I never bothered to learn the names of them." That was something interesting, wasn't it?
"I don't speak anything else." Roy said. "...but might be good with learning." It couldn't hurt. And he smiled. "Honestly, most women I run into don't know the names of the tools I'm using." he told her, partially to help her feel better, and partially because it was true. "This one's a wrench." he added, as he held it up. "When did you come here? Why did you leave Russia?" he asked curiously.
Ava lifted an eyebrow at the wrench. She had no intention of learning the names, but she smiled anyway. "I didn't leave Russia. I was born here. If I was born in Russia, I would have never come here." Placing her hands on the counter, Ava leaned back and continued. "But my parents are very Russian and I am proud to be Russian. It's the best heritage, you know. Do you talk to your parents often, Roy?" She asked, eyes slightly narrowed as she contemplated him. He was young. Not as young as her when she stepped out on her own, but wouldn't it be nice to know that someone else had forsaken their parents just like she had?
He didn't say anything for a few moments, looking down, and crouching to dig through the tools, even if he didn't need to. it was just giving himself a second so he didn't have any odd tones when he answered her. "My mom's dead." he said. "My father...he went missing a while ago." And there was just no trace of him, regardless, but he was paying off his debt. "So, no. Not terribly often."
It was odd to her that someone actually cared about what happened to their parents. Ava certainly didn't. What did she do in this situation? Did she offer him advice? Confused and intrigued by his sadness about his parents, Ava continued to analyze Roy. Just like he couldn't get a read on her, she couldn't get a clear read on him either. "I was never close to my parents," Was all she came up with. As she watched him, she figured that she could at least muster up some fake sympathy for the loss of his parents. "But I guess it would be terrible to lose someone you were close to."
"My whole family was close." Roy said. "There were a lot of us." he said, standing straight again to keep working on the faucet. He was nearly done, really, it had been an easy fix. "Not so much anymore. These days, it's mostly just my sister and I." he said. "Not that we live together or anything. but she's about the only family I see."
She wondered if maybe she'd liked to have a sibling and an irrational want for one passed through her. She knew that her sibling would be far too young for her to ever feel a connection with if she ever had a sibling, and that she wanted nothing to do with her parents at all, so she tried to focus on Roy's other words and not on her new want for a sibling. "Your sister must really care for you." It was generic and something she'd overheard from people on the street or movies here, but not something she really knew how to feel.
"Yeah, she does." Roy said, smiling faintly. When she's around. But that wasn't fair, he knew that she cared when she wasn't around, too. She just couldn't always deal with him, and he didn't blame her for that. he was hard to deal with sometimes. He was aware of it, even if he didn't at all know how to remedy it. He did a few more adjustments with the faucet, then stood back, setting the tools down again. He stepped out of the shower, and turned the tap on, to let it run for a second, then shut it off again. And, after the normal few drips--it stopped. He smiled, and looked back at Ava. "All better." he told her.
"You work miracles, Roy." She grinned as she slipped off the counter and headed to the shower to examine Roy's work better. "You make it look so easy. It looks like I've found a very good handyman." That was easy. She now had a faucet that didn't leak and all from bumping into him at Chinatown. "Now just to get myself a maid," Her tone was joking, but Ava was dead serious. She'd find herself some sort of maid to clean and organize her penthouse because, obviously, she wasn't going to bother with things like cleaning her own apartment when she could get someone else to do it for her. "Do you know any maids?"
"I said earlier that I might know someone...I'd have to talk to her though." he said. "If I do, do you want me to send her here?" he asked. That was even if Maddy was around, or speaking to him, or whatever. He wasn't entirely certain on that point. Plus he was still upset as all hell with her. But maids, they made pretty good money. And it was a much more steady job than just fixing things. Things broke at a much less frequent rate than things getting messy, and from the look of the bedroom, Ava was kinda a messy woman.
"Yes, do that. Send her here." The grin on her face spread. Now she had a handyman and he would send her a maid? She'd found both of these with little to no effort at all. This was perfect. As much as she disliked giving away her money, Roy had certainly earned his fair share for fixing her shower and being a recruiter for a maid. Ava certainly wasn't entertaining the option that Maddy might not want to be her maid. She didn't care who the maid was as long as she cleaned her room for her.
Ava stepped by Roy and into her room, motioning for him to follow her. "Put the tools in the closet, yes?" It as about as close to a 'please' she would give, that little inflection at the end of her sentence. Ava went straight for the bedside table, opened a drawer, and fished out a small black change purse. Where she kept money for things like repairs and dry-cleaning. She pulled out a handfill of folded-up bills, counted them, then turned to see where Roy was.
Roy had gone to put the tools away, and he did, then went back to find her. He smiled a touch waiting. "Glad to have been able to fix it." he said. Which was true. Plus, fixing things was an activity that was calming for him. Putting broken things back together, that made sense to him. So, when he had the opportunity, and it worked out, it made him happy.
She closed the gap between the two of them and slipped the money into Roy's hand. While he had been putting the tools away, she'd contemplated exactly how much to give him. She didn't have a basis to go on, but he had been entertaining and she had the promise of fixes in the future as well as a potential maid all out of meeting him, so Ava decided that it was worth more than the bare minimum she generally paid people like waiters and cabbies. "So when I need you again, you said to leave word for you at the Drake Hotel, yes?" She repeated just to make sure she had the information correct. After all, he hadn't given her an address or a phone number, so if she forgot where to leave word for him, she could very well never see her handyman again.
As she watched Roy, she couldn't help but smile. Entertaining and cute. He amused her and that was definitely worth a little something extra. So leaning in, she gave a quick kiss to his cheek. "And remember this. Words of wisdom from Ava. Be strong to your other employers. No one ever gets anywhere being a weakling, Roy."
The first thing that happened was Roy flushed dark, deep red. He also stammered just slightly when he answered her, head ducked down. "I um--the Drake. Yes." he said. "And right. Strong. Un...Understood." he managed to get out. He didn't even count the money, he just pocketed it, giving himself something to do for a second while he tried to will his cheeks back to the normal color.
How long had it been since someone responded to her with that sense of innocence? It was all Ava could do to not laugh instantly at his expression, instead just smile. "You're a man, Roy, and men are strong. No one should push you around." She placed a hand on his cheek, let it rest there for a moment in one of the softest kinds of touches she knew, and then she was standing straight again with her hands at her sides. "So I say, be a man and no longer let your employers push you around."
"I'll keep it in mind, ma'am." Roy said, sort of getting back to normal color, but not quite. "I'll see you soon, okay?" he said, taking a few steps backwards away from her, totally unsure what to do or say from there. He was flustered. He didn't usually get kisses from beautiful women or anything.
"Yes, yes, see you soon. I have a feeling my heater may go out in the next few days." Or she may just say it did. She'd thoroughly enjoyed her time spend with Roy. Not many people were able to hold an interest for Ava but Roy had some magic mixture of emotions she wasn't used to. Innocence, embarrassment, and while not technically an emotion, but his manners were definitely intriguing. A wicked grin formed on her lips. "Bring me back stories of how you were strong to your employers and there might just be another kiss in it for you."
OH look, there was the blush back again. Shit. "I--I'll see you soon." he promised. Then he turned to make a hasty exit, feeling the need to get the hell out of there before he tripped over more words, or anything else. This day so wasn't going the way he wanted it to. It was all over the place, and he was left reeling a bit. ...and blushing.
Ava watched him go, hands on her hips, grin on her lips, and an over-all amused feeling coursing through her. Ah, young boys. It'd been too long since she'd gotten to tease one, but now that she'd found one receptive to her flirting, she'd make sure he wasn't able to get away that easily. He was simply too fun to toy with.