Alaric was standing in front of Ava Wesley's door. "Hi! My name is Alaric, I'm a friend of the family. Is Ava here today?"

"Miss Ava is not here right now, but I will inform Madam if you would like to come in," the maid said as she went to call Mrs. Wesley.

​​

He was wondering where Ava was. Was she in school? Was she upstairs? The anticipation was killing him. He could not wait to see her.

"Hello Aunty," Alaric got up when he saw Mrs. Wesley coming down the stairs.

"I'm sorry, my dear, but I do not remember who you are…," Mrs. Wesley was trying hard to pinpoint who this handsome young man was. Was he here to court Ava? Was he one of her friend's sons?

"I know it has been a while. I'm Alaric Mendes, my dad and Mr. Wesley used to be business partners, and I used to play and hang out with Ava and Sara when we were younger," he said.

"Oh my god! You're Alaric! Look how much you've grown. You've gotten very handsome. I didn't recognize you. Why did you suddenly disappear?" Mrs. Wesley asked, not having any idea of what happened to his father and their business.

All she remembered was that Ava used to follow a young boy everywhere, calling him big brother because she did not have many friends. She used to think that she was lucky this young kid decided to play with her, and when they were older, he would always let her tag along.

"I was exploring the opportunities abroad for a while," he said, not intending to explain further.

"Well that's good, I hope you did well out there," Mrs. Wesley believed him and thought that many youngsters go abroad to study.

"Aunty, I did not see Ava or Sara," Alaric asked, so it won't seem obvious that he was only interested in seeing Ava. He thought it would look odd if he mentioned Ava and not Sara.

"Sara is now a very famous model and is busy shooting in different parts of the world. Ava is in college, and she stays at the dorm most days," she said.

"Oh, It would have been nice if I was able to see her, we lost contact for a while," he said, not really keeping in touch with her so he did not know what she had been up to. After going abroad, he did connect with anyone from home.

"I can call her and ask to come home now if she doesn't have any classes," she said.

"No need to trouble her. I can go and see her at school," he suggested. If he had known Ava was staying in a dorm, he could have gone there directly.

"It's no bother. I haven't seen her in a while, let's call her," she said as she dialed Ava's number.

"Aunty, don't tell her that I'm here. I want to surprise her," he said smiling.

"Oh sure," she smiled back. Lucky for him, Ava did not have any classes in the afternoon and she agreed to come home immediately.

"Alaric I had lunch prepared while you were waiting. Ava will come home after her class," she invited.

"Aunty, can we have lunch with Ava?" Alaric said.

When Ava entered the house, she was surprised that they had a visitor. She did not remember her mom telling her someone was waiting for her.

"Mom! I'm home! Why did you call me to come home," Ava said as she walked into the house.

"Because someone wanted to see you," Mrs. Wesley said.

Alaric was stunned when he saw how much Ava had grown. She was nothing like what he expected. He remembered her being very cute and very small. He never expected she would be this beautiful. She looked so perfect as a doll.

She had become a woman and was evoking very strong feelings of desire from him. She was dressed in a simple jumpsuit, but she exuded a very sophisticated aura that pulled at him.

Ava stared at the tall man in front of her. He was smiling, and it seemed like he felt somewhat familiar to her but could not remember where she had met him from.

"So Ava, have you been practicing your tennis enough to beat me now?" Alaric teased.

"Big brother, is that you? Oh my gosh, I did not recognize you," Ava said as she came to hug him. As soon as he said something about tennis Ava remembered because he was the only one who would tease her about it.

He was the reason she started playing tennis, she wanted to impress him.

He hugged her back and patted her head happily.

"I missed you so much, where did you go?" Ava asked when she pulled away.

"I missed you a lot too. Your mom said lunch is ready, I hope you haven't eaten yet," he dodged the question.

When they sat in the dining room for lunch Mrs. Wesley asked, "So what are your plans now? Are you going to take over your family business now that you're back?"

"No Aunty, I learned to play piano abroad. I'm playing at the international music festival this year. I'm hoping to win," he said.

"What? You must be a very good pianist. Only the best musicians in the world can enter this competition," Mrs. Wesley said.

"Wow! Are you famous now? Should I get your autograph? Who knew you would be very famous," Ava teased.

"I want you to cheer for me when I perform on stage," Alaric said.

"Sure, I just know you are going to win," Ava said excitedly.

Alaric saw the same sparkle in her eyes that he always remembered. It was nice to know that Ava treated him like he never left. They were still friends, and hopefully, she still liked him.

Ava's phone rang, but she ended the call after the first ring, not bothering to answer it.

After Tristan confessed his feelings to her, he continuously texted her every day, but she didn't reply to any of them, so he started calling her. She gave him the same excuse because she wanted to avoid him. She said she was busy with school work and won't be able to talk to him.

The only reason she really had for avoiding him was that she was confused. She was surprised that Tristan had very strong feelings for her. Actually, everything about Tristan was strong, he had that strong dominating personality, that strong commanding presence, and those eyes that seem to stare at her and bore through her soul.

She didn't have feelings for him, but she couldn't reject him like she had rejected all the other guys trying to court her. She kept on asking herself if she loved him or not, and it was neither because she did not have time to examine what she felt. Truth be told, she was a little scared of how their relationship will be given his personality.

But when she thought about it, spending time with him was not that bad, he was very attentive when it came to things she liked, she did not feel repelled when he touched her, she felt secure with him, blushing when she remembered how intensely he would stare at her.

Think about all these, maybe she was attracted to him after all.