me. Christ, she’s stunning. “So, are you still seeing Mr. Ordinary?”
This time, she smirks, lifting her chin. “I am, but I’m not sure why you even care to ask.”
I don’t answer her right away. Instead, I put torque to the wrench and with a mighty push, I get the joint to release. Holding up a hand, I ask, “Can you hand me a few towels?”
Ella turns, opens a drawer, and pulls out two kitchen towels. I nab them, put them under the joint, and start to unscrew it. The short pipe pops easily from the disposal unit, and I pull it out to inspect it.
Completely clogged with God knows what. I suspect Lucy may have tried to shove something too big in there, but I don’t say it out loud.
Instead, I reply to her question. “I told you I want a shot at winning you back. I’m not afraid to go head to head with Mr. Ordinary.”
I stand, lean over the sink, and examine the clogged pipe.
“Funny,” Ella says smugly. “That was almost two weeks ago when you made that assertion. I just assumed you’d given up.”
My body locks tight as I consider that maybe I’d waited a little too long to make my move. I knew I was taking a risk not coming after her immediately. I realized it could piss her off or make me seem disingenuous.
But I didn’t want to come on too strong either. Ella knows me inside and out, and she knows what a bulldog I can be when I want something. I go after it, and she would expect that. My thought was I’d keep her off balance by doing the exact opposite of what she expected to keep her guessing and to make it more interesting.
I didn’t make the decision lightly. It’s not a game with me. The real risk was that while I was easing very slowly back into her life, her relationship with Mr. Ordinary would potentially progress too far.
Ultimately, though, I went on gut instinct because I knew Ella inside and out, too. If she thought for just a fraction of a second there was a chance we could work our marriage out, she wasn’t going to fall into bed with someone. Her heart was too pure and loyal.
Now, it didn’t mean she wouldn’t continue to date Mr. Ordinary, but she’d slow it down a bit on the off chance I was genuine.
The key was in not appearing too eager, so she was a little off-kilter, but to not wait so long she would give up on me.
She remains silent to my reminder I was gunning for her. I try to provoke a reaction and gather information. “Just how is Mr. Ordinary doing?”
“It’s David,” she snaps, then her voice lightens a bit. “And he’s far from ordinary. He’s a surgeon.”
“Wow,” I mutter as I grab a butter knife out of the drying basket beside the sink. I start poking at the stuff inside the pipe. “A real smarty pants.”
“Yes. He’s smart, attentive, caring, and generous with his time.”
I keep my expression and tone bland, but she landed a direct blow there. “All the things I’m not,” I state, voicing the conclusion she was aiming at.
“Well,” she drawls with a tiny bit of sympathy. “I do think you’re smart.”
I shoot her a side eye-roll and step around her, nodding at the pull-out cabinet that conceals the garbage can. She opens it for me. I lean over, cleaning all the gunk out, which looks like an entire slice of pizza stuffed in there. Ella wrinkles her nose while she watches me.
When it’s empty, I move back around her and squat to hook the pipe back up. “How often are you seeing him?” I ask, deciding to get downright nosy so I can figure out what I’m up against.
“He travels a lot, so we try to see each other when he’s in town,” she hedges.
I look up from the pipe before I put the wrench to it, frowning. “Why does a surgeon travel?”
Maybe he has a secret family somewhere, and he’s totally playing Ella. I hope against hope it’s true as that would make me the stronger contender for sure.
My hopes are dashed with one word. “Robotics.”
I give my attention back to the coupling, torquing the wrench so it tightens the coupling. At the same time, Ella launches into a long-winded, prideful speech about the fact he teaches advanced surgical robotic techniques all over the world.