Cairo glances impatiently at his watch as he waits for Lance and Avery to show up. He had told Lance that he didn’t mind picking up Avery, but his friend refused the offer in the end.

“It’s on the way to work.” Lance rebuked Cairo leaving him without any excuses.

“Great,” Cairo mutters to himself. Lance, despite his appearance is a very smart individual. He knew dropping his wife off would force Cairo to meet them at a very expensive outdoor shopping mall.

Avery was much worse too.

“Did we keep you waiting?”

Cairo jerks his head up in surprise as Avery walks up toward him.

“Nope,” Cairo sarcastically replies, “twenty minutes of loitering in a no smoking section wasn’t tedious at all.”

Avery gives a wry smile awfully similar to Lance’s.

“You should think about quitting,” she teases, “you know how I can’t be around smoke.”

“Not you too,” Cairo groans.

‘Hm?”

Cairo silently looks away from Avery’s suspicious eyes. There was no way he was going to let her know what him and the gang were up to the nights before.

He also knew Avery’s sharp sense of insight.

Avery turns back to Lance and waves him goodbye. Cairo does the same and they watch Lance drive away, leaving behind a trial of angry pedestrians.

“You worry about my smoking but not his driving?” Cairo dryly comments.

Avery looks at him and grins.

“Unlike you,” she chirps, “Lance knows how to drive.”

Cairo scoffs but doesn’t rebuke back.

Cairo looks at Avery. It was obvious she took extra effort in her outfit today. Although Cairo didn’t understand why she would dress up for her husband’s friend, he didn’t dare bring the topic up for fear of reprisals.

“Let’s go,” Cairo says, “which shop you want to stop by first?”

“Hold on.”

Cairo looks back at Avery puzzled. Avery stares at Cairo with an odd expression on her face.

Cairo already knew what she was going to ask though.

“Avery,” he begins.

“I deserve to know”

Cairo grimaces as he tries to deflect the question.

“Don’t ask questions if you don’t want to hear the answer to it.”

“I get a call from a number I don’t recognize,” Avery rebukes, “despite his best efforts to hide his identity I could still recognize the voice belonging to you.”

Cairo doesn’t say a word.

“Don’t lie to me,” Avery finishes.

Cairo looks at an angry Avery with a defeated look on his face. There was no way he could weasel his way out of this now.

Defeated, Cairo sighs and turns his full attention to her.

Cairo opens his mouth but to his surprised, finds that he is unable to find the words to explain to Avery.

Sensing this, Avery instead takes over the conversation.

“Every time I get a call or a letter in the mail,” she solemnly says, “I dread that something happened to you three.”

Cairo couldn’t help but wryly smile. It was no secret that the recent relationship between him and Lance’s wife has been strained.

“That’s the price of living the life though-” Cairo begins.

“It’s not a price I want to see Lance pay,” Avery cuts him off, “Or you and Marcel for that matter too.”

Cairo scoffs.

“It might not seem like it,” Avery continues, “But I actually do care about you.”

“That’s not what Lance be telling me,” Cairo grimly replies.

“Oh,” Avery chirps amused. She leans in uncomfortably close to Cairo causing him to recoil in alarm.

“To-To-To close,” he stutters.

“And what has he been telling you?”

“That you have a heart of gold.”

Avery smiles and ruffles Cairo’s hair, much to his annoyance.

“Lance has a habit of blowing things out of proportions.”

“You’ve been around Lance too much,” Cairo manages to breath out after brushing Avery’s hand aside, “Your starting to pick up on some of his bad habits.”

Avery cheerfully grins and walks past him toward the direction of the mall.

“Let’s go shopping,” she sings, happily swinging her purse, “I hear you made some promises to Lance that I can take advantage of.”

Cairo good naturally shakes his head and smiles. Any amount of money is worth it if it can repair his friendship with her.

“Avery,” Cairo starts.

Avery turns around expectantly

Cairo didn’t know what made him open his mouth and say it. It just felt right at the moment.

“Lance is one of my closest friend,” he states with seriousness, “‘I can’t do the thing we used to do together’ once he says those words to me I’ll cut of all contact with him.”

Avery smiles tenderly. She understood the meaning Cairo was trying to tell her.

“Mm,” she gently murmurs before a mischievous smile creeps on her face.

“What's that face for?” Cairo asks slightly worried.

“Who knows,” Avery dodges the question, “You’ll see soon enough.”

“Honestly why do I even hang out with you.”

“My killer beauty obviously.”

“You got me fucked-”

Cairo stops midsentence. After stopping by to drop off some change for a person in need, him and Avery made their way to the coffee shop because Avery insisted she needed a drink.

What shocked Cairo though, enough to make him stop in his tracks with his mouth hanging wide open, was the person sitting at the table across from him.

Layla looks up from her phone, and the moment her eyes met Cairo’s, burst out in the widest most perfect smile he has ever seen.

Cairo looks back at Avery who was by this time humorously covering her mouth in an attempt to hide her laughter.

Cairo light heartedly gives her a look before stepping forward to greet his longtime friend.

“Hey Cairo,” Layla brightly chimes, “It’s been a while.”

“Ha-Lay-Lang time,” Cairo sputters back.

A snort erupts from Avery as she becomes unable to hold herself back, and doubles over laughing while Cairo glares back in embarrassment.

Layla notices her friend’s ordeal, and good-naturedly ignores the blunder  before continues the conversation.

“You’re looking good,” she notes, “Life must be treating you well enough.”

“I should say the same back to you,” Cairo replies somewhat downhearted at the formal and distant tone Layla talked to him in. “You look absolutely stunning.”

“When did you learn how to say sweet things like that?” Layla amusingly replies with the familiar sass Cairo was used to. “You’re making me embarrassed for you.”

Cairo whole-heartedly laughs as he, Layla, and Avery, move out of the way from other strangers trying to squeeze by them towards the exit.

“When did you come back?” he asks his friend.

“Two weeks ago,” Layla answers, “I’m taking a break from school this semester. So… Now I’m here.”

Cairo notices with alarm at the minuscule change of expression on Layla’s face and her tone of voice. It seems Avery noticed it too as she looks in mild surprise at her also.

“School too much for you?” Cairo says as he quickly tries to lighten the mood, “Did you miss us that much?”

“Who’d miss your silly antics?”

A small wave of relief washes over Cairo as Layla steps forward to give him and Avery a friendly embrace.

It has been five years since he’s seen her. Five years of stagnation in the best and worst of Metrocity had given Cairo nothing but strain and struggles, and headaches and wrinkles. However, seeing Layla the same old brought nothing but joy to his heart.

“Didn’t I tell you?” Avery begins, “He hasn’t changed at all. The other day Marcel’s mother-”

“Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp.”

Cairo quickly interrupts Avery in order to avoid letting Layla know the “berating” he suffered from his friend’s mother.

Avery glances at Cairo with a playful smile before turning around and moving towards the shopping section.

Cairo understands the notion and turns to Layla.

“We’re about to buy something expensive,” he says, “Want to come?”

“Only if there’s room in your wallet for my items,” Layla chimes.

“Shit lady, I’m not made of money.”

“Ah, then I guess I have something to do today…”

Layla playfully nudges Cairo.

“… I’ll buy you chicken nuggets.”