"Hey!" a small gasp escaped Avery's lips as she took her place beside Jodi who slung her arm over Avery's shoulder immediately.
"Was it an emergency?" she asked.
"Nope." Avery shook her head in reply, saying the lie that was resting on the tip of her tongue, "Just a call I didn't want to put off. But I'm done now. Sorry for the wait, Mana—"
"Leroy," she was interrupted by the older man. "While you were away, Stuart kind of addressed the formal atmosphere hanging above us all. We have decided to call each other by our first names, irrespective of the positions we hold."
"Ow... that's cool," Avery agreed, flashing a small smile. Addressing Valentina as Ms. McCallum for the past one hour had been really difficult for her. It was getting her on edge, as if she was tainting the family name by letting people know her by that name. But now that she could simply call her by her first name, that felt better.
Valentina was the trash, not McCallum.
