Poker Face

Chapter 36 - Scotch and Soda *

*Smut alert*

"Negan, can you come back out front?" a voice crackled over Negan's radio as he and Aven left the cafeteria. It was still early in the day, the sun fairly high in the sky as an early dinner wound down in the kitchen. "Not sure what to do with some of the haul."

"Copy," Negan responded with a sigh, turning to Aven. "Meet me upstairs? I'll make this quick." She smiled and nodded as he turned and rounded a corner, but he leaned back around for a moment to look her up and down, his tongue poking through his teeth. "Laundry got dropped off if you want to slip into something more red and lacy. Just a suggestion." He winked at her and then disappeared around the corner and out a door. Aven made her way up one flight of stairs and began crossing to the other side of the massive building when she turned a corner and bumped right into someone.

"Shit, sorry," she said, stepping back to let the person pass when she saw that it was Negan's ex-wife, Tanya, and that she had been crying. "Tanya, are you okay?" Aven asked genuinely.

"Oh fuck you, you fucking whore," Tanya spat, pushing past Aven even though she had space to step around her. "Get out of my way."

"Whoa, no fucking way," Aven asserted, stepping back to get in the girl's way again. Even without heels, Tanya towered over her but didn't threaten Aven in the least. "What the fuck did you just call me?"

"A whore," Tanya repeated. "Because you're a fucking whore." Aven sneered up at her, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Even if I thought that was a valid criticism of any woman, let alone myself," Aven began calmly with a sweet smile, "I don't know how you could think it has any merit coming from you."

"You ruined our fucking lives, do you realize that?" Tanya hissed.

"Excuse me?"

"We didn't have to worry about anything until you came along."

"Oh, you didn't?" Aven said incredulously. "What about Amber? She just seemed so fucking ecstatic about her place in life."

"She's going through serious alcohol withdrawal because she can't fucking afford any," Tanya complained as though it was Aven's problem, and as though Amber should have had access to alcohol.

"So Negan's not enabling her and she's kicking her addiction," Aven replied. "You're right, I'm terrible."

"Negan was good to us," Tanya said. "He gave us everything and you took that all away. Life was perfect until you came along."

"Life was perfect for you? That's nice," Aven began, each retort coming easily and immediately. "I was out on my own being raped in the woods. Now I'm not and you have to work for a living instead of lounging around while people suffer. Jeez, life is so unfair." Tanya glared at her seethingly but didn't have any chance at a valid comeback, not opening her mouth again until Aven had stepped around her and started down the hall.

"You know he won't keep you forever," Tanya called after her. "He'll get bored and take us all back. He never said no to me before and I bet he still won't." Aven only shook her head with a small laugh as she disappeared around a corner, Tanya still calling to her. "You're one of many. Don't forget that for a second."

Aven got back to Negan's room and saw a small basket of laundry sitting at the foot of the bed with the red lingerie he'd given her sitting on top. She smiled to herself remembering the night he'd convinced her to come back to the Sanctuary and quickly changed into the underwear, pulling on a pair of gym shorts and buttoning her leather vest to cover her for the meantime. She was feeling inclined to ignore her encounter with Tanya since the woman had been so rude, but she couldn't help thinking there was probably a way the wives could adjust more easily if they were truly struggling. She sat on the bed rewriting some of her notes in a better organized way when Negan came back with Simon in tow.