“Hey, sorry about that.” Aiden walked back into the room with a smile and then looked at his watch.
“No worries,” I said, trying not to stare at his lips. Lips I’d just been kissing. Lips I wanted to feel against mine once more.
“I should go,” he said as he walked towards me. “I just realized the time.”
“Oh,” I said, my face growing red in embarrassment. He was going? Right after I’d asked him to come to my room and talked about wanting to experiment? I felt shame filling me as I realized he was blowing me off.
“Unless you want to finish watching the movie first and need someone to protect you?” He rubbed my shoulder and I offered him a weak smile.
“I’m fine,” I said stiffly. How had we gone from making out to polite acquaintances in five minutes? I sighed inwardly as I realized that I just couldn’t figure Aiden Taylor out.
“Okay, well, I’m sorry you had a bad date.” He gave me a pointed look and paused, but I didn’t say anything. “Thanks for a good night.”
“Yeah, you’re welcome,” I said, not really sure how to respond. I mean, what did you say to a comment like that? Thanks for letting me sit on your lap and kiss you? Thanks for letting me feel your hardness on my ass as I sucked on your lip? Thanks for grazing my breasts and making me feel like I’m on fire? And the good kind of fire, not the scary “I might burn” fire, but the hot, sensuous, “I’m going to get laid and it’s going to be amazing” fire.
“Have a good night, okay?” he said softly and I watched as he moved in closer to me. His eyes gazed into mine, and I held my breath as he gave me a light kiss on the lips. “See you later, Alice,” he said as he pulled back, and all I could do was nod like an idiot as he picked up his phone and walked out of the room, leaving me in a daze. I had no idea what had just happened, but I knew that there was a distinct change in our relationship. I just didn’t know what it meant.
Chapter Seven
Coffee Dates Aren’t Always Dates
“Come on, Alice, Aiden is going to be meeting me at the coffee shop in about fifteen minutes, so you need to hurry.” Liv poked her head into my bedroom and clapped her hands to rouse me.
“I just woke up.” I stretched and groaned as I stared at Liv. “And I can’t just show up by myself.”
“Tell him that I told you to meet me there as well.” She grinned. “And then I’ll text and say I couldn’t make it.”
“Liv,” I whined, not wanting to go but still jumping out of bed and opening my closet quickly to find something to wear. “I’m not going by myself,” I said and looked at her. “He invited you to coffee, not me. And after last night, there is no way in hell that I’m putting myself out there again.”
“Just hurry, Alice.” She sighed, but she didn’t try and change my mind. I had told Liv all about the previous evening when she’d gotten home and even she was wondering what Aiden was up to. “I tried to wake you up earlier and you didn’t respond.”
“I was sleeping,” I groaned and pulled a T-shirt on over my tank top. “How do I look?” I glanced at Liv and she glanced back at me quickly.
“Great, now brush your teeth quickly. You don’t want morning breath.”
“Argh, I hate morning breath.” I ran to the bathroom and grabbed my toothbrush and quickly filled it with a generous dollop of Aquafresh.
“And wash your face, too. You have booboo in your eyes.”
“That’s because I was sleeping just three minutes ago.” I yawned dramatically.
“What do you care about more? Sleep or love?”
“At this moment, sleep,” I groaned and yelped as I felt Liv brushing the knots out of my hair. “Liv!” I whimpered as I spat my toothpaste into the sink. “That hurts.”
“Do you want to go to meet Aiden and show him how beautiful you look in the morning or would you rather look like you were just drooling into your pillow?”
“Can I choose drooling into my pillow?” I splashed my face with water and stared sadly at my lackluster appearance. “And you’re a liar, I don’t look beautiful.”
“Yes, you do, and Aiden will think so as well.”
“Yeah, right.” I wrinkled my nose. “He didn’t think I was beautiful last night.”
“Of course he did. He kissed you, remember?”
“And then he left when I invited him to come and check out my room.” I groaned as I remembered the rejection of the night before. “And when I say left, I mean, he ran out faster than a cheetah on crack.”
“Cheetah’s don’t do crack,” Liv said as if I were being serious.
“Maybe they do, maybe they don’t,” I said and put some moisturizer on my face. “Who knows what they do? All I can say is that Aiden left fast. As fast as the fastest animal on earth.”
“Alice, stop being goofy. I’m sure he just realized he had to be at work early or something.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I sighed. “It’s not like his job is all that important, though, that he would just have to leave.”
“He’s an attorney for a top law firm, Alice.” Liv rolled her eyes. “He’s not like us; he can’t just call in whenever he wants and pretend to be sick and just watch movies all day.”
“I guess.” I sighed. “I just can’t believe he has any interest in me if he left last night.”
“He did kiss you.”
“I know, but what’s a kiss when you’ve been offered more? Maybe he only kissed me to be polite.” My stomach churned as I thought about that prospect. Would he really have grabbed my waist and held me tight if he was just trying to be polite?
“Aiden doesn’t do anything to be polite,” Liv reminded me, and she was correct. I could remember a few different occasions where we’d asked Aiden to take us somewhere or do something with us when we were younger and he’d told us no, pretty point-blank. He hadn’t cared that Liv had even been faking tears one time we’d asked him to take us to the zoo. He’d told us to go into the bathroom and look into the mirror and we’d see a rhino and a giraffe. And then he’d burst out laughing. I smiled to myself as I recalled how rude Aiden had always been. Liv was right. There was no way Aiden would have kissed me if he wasn’t into it, even a little bit.
“I guess I’ll come.” I pouted my lips and applied my new pink lipstick and then some lipgloss. “But I’m not going to flirt with him or ask him out or make him jealous.”
“Good. Just be sweet and casual.” Liv nodded. “Let him think that you couldn’t care less about seeing him or about that fact that he just left last night.”
“I couldn’t care less,” I said and fluffed out my hair. “He’s a jerk.”
“Yeah, he is,” Liv said emphatically.
“Oh, Liv.” I giggled. “You’re just saying that because I’m sad.”
“I don’t want you to be upset over stupid Aiden.” She looked at me with large brown eyes.
“I know. It’s awkward that I’ve fallen for your brother.” I groaned. “Who does that?”
“I think it’s quite common.” Liv laughed. “Many women fall for their best friend’s brother. I mean, it will be awesome if you guys end up together. We’d be sisters.”
“See.” I said with a sad face and pointed at her. “You have doubts, too.”
“Doubts about what?”
“You just said if we end up together, not when we end up together.”
“Oh.” She bit her lower lip and looked to the side. “I didn’t realize.”
“It’s fine,” I said with a groan. “I mean, let’s be realistic. You meet a guy and let him know you’re interested and he’s got you on the floor with his head between your legs. And I meet a man and let him know I’m interested and he gives me a quick snog and then darts off before I can even get him to the floor or the bed.”
“A quick snog?” Liv giggled.
“I’ve been watching British TV shows again.” I laughed. “I think snog sounds better than just saying kiss.”
“At least you’re not saying pash anymore.” She laughed.
“What’s wrong with pash?” I said indignantly. “I want to pash Aiden all night long.”
“It just sounds weird.”
“Tell that to an Australian,” I said with a smirk. “They will most probably throw a kangaroo in your face.”