“Yeah, let them try. I’ll throw a koala bear back at them.” She laughed. “I mean, who calls kissing pashing? It just doesn’t even make sense to me.”
“Pashing is a sexy term,” I said, though I didn’t really think it was that sexy. It was different, and to me different was cool.
“Are you still watching that show?”
“What show?”
“Dating in the Dark Australia?”
“Oh yeah.” I nodded. “I thought you were talking about Home and Away.”
“I thought you weren’t able to watch it anymore?”
“Yeah, I’m not. The guy that was uploading it onto YouTube got deleted or something.” I sighed. “That was a good show.”
“It looked like too much drama to me. And all the characters seemed so young and annoying.”
“Like I said, it was good.” I laughed. “It was full of drama and angst and half the girls had worse love lives than me.” I smiled happily, remembering all the drama from one of my favorite Australian soap operas. “Plus Australian men are so sexy.”
“Oh, Alice, you and your English and Australian guys.” Liv shook her head.
“I might end up marrying one if it doesn’t work out with Aiden. Foreign guys are hotter.”
“But then you’ll have to move.” Liv pouted.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I’ll move to Oxfordshire or Sydney.”
“Why Oxfordshire or Sydney?” Liv looked confused.
“Oh, they just sound like good places to live, if I have to leave the States.”
“Uh, okay.” I could see that Liv was trying not to laugh. “What about Nigeria?”
“What about Nigeria?” I frowned. What did Nigeria have to do with anything?
“Didn’t a Nigerian prince ask you to marry him and send him ten thousand dollars?”
“Hahaha.” I laughed slightly as I remembered the scam email I’d gotten and almost fallen for. “Very funny.”
“Wouldn’t you like to live in Nigeria as well?” she asked with a grin. “Seeing as you want to live abroad and all.”
“I don’t know about Nigeria.” I made a face. “I’ve heard the Ivory Coast is beautiful, though.”
“I guess you just have to meet a guy from there, then.”
“Actually, there is a guy from there who’s trying to buy a house right now. He has this sexy French accent as well.” I thought about the tall African guy who always smiled at me when he came to see Mike, one of the agents at the real estate office I worked at. “I would definitely date him if he was younger than fifty.” I giggled. “He’s cute, but a bit old. But imagine if I lived in Africa, I’d be tan year round.”
“You just want to leave me.” Liv pouted again, and I laughed.
“Don’t be silly. I want Aiden. I just need him to want me, too.” I sighed and grabbed my handbag. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah, let’s go.” Liv linked arms with me. “I seriously need to make sure my brother doesn’t mess this up.”
“Yes, you do,” I said expressively, with a small smile on my face. “Because if you don’t, who knows where I’ll end up?”
“You’ll end up in Timbuktu, that’s where.” She laughed as we walked out of the door.
***
Liv and I walked into the coffee shop, and I almost groaned when I saw Scott sitting there with Aiden. Why oh why did Scott have to be there? As if everything wasn’t already slightly awkward between Aiden and me, Scott was just going to make an already complicated situation more complicated.
“Look who’s here,” Scott said with a grin as he jumped up and walked towards us. “Big ears and little ears.”
“Look who’s here,” Liv retorted back. “Dumb and Dumber.”
“I call Dumber,” Scott said and then winked at me as he gave me a quick hug.
“I guess that leaves me as just Dumb?” Aiden said with a smile as he stood up and hugged Liv.
“Well, duh,” Liv said as she pulled away from him. “We all knew you were dumb a long time ago.”
“Touché,” Aiden said as he walked towards me and gave me a quick hug, too. “Good to see you, Alice.” His body felt warm next to me and I didn’t want to let go as he stepped back. I know, I’m pathetic.
“Hi,” I said and then a thought suddenly hit me. “I guess you didn’t have to work early this morning?”
“No, did I say I had to?” He looked confused as he gazed at me and then at Liv. “Did I tell you I had to go to work early this morning?” he asked Liv and she made a face.
“No.” She sighed. “Alice and I just got confused about something.” She walked over to me. “What do you want, Alice? My treat.”
“I’ll have an iced mocha, please. Ooh, and a bagel with salmon and cream cheese.”
“Okay.” She nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.” I nodded and sat down. I swallowed hard as I saw both Aiden and Scott standing there in front of me.
“Well, Alice, how have you been?” Scott grinned and sat down next to me.
“Good, you?” I said weakly as I could feel Aiden’s eyes on me.
“Good, just been working late.” He stretched and I watched as he tossed his blond hair back. “I heard that you were at the parents’ house recently?”
“Yeah, Liv wanted your dad to spend more time with Xander.” I nodded. “Though, it was mainly the four of us just playing board games and going out.”
“Sounds about right.” Scott laughed. “Dad just likes having us all around the house. Unfortunately, Aiden and Liv are the only good kids. Chett and I rarely make an appearance.”
“Aw, that’s sad,” I said and Scott leaned towards me with a small smile.
“I guess I would have made more of an effort had I known you were going to be there.”
“Oh.” I blushed at his words. I mean, what did you say to a man who was flirting with you when your crush was sitting right next to him?
“Maybe next time,” Scott continued. “Or maybe we can go to—”
“Scott, Liv is calling you.” Aiden cut him off with a brusque tone.
“Huh?” Scott looked at Aiden with a frown. “Calling me for what?”
“Go and ask her,” Aiden said, his lips thin.
“Fine.” Scott jumped up and then smiled at me. “We’ll continue this conversation later.”
“Okay,” I said and avoided Aiden’s stare.
“So what’s going on with you and Scott?” he asked me accusingly and I looked at him with an annoyed expression.
“What do you mean what’s going on with me and Scott?” I glared at him. Was he seriously going to go there? He was the one who had left me the previous evening.
“Do you like him?” he asked me point blank and I blinked slowly.
“Of course I like him,” I said with an irritated tone.
“Do you want to date him?”
“No, I don’t want to date him.” I glared at him. I wanted to add You big doofus to my sentence, but didn’t.
“Do you want to make out with him again?”
“We never made out. He kissed me. Once,” I said, my voice getting higher. “I didn’t ask him to kiss me.”
“But you didn’t stop him.” He frowned. “You seem to like kissing us Taylor brothers, don’t you?”
“I don’t like kissing the Taylor brothers, no.” I bit my lower lip and took a deep breath. “I only liked kissing one of the Taylor brothers.”
“Oh?” He froze and his eyes held mine.
“Yes,” I said, feeling light in the head. Was I seriously going to tell him how I felt, right here and now?
“Which one?” he asked and leaned towards me, so that I could see his pupils dilating.”
“I like—”
“There you are, darling.” A soft sweet voice echoed next to us and I looked up in shock. There, standing next to us in the flesh, was Elizabeth Jeffries. What was she doing here?
“Lizzie!” Aiden jumped up and beamed, his face transforming from a slightly angry mask to one of pure happiness.
“Sorry I’m late.” She wrinkled her nose, and even I had to admit that she looked cute while doing so.
“You’re not late. You’re right on time,” he said and gave her a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. I wanted to burst into tears at the sight of the two of them together. “Elizabeth, I want you to meet Alice. Alice is my sister Liv’s best friend.” He nodded towards me. “And Alice, I want you to meet Elizabeth, a good friend of mine.”