“Good,” I said as well, though I wasn’t sure why. I was too busy floating in the clouds and daydreaming about what this all meant. Did this mean that Aiden wanted an exclusive relationship with me? Did this mean I was his girlfriend? I felt giddy at the thought, but didn’t want to push my luck by bringing up too many questions right away. I knew that if there was one thing that annoyed men it was the ‘what are we?’ questions right at the beginning of a relationship.
“Here’s your wine. Let’s go find some seats.” He handed me a glass, and we walked over to an escalator and rode it up one flight to another level and walked down a hallway and through an entryway. The place was packed. There were thousands of Sam Smith fans milling around looking for the best seats.
“Let’s go over there.” Aiden pulled me around a corner and I followed behind him as he walked up some steep steps to get to two empty seats. I looked at the ground as I walked up and held onto the railing. I was scared I was going to trip and fall down the stairs. I didn’t even want to see how high up we were as I was scared of heights and had a minor case of vertigo.
“Damn it, there’s a column in the way.” Aiden sighed as we made our way to the seats. “We can’t see the stage properly.”
“Oh,” I said weakly as I looked down. It was true we couldn’t really see the stage properly as the column obstructed our vision being in the middle of the stage, but I didn’t really want to move again.
“There are some empty seats over there.” He pointed to some seats far off in the corner, and I stifled a groan. My feet were already aching in my too-high and too-tight heels, and my calves were also aching from walking up all the stairs. I didn’t really feel like walking down a bunch of stairs and then back up more stairs. In fact, it was almost giving me a minor panic attack. It wasn’t going to look sweet or sexy if my face was covered in sweat from all the walking.
“Is that cool?” Aiden looked at me, but he had already started walking towards the stairs again, so I knew that he didn’t really want an answer. He’d already assumed that it was going to be okay.
“Yeah, sure. We want to see the stage,” I joked, though I honestly didn’t care. I loved Sam Smith, and I knew I would enjoy hearing him live, but I knew my mind would be on Aiden more than anything else. I was already wondering if he was going to try anything. Would he rub my leg? Would he try to get me to sit in his lap? Would we kiss? I was so excited about the many different possibilities that I couldn’t even think. Which was a good thing as thoughts of him were distracting me from the very real pain that I was feeling in my feet. I wasn’t sure why I even bothered trying to wear heels for anything longer than two minutes. My feet always ended up killing me and made me want to kill myself. I knew that as a woman I was meant to suck up the pain for the elongated legs that the heels gave me. The sexy killer legs that made men go weak at the knees, but man, it was hard. Part of me didn’t think it was worth it. The same part of me that wasn’t feeling the thong riding up the back of my ass at the same time. And the same part that felt uncomfortable in the tight bra and corset that was holding my fat in. I wasn’t even sure why I was trying to give the illusion of having no extra body fat. Aiden knew the truth; he knew that I had a belly and that my six-pack was hiding away. He knew, and he didn’t care. He thought I was sexy as I was.
“So were you surprised?” he asked me as we waited for the opening act to get started.
“Was I surprised you brought me to San Francisco for our first date? Uh, yes.” I laughed. “This is the best first date ever. I’m not sure that any other guys will be able to live up to this first date.”
“Well, hopefully, no other guys will have that opportunity,” he said and turned away. My heart almost burst out of my chest at his words. I was in shock. He’d practically proposed to me. Well, not really, but you know what I mean. I really wanted to text Liv and ask her what she thought of his comment, but I knew that now was not the time.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” I said casually and he turned back to me with a smirk on his face.
“We’ll see, huh?” He tilted his head to the side. “Have some other first dates lined up, do you?”
“Well, Henry wants to take me out for coffee,” I said softly, and he laughed.
“Do you want me to put you over my lap right now?” he whispered in my ear. “Because I will, Alice.”
“Excuse me?” I squeaked out.
“I will put you over my lap and spank you,” he whispered again as he fingers ran up my leg. “I will spank that ass and then rub it and I’ll have you so wet that you won’t even want to stay for the concert.”
“You wish,” I said and gasped as he slipped his fingers between my legs. “Aiden, you can’t.” I shoved his fingers aside. “There are people here.”
“I think you might remember that I don’t care who sees me.” He winked at me. “You could sit on my lap right now and ride me and I wouldn’t say no.”
“We’d get put in jail for public sex.” I shook my head at him.
“Perhaps.” He grinned. “Shall we have a go and see what happens?”
“No.” I laughed. “I think not.”
“What day are you and Henry meeting up?” He changed the subject and looked more serious.
“Not sure, why?”
“Because I’m coming.” He stared at me with a no-nonsense expression.
“You don’t have to come.”
“I know I don’t have to come, but I will.” He kissed me hard. “I just want to make sure that he knows you’re mine.”
“I’m not yours. I’m not a possession,” I said, but my heart was racing.
“You’re my girl,” he said softly. “And I want everyone to know.”
“Am I now?” I raised an eyebrow at him, but my heart was racing so fast with excitement that I thought it was in the Olympics.
“I hope so,” he said softly and took my hand. “Will you be my girlfriend, Alice?”
“I thought you’d never ask.” I smiled at him as my heart fluttered, and he pulled me closer to him and gave me a big kiss.
“I want you to stay with me tonight,” he said as he pulled away. I groaned as he laughed.
“You think you’re so smart, don’t you?”
“I’m not the only one who thinks that.”
“Aiden.” I grabbed his face and kissed him hard. “No, you’re not the only one.” I gazed up into his eyes. “The only difference is that I don’t just think I’m smart, I know I am.”
“Well, then, I guess you’ll be playing teacher tonight.” He winked at me. “Maybe you can teach me a few things with all your smarts.”
“Well, if you want to lay me down, you’ll have to obey me and listen.” I giggled and he smiled at me with wide eyes.
“I’ll lay you down right now if you want.”
“Oh, Aiden. You wish,” I said and then put a finger on his lips as George Ezra, the opening act, came on to the stage and the crowds of people started screaming and clapping.
Chapter Fifteen
Teddy Bear Heart
“Last night was fantastic,” I said to Aiden as we walked to go and get breakfast. “This is the best birthday weekend ever.”
“Ever ever?”
“Ever ever.” I nodded and smiled joyously. “Sam Smith was amazing live. Even more amazing than I would have believed. I can’t believe you got tickets and flew us here. That must have been so expensive.”
“It’s not the most expensive gift you’ll ever get from me, I’m sure,” he said and my heart almost stopped. I have to admit that once again I wanted to squeal and to call Liv. Was it just me or did that sound like he had plans to propose? I mean, obviously he’s not going to be proposing this weekend (though if he did I wouldn’t say no), but it seemed like maybe one day he would be.
“Oh?” I said softly, trying to pretend that my heart wasn’t doing cartwheels.
“Let’s go to the Ferry Building.” He changed the subject, but his eyes were dancing. “I heard that they have this coffee called Blue Bottle that is amazing, and they have these cheese sandwiches at this place called Acme Bakery, and I know you love French bread.”
“Let’s do it!” I said excitedly.
“And if you’re a good girl, I’ll get you a cupcake from Miette’s.”