a bit green in the face and totally miserable. Next to me was Dane, his grin so large he looked like a clown and he was holding two thumbs-up. It had been his idea to try the challenge, but I wasn't one to step away from a competition.
He'd won out, eating fifty-three hot dogs to my forty-one. Apparently his stomach was as large as his ego, and I’d never fully forgiven him for dragging me along. Especially because I had spent that night ralphing chunks of pink meat for hours. So gross.
Aiden followed my gaze and burst into laughter. “You didn't,” he said, amusement lifting his voice.
“I'm sorry to admit that I did. That was not a good day.”
“I'm surprised that you're able to stomach hot dogs at all after that. I don't think I could,” he admitted as we slid into a booth.
“It wasn't the hot dogs’ fault,” I said. “I can't punish them for Dane’s ridiculous insistence that we try the challenge.” I pulled open my bag and set out my notebook. “Speaking of which, what do you want? I'll go to the counter and order for us.”
After getting his order, I left him at the booth to start perusing my notes while I ordered us four hot dogs, two sides of fries, a side of onion rings for me, and orange-ades for us both. It was a far cry from fancy French food, but that hadn’t turned out well for us the last time.
When I returned to the table, I found Aiden with vertical lines etched deep in his brow. “You always look so angry when you're thinking.”
I pressed a finger to the place where his forehead was most wrinkled.
Instead of jerking away from my touch like I’d expected, he only shrugged. “I like to believe I look formidable. Because my giant, genius brain is working so hard.”
“If your brain was so giant and genius, would it need to work so hard?” I shot him a wink as I sat down. “So now that you've looked at my notes, what do you think?”
“I think you have the right idea, but not enough to substantiate an official arrest. If this were to go to court, it would be entirely possible a lawyer would be able to create plausible deniability.”
It was what I thought, too, but that didn't mean that I liked it. I really wanted to hold my own in this project. I wanted to prove to the professor that I knew what I was doing. And maybe I wanted to prove it to Aiden, too. After all, he was the one judging me the most critically.
He pointed to the one suspect I'd managed to completely rule out. “I do agree with this here. Which leaves us four suspects, including the wife you were sure did it. I know I said I thought she was a red herring, but I’m second-guessing that now. We can split up the remaining four and create a more concrete case before presenting it to the professor.”
It was a good idea. “Okay, cool. You take her this time—you might be able to find something I wasn't able to see. I think the wife is still on the table, but you’re right that it seems too easy.”
Aiden pressed his hand to his chest. “Bryce, I don't know if I can handle all this humility from you. First to admit that I was right, and now you think that I might be able to do a better job than you?”
Aiden looked so fucking smug. For just a moment, a brief image flashed across my mind of me leaning over the table, grabbing his face between my hands, and kissing that smirk from his face.
Annnnnd it’s time to get to class. Before more nonsense tried to invade my thoughts.
Instead of kissing him like I kind of really, desperately wanted to, I winked at him. “Don't get used to it, pretty boy. Maybe you're playing right into my hands. I could have an ulterior motive. But now I think we need to hustle if we're going to make it to class on time.”
We shoveled food into our faces and gulped down the sweet drink, divided my notes and his, each taking what we needed to complete the research on our two subjects. And then we raced across campus to make sure that we could get to class in time. My stomach sloshed with every hurried step, and I told myself the queasiness stemmed from the rushed food