to my side and smile weakly.
“You guys know each other?” Dan asks, glancing between me and Aiden.
“Oh, yeah. This is…” My best friend, roommate, secret love of my life. “Aiden,” I supply limply.
“Hey man, I’m Dan. I work with Maddie at Zilker,” he says, politely stretching his hand in Aiden’s direction.
Aiden shakes it, nodding slowly as if trying to connect the dots and having a hard time doing it.
“And who’s your friend?” I ask, finally forcing myself to look at the girl. She has a nose piercing and tiny freckles. Her eyes are a hazy gray.
“Oh, hi. I’m Allison,” she says with a charming little wave.
“She’s the new intern at Texas Monthly,” Aiden volunteers.
“Aiden here is showing me the ropes,” she says with a big smile as she looks up at him. Admiration seeps from her gaze, and my stomach squeezes tight.
I should have left. I should have made up an excuse about irritable bowels and left Dan here to get lunch on his own. This was a mistake.
“Should we eat together?” Dan suggests.
Aiden and I both say no at the same time. Our eyes catch and unnamed emotions war between us. Why did he say no? I said no because I don’t want to endure another minute of Allison drooling all over him, but how dare he turn me down?!
“I have to get back pretty quickly,” I say with an apologetic shrug.
“Same here. Five o’clock deadline,” Aiden confirms.
The line moves forward and we’re side by side now. Aiden’s shoulder brushes mine and I look at him, unsure whether I’ve fully masked the emotions lurking just below the surface. How could you? I ask inside my head. How could you start dating another girl?
I’m not sure how much more fight I have left in me. Two years is a long time, longer than I thought I’d last living under the same roof as Aiden. In the beginning, when my crush was a tiny thing I could mostly ignore, it wasn’t so bad if I saw him with another girl. Now, that crush has ballooned to fill every chamber of my heart so that every beat reminds me he’s the one I want. He’s not supposed to date someone else. He’s supposed to be with me.
“See you at the condo?” he asks, reaching out to pick an invisible speck of lint off my shoulder.
“Elise might keep me late tonight.”
“I’ll wait up.”
“Aiden, we have that work thing,” Allison reminds him. “Cocktails at the Driskill, remember? You said you wouldn’t let me go by myself.”
Lovely! Swell! What a wonderful conversation we’ve all had! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go dunk my head in a toilet.
To save face, I look away and strike up a conversation with Dan, keeping my back to Aiden until I’m sure he and Allison have left the restaurant.
Chapter Five
Maddie
Knock, knock, knock.
Aiden’s at my bedroom door.
It’s Saturday morning. I’m still in bed, staring up at the ceiling wondering if a broken heart gets you put on the transplant list or not. Maybe a whole new organ—one not imprinted upon by Aiden—would give me a fresh start.
When I don’t answer, he cracks the door open and peers in.
“Hey!” I say, turning my head on my pillow. “I could have been naked.”
“You’re not,” he says dryly, dragging his gaze down my chest covered in a cotton tank top then down to the blanket bunched at my waist.
“Well I could have been,” I point out.
“But…you’re not,” he says, half-smiling.
I sigh and look back up at the ceiling.
He steps into my room without a formal invitation and brings with him the smell of freshly brewed coffee. He sets the mug down for me on my bedside table then tells me to scoot over.
I do, and he doesn’t hesitate before lying down beside me on top of my blankets.
We stare up at the ceiling together, not talking. A foot apart.
I breathe in his freshly showered scent and try to keep a tear from rolling down my cheek.
I’m not sure how long we lie like that, close to each other. Not touching.
I count the blades of my fan. One, two…five…then I speak.
“How was last night?” I ask, still unable to look at him.
“Boring. I left pretty early.”
“What about Allison?”
I need to brace myself if she’s in our condo, in his bed, right now.
He sighs like the question exhausts him. “She’s just an intern. My boss made me volunteer to show her around.”
The tension in my stomach starts to unravel.
“So she’s not out there