I smile and wave to her friends then nod back toward my table. “That’s sweet of you, but I’m already at a table over there.”
It doesn’t even occur to Elise that I might have come with people who expect me to sit with them.
She follows the direction of where I nodded and finds Aiden, Jolie, and James. Jolie is perusing the menu, and James is talking to a waiter. Aiden is facing us, looking over, wondering who I could possibly know here.
“Who is that?” Elise asks, obviously referring to Aiden.
Before I can reply, another one of her friends pipes up. “Who cares what his name is? I want to know if he’s single.”
“Obviously not,” another one replies. “Look at the way he’s watching Madison.”
“Are you together?” Elise asks me, still gripping my arm. “Because if not, you absolutely have to introduce me. I don’t mind younger men. In fact, I prefer it.”
Her friends all laugh and chime in, prodding me for an answer, and maybe it’s the way Elise is looking at Aiden, or maybe it’s the fact that I still have a jealous taste in my mouth from seeing him with Allison yesterday, but in the end, I lie.
“Oh yeah, that’s Aiden. We’re dating.”
My pulse immediately picks up. The second the words are spoken, I know it’s too late to take them back.
“You’re so lucky!” Elise’s friend gushes.
“What a cute couple!”
“You have to introduce us to him!”
What!? No. Absolutely not.
Though my bladder is the very last thing on my mind at the moment, I use it as a way to extract myself from Elise’s clutches.
I scrunch up my face and point to the bathroom. “Sorry, I was just headed there.”
“Oh!” She lets me go. “Of course you were. Sorry for keeping you. I’ll try to come over and meet your friends before we leave.”
Over my dead body.
I say goodbye to the group and scurry off, wishing I could splash some cold water on my face without ruining my makeup. I settle for a few deep breaths and that seems to help a little, right up until I walk out of the bathroom to see Aiden talking with Elise and her friends.
What?!
HOW did that happen so fast?
I hurry over, hoping they haven’t said too much to him already.
“You two are so sweet together. What a perfect pair.”
CRAP.
“Oh!” Elise notices me. “There she is. Sorry, Maddie, we couldn’t wait. We called Aiden over to get his take on things. Don’t blame us for being nosy.”
I want to melt into the floor. I can’t even look in Aiden’s general direction. What in the world must he think right now?
“How long have you two been together?” one of Elise’s friends asks.
What follows is the longest silence ever recorded in modern times.
I think my bones turn to dust as I try to come up with an answer that appeases them while also not alerting Aiden to the fact that I’ve lied about us being a couple.
“What has it been?” Aiden asks. “Five months?”
My gaze jerks up to his as my lips part in shock.
“Oh! So it’s serious then?” one of them asks.
His mouth hitches into an easy smile. “Very.”
Elise and her friends all ooh and ahh over Aiden’s apparent infatuation with me, but I know from the look in his eye he’s only playing along for their benefit. When we’re alone, he’ll let me have it.
I gulp.
“We better get back to our table,” I say, hurrying to end this awkward exchange. “It looks like James and Jolie want to get started.”
“It was nice meeting you all,” Aiden supplies with a nod before reaching out to take my hand. “Maddie?”
I have no choice but to step forward and let him wrap his fingers around mine. It’s exactly what a boyfriend would do in this situation, and he’s playing his part to a T.
After a few steps, I try to wiggle free of his grasp, but he tightens his hold on me and tugs me toward him.
“So we’re dating?”
My cheeks are on fire.
“I’ll explain everything later.”
He chuckles under his breath and releases my hand before Jolie looks over at us. “I look forward to hearing it.”
All through dinner, Aiden is his normal charming self. He entertains us with stories from the field and doesn’t get offended when James pesters him with questions about his future and whether he’s putting enough away into savings to help build up his nest egg. It’s not until we get dropped off at the curb outside our building that Aiden