“crush” and “obsessed” leap out and make my stomach squeeze tight. What am I supposed to do now? What could I possibly say to Aiden that could make this all go away?
It’s one thing for us to both mutually lose control like we did last night. That feels like it was spur of the moment. Fun. Silly.
This is the exact opposite of that.
Stephanie revealing to everyone that I’ve been obsessed with Aiden since day one is not the way I wanted him to find out I had feelings about him. There is no downplaying words like obsessed. It makes me sound crazy.
Worse, he’ll think everything she said is true. And it is! But he didn’t need to know that.
The door opens behind me and I whip around, smiling huge.
“Are you okay?” Aiden asks.
My plan forms on the spot as words tumble out of my mouth.
“Oh my god, yes. Don’t listen to Stephanie. I think I told her one time that I thought you were cute or something and she ran with it.”
I roll my eyes teasingly.
Aiden stops in the doorway, brows furrowed.
I wipe my cheek, aware of a lone tear slipping down.
I wish he wouldn’t notice. I also wish he hadn’t followed me back here.
“It sounded like more than a one-time thing,” he prods.
I force out a laugh. “I’m sure I did tell her more than once. I mean, it’s no secret that you’re attractive, but that doesn’t mean I’m obsessed with you.” I shake my head. “In fact, I talk to her about all the guys I’m dating. I think I just told her last week that I think Dan is kind of cute.”
Lie. Lie. Lie.
He frowns. “Dan from your work?”
“Yeah, the one you saw me with at the deli.”
“Right.”
“Yeah, I mean, between you and me, I think Stephanie has always sort of wanted us to get together just because she thinks it would be a cute story. So whatever, don’t put much stock into what she said.”
“What about last night?”
Oh my god. Do we have to talk about it now?!
“Last night was fun.”
I’m moving around like a bird flitting from one tree to another. I set down my plate and head into the closet so I can grab my bathing suit out of my suitcase.
“C’mon, we don’t need to have a heart-to-heart about this,” I call out so he can still hear me. “I haven’t even had coffee yet!”
I sound cool as a cucumber, like I fool around with guys by the pool all the time. No big deal, just a hand on my boob—happens every day!
I change into my sky blue bikini then grab for a short white cover-up. I slip it on and head back out into the bedroom. Aiden’s sitting on the end of the bed, staring out the window.
“Aren’t you going to get changed? It looked like everyone was about to head to the pool.”
He nods, but he doesn’t stand. “Yeah, sure.”
His attention is still caught on something through the window.
“Want to just meet me over there?”
He finally turns and assesses me, staring like he’s trying to see something buried deep.
I smile and waggle my eyebrows, as if to say, What?
“You’d tell me, right?” he asks. “If any of that were true?”
I groan like I’m in agony. “I thought we dropped this already.”
“Maddie—”
“Yes! Aiden, yes. Sure, I’d tell you. But it’s not true, so stop looking at me like that. Now let’s go have some fun.”
Turns out, all that talk about this being a couples’ getaway wasn’t quite true. Sure, there’re a few couples, but Dante is here on his own—his partner couldn’t get off work—and Cadence is single too. I’m highly aware of this because she’s taken a special interest in Aiden. She’s asked him a ton of questions about work since we rejoined the group, which I guess makes sense. She’s an assistant to a literary agent. She doesn’t represent her own clients yet, but she helps read submissions and queries all the time.
She’s chatting with us in the shallow end of the pool, trying to convince Aiden to consider pushing his career in a new direction.
“Last night, I read your article about the protests in downtown Austin. I loved the angle you took,” she gushes. “Telling the story through the eyes of the immigrant children. It took the issues down to the microscopic level, made them easy to digest.”
Okayyyy. While I’m sure his article was wonderful, does she really need to stare up at him with stars in her eyes? I