My heart felt heavy as I pulled into a parking space and turned the ignition off. I think that being in a situation where you think you love someone and they don’t love you is most probably one of the hardest things in life. While I still had hope (for what are we without hope?), I didn’t necessarily think I had a good shot, no matter how much Liv tried to convince us both otherwise. Part of me felt like a fool with all the plans and tricks. I didn’t think they would work on Aiden. Not given our history. I didn’t think they would work, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t still going to try. Aiden had been a part of my heart since I could remember. He most probably didn’t even know how much he meant to me. He most probably didn’t realize that he was the reason why my heart had healed after my father’s rejection.

***

“I’m back from my date,” I squealed as I opened the door to the apartment, with a wide fake smile on my face. “He got me roses,” I called out giddily. If I was going to lie, I might as well play it up. Silence met my lies, and I frowned as I hurried through the corridor to the living room. “Liv?” I said in a confused voice, surprised that she wasn’t responding as planned. “Liv,” I said again as I entered the living room.

“She’s gone out,” Aiden said smoothly with a short smile from the couch. He was sitting there stiffly with an amused look on his face. “She asked me to wait as she had tried to call and text you, but you weren’t picking up.”

“Oh?” I frowned and looked at my phone. “I don’t have any missed calls.” I made a face and checked the screen again.

“I was there as she called you.” He shrugged and I sighed.

“I bet my service went out again.” I shook my head. “I’m going to change carriers, I’m so fed up of this crap. I’m always missing calls.”

“I thought maybe you were just ignoring her because of your hot date,” he said as he glanced at me curiously. My face was red with shame as I looked away from him. “So where are they, then?”

“Where are what?” I frowned as I looked back at him.

“The roses?”

“The roses?” I repeated dumbly, but I knew exactly what he was talking about. Me and my big mouth had remembered to pretend my date had given me flowers, but I’d forgotten to buy them at the grocery store on the way home.

“That your date gave you. What was his name again?”

“His name?” I squeaked.

“Yes, his name.” Aiden frowned. “Or you don’t want to tell me?”

“I, uh …” I swallowed hard, my mind going blank.

“Were you out with Scott?”

“Scott?” I made a face. “No, of course not.”

“Henry?”

“Henry, Xander’s brother?” I asked in surprise.

“Yes, the one and only. The guy you were flirting with all day at flag football.”

“I was not flirting with him.” I rolled my eyes and made a face at him.

“Don’t tell me you plan to slip into his bed as well.”

“How rude!” My jaw dropped. “I can’t believe that you would say that.” I peered into his azure blue eyes, and I could see remorse in his gaze.

“That was a low blow,” he said finally. “Sorry.”

“Yeah.” I stood there awkwardly. This was not going as planned at all. “Why are you still here?” I said curiously. “Liv is gone.”

“She figured we could still watch the movie together when you got in.”

“But you didn’t know when I’d be back.”

“I was willing to wait,” he said simply, and my stomach started flittering.

“Oh?” My heart jumped.

“Yeah, I wanted to watch this movie, and Elizabeth doesn’t do horror movies.”

“Oh,” I said and this time my heart dropped.

“I thought Liv and I would watch it, but you’ll do as well.”

“Oh, wow, how flattering.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll do, huh?”

“Yeah, you’ll do.” He laughed. “You going to sit or do you want to change first?”

“Change?” I raised an eyebrow at him as I caught him checking out my long expanse of leg.

“Yeah, change.” He raised an eyebrow back at me. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep my hands to myself otherwise.”

“Oh.” I blushed, but all I was thinking inside was, You don’t need to keep your hands to yourself.

“That’s an interesting outfit that you’re wearing to a first date.” He looked up to my heaving bosom. “A bit revealing, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” I said with a grin. “I had a guy ask me if I was a prostitute.”

“What?” He laughed.

“Well, he asked me what twenty dollars would get him.”

“Oh no!” He laughed again and then paused. “This wasn’t your date, was it?”

“Technically yes, it was the guy I met tonight,” I said and burst out laughing. It was true. The guy in the coffee shop was the only guy I had met tonight. He was as close to a date as I’d come.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” He bit his lower lip to stop from laughing even more. “So maybe it wasn’t really a perfect date?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t a perfect date.” I sighed. “And there were no roses. I was just saying that so Liv wouldn’t feel bad for me.” I felt bad about lying, but I didn’t want him to know that I knew Liv wasn’t going to be there.

“I kinda figured that part out.” He grinned. “Go and change and let’s watch this movie and maybe we can change this night around.”

“Can we order pizza as well?” I asked hopefully, as my stomach grumbled.

“I think that can be arranged.” He nodded.

“Yay!” I felt like I was soaring as I stared at Aiden. This was going better than planned, and I had kinda extricated myself from my lie about my date. I knew I hadn’t come completely clean, but I figured I had admitted enough. “Pepperoni and—”

“Pepperoni and ham with onions,” he said, interrupting me and giving me a wink. “I know, Alice, trust me, I know.”

“I wasn’t sure if you’d remember,” I said with a shrug, though of course I was deliriously happy inside.

“You and Liv ordered pizza almost every weekend.” He rolled his eyes. “And you were both brats about not letting me choose what went on half of the pizza, so of course I remember.”

“Are you calling me a brat?” I asked, with my hand on my hip.

“What do you think?” he asked with a grin.

“I think you’re calling me a brat.” I wrinkled my nose at him and took a step forward.

“You got smarter in your old age.” He laughed and my eyes narrowed.

“I’m going to make you pay for that.” I took another step forward and raised my fists at him.

“Is this your way of trying to touch me, old lady?” He raised an eyebrow and I gasped. How had he known that I was hoping to cop a quick feel? Could he see from my expression that I was practically salivating at how sexy he looked?

“Haha, very funny. I’m not an old lady, and I don’t care about touching you.”

“Is that right?” He grabbed my arms and pulled me towards him. “That’s a pity.”

“What’s a pity?”

“That you don’t care about touching me,” he said lightly as his hands ran down my arm.

“Oh, why?” I breathed out, my heart about to jump out of my chest.

“Because I very much like being touched.” He winked and then stepped back. “Now go and change, and I’ll order the pizza. We don’t want to be up all night.”

“I don’t mind,” I whispered under my breath as I hurried out of the room. And I didn’t mind. Not at all. He could keep me up for twenty-four hours straight if he wanted to. Shit, thirty-six hours if he begged. I could picture him now, kissing my neck and pleading with me to stay awake so that he could have me one more time. How delicious would it feel to have his body against mine, on top of me, sliding himself inside of me? It would feel like heaven.

“Alice?”

“Uh, yes.” I looked around, my face bright red.

“You okay? You were walking and then just stopped.”

“Oh, I’m fine.” I nodded. “Thanks.” I gulped and hurried out of the room to my bedroom. I needed to stop fantasizing about being with Aiden. I needed for us to either get together or not. I was acting like a fool because all I could think about was the sexual tension between us. I opened my closet and pulled out some tank tops and T-shirts. I didn’t know what to wear. I didn’t want to wear my Mickey Mouse T-shirt as that was too childish and unsexy, but I also didn’t want to wear a tight tank top and make him think that I was trying to turn him on. I also wasn’t sure whether to go braless or not. If it was just Liv and me, I wouldn’t have thought about it twice. My bra would have been off in seconds, but then I also wouldn’t have thought twice about putting on a T-shirt with cartoon characters on it when I was with Liv. I finally settled on a black wife-beater with a pushup bra (your breasts can never look too high and luscious) and a pair of black boy-shorts. Hey—I have long legs; I have to show them off. I did have to make a quick trip to the bathroom to give myself a quick dry shave because I could see the beginnings of hair stubble on my legs and I didn’t want Aiden running his hands over my calves and thinking he was touching bristle or something.