“No, Liv.” I smiled widely, though inside I was grumbling that yes, she was being annoying. No one wanted to hear about their best friend’s perfect lover every day. Though I suppose I was being unfair, since Xander was really quite far from perfect. I smiled wickedly to myself as I thought about their relationship.

“What are you smiling about?” Liv’s eyes narrowed, and she moved closer to me. “Is there something you’re not telling me, Alice?”

“Maybe.” I grinned and started laughing as she sat there staring at me with a perplexed expression. I started to feel guilty when Liv’s face started to look worried. I knew then that she was starting to feel bad and most probably overthinking everything. That was Liv’s biggest failing and one of the reasons that I loved her. She was way too sensitive. She took on every emotion, and she was always super worried and anxious if she thought she was causing pain to anyone. “I’m just joking, Liv.” I leaned forward to squeeze her arm. “I’m happy for you and Xander. You deserved to find love.”

“I know.” She smiled and then sighed. “But I want you to find love as well. I want you to be as happy as I am.”

“I’ll meet someone soon. I mean, we can even go out tomorrow night if you’re down. I might meet a nice guy.”

“Xander says he doesn’t want me to go to any nightclubs with you anymore.” She bit her lower lip, and I stared at her.

“I know that you aren’t allowing Xander to dictate what you do and don’t do, right?” I frowned. How dare he ban her from going to nightclubs with me, like I was some sort of bad influence?

“Of course not.” She giggled. “We just can’t announce it to him.”

“You’re not going to lie to him, are you?” I made a face. If she lied and he found out, he would hate me.

“No, of course not. I’m just not going to volunteer where we’re going.”

“Really?” I looked at her face carefully and then I saw the glint in her eyes. “You’re such a liar, Liv. You’re going to totally tell Xander, and then you’re going to have him tell Aiden, and it’s going to be all World War III up in the club and we’re going to be banned for life.”

“Just call him, Alice,” she groaned. “Please.”

“No.” I shook my head and stood up. “I’m going to get some ice cream. Do you want anything?”

“No.” She jumped up as well. “Why won’t you call him? You’re just being silly. Explain to him that you didn’t want to kiss Scott.”

“I’m not calling him.” My face reddened as I remembered the look in Aiden’s eyes when I’d kissed his brother a couple of months ago. He’d looked shocked, and I’d felt my stomach drop as our eyes met. It was just my luck. I hadn’t even wanted to kiss Scott, but I’d let him kiss me, just so I could see if there was a spark. I wanted to explain to Aiden that it had been a mistake, but I was too ashamed to tell him anything. Especially given our past history together.

“Alice,” Liv sighed and pursed her lips.

“Don’t ‘Alice’ me, Liv.” I rolled my eyes at her, starting to feel frustrated. “You wouldn’t have called, either.”

“Maybe not.” She shook her head at me, and we both paused and looked down at her pocket as her phone rang.

“Get it.” I walked away from her. “Your obnoxious Prince Charming is waiting for you.”

“He’s not obnoxious,” she protested as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. And then she giggled. “Well, maybe he’s slightly obnoxious,” she admitted and then answered the phone. “Hello,” she said softly in her ‘I’m a princess, come and save me’ voice, and I hurried down the corridor and into my bedroom.

***

I grabbed my laptop, jumped onto my bed and pulled up Facebook. I typed ‘Aiden Taylor’ quickly in search and my heart froze as unfamiliar photos popped onto the screen. Had Aiden unfriended me? I swallowed hard, my heart beating fast as I refreshed the page.

“Oh my God,” I groaned as I realized I’d typed in ‘Tyler’ instead of ‘Taylor.’ I quickly backspaced and deleted and changed it to the correct spelling. I felt a huge rush of relief escape me as Aiden’s familiar photo crossed my screen. I clicked on his photos to see if he had any new pictures, and my heart stopped again when I noticed some girl called Elizabeth Jeffries had left a comment that said, “Can’t wait to see you this weekend.” I clicked on her name, but her profile was private and I couldn’t see anything else.

Who the hell was Elizabeth Jeffries? Was she his girlfriend? Did he love her? Ugh! My head was spinning with questions as my stomach churned. I quickly went to Google and typed her name in and looked to see if I could find anything else about her online. That was what I hated and loved about the internet. It was so easy to stalk—I mean, “research”—people, but the flipside of that was that people could research me, too. I wasn’t happy with the fact that when people typed ‘Alice Waldron’ into Google, a photo I’d submitted to a weight loss competition came up on a weight loss website, along with my goal weight (which I had not reached). I also wasn’t proud of the fact that you could also see my posts on a celebrity gossip blog rating different Hollywood celebrities. I’d contacted Google and asked them to remove those websites from search, but they hadn’t responded.

“Alice, what are you doing?” Liv walked into my room with two different tops in her hands.

“Research,” I mumbled as I looked up at her, debating whether or not I should ask her if she knew who Elizabeth Jeffries was.

“Research for what?” Liv plopped down onto my bed, and I tried to adjust my laptop so that she couldn’t see it. It was one thing to be a stalker, but it was another thing to be caught stalking. Especially when it involves your best friend’s brother.

“Work,” I lied and avoided her thoughtful gaze.

“What do you have to research for work?” she questioned, her voice doubtful. And who could blame her? I was an assistant at a real estate firm. There wasn’t much that I did in the office, let alone had to do from home.

“What are you, an FBI agent?” I snapped, feeling peeved that she was questioning me.

“Okay, so what has Aiden been up to recently?” She laughed and I looked up at her. “I’m not dumb, Alice. I obviously can guess that your research is about my big bro. You’ve never had to do research for work before. Not that you’ve mentioned to me, anyway.”

“Boo to my easy job.” I laughed and handed my laptop over to Liv. “Do you know who Elizabeth Jeffries is, by any chance?”

“Elizabeth who?” she asked in a confused voice.

“I’m guessing that’s a no.” I sighed. “Do you know if Aiden is dating anyone?”

“Not that he’s told me.” She frowned. “Why? Does it say he’s in a relationship on Facebook?”

“Not exactly.” I shook my head. “But this whore Elizabeth is commenting on his wall.”

“What? A prostitute?” Liv’s eyes widened and she looked down at the computer to see what I was talking about. “How do you know she’s a working girl?”

“Oh,” I said meekly, feeling bad for calling my unknown nemesis and enemy a whore. “I don’t know if she’s really a whore, Liv. Keep up.” I rolled my eyes at her.

“What?” She looked up at me. “You’re confusing me. Is my brother dating a whore or not?”

“Oh my gosh, Liv,” I groaned. “I was looking at Aiden’s profile on Facebook and some girl called Elizabeth commented on his wall saying she can’t wait to see him this weekend, and I called her a whore because I’m jealous and I want to see him this weekend,” I explained feebly. “And if you didn’t have your head in the clouds, you would have understood what I was talking about.”

“Oh, I get it.” She giggled. “She’s not a whore, like she’s hooking up for money, but she’s a whore in that she’s a ho because she’s after your man.”

“I prefer my explanation.” I giggled. “Yours makes me sound like a psycho. I can’t call her a ho because she’s after my man because he’s not my man.”