“Yeah, I’m sure Liv wants to meet you as well.” I turned away from her and looked at Aiden. “You didn’t tell me your girlfriend was coming.”
“Uhm, Elizabeth isn’t my girlfriend,” Aiden said with a pleasant look, but his eyes never left my face.
“Yeah, we’re not dating,” Elizabeth interjected. “We’ve only gone out a few times.”
“Do you know where Aiden was last night?” I said pettily and immediately regretted it. Who was I becoming? Why was I acting like this? I knew I was letting my jealousy get the better of me and I didn’t like it.
“No, should I?” Elizabeth asked with a small laugh and then looked up at Aiden. “Where were you last night?”
“I was at Liv’s place watching a movie with Alice,” he replied nonchalantly and smiled at me. I glared back at him. What game was he playing?
“Oh, awesome. What movie?” she asked and I wondered how she could be so trusting. If a guy I was seeing told me he’d gone to watch a movie with another woman, I would not be smiling and taking it this nicely. In fact, if I were dating Aiden officially and he had told me that he had gone to watch a movie with Elizabeth, I would have let him know exactly what I thought about him. I don’t play around, and I certainly do not let my guys go on dates with other girls. And yes, I know, last night hadn’t exactly been a date. However, we had kissed and I’d been on his lap and he’d been hard for me. I’d felt his hardness on my ass. And yes, I had tried my best to get him excited, but I hadn’t made him rise to the occasion. He had done that himself. I knew that if Aiden had gotten hard for another girl while dating me, it would have been over.
“I can’t remember,” I said and looked down, suddenly feeling guilty. Why was she so nice and why was I so horrible? Why did I feel like the other woman?
“That good, huh?” She laughed and we both looked up as Scott and Liv approached the table. I watched Elizabeth’s eyes widen as she gazed at Scott and his eyes narrowed as he gazed at her. I almost wondered if I’d imagined the exchange because within seconds they were both smiling normally and Aiden was making introductions.
Liv and I made eye contact, and I could tell that she looked as confused as I did when Elizabeth had arrived. We were both thinking, why was this girl here? And she was totally ruining our plan of me making Aiden want me. How could I make Aiden want me if there was another girl with him right now? Why would he even care about me? And why was he acting so funny about Scott if he had Elizabeth? Maybe it was a simple case of wanting what you didn’t really want because you couldn’t have it. All of a sudden, I felt really sorry for myself.
“Excuse me, but I’m not feeling well,” I said and stood up. My head was pounding and my insides felt empty. All of a sudden I felt tired, really, really tired.
“What’s wrong, Alice?” Liv looked at me with wide eyes. I think she could tell from my face that I was close to tears.
“Nothing, maybe I’m coming down with a cold.” I attempted a cough and looked at the group. “I’m going to go home.” I looked at Elizabeth and smiled weakly. “It was nice meeting you.”
“You too.” She looked nervous and worried as she smiled at me, and I saw her look at Aiden a few times. I looked over at him and his face looked expressionless. I had no idea what he was thinking.
“I’ll walk you home,” Scott said, and I watched as Aiden frowned.
“Thanks,” I said gratefully, not caring what Aiden thought at this point.
“Do you want me to come?” Liv said, and I shook my head.
“No, no. You stay. I’m fine.” I gave her a weak smile and rubbed my head. “I’ll see you later, okay?”
“Okay.” She nodded and sat down.
“Ready?” Scott said and grabbed my hand. “Lean on me, I’ll help you.”
“Thanks,” I said gratefully and hurried away from the table. We walked out of the coffee shop fairly quickly, and I took a deep breath of fresh air as we walked along the street.
“You okay, Alice?” Scott stopped and pulled me over to the side of the street. His eyes searched mine, and he had a small smile on his face.
“Yes, why?” I asked softly.
“I’m not going to pretend to know what’s going through your head,” he said as he gazed at me. “But I am going to give you some advice. You need to fight for what you want. You need to grab life by the horns and go after your dreams and goals.”
“What are you talking about?” I said and swallowed hard.