He stepped out of the office, no doubt to greet the other partner in the waiting room just as he had greeted me. I resisted the urge to look over the shelves.
In due time.
They returned a few seconds later, and I got to give my competitor a once over.
I recognized him instantly.
Aiden?
Oh my god.
I wanted to remain in denial.
It couldn’t be.
I stood to shake his hand.
Right away I was charmed by his good looks. He had full blond hair that somehow managed to look both disheveled and professional at the same time. His arms and shoulder filled out his light brown suit jacket, which he wore over a white suit shirt. His intense blue eyes looked me over, and I found myself briefly speechless.
I extended my hand, thinking myself mistaken.
I hoped I was anyway.
Mr. Mahoney's voice sounded like it came from a long hallway as I heard him say my name in introduction. Once I heard the name I knew I could no longer deny what I already knew to be true.
"Blair Michaels, this is Aiden Player. The two of you will be working together in the coming months."
I took his hand in disbelief. I had thought he looked vaguely familiar at first, but it wasn’t until I heard his name that I realized that this man was none other than my childhood friend from so long ago. The same one I hadn’t seen in years, whom I had wondered about now and then over the years, now stood before me as the embodiment of my competition, standing between me and the thing that I wanted more than anything in my life.
I could barely believe my eyes, but I couldn’t deny that I recognized him.
"It's nice to meet you, Blair,” he said as he took my hand.
Chapter Two
I didn’t have much time to register as Mr. Mahoney introduced us, but I felt as if our eye contact contained an entire conversation in the few seconds that passed between us.
Is that really you?
Yes, it's me. Hi.
Well, shit.
Yep.
The socially acceptable time span for a hand shake had passed us by, but I realized that we both still had a firm grip on the other. I let go first and took a small step back wondering what the silence indicated. I could see in his eyes that he recognized me and also by the slight grin on his face betrayed that he didn’t want to say right away.
"It's nice to meet you, Blair,” he had said. I had heard the words, but they hadn’t quite registered.
So this is how we were going to play it.
I see, I said to myself. Alright, I'll go along and pretend that we don't know each other.
At least for know.
My plan today had been calm professionalism. Perhaps it would be to my advantage that the partners didn’t know of our history together. Aiden's presence here, while jarring, didn’t do anything to change my perspective. I was still out to win this, and win it I would.
"Nice to meet you too," I finally replied in a cool timber.
Wow.
He had really grown up since I had last seen him. I couldn’t help but notice the broad flow of his shoulders.
We took a seat at the conference table to hear what our first assignment would be, but I couldn’t help but glance over at him, marveling at how much he had changed.
The last time I had seen him had been at the last vacation of the summer after our senior year of high school. Our families had vacationed together at Lake Okoboji. They both had a timeshare cabin and planned their trips to coincide. I recalled nights on the beach, campfires and fireflies in the settling dusk. Sometimes when the sun went down we went back to the cabin and played Monopoly and ate chocolate cookies until the sun came up the next morning.
Nearly every spare moment of my childhood had been spent with him. We had gone to prom together, I think since no one had the audacity to ask either one of us, and honestly there had been no one else that held my interest, so we had gone as friends, fueling the frenzy of gossip that surrounded the ambiguous nature of our relationship.
My mother asked time and time again when I would give in and just go out with him. Aiden doesn't want to go out with me, I had explained.
We are just friends.
Good friends, yes, but nothing more than that.
I had felt certain that I had convinced her of it. If you say so, she would chide. That had been the story since elementary school, and I had no intentions of changing that story now, no matter how good looking he had become.
Aiden was one of twelve brothers, and he came over to my house many times just to escape, just as often as I had gone to his for a bit of familiar normalcy. His mother welcomed me every time, saying that once you get past four it doesn't make a difference how many kids there are.
Of all the boys in the Player clan Aiden had been the only one not to develop a talent or desire for football. He had to endure much physical horseplay from his brothers, when he would have preferred to climb a tree or read a book. He eventually joined track and did quite well, receiving several trophies and helping the team get to State, which pleased his parents.