The Pretend Girlfriend(61)

"Just a moment please, folks. This one's going to the judges," the announcer said.

"What does that mean?" Gwen asked.

"It was so close that they're going to look at a picture taken as they crossed the finish line to see which horse was in the lead," Aiden said, "It shouldn't take long."

It didn't take long. In reality, probably less than a minute. But in Gwen's world, those seconds each ticked away like an hour. She kept looking down at her ticket stub, rubbing her thumb across it as though the friction could help determine the outcome in some way.

"Ladies and gentlemen..." the announcer started, taking a pause for effect. Gwen squeezed Aiden's hand. He squeezed back. "I'm pleased to announce that the winner of today's charity race is Number 13, Black Streak, ridden by Chadwick..."

Gwen didn't hear the rest. That wasn't how it was supposed to go. Charlie was supposed to win. How could he make a comeback like that and not win? She was crestfallen.

"Hey, you won two grand," Aiden said, plucking at her ticket stub.

"What do you mean? He lost," Gwen said, not sure how to feel. Was this it?

"He placed second. This event pays out for top three. Good bet," Aiden said. He put his arm over her shoulders and pulled her close.

"So he won?" Gwen said, working something out.

"I guess you could say that, yeah. Though technically he wasn't in first..."

"He won. I'm counting this as a win," Gwen said. That made her quite happy. She didn't think she'd feel so good if the outcome had been different. And that was how you could tell if you made the right choice, wasn't it? A gut feeling. Knowing deep inside that something was right or wrong, letting your intuition do its job.

"So why don't we go collect my winnings?" Gwen said.

"All the winnings go to charity, remember? Speaking of that, I'll take care of this stub for you," Aiden said, taking it from her and tucking it into his pocket.

She didn't want to be at the track anymore. The desire to go crept up on her, then revealed itself. She felt antsy around all these people.

"Let's go. Can you take me home?" Gwen said.

"Well, I should technically stick around to say thank everyone for their donations... But let's go."

"Thanks," Gwen said.





Chapter 19


Either outside was much warmer than Gwen originally thought, or the interior of the limo was like a fridge. As soon as she sat down, her skin prickled at the cold touch of the leather seat.

After the roar of the crowd and the thunder of the horses, Gwen welcomed the quiet of the car.

"That was fun," Gwen said, still feeling heady over her victory. $2000! She thought. Of course, it wasn't really hers. But she'd still won it. And if she couldn't have it, a charity getting it sounded good.

It was quite the rush, really. She reminded herself to try and avoid gambling in the future, just in case she had one of those addictive personalities. That thought made her smile. She remembered her mom and dad talking when she was in primary school about an older cousin of hers who had an addictive personality. For the longest time, she'd thought that it meant a person was so interesting and cool that you couldn't help but like them a lot.

"Something funny?" Aiden said, noticing her expression.

Despite sitting in the back of the limo, this felt almost normal. Being with Aiden, that is. He wore normal clothes. In the shadows of the car, you couldn't tell they were top-notch items. He looked almost like the boy next-door. He sat across from her, taking up most of the seat. He looked pretty worn out, and Gwen figured that running and organizing an event like that had to take a lot out of you. No matter how much you worked out.

"Just thinking about something I used to believe when I was a kid," she said.

"I used to believe that putting a trading card in the spokes of the back wheel on your bike made it go faster."

Now that was an image simply too adorable to ignore: a young Aiden carefully getting the card set just right to make the bike sound something like a baby motorcycle.

Gwen laughed, "Well, at least it sounded cooler."

"Oh, you have no idea how much that annoyed old Henry," Aiden replied. It was the only time Gwen saw him become wistful at a memory of his father. Usually, he spoke the man's name like anyone else would talk about the bill collector who wouldn't stop calling.

"I bet your mom thought it was cute," Gwen said. She'd been wondering about the elusive Mrs. Henry Manning. There had been absolutely no information about her in the Wikipedia article, and Aiden had yet to mention her. She thought this might be her "in."

But her words wrought an entirely unexpected effect. The smile disappeared from Aiden's face, wiped away as though it had never been. He sat back and sighed that deep philosophical sigh.