An old lady in a dark coat, leading a small, yappy dog on the end of a leash, came into the building. She watched the display for a moment and shrugged, walking towards the elevators. Gwen didn't care what the old lady thought. This was too much fun.
"I guess we're just a couple more New York weirdoes," Aiden said.
"You think so? Want to join in?" Gwen said, holding out the half dozen or so remaining pages.
Aiden tried waving them away, "I wouldn't want to steal your thunder or anything."
"Come on! Try it; it's fun. All the cool kids are doing it," Gwen teased.
"Why do I have the sudden urge to smoke?"
"Just take a couple. Do it. Peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure."
Giving an exasperated sigh, coupled with a masterful rolling of the eyes, Aiden accepted half of the pile. "Well, if you insist."
A rather unmanly giggle escaped his lips when he fed the shredder the first page. When he realized the noise he'd made, he shot a look around to see if anyone else noticed.
"Your secret's safe with me," Gwen said, "Now move. It's my turn!"
Gleefully, she inserted the remainder of her share. The shredder chewed up that wad of paper as easily as it had a single sheet. Following suit, Aiden disposed of the remaining two he held.
Gwen experienced a tinge of sadness at not having any more paper to shred, and almost regretted sharing some with Aiden. "What now?" she asked.
"Well..." Aiden replied, turning the machine around and hitting a latch that allowed him to remove the bin from the shredder, "Now we make it snow!" He grabbed a handful of the shredded contract and threw it up into the air. The little squares of paper landed on their shoulders, in their hair, floated down to the floor.
Gwen grabbed a handful. It rustled in her fist. Rather than tossing the wad straight up, she flung it at Aiden. The ball burst against his chest, leaving him bewildered. Gwen laughed at his expression.
"So that's how you want to play, is it?" he said.
She replied by sticking her tongue out at him. So he reached into the bin, grabbed a handful, and threw it at her.
A confetti fight ensued, carpeting them both in thousands of those little squares, and leaving an utter mess on the floor. At one point, Aiden just grabbed the bin and upended it over Gwen's head, leaving her shrieking as the paper leavings piled high on her shoulders.
They finished, exhausted from laughter, sinking into the old chairs. Gwen's cheeks ached from smiling, and her throat felt a little raw. Aiden leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes, looking totally relaxed. He reached one hand out across the table, and she took it.
"Thanks," Gwen said, "I really needed that."
"We both did," Aiden agreed.
And then, to her surprise, Aiden stooped down on the floor and started collecting all the confetti, dumping it back into the bin. "We can't leave a mess," he said when he saw her look, "That wouldn't be nice."
She moved to help him, starting an avalanche of the paper squares from their piles on her shoulders. Within a few minutes, they had most of the mess cleaned up.
A couple squares had lodged themselves pretty nicely in Aiden's hair, escaping his attention. Gwen debated whether or not to tell him, since it was so adorable. When he went to put the bin back in the shredder, she picked them off his head.
"Now, why don't you head on up and I'll meet you in a few minutes? I'm going to bring this back and hope she doesn't call the cops. One police beating per day is enough for me," Aiden said, leaving her with a kiss.
Back upstairs, she and Aiden took their party to the couch. The lighthearted tone continued for a bit, but Gwen felt a growing concern that she needed to voice.
"What do you think he's going to do now?" Gwen said.
Aiden took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Henry, you mean? Something bad, likely."
That sent an unpleasant shiver down her back. She liked the symbolism of shredding the contract, but Henry Manning was tenacious. He wasn't going to stop. And that felt all the worse now that she and Aiden had really started a genuine relationship.
"Do you think we can take it?" she asked. Thinking about Henry and whatever his next scheme was opened the floodgates to all sorts of negative thoughts. Like how she still hadn't patched things up with Beatrice.
"I do and we can," Aiden said, "And do you want to know why?"
This is so corny, Gwen thought, her inner middle-schooler coming out. I love it! "Why?"
"Because, Gwen Browning, I think I've fallen for you. Hard."
Chapter 27
When Gwen first proposed the screening, she meant just the two of them in her living room watching her old TV.