I can’t believe it’s the first time I noticed how good he looks.
“Can I come in?” I ask, coming back down to reality.
“Yeah sure,” he says opening the door for me to come in. I walk past him into his house. It’s a lot smaller than the Scotts' and has an old fashioned feel to it with floral patterned sofas and a similar type wall paper. The one thing standing out is a brand new extremely big television. Then I remember that this is Aidan’s grandmother’s house. I’d bet the TV is his.
“Feel free to sit anywhere,” he says, folding his arms across his chest.
“Sorry about earlier. It’s just really fucking early,” he says with a yawn. Whichever way he moves causes his muscles to flex.
“I’m not really in a hurry, if you want to go back and change,” I suggest, gluing my eyes to the floor. I hear a dry chuckle escape his mouth.
“Uh. Sure. Give me a sec. I should probably brush my teeth too if you’re not in a big hurry so you don’t pass out from my morning breath,” he laughs and I chuckle, watching him head to what I assume is his room.
A few minutes later he re-appears, this time in a pair of loose fitting pajamas and a wife beater. Much better.
“So what’s up? Everything’s okay…?" he asks hesitantly, sitting on the sofa across from me.
“I don’t know. You tell me. I just came from breakfast with Lisa,” I inform him and his expression sets into a frown. He lets out a deep sigh and claps his hands together in front of him.
“What did she tell you?” he asks, his voice unwavering.
“Basically that she’s holding on to a bomb that she’s going to drop that’s going to affect my husband pretty badly, but not giving me any clue what it is. Which is going to drive me pretty crazy.” Aidan lets out a low groan deep from his belly and runs his hand over his blonde hair that’s grown quite a bit since I first met him.
“I can’t tell you Lauren. It’s not for me to share. I shouldn’t even be involved,” he says defensively.
“Please. You have to. I’m already a wreck and this has made things worse,” I plead.
“If you know, it’s going to make things a hell of a lot worse for you than you not knowing. Trust me, I really wish I didn’t know,” he says, standing up from his sofa and pacing the room.
“Nothing is worse than the unknown.”
“No there are A LOT of things worse than the unknown and this is one of them,” he says back sternly.
“What can I do? Is there anything I can do to help with the fallout of this?” I ask and when his expression breaks and he shakes his head my stomach feels as if it’s dropped several floors.
“I’m not sure but I think that what happened is what made him need Cal.”
chapter 10
September 26, 2008
Fate has to be a prankster. I know this because someone up there has to be laughing his ass off at me. I never thought it’d happen to me, but it has. I’ve fallen for a girl. A girl I was only supposed to pay back for intervening in her life and fucking it up completely. Now I can’t see her not being in mine. I knew once I slept with her things would change, I thought she’d get clingy and want to be around me all the time and not want to share me with other women. Turns out since I met her I can’t even think about screwing around with someone else. Not the way she makes me feel. Her smile makes me feel like everything I thought I had was worthless. I hate it but can’t let it go at the same time.
Nothing will make me let it go.
“So you’re sure you’re ready to up the dosage on this?” Helen asks me for the third time.
“No, I’m not sure. I’m just wasting both of our time because I have nothing better do.”
“You said it’s safe, right?” I say, irritated with her hesitancy all of a sudden.
“We’re still running clinical trials in Russia, and they are a lot more l…”
“Save me the FDA disclaimer Helen. I want to do this.”
“Okay. Okay. Don’t let me stop you,” she says defensively.
“Not like I would,” I give her a wink to let her know I’m an asshole only in fun. She rolls her eyes at me and sighs.
“Remember, the slightest thing happens out of the ordinary, you let me know,” she says, giving me a worrying grin. Like a mom would her son and I push that thought to the back of my brain where the garbage goes.
“So if I may ask,” she starts.
“And you’re going to ask anyway…”
“Why are you doing this Cal?”
“Seriously?” I ask her in disbelief.