Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 67982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67982 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Hmmm,” she says thoughtfully, but I can see the flush of red getting darker on her neck and cheeks. “I should give Aiden another chance. Because…he has something to give me that you can’t.”
“I want you to have every opportunity—”
“You want to alleviate your conscience that’s struggling with something that’s not even close to reality,” she snaps at me. “So you really want me to go to Aiden?”
No. Fuck, no.
“Yes,” I say stubbornly, because she’s not only backed me into a corner, she’s devaluing my thoughts on this. “Give him a shot. Maybe second time around—”
She doesn’t even let me finish. She spins around so fast her hair whips me in the face and she storms through my living room.
Right to the front door where she opens it so hard it bangs against the wall. Without missing a step, she pulls it shut violently, causing my walls to shake.
Okay, that went about as poorly as it could possibly go. But at least I got her thinking. At least I released my worries into the atmosphere for her to consider, and well…apparently, she’s well on her way to considering it all.
Goddamn that was stupid. I no more want her to be with Aiden than I want to be hit by a runaway bus. I want her more than I want anything.
But I resolve to let it go and see what happens. I’m sure this will actually blow over and she’ll come back any moment now to call me on my bullshit.
Any moment now, she’ll confidently tell me I’m so very fucking wrong about everything, and when she does, I’ll choose to believe her.
Chapter 26
Josie
I bang furiously on Aiden’s apartment door. He just moved in here a week ago, deciding living with Kevin was just not conducive to their friendship remaining intact. His car is parked out front and I expect he’s not been here too long, as my conversation with Reed didn’t take that long.
Nope. Didn’t take him long at all to show me just how utterly and completely stupid he can be.
He can sit there and go on and on about how he’s not good enough for me, but the truth is, he’s not giving me the benefit of the doubt to know that I might actually know what I want. He’s taken it upon himself to proclaim that I’m too good for him, and the thing that sucks about that is it’s because he believes he’s not good enough for me.
I don’t let that sadden me, though, because if I start to feel an ounce of sympathy for that jerk, I might turn around and go back to his place to talk some sense into him.
Instead, I let the anger he lit within guide me to do exactly what he goaded me to do.
I’m going to see if there’s something there with Aiden.
I bang harder on the door.
It flies open while I’m pounding and Aiden’s standing there with a wild look in his eyes. “Jesus, Josie, what the hell is wrong?”
There is simply no answer I can give him. Instead, I throw my arms around his neck, pull him down to me, and plaster my mouth to his.
I ignore the way Aiden jolts in surprise or the way his mouth stays firmly closed to mine. I merely press my mouth harder to his and he finally opens up.
And then we’re kissing. It’s just like I remembered and nothing like I want.
I freeze in place and open my eyes. Aiden’s eyes are wide open and staring right back at me. Both of us go still, staring at each other, and then I pull away.
“Find your answer?” he asks as I drop arms from around him.
“Yup,” I say with a sheepish, apologetic grin. “You’re not it for me.”
“That would hurt my feelings if I didn’t agree with you one hundred percent. So why are you here kissing me and not at Reed’s kissing him?”
“Got any alcohol?” I ask him blandly.
“Couple bottles of wine,” he says as he steps back from the door and motions me in. “Let’s get drunk and you can tell me all about it.”
“Sounds good,” I say as I walk in and drop my purse on his couch. I look around and see Aiden’s made no more headway on unpacking his stuff than he had a few days ago when I’d come over to work with him on our project. “And I’ll even help you unpack your crap while we get drunk and talk shit about Reed.”
Aiden laughs as he heads into the kitchen. “Deal.”
I grab a box labeled KITCHEN and put it up on a counter while Aiden pours us two glasses of red wine. I take a healthy slug and then rip into the box.
“So, start from the beginning,” Aiden says as he leans back against the counter, content to let me rummage around his stuff.