Something about the way he’s looking at me feels off. He’s not leaning down to kiss me or moving closer. He doesn’t touch me in any way, when today he couldn’t keep his hands off me. What’s changed? Is it the people around us? I know he comes from money, so does my presence embarrass him?
“Thanks.” I tuck my hair behind me ear, suddenly feeling shy. Maybe he thinks I stalked him. “What are the odds? I got tickets from a client,” I tell him in a rush as I try to explain. “It’s why I’m here.”
Gia stands next to me and her eyes go back and forth between us. She can feel something is off, too. A long pause falls between us and it’s so awkward that I think I might have mixed up the Aiden I know with this lookalike.
Then it’s as if time stands still when a brunette woman walks over and slides up next to Aiden. They stand so close for a moment and I’ve convinced myself she’s going to say she’s his sister or something.
“Aren’t you going to introduce your wife?” the beautiful brunette laughs like Aiden doesn’t have any manners and she’s scolding him.
It takes me a moment to realize what she said and still my brain doesn’t want to process it. His wife. My eyes fly to his hand, but there’s no ring on his finger. She glances down to my line of sight and my stomach begins to churn.
“Wife?” Gia whispers next to me as she’s already caught up to what’s going on. I feel her hand fly to elbow and hold me steady.
“Where’s your ring, Aiden?” The brunette asks.
“What the fuck?!” Gia shouts, and I hold my arm out to block her so she can’t move forward.
“Don’t. It’s not worth it,” I say to her, my eyes flying to the brunette woman.
She has a bitchy look on her face, but guilt eats at me. I kissed her husband and had plans to do so much more with him. “He’s not worth it,” I tell the brunette, hoping she gets my message. I turn around and pull Gia with me before she can cause a scene. It’s the last thing I want. Right now, I need to get out of here before the pain hits me.
I hear Aiden say my name, but I keep moving through the crowd with Gia next to me. “I’m sorry,” she says when we burst through the doors of the building and into the night air.
“I just want to get out of here,” I tell her, fighting the tears that are desperate to flow freely. I won’t do it here, but I’ve got to hurry.
In a matter of seconds, she has me in a cab and her hand locked into mine. How can it hurt this badly to lose something when it was never really mine to begin with?
7
Aiden
“Really, Savannah?” I say as I turn to look at her.
“Really, Aiden?” She mimics my voice and rolls her eyes. “My father was right beside us. What the hell were you doing?”
“I don’t know!” I shout as I slam the door to the limo shut and we pull away from the curb.
“Take her home and drop her off. I need to go back into the city,” I say, pulling my phone out to text Caroline.
The first one is marked delivered, then the rest don’t go through. I let out a frustrated growl as I try to call her, but it says I can’t reach the number I’m trying to call. She’s blocked me.
“Fuck,” I mutter and shove my phone in my pocket.
“Aiden, what’s going on? Who was that girl?”
“I’ll explain later,” I say, leaning forward in my seat to yell to the driver. “Can you speed it up, please?”
“Tell me what the fuck is going on. I’ve never seen you like this before,” she says. She’s looking at me with a mixture of shock and fear.
“I met her in the park. I asked her to have dinner with me tonight, but I forgot I told you I’d go with you to the animal thing.” I let out a frustrated breath and rub the heels of my hands against my eyes.
“Do you know anything about her?” Her eyebrows pull together in confusion. “You can’t just date out in the open like that. See what almost happened tonight. We agreed that if you ever wanted to do that, you’d be discreet.”
“Things got carried away. I got carried away,” I say as I look over at her. “She’s different.”
“She looked desperate,” Savannah says and rolls her eyes again.
“You sound like a bitch right now,” I spit out. I won’t have her talking bad about Caroline.
“Aiden, she looked at me like I stole her happily ever after out from underneath her. What do you really know about her? Because I guarantee you, she knows you’re rich.”