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That’s fair. “Are you meeting someone?”
He shakes his head. “I was supposed to, but things fell through. So now I’m kicking off my vacation solo.” He raises his cup to me before taking another sip.
I turn in my chair to face him. “You’re on vacation?” His sour expression and stiff posture don’t make him look like someone who’s about to enjoy some time off.
He looks...angry.
His eyes meet mine, and for the first time tonight, he seems to really look at me. Those blue eyes scan every inch of me, pulling my body heat to the surface—or maybe I have the drink to thank for that. Once he completes his scan, he faces forward and mutters, “Yup.”
His dismissal makes me think I’ve failed a test. Glancing down at myself, I don’t see anything wrong. That look Aiden gave me went deeper than the surface, though. It felt like his eyes were filing through every piece of my soul.
I stare at the two bartenders for a moment, trying to shake off how Aiden’s look left me. They’re talking and laughing together—the guy and the girl—and I can’t help envying them. I don’t know what I’m jealous of exactly, but I feel it. Maybe it’s their freedom? Well, the freedom I assume they have. I bet they can do whatever they want, go wherever they want, and be whoever they want. They probably don’t have cheating significant others weighing them down.
Cheating.
The word leaves a lump in my throat, so I gulp down more of my drink, noting how the alcohol prickles at my brain. “I want to do something,” I blurt out. Ex-Boyfriend-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has made me realize that I haven’t done anything I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I was always thinking about his feelings.
Take a girl’s trip across the country? Can’t because he wouldn’t like it. He didn’t even like it when I would try to make friends at NYU. Heaven forbid a guy gets introduced to me at a party. You know what? If he was so worried about me meeting someone at a party, maybe he should have stayed with me. It would have been better than him dropping out to move back here. I can’t believe I let him limit my college experience, and for what? So he could slide into Shelly’s bed every night that I was away?
I feel physically sick just thinking about it.
Aiden looks at me warily. “Are you talking to me?”
I don’t know what I expected from him, but with all these feelings running through my veins, I was hoping for something with a little more oomph. I raise my eyebrows at him expectantly. “Yes, and I want to do something...like go somewhere?”
“You want to go somewhere.” Each word rolls off his tongue, slow and deliberate.
“Well, I want to do lots of things, but going somewhere seems like a good place to start.” I don’t even know why I’m talking about this with him.
Aiden lifts his head in a slow nod. “Okay, so go somewhere?”
Feeling pleased with myself, I nod, “I will.” I take another sip of my drink, but I can feel him staring at me, the crease between his dark eyebrows deepening. “What? Do you want to come or something?”
Did I just ask him to come with me?
I eye my drink suspiciously.
How much gin does it take to invite Aiden Lewis on a spontaneous trip with you?
Apparently, not that much.
“Where?” he asks, and my eyes snap up to see him facing me, his elbow resting on the bar as he stares at me.
Now it’s my turn to speak slowly. “Anywhere, Aiden. That’s kind of the whole point.” His eyes narrow like he’s trying to decide if he should stop talking to me altogether. I can’t blame him. I’m not exactly in my right mind, but I go ahead and ask my next question anyway.
5
Aiden
There’s a brightness in her eyes as she says, “If you could go anywhere, right now, where would you go?”
What the hell, Claire? I came here to drink, not to play your little game of what if.
She gives me a small nod of encouragement, and I notice her cheeks are flushed differently now. I think her drink is starting to kick in. It seems Claire is quite the lightweight.
“Uh, I guess I would want to go to Germany.”
She frowns at my answer. “Huh.”
