Before I could finish, he held up a hand to cut off my rambling. “No. I don’t think you would have done that.”
“How do you know?”
“I’m an excellent judge of character,” he said, like it was a fact and not his own opinion.
“How does that work? Wait, don’t tell me… Intuition? Spidey senses?”
Aaron shook his head.
“Then what?” I demanded. I needed to know how he understood something about me before I did, especially considering we’d just met. Because as soon as Aaron announced that I wouldn’t return the dress, I knew he was right. I didn’t have the guts to follow through.
“Because,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’ve never seen anyone look as guilty as you do over something they haven’t actually done.”
He stood and brushed off his pants, and I was positive he was ditching me—which, I realized,is probably a good thing, because our entire encounter thus far had been mortifying. But then he did something I didn’t expect. He sucked in a quick breath and held out his hand.
“Would you like to go for a walk?” he asked, gesturing at the gardens.
He seemed eager and cautious in the same instant, and it put every humiliating second from tonight out of my head. I glanced down at his outstretched fingers, and a slow smile worked its way onto my lips.
Okay, cute guy. Why not?
I put my hand in his and let him lead the way.
Chapter 3
The gardens were huge, much larger than I’d originally thought, and it would have been easy to get lost along the mazelike pathways. We wandered beyond the decorative lights and lanterns surrounding the fountain, but the glow of the ballroom perched on the hill behind us helped me keep my bearings.
Aaron hadn’t said anything since his invitation. I spent the beginning of our walk trying to come up with conversation starters, but he was moving forward with a purpose, like he was deep in concentration, so I kept my lips pressed together. And the deeper we pushed into the greenery, the less I minded the quiet.
At first, the hush made me feel like I had to say something, but the longer we walked, the more I noticed how confident Aaron was in his own silence. It occurred to me that he didn’t expect me to say anything, and the steel between my shoulders finally dissolved. Only then was I able to notice the more subtle things going on around me, like the way Aaron and I were walking close enough that our elbows occasionally bumped or how every few seconds he’d cast a sideways glance in my direction.
Before long, the walkway opened up, and Aaron came to a stop where the rosebushes ended. We were standing at the edge of asmall square, and in its center was a koi pond. Lily pads dotted the surface of the water, and a tiny moon bridge connected to the path on the other side.
“It’s pretty,” I said, breaking the quiet between us. There was enough moonlight for me to see flashes of white and orange moving beneath the dark water.
Aaron nodded. “I came here a long time ago with my mother. We fed the fish Doritos.”
My eyes widened. “You gave chips to the fish?”
“They’ll eat almost anything,” he said, shrugging.
“No, I mean why would you willingly throw away something as delicious as a Dorito? Were they Cool Ranch? If they were, I don’t know if we can be friends.” Chips, whether tortilla or potato, were my all-time favorite snack food. Cool Ranch Doritos were my personal crack. I could devour an entire family-size bag in one sitting. But as long as they had that satisfying crunch, I’d eat any kind.
“They were Sweet Chili,” he assured me.
“I suppose that’s okay,” I told him. “But you have to swear to never again waste a chip.”
“Cross my heart,” he promised.
We fell quiet again. Deciding to take a page from Aaron’s book, I took a seat on the stone bench near the water’s edge. Aaron followed suit. Again, he was careful not to sit too close. For the next few minutes, we stared out across the water, enjoying the placidity of nighttime in the garden. Eventually, I turned to face him. He was still clutching his phone, and I watched as he turned it over in his hands.
“Got anything good to listen to?” I asked, gesturing down at it.
Our eyes met again, and Aaron offered me a dazzling smile. I didn’t know what kind of reaction I was expecting from him, but that flash of white wasn’t it. For the second time, I was momentarily blown away by how beautiful he was, and even though it felt weird to describe a guy that way,beautifulwas the most accurate word that came to mind.
Aaron didn’t notice the effect his smile had on me, because he was already busy scrolling through his music. After a few moments of searching, he found the song he was looking for and shoved one of the buds into his ear. He handed me the other, but we were sitting too far apart, so when I tried to put mine in, I accidentally yanked his out.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. For reasons I couldn’t explain, sharing headphones and listening to Aaron’s music felt intimate.
