Overall, it wasn’t a bad deal.
Except for Enid, our clerk at the front desk who stopped me as soon as I walked in. Of course, nothing escaped her attention. That woman might as well be a police officer for how scary her attention to detail was.
“Well, well, if it isn’t our very own Casanova.” Her smirk as she leaned over the desk and threw me a wink let me know I wasn’t going anywhere without spilling all the beans.
I groaned and looked at the sky, hoping for lightning to strike me dead. That woman was a menace to society, and to my health. There wasn’t a party that Enid wasn’t the last one to leave, because heaven forbid she miss any of the gossip.
“There’s nothing to tell, En.” I tried to scoot past her, but she put her arm out to block my path. Unfortunately, I wasn’t much bigger than her, and even if I were, I wasn’t stupid enough to even try to use intimidation to get past her. She was a beast who would have eaten me for breakfast.
One perfectly sculpted eyebrow rose as she leaned against the desk, hand on her hip. She didn’t need to utter a word, just stared at me expectantly, and she knew I’d crack like an egg.
“Seriously? Come on, Enid. This isn’t high school.” I knew I was whining, but I couldn’t help it.
When she didn’t budge, I threw my hands in the air in defeat. Her smirk of victory made me want to let out a growl, but I was feeling too off-kilter from the last two days since I’d woken up on my own to be able to pull it off.
“I really don’t know what you want.” I let out a sigh and ran my hand through my hair. “We met, had sex, he left.”
Enid stared at me. Her gaze swept over me like she was looking deep into my soul. “Mmmhmm. Yeah, I’m not buying it, sweetheart. Not the way you’re all flushed with embarrassment just thinking about that tall drink of water that you left with.”
I shifted on my feet, uncomfortable. She always saw through everyone’s bullshit. And while her tone had an edge of teasing, it hit at the emptiness that had been left behind, that I hadn’t been able to fill.
“Not sure what to tell you,” I snapped. “He was gone before I woke up. So, clearly, whatever you thought you saw, or whatever I thought there was, it wasn’t there.”
Her face fell, which was even worse than the hard stare she had given me when trying to get all the juicy gossip. I wanted to look away with shame at treating her that way. She didn’t deserve my anger. It wasn’t her fault that Nate had left, that I’d gone and hoped for more than I’d been offered.
I’d been stupid. And now I had to live with the consequences of that hope.
“Oh, honey.” Her arms came up around me, enveloping me in a tight hug as she pulled me against her. I put my head on her shoulder, my arms coming around her waist as I instinctively hugged her back. She was like the mother hen around the station and that was something I could really use, especially considering relationships weren’t something I was comfortable talking to my actual mother about.
Actually, it wasn’t something I was comfortable talking to most people about.
Maybe Victoria, once in a while.
Sometimes.
But even her, I’d been vague about when it came to Nate. Except to try to casually ask her about him, only to be left with more questions when I discovered that when she asked,her cousin had no idea who he was or what he was doing there.
That should have alarmed me. Like I said, he was dangerous, I could tell it that night. But my heart didn’t seem to get the memo.
“It’s all right, Enid. It is what it is. And what it was, was an incredible night with a hot guy. So, I’m just going to let it go.”
She snorted as she moved back, putting me at arm’s length, and looked at me.
Yeah, we both knew that was a lie. But there was no other option than to move on, no matter what I wanted.
“All right. Whatever you say.” She put her hands up in surrender and moved aside.
Leaning in, I gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks, Enid. I’m sorry for snapping.”
She slapped my arm and shooed me back toward my desk. “Oh you. Don’t you get fresh. You get in there and get to work. You’ll find yourself a man who deserves you, Aiden. And if that man was a fool enough to leave you without giving you his number, then he’s not the one who deserves you.”
I shoved my hands in my pockets and took a step back, beyond her desk, and gave a sheepish shrug, not sure if I really believed her words. But I knew better than to dispute them to her face.
Escaping her pitying gaze, I made my way over to my desk. Thankfully, most of the other detectives at the station who had been at the wedding had already cleared out by the time I’d made a fool of myself and left with Nate. Another small miracle was the fact they hadn’t heard through the Enid grapevine about my hookup.
When I made it to my desk without anyone else stopping me, I let out a sigh of relief and dropped into my chair. The empty desk next to mine shot a pang of loneliness through my heart that echoed the ache left by Nate’s departure.
Shaking my head, I told myself I wasn’t going to be distracted by thoughts of Nate or Victoria. I had a job to do and I was going to do it. Needing a distraction, I pulled up my emails and calendar to see if there were any updates since I’d last been in, but nothing.
