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The look on his face told me that I wasn't going home, and I was afraid it would be difficult to turn him down again if he invited me out to dinner with him again.
“So, you're going to dinner with me today,” he said. It was not even a question, I thought. He wanted me to go out with him, yet he didn't seem to care whether I wanted to or not.
“Listen, Aiden, I don’t appreciate you coming here and trying to dictate what I do,” I admonished him, not realizing I had dropped the Mr. I usually added in a bid to keep a more professional seller-customer relationship. Obviously, I failed in that attempt.
“You want to go to dinner with me,” he said. “I can see it in your face, in your eyes, in the way you move your body. I’m an expert at studying women.”
I bet you are, I thought, adding an eye roll to the comment in my head. A part of me felt I should get irritated with him and just ask him to leave. Still, another side of me wanted to explore things with this man, to really follow my heart’s lead and not be so uptight. Especially since Aiden was telling the truth—I wanted to go to dinner with him.
Aiden reached out and touched my hand on the counter. I shuddered as his hand covered mine, a long, elegant finger slowly brushing against my flesh. I stared into his eyes and saw that he was gazing at me.
“You're struggling with your emotions, huh? It’s just dinner, okay,” Aiden said, and he smiled as if to reassure me.
Now, I had no reason to go, and I couldn't bring myself to say it because it was somehow embarrassing.
"Okay, I'd love to go but, I don’t have….” I stopped, biting my lip. I really didn't want to have this conversation with this man who exuded power and wealth so effortlessly.
“What?”
“A dress to wear,” I finished and felt my cheeks tingling as I blushed out of embarrassment.
He drew back as if he was stunned by what I had just said. I looked away from him and stared at the cluttered and scarred wooden counter. The next thing I heard was the sound of his footsteps walking away from me, toward the door.
Aiden! I screamed in my head, but I couldn't bring myself to call him back as he walked away. My situation—or maybe it was just me—must have been too repulsive for him. Why would he get involved with someone who didn’t have a proper dress for a dinner date?
I heaved a sigh and clenched my fist, the feeling of Aiden's caresses fading away completely. For the first time, I regretted moving away from the life I had grown up in. In that life, a dinner dress wouldn't have cost me my dream man. But I would have paid in other ways, so I had walked away.
I heard the revving of his car and then it zoomed away from the bookstore. It was surprising because I hadn't heard his vehicle when he arrived, maybe because I wasn't paying attention at that time.
I looked at the time and saw that it was just five minutes to five. I could finally go home and wet my pillow with tears over the exquisite specimen of a man that I had allowed to slip from my grasp. It hurt to think of how much I really wanted to get close to him—now that he was gone.
Sasha soon arrived, and I grabbed my bag and walked out of the bookstore without saying a word to her. She must have sensed that I was in a foul mood because she kept her distance and didn't bother to chat with me.
I stepped out of the store and headed to the nearby bus stop to take me to the small house I lived in on Harper Street. My thoughts continued to focus on Aiden and what could have been.
I reached my stop and listlessly walked the two blocks to my house. I entered and threw my bag on the sagging couch before joining it. I knew I had to shake off this overwhelming feeling of disappointment. It wasn't healthy for me.
With a groan, I heaved my body from the couch and made my way into the kitchen to heat up a can of soup. As I grabbed the can from the almost bare cupboard—ugh, another grocery shopping trip that was definitely needed to happen tomorrow—the doorbell rang.
Startled, I dropped the can on the counter and watched it roll and land on the floor. I wasn't expecting anyone, though sometimes my elderly neighbor checked on me and brought me homemade cookies. It was probably Margaret.
With that thought in mind, I made my way to the door and peered through the peephole. It was definitely not Margaret. What was Aiden doing here? The buzzer sounded again, and I slowly opened the door. I'm sure the look on my face revealed my confusion.
"Aiden, what are you doing here?" I finally managed to speak.
"Hello, Kayla. I brought you something," he said, holding up several bags with a huge grin on his face.
I stepped back to let him enter. He set the shopping bags on the couch and turned to look at me. I hesitated a moment before he urged me to look in the bags. There were several boxes in varying sizes, all stamped with a designer label.
I opened the largest two boxes and found three stunning outfits. They were all beautiful dresses that drew a smile from my mouth. I reached out and pulled one close. It was a black gown with shimmering rhinestones dotting the neckline and cuffs. I checked the size at the neck, noting that it was just my size.
“How did you know my size?” I blurted out, turning my gaze away from the beautiful dress to Aiden, who was now leaning against the wall.
“I wasn’t bluffing when I said I know quite a lot about women,” Aiden said.
I flushed at the implication of his words and muttered a breathy thank you. I grabbed the packages, fleeing to my tiny bedroom. I quickly opened the other smaller boxes, finding a few sets of delicate lace lingerie and a pair of black designer heels—the ones with the red soles. My eyes widened at the luxury surrounding me.
I dressed as fast as I could, also managing to run a brush through my hair and adding a swipe of mascara and lip gloss to my otherwise unadorned face. It would have to do. Finally, I was as ready as I could be for my dinner with Aiden.
