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One thing about this woman, she certainly stands her ground.
And it works. Arden’s expression softens ever so slightly.
Blowing out a breath, he says, “Okay, fair enough.”
I’m relieved that he’s addressing her lack of telling him about working at Boots as opposed to the compromising position he just found us in.
Unfortunately, I have a feeling that’s about to come up real soon. He’s probably just covering the least important omission of the truth first.
Sure enough, his eyes slide back to me as he says, “Clearly, you knew all along that she works here. Yet you never thought to mention it to me.”
I hold up my hand. “Hey, it wasn’t my place to say anything. And Ellie asked me to keep it a secret. I knew she’d tell you in her own time.”
Scoffing, he says, “Seems you two have quite a few little secrets you’re keeping.”
Here we go.
“Arden…,” Ellie begins, her tone even as she takes a step toward him.
He holds up his hand and shakes his head, like he doesn’t want her coming to him.
She stops, and he asks her, “How long has this been going on? I mean with you two, not this job.”
“A while,” she replies. “We were friends first, though, if that makes any difference.” Arden scoffs, but she goes on. “Look, we really, really tried to keep it just friendship. But things just…happened.”
“Obviously,” he says disgustedly. He looks over at me, and fuck, the betrayal in his gaze. I feel like two inches tall.
Make that one inch when he shakes his head and says, “I trusted you, man.”
Mustering all the sincerity I feel right now, because the truth finally needs to be told, I tell him, “Hey, I fell in love with her, Arden. I didn’t plan to, and believe me, I fought it every step of the way. But sometimes fate or whatever the fuck you want to call it has other plans.”
Leaning his head back and looking up at the ceiling, Arden mutters, “Fuck.”
“Hey,” Ellie says, jumping in. “This isn’t some meaningless fling. What Nils just told you is true—we’re in love. And, Arden, you have no room to judge. You fell in love with Hayden’s sister, Willow. He’s a teammate, just like you and Nils are. Sometimes life just throws curveballs, you know?”
She has him there, on all counts.
Arden lowers his head, and then his eyes meet hers…then mine.
I can see he’s capitulating and maybe slowly accepting we’re a couple.
Still, there’s hurt in his tone when he asks, “Why didn’t one, or both of you, just fucking tell me? It’d have been better than me walking in on you dry-humping each other.”
“Okay,” Ellie interjects, “first of all, it wasn’t that bad.” When Arden gives her an “are you serious?” look, she amends, “It wasn’t great either.”
Now he’s just talking to her when he asks quietly, “Why didn’t you tell me, El?”
“We were going to,” she replies exasperatedly.
“When?” he snaps.
She lets out a long sigh, and then she says, “At dinner that night with you and Willow, we thought about telling you. We went back and forth on the way there and were going to hold off, but at one point, I almost just freaking laid it on the line. But then you guys told us you were getting engaged, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to take away from your moment.”
“But that was weeks ago, Ellie,” Arden protests.
“I know, I know.” She runs her hands down her face. “We were still just waiting for the right time. Or, really, I was. I can’t put this on Nils. He was only respecting that I told him I wanted to wait. But now I realize I should have just told you everything sooner.” She swishes her hand around. “I should have told you about working here at Boots, and about me and Nils. I was just procrastinating, and it bit me in the ass.”
Arden blows out a breath, and then, brow creasing, he asks, “Are there any other secrets I need to know about?”
