Role Playing(62)



Aiden actually felt heartened at that. “Trust me, if I brought a guy to the wedding—which, I don’t even know any guys, either, certainly none that I’m interested in—then my mom would lose it, and the deal I have with her would be off. The idea is to cause less talk, not more.”

“That, I get.” Riley nodded. “Then I have to say, again: Deb’s your best bet.”

Aiden wanted to howl with frustration. Not Deb! Just the thought of her on the verge of crying because he had chastised her made him feel sick.

“Just be up front with her. Maybe don’t tell her the not-straight bit,” Riley added, “but say you just need a date for one thing, just as friends, nothing more.”

“And you think she’ll be okay with that?” Aiden said doubtfully. “Without being upset or having any other expectations?”

“Hell no,” Riley said, with a shrug. “But that’s not the point. You want to settle this deal with your mom? Then suck it up.”

Shit. Riley did have a point.

He sighed. “All right. I’m going in.”

“Good man.” Riley raised a nacho in his honor. “Good luck.”

Aiden gritted his teeth, finished his second beer, then walked over to where Deb and Patience were sitting. Patience was flirting with some guy, who then asked her to dance on the tiny dance floor. Aiden nodded at the empty seat. “Mind if I sit here?”

Deb looked away, shrugging.

“How are you?” he asked. He hated small talk, but he needed to ease into this conversation.

She shrugged again, then finally looked at him. “I’m so sorry,” she blurted out. “About the surprise party at your house, I mean.”

“It’s no problem,” he assured her, hoping she didn’t get weepy again. “You meant well, and I’m sorry if I sounded ungracious. I don’t do well around people.”

“Except Maggie.”

He blinked. “Sorry?”

Deb’s expression shifted, and for a flash of a second, he saw resentment. “Are you two an item? You seem really close.”

“She’s just a good friend. Nothing romantic at all.” His chest pinched, and he rubbed at it absently.

“Is she going with you to your cousin’s wedding?”

Aiden winced. “No.”

“Your mom did say you were looking for a date, and so did Riley, a while ago. I could go with you,” Deb said, her blue eyes large and sincere. “If you want.”

There it was. His chance. He’d get a date, talk would be quelled, his mother would be appeased, and they’d finally get her to deal with her shit. He didn’t even have to ask. She was presenting it on a silver platter.

But the look in Deb’s eyes . . .

“Are you attracted to me?” he asked.

Now there was dead silence for a long moment before a high-pitched, nervous giggle. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” she teased. “I mean, you’re cute and all. Of course I wouldn’t mind spending some time with you, but I don’t know you.”

He almost felt better for a split second until she added:

“But we could get to know each other,” she said, with a sweet smile. “Better, I mean. Isn’t that what dating’s for?”

He let out a long, slow exhalation. “I don’t want to lead you on, Deb,” he said. “The thing is, I’m not interested in dating. Not anyone.” He waited a beat. “Trust me. It is literally me, not you, in this case.”

She looked crestfallen. “You’re not interested in even trying . . .”

He winced. “I’m . . . I’m sorry,” he said, swallowing against the lump in his throat. “I just . . . I’m not attracted. To people. In general.”

It wasn’t like his blurted admission to Maggie, which had been received like an egg dropped in about ten feet of cotton batting on a safety net. It wasn’t even his fumbling confession to Riley, which was more like a juggled near-drop on a hard kitchen floor. This was like an egg being thrown at a sidewalk from ten stories up. Or possibly shot from a bazooka.

Still, he wasn’t prepared for the response.

“You don’t want to date me, that’s fine,” she said, her voice low and cutting. “But you didn’t have to lie.”

“I’m sorry?”

“You’re in love with Maggie!” Deb snapped. “It’s obvious.”

“What? I’m not!” he protested. “I haven’t even known her that long. Just a few months!”

More to the point, that wasn’t how his attractions worked. All two of them, admittedly. They usually blindsided him. He was in love before he knew . . .

Before he . . .

Oh, shit.

“Aiden?”

He realized that Deb had asked him something, or told him something, and he’d been momentarily struck deaf by his realization.

He was attracted, really attracted. To Maggie. Maggie the prickly. Maggie, who would probably smack him upside the head and yell SNAP OUT OF IT if she had an inkling of how he felt. Even though there had been that moment on her couch . . .

Had there been a moment? He had no idea. It happened so infrequently, and it wasn’t something he tuned in to at this point.

“Aiden!”

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