Aiden took a deep breath. He has a point.
“Lucky for you, she just walked in.” Riley smirked, nodding his head at the door.
“What?” Aiden swung his head around. Sure enough—Deb and her cousin had just walked in, surveying the place. He hadn’t talked to Deb since the disastrous “surprise” party at his house. He felt his stomach turn into a ball of ice. “Fuck.” He quickly turned back to the bar.
Riley looked surprised. “Do you hate her or something?”
“What? No!” Aiden grimaced. “I don’t even really know her. She’s Davy’s age, maybe a little younger, and it’s not like we ever hung out since I moved back, other than seeing her with my mom’s church group, and going to her party.”
“And her throwing you a party,” Riley teased.
“I don’t know her,” Aiden repeated.
“Yeah, well, now’s your chance,” Riley said, his tone surprisingly serious. “Because it is going to suck if you’re at Jason’s wedding alone. You know people are going to talk. They’re going to say that you still haven’t gotten over Sheryl. Hell, they might say worse.”
“Worse like what?”
“I dunno. Like you’re gay, or something.” Riley shrugged, then narrowed his eyes. “You’re not, are you?”
“No.” Aiden took a deep breath. “Not exactly. I’m not particularly straight either.”
And he waited for that bomb to detonate.
Riley’s eyes widened as the gears in his head whirred. “So . . . you’re . . .”
“I don’t know what my particular label is, but yeah. I’m interested in guys as well as girls—when I’m interested. Which isn’t often.”
Another moment of quiet. Apparently, when he decided to come out, he came all the way out. But ever since he figured out that what he was—whatever he was—was something that other people were too . . . it had been hard to walk back. He didn’t want to. It was like he’d known for years that there was something wrong with him—and now he knew there wasn’t, that this was a valid thing.
It was still blowing his mind.
“Okay, first things first.” Riley looked grim. “You’re not into me, are you?”
Aiden couldn’t help it. He laughed. Hard.
“Not with a gun to my head,” he said honestly, and Riley looked both relieved and insulted.
“All right. Shit.” Riley frowned. “Should you maybe be asking a guy, then?”
“It’s complicated.”
“How the fuck have you not been dating left and right?” Riley then asked, completely serious.
Bisexual misunderstanding for the win. Aiden shook his head. He’d read about the stereotypes, the erasure. He wasn’t about to have that conversation with Riley. “That’s part of the complication. I’m not interested in people.” Aiden squirmed uncomfortably. It’s not like anyone was listening in to their conversation at the bar—there was some kind of sports commentary show on the multitude of screens, and it was busy enough that there was a wall of conversation. Fortunately, Deb and Patience had not made their way over, and since he hadn’t spoken to Deb since the disastrous surprise party, he hoped she’d continue to avoid him. He wasn’t ashamed, per se. He just didn’t want it to be public. Especially since the small town’s commentary would make the sports show look like amateur hour. He didn’t need all of Fool’s Falls weighing in and armchair quarterbacking what he was, why he was, and how it might have happened.
Riley looked like his brain was still wrestling with the information he’d just been presented with. “You’re . . . okay, I still don’t get it.”
“You don’t need to,” Aiden said. “You’re taking it better than I’d expected, though.”
Now Riley looked affronted. “You’re still my bro. I mean, I’m an asshole, but I’m not that much of an asshole.”
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?”