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F O U R T E E N
- Aiden -
I may have overdone it on the aftershave, but I just wanted everything to be perfect. Including the way I smelled. And I don’t think I’d ever spent so long trying to figure out what to wear but it was an important day.
Eventually, I decided to go with my dark gray button down shirt. It was casual enough that I didn’t look like I was trying too hard, but it looked professional, which is what I was going for.
Frankly, I think I was trying to overcompensate for the fact that the office space I’d bought was still a bit of a mess, but I figured if I at least looked the part of a business owner, maybe the vision would be easier to sell.
Not that I had to sell it.
Lucy would’ve been happy for me if I brought her to an abandoned van and said I was taking my business on the road. Well, hopefully not too happy because we wouldn’t get to see much of each other in that case, but that wasn’t the point.
The point was that I was so excited that absolutely nothing could bring me down. And even though I wished the place would’ve been more finished before I showed it to her, I figured she would welcome the distraction all things considered.
I just hoped she liked it. Not only because I was going to be spending so much time there in the future, but because her approval was an integral part of the vision.
After all, without her, my future success would only ever be bittersweet. I wanted someone to share my dreams with, and I wanted that someone to be her more than I’d wanted anything in a long time.
I wasn’t planning on saying all that to her. It wasn’t necessary, and while she knew I was crazy about her at this point, I hadn’t completely blown my cover. I wanted to play it cool so she would be inspired by my confidence.
But inside I was freaking my shit out because there was a lot riding on today.
I slid my car into a wide space along the curb and made my way to the door, pressing the buzzer as soon as I reached it.
“Hello?”
“I’m here.”
“You could’ve honked,” she said.
“You ready?”
“Yeah, I’ll be right down.”
Half a minute later, she opened the door to her apartment building. “Hi.” She was my height standing in the raised entryway as she leaned forward to give me a peck on the lips.
“You look nice,” I said, drinking her in.
She was in a short black dress and a thin, light yellow cardigan.
“Thanks,” she said.
“You’re liking the yellow, huh?”
She shrugged. “Leaving my comfort zone has been working for me lately.”
I smiled. “Funny you should mention that. I have a list in the car of other ways you could leave it.”
“No you don’t,” she said, stepping onto the sidewalk in her signature black boots.
“But I could,” I said. “It wouldn’t take thirty seconds.”
“The yellow jacket is enough excitement for me right now.”
“Well, things are about to get a lot more exciting.”
“I know,” she said, walking around the front of the car. “I’m dying to see your new place.”
