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“Yeah, I’m working. Painting her over and over again.”
He sighs. “What the fuck are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” I admit.
“I’m guessing you haven’t talked to her yet?”
“No,” I say. “Haven’t tried. I added her on Facebook a couple weeks back, but other than that.” I shake my head.
He grunts. “I paid for her hotel stay. As far as I know, she’s back at her parents’ house. Maybe she’s back at school by now, I really don’t know.”
“Shit. It’s almost mid-September, isn’t it?”
He nods. “So she must be at school.”
“Yeah,” I say. “Back at Penn with her friends and her life.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Part of me wishes she were just lying around, pining away for us.”
Aiden laughs at that. “I don’t want that. I mean, I guess I do, but mostly I want her to move on.”
“Why?” I ask. “Do you really think it’s over?”
“Feels that way,” he admits.
“Not to me.” I shake my head again and finish my beer. “Not at all.”
I order another one and Aiden lapses into silence again. I glance at him out of the corner of my eye, but I don’t know what he’s thinking. I can’t read him right now, and maybe I don’t want to.
Aiden was always the biggest proponent of whatever five-way relationship we had going on. He seemed the most comfortable with it, and I think he even was the first one to suggest it. We all followed him at the time, and I don’t think he has any regrets. But now, I don’t know what he’s thinking.
Maybe he doesn’t want to share anymore. I wouldn’t blame him. Emily’s absolutely incredible. But when I think about having her without the group, just the two of us, it somehow feels wrong. Maybe not wrong, but incomplete. Like we’re missing a vital piece of the puzzle.
“You’re right.”
I look up at him, surprised. “What?”
“It’s not over.” He looks at me, determined.
I can’t help but smile at that. “How? I mean, Carter’s back in California. Daniel’s probably wasted somewhere in the desert. Who knows where Ryan is.”
“I can find them,” Aiden says. He’s getting this look at on his face, that look he gets before he makes a decision. “And if I do, can you convince them?”
I frown. “I don’t know.”
He turns to me. “Listen, when was the last time you felt that good?”
I watch him silently for a minute, afraid to answer. Truth is, I don’t know the last time I felt that content. When it was just us and Emily, it was like living in heaven.
Aiden seems to understand my silence. He smiles and nods. “Yeah, me too,” he says softly. “I’ve never been that happy before, not in my entire life. What the fuck is any of this for, if not to be happy? If we can’t have that, what’s the point?”
“It just can’t work,” I say, but I can feel my defenses weakening.
“It can work.” He finishes his beer and stands up. “Will you convince them?”
I nod. “I’ll do it.”
