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Back at my apartment we’re settled in the living room with a bottle of wine. Sydney is impatiently waiting for me to tell her the story. She’s tapping her fingers on her wine glass and staring at me with expectant eyes.
“Have I told you, I love your hair?” I say, as I get comfortable on the couch. She’s grown her hair out to an A-line bob and it looks classy and very chic on her. She shakes her head, but smiles wide.
“Addie! Stop stalling and start talking!” she screams and throws a pillow at me.
“Okay. Okay. I’m sorry I haven’t talked to you about this before now. I’ve been confused and it’s been a crazy situation. But I’m so glad you’re here in person. I need help.” I glance at her with a resigned look.
“Addie, you know I’ll always be here for you,” she says concerned. “But you’ve lost me. If I had a guy who serenades me and looks like that, there would be no confusion. Whatsoever. I’d skip the date and go right to dessert.” She giggles.
“So… that guy, that’s Jett.” She immediately stops giggling and her mouth gapes open. “Yep. Meet my confusion.”
“Now I’m really confused. Start from the beginning, girlfriend.”
I tell her the story about the first time I saw him at his office and everything that has happened the last couple weeks up until last night. I sigh, getting ready to talk about last night.
“Okay. So, before you continue, let me make sure I have this straight. Jett is Aiden, an FBI agent who brought Travis down. He still wants you, obviously really bad. I know how you felt about him and you seem to still have feelings for him. I know you’re hesitant because of the whole ‘Travis is my father’ thing. You didn’t choose him as your father. He’s more like your sperm donor. But I know you, you haven’t dated much since last summer. I have a feeling it was because you were comparing everyone to Jett… I mean Aiden. Ugh… that’s confusing.” She giggles. “He’s hot as hell, he’s the best sex you’ve ever had, and he seems like a guy who can put up with your stubborn ass, so I don’t understand your confusion.” She looks at me with a questioning expression.
“There’s more.” I sigh again. “Last night was our date. He took me to dinner and that’s another story in itself.” I roll my eyes, remembering Marco and the girls. I’ll save that story for another time. “After dinner he takes me to Central Park, lays down a blanket, and we talk. We really didn’t know anything about each other. He asked about my parents.” I twist my lips and bite my cheek then continue. “I told him my mom died when I was ten and my dad when I was one.” I wait for Syd’s reaction. She knows that I hate lying, and I really need to hear what she thinks.
“Go on. I’m going to reserve my judgment till the end.” She smirks.
“Funny, smartass,” I reply, smiling, but I’m sure she’ll see it my way when she hears it all. “Anyway… he brings up last summer. I knew that would come up eventually. Especially how I left. Come to find out, he had a plan with the FBI to get me out of the house that night.” Syd’s eyes fly open wide.
“So, you really didn’t need to shoot him?” She giggles again. She understands why I did it, but she always joked about me being trigger happy.
“Well, I didn’t know that!” I exclaim.
“It seems like you two think alike. Which is crazy because I’ve never met anyone like you.” It’s now that I throw the pillow back at her, both of us laughing.
“We’re more alike than you think.” I take a big drink of my wine and fill my glass up again. “He questions why I was there. Why Travis wanted me to stay. I tell him that I just can’t tell him. He then tells me that the real reason he was there was more personal.” I take a deep breath and continue. “That it was more about revenge because Travis had his parents killed when Aiden was fifteen.” Syd gasps in shock, her hand flying to her open mouth. “He also said that is why he became a cop and then went into the FBI. He wanted justice for his parents’ murder.”
“You are kidding me,” she whispers.
“Fate. Fucking. Hates. Me,” I say, emphasizing each word and then down my wine till it’s empty again.
“How did the date end?” she asks.
“Oh… we fucked.” I threw myself back on the couch. “And then I asked him to leave. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with me?” I close my eyes and shake my head.
“Was it as good as the first time?” I glance up to her and she’s wearing a shit-eating grin.
“Really? Didn’t you hear my whole story? We won’t work. Aiden hates everything that is Travis. Whether I like it or not, I’m part of Travis!” I scream. “Syd, what am I going to do? I had started to think that he might not actually care about Travis being my father, that maybe we had a chance, until he dropped that bomb on me. My heart hurts, my brain hurts. What am I going to do?”
“Oh, girlfriend. I don’t know. This is one messed-up situation.”
“Thank you, wise one, for your insight,” I say sarcastically. “Well… I’ll let you ponder on this one. We’re going out and getting trashed tonight! My friend Harper will be here in an hour. We’re going singing tonight! And she only knows that we met when he was undercover. So zip it around her.” I cock my eyebrow up.
“Your secret is safe with me.” She giggles and pretends to zip her lips. The wine is definitely making her feel good.
“Oh, guess what I brought with me?” she questions with a huge smile. I shrug with a questioning expression. “My boots and jersey! The Cowboys play the Giants on Sunday. We are finding a place to watch it. Even though we’ll probably be the only ones with Cowboys jerseys on, we are representing!” she squeals. We love football, but we love our Cowboys more. The first game of the season is this Sunday, and I had already planned on watching it with her.
“Already planned on it.” I wink.
Chapter Thirty-seven
Aiden
