Toxic serves drinks. Does that count? “No, not really.”
“How about we give you a trial run? You can come in tomorrow, and we can see how you go,” he says.
“Really?” I ask. “Don’t you have to check with the owner?” He smiles, and I pause. “You’re the owner, aren’t you?”
“In the flesh,” he replies. “Wear all black tomorrow. Does six work for you?”
“Six is perfect, thank you, Mr…”
“Please, call me Aiden,” he says, putting out his hand to shake mine. “And you are?”
“Paris,” I reply. “Thanks so much, you won’t regret this,” I tell him, letting go of his hand and standing up. As I walk away, I’m sure I hear him say, “I sure hope not.”
*****
Two long days have passed since Grayson and I last spoke. I ignore the looks a few of the guys give me as I walk to my class. I assume they are friends of Jake and have heard all about me, so I pretend that I don’t see them staring. Grayson is already sitting in his seat when I arrive, staring down at his hands. I slide into my chair, and he instantly looks up.
“Hey,” he says softly. I devour the sight of him, his messy hair, and his dark eyes. The five o’clock shadow is new, and completely attractive.
“Hi,” I reply, pulling out my folder.
“How have you been?” he asks, as if it’s been so long since we last saw each other. I guess it kind of does feel that way.
“Okay. You?”
He swallows, eyes darting around before looking straight at me. “I miss you.”
I miss him too. But does that change anything? “I miss you too, Gray.”
“I’m sorry about the way I spoke to you, Paris,” he says, drawing in a breath. “I never should have spoken to you that way. You don’t deserve that. You hurt me though, babe. To know that in the end, there was a whole different side to you that I had no idea about.”
“There isn’t another side of me, Grayson. I just did what I thought I had to do.”
“I wish you could have come to me. It hurts even more that you couldn’t,” he says, closing his eyes for a second.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“I know,” he says. Our eyes connect and hold, until the lecturer speaks, ruining the moment.
The class passes in a blur, and soon it’s time to go. Grayson walks behind me, close but not touching, and pulls me to his bike without a word. I’m about to hop on when I see Dylan walking toward us. Grayson ignores her, and holds the helmet up for me to slide onto my head. He gets on, and I slide on behind him, wrapping my arms around him.
“Thanks for the ride yesterday, Grayson,” Dylan calls out, all the while staring at me. He gave her a ride? What the f**k? Grayson tenses, but ignores her, starting the bike and driving off. I seethe all the way to his house, envisioning different scenarios. By the time we arrive at his house, I’m sure there is steam coming out of my ears. I jump off the bike as soon as it comes to a stop and pull my helmet off. He does the same, putting his hands up in a ‘calm down’ gesture.
“Before you start yelling and jumping to assumptions, there was a dinner at my parents’ house. Her family was there, and she needed a lift home because her parents stayed longer. I drove her home in my car, and that’s it,” he says. I grit my teeth and walk to his door, not saying anything as he unlocks it and opens it for me to enter.
“You drove her home and that’s it? She didn’t try anything?” I ask when we’re settled in his living room.
He rubs the back of his neck. “She was flirting; I told her not to even bother, because I’m not going there again.”
“I see. When was the last time you did go there?” I ask boldly, really wanting to know this answer. Something doesn’t add up. Dylan keeps acting like she has a chance with him, like she knows something I don’t. And I don’t like it.
Grayson leans back on the couch watching me. “The day we met.”
Wait, what? You have to be kidding me. The first day we spoke…
“Babe, we weren’t together then. We’d only just met and—”
“I see,” I say again, cutting him off. But I don’t see, not really. It’s true we weren’t together then. I suppose I have no right to be angry, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt me.
“Did you not feel the connection between us that first day?” I ask him.
“What? Of course I did,” he says, standing up and walking over to where I sit on the other couch. He sits down next to me and tries to put his arms around me. I push them away, and slide over as far as I can go.
“No wonder she looks at me so smugly all the time,” I muse.
“She’s nothing, Paris. You’re overthinking it. It isn’t like what we have between us. With her, it’s just sex, pure and simple. It was release without emotion,” he says, his eyes pleading with me to understand. “It was different, and I knew it. After I met you, there was no going back to that. I didn’t want to be with anyone else, and me being with Dylan proved that. I told her that night that it wasn’t going to happen again, and it hasn’t.”
I shrug both shoulders. “We weren’t together,” I say. Maybe if I keep saying it, I’ll believe it. Grayson wraps me in his arms, and I don’t pull away. I don’t do anything. I just sit there, kind of dazed and kind of heartbroken.