4. Aiden
4
AIDEN
I walked through the front entrance of the Red Lion, wincing as the frame creaked and the door slammed behind me. I’d never been in a more dilapidated bar in my life. Each time I visited, I was glad I didn’t own it. The problem was my father did.
Hopefully, he was going to get around to fixing the door soon.
“Tony, my god, it looks like a limp?—”
“Stop saying that!”
I snorted. Dad sounded annoyed, which was par for the course when Maggie was around. When he told me he’d bought a bar to refurbish, I figured it might be a nice bonding experience for the two of us. As it turned out, neither of us were particularly handy, so he’d ended up bringing Maggie on board—a local handywoman whose tongue could be sharper than her hacksaw.
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you,” she said. “Simple is better. Your customers won’t care about the lights. They want good beer and sports on the TV.”
“It’s not that kinda place. I told you. I’m going for classy. Sophisticated.”
Maggie harumphed.
I walked past the entrance, spotting Maggie and Dad, their heads bent close over the bar top as they looked at his phone. “What looks like a limp?—”
“Oh, Jesus,” Dad said, looking up at me. “Not you too.”
Maggie shot me a sly grin.
“To be fair, I don’t even know what we’re talking about.”
“Tony here is trying to order the world’s most hideous light fixture,” Maggie explained. “Looks like a barnacle scraped off a whale’s backside.”
Dad rolled his eyes. “You just don’t like the price.”
“Of course I don’t like the price. Nobody should be charging that much for something that hangs up there and gets dusty. As ugly as that is, they should be paying us to take it off their hands.”
“Let me see,” I said, leaning up against the counter.
Maggie flipped the phone around. “He just likes it because it’s the priciest brand. But that’s proof that it’s the most pretentious—not that it’s the best. I told him to stop being an idiot. There’re other fixtures out there, half as ugly for half the price.”
“It’s my money,” Dad said. “I can spend it however I like.”
“Then spend it paying me more,” Maggie said, taking her hammer to some nails at the end of the bar top.
Dad harumphed. “I pay you more than enough.”
“You know you can be an idiot for free,” Maggie added. “You don’t have to waste your money to do it.”
“I’m gonna have to start paying her to keep her quiet,” Dad muttered to me.
“There’s not enough money on earth,” Maggie cut in.
I snorted, shaking my head. That sounded awfully familiar.
“What’s so funny?” Dad asked.
“Nothing.”
“No really,” Maggie said. “Tell us. I could use something other than Tony’s horrible taste in furnishings to laugh at.”
“Just something this girl—woman—said to me.” I glanced at Dad. “You remember Cora?”
A surprised smile crossed his face. “High school Cora?”
“That’s the one. I, uh, ran into her last night at an event and again today at lunch.”
“Oh, how’s she doing?”
“She’s actually sort of working in the drink industry now. She’s a mixologist—has a good following online. Anyway, I was trying to get her on board with Elixir. I offered her a boatload of money, and she pretty much threw it back in my face, accusing me of trying to buy her off or something.”
“Sounds like she has the right idea,” Maggie said.
“Come on,” I complained. “Don’t tell me you’re on her side?”
“You can’t just throw money at things and believe it’ll sort them out,” Maggie said. “Or that it’ll make light fixtures less ugly.”
I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t trying to sort her out, I was trying to pay her.”
“Were you offering what she’s worth?” Maggie said. “Or were you throwing money around to convince her to jump at the snap of your fingers? Because you may not think so, but there’s a difference.”
I grumbled. I’d brought Cora up in the hopes of finding a sympathetic ear. But Maggie didn’t beat around the bush. She went right in for the kill.
“I always liked Cora,” Dad said. “I think she was my favorite of your girlfriends.”
“Girlfriend!” Maggie cried, unnervingly delighted. “Oh, this is an ex? That definitely makes things more interesting.”
“An ex from like a million years ago,” I clarified. “We were practically kids.” High school exes shouldn’t even count as exes. It’s not like we’d had any idea what we were doing with our lives at that point.
“But this totally changes the dynamic,” Maggie said, holstering her hammer in the toolbelt around her waist.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You. Trying to buy your ex-girlfriend.”
“I wasn’t trying to buy her!” I insisted. “I was trying to make her an offer to work with Elixir. Which she turned down. Repeatedly. Hence trying to give her more money, to make the offer more enticing.”
“And did she say yes?”
“Eventually,” I muttered. “After yelling at me again.” I couldn’t believe she finally accepted. I wasn’t even sure I wanted her on the job. No , that wasn’t true. I did. Cora was the right person for Elixir Free. I just wished she’d kept to her Masked Mixer disguise. This would have been so much easier if I didn’t know who she was—if I didn’t remember what it was like to be with her.
I slumped down on a stool.
How could I not have recognized her that night? The dark red hair, softly curled. The freckles. Those full, pouty lips. She was still the girl from high school, but she’d grown up very well. She’d certainly grown into her curves. I swallowed hard, remembering the way that dress hugged her hips and the way her cleavage had practically begged for my attention. God, why did she have to look that good after all this time?
“Cora? Yell at you?” Dad was saying as I banished those thoughts. “There’s no way. I mean, she was always a little spirited. Maybe we could even call her feisty. But I can’t imagine her yelling at you.” He shook his head like that was a laughable concept. “She did like to tease you like nobody’s business though.”
I frowned. Part of me couldn’t believe he remembered that. It wasn’t like he’d been around much to see us together. Dad had been putting in long hours at the paper mill back then—to the point where it ruined his marriage with my mom. He was a good man, and I know he’d tried his best to be a good husband and father, but it’s hard to make a relationship work when there was only one person around.
“Cora might have been sweet when she was sixteen,” I told him. “But trust me, she’s not that kid anymore. She grew up into someone completely obnoxious.”
Maggie tutted.
“Do you think she’s as pretty as you did back then?” Dad asked, a teasing smile on his face.
I turned away, grumbling. The last thing I wanted to do was admit Cora had grown up to be twice as gorgeous. And now I was going to have to endure being around her every day. But I knew it was the right move for Elixir, so I was just going to have to stuff the past away.
“She’s online, you said?” Maggie asked. “What’s her handle?”
“Masked Mixer,” I said.
“Masked…Mixer…” she repeated. “Oh, here she is.”
I looked up to find Maggie leaning against the bar, watching one of Cora’s videos on her phone. Dad walked up next to her to watch, too, leaning in so close they were practically cheek to cheek.
“Looks like she makes a mean drink,” Maggie said. “I could use one of those right now.”
“I’ve gotta get going,” I said. I had zero interest in hanging around while Dad reminisced fondly, and the two of them watched Cora mix drinks. “Good luck with the light fixture.”
Dad raised his hand in farewell, hardly paying attention. I headed for the door and out onto the street, hurrying down the block to find my driver when a familiar head of red hair darted out of an electronics store and right into my path.
Oh, Jesus Christ, not again!
Cora
“ Oomph ,” I said as I lost my breath. It felt like I’d just run into a brick wall. I glanced up and my mood soured immediately. It was an Aiden-shaped brick wall.
Of-fucking-course it was.
I’d popped into my favorite electronics store after the lunch debacle—still trying to wrap my head around the fact I’d just agreed to work with Aiden’s company—to replace my tripod that broke earlier this morning. And there Aiden was, looming over me like an omen of misfortune. I was starting to think I was cursed.
His arms tightened around me, keeping me on my feet, practically pinning me to his chest. Despite my best efforts, I couldn’t help but notice how good he smelled. It was woody and earthy. Sandalwood, maybe? My hand splayed against the firm muscle of his chest, and I was suddenly overwhelmingly warm as his heat enveloped me.
I scowled at my reaction and lurched back. “Are you following me?”
“No. Why the hell would I be following you to…” He looked up at the shop. “J&D Electronics?”
“That’s a good question.” I stared at him, still waiting for his explanation.
“I’m not following you,” he insisted. “So you can park the suspicion.”
“Then what are you doing here, on this street, in front of the store I was just shopping in? Don’t you have influencers to throw money at somewhere?”
“My dad just bought the bar across the street,” he ground out, pointing toward the Red Lion. “He’s in the process of remodeling it. I was checking in on him to see if he needed any help. Contrary to what you seem to think, I don’t have enough time in my day to be your stalker.”
“Oh,” I said, my spikes retracting a bit at the mention of his dad. I’d always liked Tony—I could still remember the time in my junior year, after Aiden and I had long since broken up, when I’d gotten a flat tire. Tony had been driving by when he spotted me, and he’d immediately stopped to change it for me. He even made me promise to call him once I was home so he could be sure I hadn’t had any trouble driving on the spare. “I didn’t know Tony was into remodeling.”
Aiden snorted. “Neither did I. It’s his retirement project. Actually, he’s not quite handy enough for the job, so he’s brought on some help. Which is good. At least I don’t have to worry about him shooting himself in the foot with a nail gun.”
“Your dad was always a sweetheart from what I remember. Maybe I should pop over and say hi to him.”
Aiden stepped in my way, his arms crossed. “I wouldn’t go over there right now. He’s in the middle of stuff—sorting out the light fixtures and all that. You’d only be bothering him.”
I narrowed my eyes, heat leaking into my cheeks. “Bothering him?”
“Yes.”
“And how exactly would I be bothering him?”
“He doesn’t need you in there pestering him with questions when he’s trying to focus.”
“Really?” The heat spread down my neck, flaming across my chest. “Like you kept pestering me the other night with your damn Elixir bottle?”
“I was doing my job!”
“So was I.”
He scoffed. “Not sure you really know how this influencer gig works.”
“At least I can read the room enough to understand when someone is not interested in what I have to say.” My entire face flushed in anger. I knew it was flashing red like a traffic light. “Unlike you, who can’t seem to leave me alone!”
“Excuse me? You’re the one who just ran into me!” he said, voice rising. “I was minding my own business when you rammed into me full force. Impaling me with your…What the hell do you have in that bag, anyway?”
“A tripod.” I shook it at him. “And maybe I wouldn’t crash into you if you weren’t hanging around where I was shopping. Stalker.”
“For the last time,” he said through his teeth. “I was not following you. F.Y.I, you are nowhere near important enough to require a stalker.”
“Whatever.”
“Maybe if you’d actually try paying attention to your surroundings, you wouldn’t be attacking people on the sidewalk.”
“I never attacked you.”
“Actually, that’s an even better reason for you to stay away from the bar. The last thing my dad needs is you in there, ramming into things with your tripod like a bull in a china shop.”
God, he was insufferable! What the hell did he know about me anyway? “You know what? Fine. I didn’t want to see Tony that badly anyway.”
Without another word, I turned on my heel and stormed off in the opposite direction. Sure, it would take me longer to get home this way, but it beat having to spend one more second looking at his face. Because, yeah, Tony might have been a sweetheart, but Aiden was a complete and utter asshole.