15. Aiden
15
AIDEN
“ I don’t think the gymnasium has ever looked so good,” Cora said.
I snorted, taking a sip of my Old Fashioned. She wasn’t wrong—the high school gym had been transformed. Cora and I had pulled things together in Trish’s absence, sorting out the decorations and the catering, dressing up the space with balloons and streamers and a massive WELCOME BACK sign that had been a health hazard to hang. There were more than a dozen large circular tables with centerpieces in maroon and gold, our school colors, and a station set up with old yearbooks, class photos, and trophies from various sports and activities. A photobooth sat in the corner of the room, and it was a big hit. There’d been a line winding across the gym to use it since people started arriving. Next to that was the buffet and the bar, which also had a near constant line. Across the gym, a DJ had set up, and twinkling lights glittered down on the dance floor.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing…I just think there’s something inherently cheesy about high school reunions.”
Cora laughed. “Absolutely. The cheese is the whole point. Cheese and nostalgia. You’re supposed to feel like you’ve stepped back in time.”
She was right about that too. The longer I’d been back, the more I’d been consumed with memories from the past. Even now the same faded banners, decorated with our jaguar mascot, hung on the walls behind the decorations, and I was pretty sure the same sneaker scuffs marked the floor. I’d popped my head into the locker room earlier, and it even smelled the same.
Terrible.
But the same.
The room buzzed with chatter, but one voice rang out loudest of all. Trish dashed across the gym, slopping her drink over her hand, squealing as she wrapped her arms around some woman.
I took another sip from my Old Fashioned. “Was Trish always so?—”
“Energetic?” Cora supplied.
I’d been about to say annoying . “Sure. Let’s go with that.”
Cora smirked at me like she knew exactly what I’d been thinking. “At least she got back from her cruise in time to play hostess. I really wasn’t looking forward to that.”
“Small mercy.”
“Plus, it leaves us time to actually enjoy ourselves.”
“ Enjoy might be a strong word.”
“Oh stop. I can’t believe you were going to skip all this,” Cora said as we made our way through the crowd toward the buffet table.
“And I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not,” I said, nodding to a couple of people who smiled at me.
“No, I’m being sincere. You really didn’t want to come and see all your old friends? You must have been looking forward to seeing the football team, at least.”
“I mean, it’s been nice catching up with some of the guys, I guess. But most people already know what I’m up to,” I said.
“Thanks to that GQ article?” Cora teased. “Have they started calling you Cocktail King yet?”
“Can you be serious?”
She batted her eyelashes at me. “I am so serious, Your Majesty.”
“Well, Zelda…” I said, watching her cheeks pink as I used her old nickname.
“Knock it off.”
“What’s that they say? Turnabout’s fair play.”
“Mm-hmm,” she muttered, picking up a plate at the end of the buffet table. She handed it to me and grabbed another one for herself.
“Anyway, the conversations have been a little stilted, if I’m being completely honest.” Except with her, of course. “Talking about myself here sort of feels like flaunting my success. And that’s not the vibe I’m going for.”
“I suppose it’s hard to hide the fact you’re a billionaire,” Cora said. “What with all the cars you own.”
“I think I own a reasonable number of cars, considering. You want to talk about unreasonable, ask me how much Vincent’s Bugatti cost him.” That was in the ballpark of several million dollars.
“I’d rather not know.”
I chuckled at the look on her face. “How are your catch-ups going?”
“Well, I haven’t intimidated anyone, that’s for sure. Sort of the opposite.”
“What do you mean?”
Cora sighed. “People keep asking what I’ve been up to. What I’m doing for work.”
“Right.”
“And I obviously can’t tell them about the Masked Mixer, since that’s supposed to be anonymous.”
“Ah,” I said, starting to understand.
A frustrated line appeared between her brows. “When I tell people I’m bartending in Manhattan, they all smile and say, ‘That’s nice.’ But I know they really mean, ‘Hmm, you’ve accomplished nothing since high school.’”
“There’s nothing wrong with bartending.”
“I know!”
“But also, you could have told them you’re working at Elixir.”
Cora shrugged. “I thought about it, but then they’d ask what I do there, and I’d have to try not to actually give myself away.” She shot me a wicked grin over her shoulder. “They’d be like, ‘Oh, you work for Aiden! What’s it like being one of the lowly employees to His Majesty the Billionaire?’”
I groaned. “I’m not talking to you anymore.”
Cora broke into a fit of giggles, catching my hand as I pretended to leave the line. “I’m kidding. Okay, I’ll stop now.”
A wave of heated sparks spread up my arm. It was like getting an electric shock, and my heart skipped. When I met her eyes, I could see she was blushing, as potently aware of me as I was of her. We hadn’t had a chance to repeat our kiss…but god, I wanted to. I just wanted to make absolutely certain she was ready this time so the kiss wouldn’t end as abruptly as the last one had.
She stiffened suddenly, her eyes widening at something happening over my shoulder.
“What is it?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing. No. Sorry.” She laughed, the sound strange and choked. “It’s nothing.”
“What’s wrong?”
I turned around, my eyes flitting over the packed gym, but I couldn’t tell what had caused her reaction.
She lifted her finger, discreetly pointing out a tall man in a black button-down shirt. He looked up, and though he was vaguely familiar from high school, I couldn’t recall his name. I was pretty sure he’d been in Cora’s year, though.
“That’s, um…Levi,” she said. “The guy I dated after you.”
Oh. Oh, shit . I turned back to her. “Are you all right?”
“I just hadn’t expected to see him,” she admitted, clutching her empty dinner plate to her chest. “He lives in California. I never thought he’d fly all the way in for the reunion.”
She looked a little sick, paling under the flashing lights. I took her by the arm and gently ushered her out of line to a nearby table. “Here, sit.”
She did, plopping down in the seat without argument.
“Can I get you anything?”
“No, I…” Her mouth hung open, but no words came out.
“Should I?—”
“We broke it off last year.” She played with the tablecloth. “Well, he broke it off,” she muttered without looking at me. “I didn’t have much choice in the matter.”
That sounded messy, and despite her gritted teeth, she sounded hurt. And she appeared alarmingly shaky. “Seriously, Cora. You look like you’re going to pass out. Want me to find…um…Kate? I was talking to her earlier, and she’s a doctor now—she’d know what you need. Actually, I think she said she’s a pediatrician, but she brought her husband, and he’s an ER doctor, so?—”
She ran her hands through her hair, combing through the dark red curls before smoothing her hands down her dress. “No, I’m fine.” She gave another one of those tight little laughs. “It was a shock seeing him. That’s all. Really, I’m okay.”
“At least let me get you a drink?”
“Sure,” she said. “A drink would be great.”
She smiled up at me, and I could tell how forced it was. She was anything but fine.
Cora
Aiden had barely left my side when Levi appeared, like a demon that had crawled right out of my nightmares. Only this was no dream I could wake up from. This was Levi in the flesh: brown hair, brown eyes, cheeky smile. He’d dressed up. He never used to like getting dressed up. I wondered if his new boo had that effect on him. I looked past him, expecting to see Sally hovering at his side. Not that I knew what she looked like. We’d never met. And, god willing, we never would meet.
Though if god was on my side in all of this, Levi never would have shown up tonight in the first place.
“Cora,” he said. “I’ve been waiting to talk to you all night.”
“Sort of wish you’d kept waiting,” I said, getting to my feet. My legs were wobbly. I’d only had one drink, but it suddenly felt like the alcohol hit me all at once. My skin prickled unpleasantly. Horrible memories surfaced in my mind of the last time we were together. Damn you, Levi. I was not going to cry here. I was not .
“Excuse me,” I said, stalking past him. I crossed the gymnasium as quickly as I could, darting between people trying to relive the glory days of the “Single Ladies” dance. I batted a balloon out of my way as I shoved through the gym door, escaping into the near silence of the hallway.
It felt like I could breathe again. Then the door swung open.
“Cora?” Levi called.
I bit down on my tongue, barely holding it together.
“Please let me explain,” he said.
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Listen, I’ve come all this way?—”
A hand touched my shoulder, and I wheeled around, taking a step back as I did, putting some distance between us. “I couldn’t care less about why you’re here, Levi. I don’t want to have this conversation with you—or any conversation, for that matter.”
“Please, Cora,” he said, begging in a way that pissed me off. What right did he have to beg me for anything after the way he treated me? I could still remember watching him pack his suitcases, all while I pleaded with him to talk things through, to try to find a way to work things out. He’d had no time for me then. Well, I had no time for him now.
“Save it.”
“I can’t. Don’t you understand? I have to tell you?—”
“God, Levi!” I snapped. “What? What could you possibly have to tell me after all this time?” He blinked down at me, maybe taken aback by my outburst, but I didn’t care. I was on the verge of tears again, and I wasn’t going to let this man see me cry. I’d shed enough tears over him. “Say whatever it is you came to say and get it over with.”
“I…I wanted to say,” he frowned, shaking his head. “No, I wanted you to know that leaving you was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. The biggest mistake of my life.”
I scoffed, crossing my arms to keep them from shaking. “That’s rich.”
“Really,” he insisted. “I was an idiot. I let myself get blinded by infatuation. I believed I loved Sally, but it wasn’t real love. Not the kind we always had. It took me some time to realize that. And I do now. I see how wrong I was, and I want to try again.”
“Try again?” I said, my voice climbing an octave. Was he out of his mind? Where was this even coming from? I could only imagine Sally must have gotten bored of him, and now he was crawling back home, expecting to be able to pick right back up with the life he ditched when he left—including me. Well, screw that! And screw you, Levi!
“Yes,” he said earnestly, reaching for my hand. I squirmed away. “I want you back. No, I want us back.”
“There is no us, Levi.”
“But there could be. I moved back to the city to show you how serious I am. I want you in my life, Cora. Don’t throw away fifteen years?—”
“I’m not the one who threw away anything!” I shouted. “You shouldn’t have come back tonight.”
He looked a little sheepish. “I’ve been in New York for a few weeks, actually, but I didn’t try to track you down because I knew I’d be seeing you here. I thought it would be romantic to have our reunion here—to begin again in the same place where it all started.”
I couldn’t believe he thought it would be that easy or that I would be desperate enough to jump back into his arms. On second thought, I could believe it. After the relationship ended, after I’d removed those rose-colored glasses, Jennifer had helped me realize that Levi never spent much time considering other people’s feelings or what they might want.
“What do you think?” he said, smiling at me hopefully.
“I think that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Cora—”
“No, really. After the way you treated me, there’s no way in hell I’m giving you a second chance.”
Levi grimaced. “I can’t accept that answer.”
“I don’t think it matters what you can and can’t accept.”
“We belong together.”
“Go back to California.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m gonna be right here, until you see that we belong together.”
“I think she told you it’s never gonna happen, buddy.”
I glanced up. Aiden had come around the corner, glaring like he was a bull and Levi was the red flag waving in his face. I surged to his side, taking his hand. Levi glanced down at our entwined fingers, and that finally seemed to snap some sense into him.
“Wait,” he said. “Are the two of you together again?”
Sort of? We’re starting to be? It really did feel like we were moving that way, even if everything was still up in the air. But I was totally willing to lie and say we were already married and about to adopt triplets if it would get Levi to back the hell off. Before I could say anything, Aiden spoke up.
“Yes. And I’m not going to let you keep harassing Cora.” He rose up, taller and broader, like a mountain eclipsing a hill.
Levi shrank in his shadow.
“We’re going outside to get some air.” Aiden’s hand tightened around mine reassuringly even as he bore down on Levi. “If you’re still here when we come back in, you better leave us the hell alone. Got it?”