16. Aiden
16
AIDEN
“ W ho does he think he is?” I said, stalking down the path to the football field.
Cora muttered under her breath. “God’s gift to creation.”
I snorted, walking through the gate that led to the stands. I’d made this walk a thousand times before as a teenager, both for games and practice, sometimes even with Cora by my side. But this time was different, and not just because we were older. White hot something coursed through me: some horrible mixture of anger and disbelief and jealousy.
I’d never begrudge Cora the fact that she’d moved on after me. It’s all I could have wanted for her. I would have been glad to know she was happy. But now, seeing this Levi guy treat her like this, like she was supposed to be waiting for him to come crawling home to her once he’d stopped fucking around…It made my blood boil.
We climbed into the stands, and Cora sat down, cradling her forehead in her hand.
I paced, protective heat spiraling through me, fueling my annoyance. “He had no damn right to speak to you like that. If I even see him glance your way when we go back inside?—”
“Aiden, it’s okay.”
“It’s actually not. What kind of creep chases you into the hall? ‘I can’t accept that answer.’ What the hell was that?”
“I know.” She caught my hand, forcing me to stop pacing. I looked down at her, those brown eyes bright in the fading twilight. Shiny. Like she was on the verge of tears. “Thank you,” she said. “It’s very sweet, the fact that you’re so upset on my behalf.”
“I didn’t realize someone could say so many wrong things in one conversation.”
Cora tugged gently, and I sat down next to her, pushing my anger aside to focus on her. How I felt—really damn pissed off—mattered way less than how she felt. I resolved to focus on whatever she needed. If that was someone to commiserate and join her in trash talking her ex, then hell yes, sign me up. But if she wanted someone to make her laugh, or to change the subject, or even just to sit with her for a minute and let her be sad about the guy who broke her heart, then that was what I’d be.
“I’m just glad you were here tonight,” Cora admitted. “No way Levi would have backed down otherwise, and the last thing I want to be remembered for at this reunion is getting into some screaming match with him.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help. If you don’t mind my asking…what’s his deal?”
She shrugged, releasing my hand. I missed the warmth of her immediately. “Levi has a hard time accepting the word ‘no’ or considering other people’s feelings.”
“Is that what happened between you? Or why it ended, I should say.”
Cora cleared her throat, wringing her hands together in her lap. I could tell that however it ended, it still bothered her. I was about to tell her she didn’t need to explain if she didn’t want to, when she said, “I started dating Levi in junior year.”
“Wait,” I said suddenly. “You told me you broke it off last year?”
She nodded. “We were together for almost fifteen years, total.”
“Jesus,” I said, leaning back in my seat. I hadn’t realized they’d been together that long. That was…Shit, that was like half her life! No wonder seeing him again threw her for a loop.
“Last year, Levi went away on a business trip to California.”
I nodded, waiting for her to go on, watching the tiny muscles in her face twitch as she clenched her jaw. Shadows spread across the field, slowly covering us in darkness, but there was just enough light to see the tears gather in her eyes.
“While he was in LA, he fell head over heels for a wannabe actress named Sally.”
My jaw dropped. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Trust me, I wish I was. But, uh…Levi was convinced she was his soulmate. He decided instantly that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. So, he flew back to New York, broke the news to me as soon as he walked in the door, and went to our bedroom to pack up all his crap. I was surprised, confused, hurt. I had so many questions, but he had no interest in answering them or checking in to see how I felt about all of it. He was in love with someone else, so my feelings didn’t matter anymore. Just like that, it was over.”
“He didn’t deserve you,” I said.
Cora let out a sigh. “Yeah, I know. Jennifer helped me see that. And my mom. It was just hard at first, because it was so sudden. There weren’t any warning signs. Everything seemed fine right up until it was over. Once he was gone, I had a lot to work through. I mean, he was the guy I’d spent over a decade trusting to love me and be there for me, and then he chose to treat me like that. It had me wondering if he’d ever really loved me at all.”
“Did you love him?” I asked, bracing myself for her answer.
“I did…but I’m not sure I was ever truly in love with him.”
“Really?”
“When I first started dating him, I thought he was cute and fun, and I liked spending time with him, but it wasn’t…” She flushed, looking away from me. “Well, it wasn’t as intense as what I was used to. Honestly, I wasn’t really expecting it to last. I thought we’d date for a while and go our separate ways. But when everything happened with my dad senior year, he was there for me. By the time the dust settled, and mom and I were okay again, he’d become such a fixture in my life that it never occurred to me to question it. We settled into the routine of being together. We probably would have stayed in that rut forever if he hadn’t met Sally. I still hate the way he handled things, but I have to say, him leaving was probably the biggest favor he ever did for me. He set both of us free.”
“I’m glad you can see it that way,” I said. “Too bad he doesn’t seem to agree.”
“Yeah.” She wrinkled her nose. “Let’s just hope he got the message that I’m very definitely not interested. Though…” She smiled mischievously. “It probably twisted the knife a little to have the message come from you. He was always so jealous of you, you know?”
I smirked. “Was he really?”
“Of course he was. He knew you were my first. And he knew…well, he knew that the reason I started going out with him was because I was on the rebound from you.”
My smirk faded fast. “Rebound?” I repeated.
“My self-esteem took a bit of a hit when you ended things. He made me feel good about myself again.”
“I didn’t realize you’d struggled,” I said. Cora had always carried herself so well after the breakup. She’d seemed bubbly, always surrounded by a chattering group of friends. Working on the yearbook. Stage managing the school play. Frankly, for a time I’d wondered how she could have gotten over me so quickly. But I’d constantly reminded myself that I was the one who broke up with her, so I had no right to judge how she handled it. And besides, I knew she deserved to be happy, however quickly that happened.
“Why would you have? It’s not exactly like we stayed close after our breakup. And by that point in the year, you had other things to worry about. College applications. Football. Graduation.”
“I know…but…god, Cora. I’m so sorry.” Here I was judging Levi for the way he’d treated her, but had I been any better? No, I hadn’t smashed a fifteen-year-relationship, but I’d also broken up with her without much warning. At the time, ending things had felt necessary, but looking back on it now, I could see how badly I’d handled it. Had I hurt her as badly as Levi had? And worse, was I to blame for everything she’d gone through with Levi? “I didn’t mean to chase you into his arms.”
“You didn’t chase me,” she reasoned.
“Maybe not, but if you only dated him because of the way I made you feel?—”
She shook her head, interrupting my thought. “Look, it’s not all on you. Please don’t think I’m blaming you for my own choices or Levi’s behavior. I was the one who chose to stay with him—even with the warning signs.”
I frowned, disliking the sound of that. “What do you mean warning signs?”
“Just little things,” she said, picking at the fabric of her dress. “After we broke up, I started to look back and really think about the compromises I made along the way, you know? I should have noticed how easy it was for him to dismiss my feelings when they got in the way of him doing what he wanted. Specifically, the way he flirted with other women.”
“He did that while you were together?”
“Oh, all the time. I told him it made me uncomfortable, and he just laughed it off and said I was overreacting—that it wasn’t like he was going behind my back or actually fooling around with anyone, so that made it okay. But it wasn’t okay with me, and I should have stood my ground.”
At least that was a point for me. Despite the fact I’d broken her heart, one thing I could say without a doubt was that I’d never even looked at another girl the whole time I was with her. Everyone else faded in comparison, anyway.
“Honestly, my first warning sign should have been our first date, when we went to homecoming together.”
I grimaced. “How’d that go?”
She tossed her head back with a wry smile, as if she finally had enough distance to see the humor in something that had been pretty awful at the time. “He’d already made plans to go with another girl, just as friends he assured me, before we started dating. And instead of telling that other girl he couldn’t take her anymore since he now had a girlfriend, he ended up taking us both.”
“Oh, god. He didn’t?”
Cora nodded. “He did. And I can assure you it was deeply awkward for everyone involved.”
I pressed my fist to my lips, hiding my pained smile. “I’ll bet.”
“He actually took turns slow dancing with us. During the same song!”
I dropped my head in my hands, groaning, imagining Cora standing on the dance floor, arms crossed, waiting for her thirty seconds of Levi’s attention. I wasn’t even angry at the guy anymore. It was all too absurd.
“But, you know,” Cora continued, “I made excuses for him, choosing to believe he was just trying to be a good guy—that he’d kept his promise to be the other girl’s date because he didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”
“He probably didn’t want to have a hard conversation with the other girl about canceling their plans, so he took the coward’s way out,” I said.
“Or worse,” Cora said. “Maybe he wanted to string her along in case our date didn’t work out.” She let out a heavy breath. “Probably should have seen this whole Sally thing coming from a mile away.”
I ran my hand up the soft skin of her forearm. “He sucks, Cora. On so many levels. I’m sorry your homecoming dance was crap. I really wish I’d been the one to take you,” I said softly, putting as much sincerity into my words as I could. “I would have made sure you had a good time. That it was a night you’d never forget, and not because your boyfriend brought another date.” She looked at me, a hint of regret in her eyes. I nudged her gently, getting to my feet. “C’mon.”
“What are you doing?”
“ We are making up for that horrendous slow dance you just told me about.”
“Aiden?” She chuckled uncertainly. “Here?”
I held my hand out, waiting for her to take it. “Where else?”
“You know there’s a DJ inside, right? He’s being paid lots of money to get people on the dance floor.”
“You really want to go back into that gym right now?” I cocked my head to the side. “With Levi stinking up the place?”
That got a bit of a smile out of her. She laid her palm in mine, and I tugged her to her feet, leading her down the stairs and onto center field. Last time I’d stood out here, I’d been a high school wide receiver, watching the clock run down as we beat the Rams by a single touchdown. The crowd had jumped to their feet, the stands trembling under the force of their stomping. Now the empty stands stood like dark hills against the blue-black sky, nothing but the faint school lights in the distance and the smattering of stars that were starting to appear overhead.
“Okay, so?—”
“One second,” I said, reaching into my pocket. I pulled out my phone, and with a few quick taps, music filtered through the speaker. I adjusted the volume a couple notches before putting my phone back in my pocket, letting the music play.
“Wait.” Cora said. “Is this…” She let the intro play through. “Is this Lifehouse?”
A smile tugged at my lips as the opening chords stirred fond memories. “You and Me,” I said. “It was one of the top songs from back then, right?”
“Back then. God,” Cora groaned. “You make us sound so old.”
“We’re a little old.”
“Speak for yourself.” She laughed. “I’m younger than you.”
I tugged her closer, and she stumbled into me, her laughter dying as every inch of her body pressed up against mine. I rested my hands on her waist, fingers sliding over soft curves. Cora laid her hands on my shoulders, delicate, like she was suddenly afraid to touch me. “May I have this dance?” I asked.
“I think you already know the answer to that.”
The space between us dissolved even more, and my heart skipped as I took her in—pale cheekbones dusted with blush and dark, fluttering lashes. A sense of longing, of understanding, washed over me. Cora rested her head on my chest, and I wondered if she could hear the galloping thump of my heart against my ribs. The heat between us was palpable as the song swelled, and we moved together in a slow, gentle sway. We’d never danced before, but I couldn’t help remembering all the other ways our bodies had moved together. Her hands moved from my shoulders, entwining around the back of my neck, playing with the hair there, and memories faded away. As sweet as they were, all I could focus on was here. Now. As the song crescendoed, I tilted her chin gently, our eyes meeting briefly before I caught her lips in a tender, lingering kiss.
Cora melted against me, humming softly, her lips opening to my tongue as her hands tightened around my neck, holding me to her as the song faded.
And this time, neither of us pulled away.