Never Take Your Own Advice
“Alice, you need to learn to take your own advice.” Liv wriggled her eyebrows at me as she changed the channel on the TV. Her brown doe-like eyes gazed at me with a challenge, and I stifled a groan. I knew that look well. As well I should, as I was the one who had taught it to her.
“What advice is that?” I said as I casually picked up the bowl of popcorn from the coffee table and sat back. I took a couple of kernels and popped them into my mouth, enjoying the buttery sweetness as I waited for her to say the words I was dreading to hear.
“You need to have a one-night stand with Aiden.” She grinned at me and I groaned. “Don’t groan at me, Alice.” She grabbed some popcorn and sat back on the new tan leather couch we’d recently bought.
“Careful how you’re eating,” I said in a proper voice.
“We don’t want butter on the new couch.” I laughed as she made a face at me.
“Also, I’m not going to have a one-night stand with your brother.
” I looked at the TV screen as my heart raced.
I’m not going to lie, I’ve thought about sleeping (and when I say sleeping, I mean anything but sleeping) with Aiden for years.
But he’s never seen me as anything more than his little sister’s best friend.
And even then I don’t think he really paid much attention to me.
Well, technically that’s not really true.
There was one night that he saw me as more than ‘silly little Alice.’ There was one night that he saw me as a woman, but I’m not going to talk about that.
“I didn’t think I would have a one-night stand either, but I did and look at me now.” Liv muted the TV and looked at me. I watched as she fluffed her long brown hair and twirled a loose wave around her finger. “Who would have thought Xander and I would be—”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” I said, cutting her off.
I really wasn’t in the mood to hear about how wonderful her relationship was with Xander, her boyfriend.
Xander James was handsome, sexy, rich, and supposedly really good in bed—and with his tongue.
I’d been hearing about Xander James for the last few months, and I just didn’t get how one man could be so perfect.
I was so happy for Liv; she was my best friend in the world, after all, but if I was honest, I was a bit envious as well.
I wanted a guy who would sweep me off of my feet and fall head-over-heels in love with me.
I wanted a guy who would look at me like I was the only woman on Earth.
Right now, I got the guys who looked at me like I was a piece of discounted steak or like I was some sort of free entertainment.
Hello, I’m not your personal stripper (unless you’re dropping thousands of dollars and don’t expect to be able to touch me), and no, I won’t dress up in my high-school Hooters outfit for you (again).
The fact was that Liv had hit the boyfriend lottery with Xander, and I was scraping the bottom of the barrel.
“Am I being annoying?” Liv frowned as she gazed at me, her brown eyes crinkling in concern that she was acting like that friend whom we all love to hate.
That friend who finds her man, falls in love and can’t stop going on and on about it.
I didn’t mind her going on about it normally.
I just didn’t want her to talk about her love life in the same breath as Aiden’s name.
Not when he was someone I’d been craving for years.
“No, Liv.” I smiled widely, though inside I was grumbling that yes, she was being annoying.
No one wanted to hear about their best friend’s perfect lover every day.
Though I suppose I was being unfair, since Xander was really quite far from perfect.
I smiled wickedly to myself as I thought about their relationship.
“What are you smiling about?” Liv’s eyes narrowed, and she moved closer to me. “Is there something you’re not telling me, Alice?”
“Maybe.” I grinned and started laughing as she sat there staring at me with a perplexed expression.
I started to feel guilty when Liv’s face started to look worried.
I knew then that she was starting to feel bad and most probably overthinking everything.
That was Liv’s biggest failing and one of the reasons that I loved her.
She was way too sensitive. She took on every emotion, and she was always super worried and anxious if she thought she was causing pain to anyone.
“I’m just joking, Liv.” I leaned forward to squeeze her arm.
“I’m happy for you and Xander. You deserved to find love. ”
“I know.” She smiled and then sighed. “But I want you to find love as well. I want you to be as happy as I am.”
“I’ll meet someone soon. I mean, we can even go out tomorrow night if you’re down. I might meet a nice guy.”
“Xander says he doesn’t want me to go to any nightclubs with you anymore.” She bit her lower lip, and I stared at her.
“I know that you aren’t allowing Xander to dictate what you do and don’t do, right?” I frowned. How dare he ban her from going to nightclubs with me, like I was some sort of bad influence?
“Of course not.” She giggled. “We just can’t announce it to him.”
“You’re not going to lie to him, are you?” I made a face. If she lied and he found out, he would hate me.
“No, of course not. I’m just not going to volunteer where we’re going.”
“Really?” I looked at her face carefully and then I saw the glint in her eyes. “You’re such a liar, Liv. You’re going to totally tell Xander, and then you’re going to have him tell Aiden, and it’s going to be all World War III up in the club and we’re going to be banned for life.”
“Just call him, Alice,” she groaned. “Please.”
“No.” I shook my head and stood up. “I’m going to get some ice cream. Do you want anything?”
“No.” She jumped up as well. “Why won’t you call him? You’re just being silly. Explain to him that you didn’t want to kiss Scott.”
“I’m not calling him.” My face reddened as I remembered the look in Aiden’s eyes when I’d kissed his brother a couple of months ago.
He’d looked shocked, and I’d felt my stomach drop as our eyes met.
It was just my luck. I hadn’t even wanted to kiss Scott, but I’d let him kiss me, just so I could see if there was a spark.
I wanted to explain to Aiden that it had been a mistake, but I was too ashamed to tell him anything.
Especially given our past history together.
“Alice,” Liv sighed and pursed her lips.
“Don’t ‘Alice’ me, Liv.” I rolled my eyes at her, starting to feel frustrated. “You wouldn’t have called, either.”
“Maybe not.” She shook her head at me, and we both paused and looked down at her pocket as her phone rang.
“Get it.” I walked away from her. “Your obnoxious Prince Charming is waiting for you.”
“He’s not obnoxious,” she protested as she pulled her phone out of her pocket.
And then she giggled. “Well, maybe he’s slightly obnoxious,” she admitted and then answered the phone.
“Hello,” she said softly in her ‘I’m a princess, come and save me’ voice, and I hurried down the corridor and into my bedroom.
I grabbed my laptop, jumped onto my bed and pulled up Facebook. I typed ‘Aiden Taylor’ quickly in search and my heart froze as unfamiliar photos popped onto the screen. Had Aiden unfriended me? I swallowed hard, my heart beating fast as I refreshed the page.
“Oh my God,” I groaned as I realized I’d typed in ‘Tyler’ instead of ‘Taylor.’ I quickly backspaced and deleted and changed it to the correct spelling.
I felt a huge rush of relief escape me as Aiden’s familiar photo crossed my screen.
I clicked on his photos to see if he had any new pictures, and my heart stopped again when I noticed some girl called Elizabeth Jeffries had left a comment that said, “Can’t wait to see you this weekend.
” I clicked on her name, but her profile was private and I couldn’t see anything else.
Who the hell was Elizabeth Jeffries? Was she his girlfriend?
Did he love her? Ugh! My head was spinning with questions as my stomach churned.
I quickly went to Google and typed her name in and looked to see if I could find anything else about her online.
That was what I hated and loved about the internet.
It was so easy to stalk—I mean, “research”—people, but the flipside of that was that people could research me, too.
I wasn’t happy with the fact that when people typed ‘Alice Waldron’ into Google, a photo I’d submitted to a weight loss competition came up on a weight loss website, along with my goal weight (which I had not reached).
I also wasn’t proud of the fact that you could also see my posts on a celebrity gossip blog rating different Hollywood celebrities.
I’d contacted Google and asked them to remove those websites from search, but they hadn’t responded.
“Alice, what are you doing?” Liv walked into my room with two different tops in her hands.
“Research,” I mumbled as I looked up at her, debating whether or not I should ask her if she knew who Elizabeth Jeffries was.
“Research for what?” Liv plopped down onto my bed, and I tried to adjust my laptop so that she couldn’t see it. It was one thing to be a stalker, but it was another thing to be caught stalking. Especially when it involves your best friend’s brother.
“Work,” I lied and avoided her thoughtful gaze.
“What do you have to research for work?” she questioned, her voice doubtful. And who could blame her? I was an assistant at a real estate firm. There wasn’t much that I did in the office, let alone had to do from home.
“What are you, an FBI agent?” I snapped, feeling peeved that she was questioning me.