“I’m coming. Shit!” I hear him yell. A few seconds later his door swings open and I feel my eyes widen.
“What the hell?!” he growls.
What the hell is right! He’s wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs revealing his five star sculpted military body. He has two black tattoos wrapping around his large biceps and I have to tear my eyes away from his hard chest as its heaving up and down.
“Oh, Lauren. Is everything okay?” he says, his tone going from an angry growl to concerned. I nod, trying to remember why I’m even here as his strikingly blue eyes stare into mine.
God, Aidan is hot!
I can’t believe it’s the first time I noticed how good he looks.
“Can I come in?” I ask, returning to reality.
“Yeah sure,” he opens the door for me to come in. Once I’m inside I notice it’s a lot smaller than the Scotts' Everything is floral patterns and feels really old fashioned, except for the extremely big flat screen television. Then I remember that this is Aidan’s grandmother’s house. I’d bet the TV is his.
“Feel free to sit anywhere,” he says, folding his arms across his chest.
“Sorry about earlier. It’s just really fucking early,” he says with a yawn. I really am trying not to look, but every way he moves causes his muscles to flex.
“I’m not really in a hurry, if you want to go back and change,” I suggest, gluing my eyes to the floor. I hear a dry chuckle escape his mouth.
“Uh. Sure. Give me a sec. I should probably brush my teeth too if you’re not in a big hurry so you don’t pass out from my morning breath,” we both laugh as he disappears down the hall.
A few minutes later he’s back, this time in a pair of loose fitting pajama pants and a wife beater. Much better.
“So what’s up? Everything’s okay…?" he asks hesitantly, sitting on the sofa across from me.
“I don’t know. You tell me. I just had breakfast with Lisa,” I inform him and his expression sets into a frown. He lets out a deep sigh and claps his hands together in front of him.
“What did she tell you?” he asks, his voice unwavering.
“Basically that she’s holding on to a bomb that she’s going to drop on my husband, and it’s going to have a pretty bad effect. She’s not giving me any clues as to what it is. This is going to drive me insane.” Aidan groans as he runs his hand through his blonde hair, which is noticeably longer since I first met him.
“I can’t tell you Lauren. It’s not my story to tell. I shouldn’t even be involved,” he says defensively.
“Please, you have to. I’m already a wreck and this has made things worse,” I plead.
“If you know, it’s going to make things a hell of a lot worse for you than you not knowing. Trust me, I really wish I didn’t know,” he says, standing up and pacing the room.
“Nothing is worse than the unknown.”
“No there are A LOT of things worse than the unknown and this is one of them,” he says grimly.
“What can I do then? Is there anything I can do to help with the fallout from this?” The expression on his face tells me this is worse than I’ve been imagining, and my stomach feels as if it’s dropped several floors.
“I’m not sure but I think what happened is what made him need Cal.”
10
September 26th 2008
Fate has to be a prankster. I know this because someone up there has to be laughing his ass off at me. I never thought it’d happen to me, but it has. I’ve fallen for a girl. A girl I was only supposed to pay back for intervening in her life and fucking it up completely. Now I can’t see her not being in mine. I knew once I slept with her things would change, I thought she’d get clingy and want to be around me all the time and not want to share me with other women. Turns out since I met her I can’t even think about just screwing around with someone else. Not the way she makes me feel. Her smile makes me feel like everything I thought I had was worthless. I hate it but can’t let it go at the same time.
Nothing will make me let her go.
“So you’re sure you’re ready to up the dosage on this?” Helen asks me for the third time.
“No, I’m not sure. I’m just wasting both of our time because I have nothing better do.”
“You said it’s safe, right?” I say, irritated with her hesitancy all of a sudden.
“We’re still running clinical trials in Russia, and they are a lot more l…”
“Save me the FDA disclaimer Helen. I want to do this.”
“Okay. Okay. Don’t let me stop you,” she says defensively.
“Not like I would,” I give her a wink to let her know I’m an asshole only in fun. She rolls her eyes at me and sighs.
“Remember, the slightest thing happens out of the ordinary, you let me know,” she says with a worried grin, one a mom would give her wayward son. I push that thought to the back of my brain where the garbage goes.
“So if I may ask,” she starts.
“And you’re going to ask anyway…”
“Why are you doing this Cal?”
“Seriously?” I ask her in disbelief.
“I think it’s for the girl,” she says knowingly.
“The girl's name is Lauren,” I correct her.
“I think it’s time that we meet Lauren,” she says with a wide smile.
“Okay,” I say simply grabbing my jacket preparing for the crazy Chicago weather that’s going to greet me downstairs. Her eyebrows raise.
“That’s it. It’s that simple?” she’s surprised.
“She’s been asking questions about meeting my family, and well, you know that wouldn’t exactly work out,” I say sarcastically.
“I’m shocked. You really care about her!” Helen’s way too excited as she steps out from behind her big intimidating desk and swats me on the chest. I shrug her off but I can’t help the smile I give her. It feels good for it to be out there. That it’s been said.
“Have you told her about…?”
“No and I expect it not to come up in conversation,” I warn her.
“Of course. I would never—I sort of have an oath that I’m bound by,” she says gesturing to her wall of a thousand degrees.
“I will be Dexter’s beautiful brilliant wife, and your friend only,” she says happily.
“And make sure Dex doesn’t make any snide comments, I’d hate to kick his ass in his own house.”
“I will handle Dexter. I’ll have Luc come and make a fantastic dinner, we will tell her how great you are.”
“Well, I’ll see you. Email me the details,” I say heading out the door.
“Cal,” she calls. I knew that was too easy.
“If you really care about her. You should tell her or at least start to prepare her. It’s not fair for her to not know,” she says solemnly. I pull out the little bottle of pills she gave me earlier.
“If you’re as good as you say you are. Soon there won’t be anything for her to know.”