43

CARLY

 

I come out of the stall, ready to wash my hands, and spot Aiden’s ex-girlfriend leaning against the sink in front of my stall. She has her arms folded across her chest. She knew I was in there. She was waiting for me.

I give her big eyes and go to the sink beside her and start washing my hands.

“So, you think you landed at the end of the rainbow, I bet.” She would be really beautiful if she wasn’t oozing with evil. She’s definitely evil.

“Excuse me, Sienna, is it? I hold no ill-will for you. Please, just back off,” I say.              

“You’re trying to date outside your social class, honey. It’s not gonna work.” She eyes me from head to toe with distaste.

I dry my hands.

She keeps going. “And do you have any idea who you’re playing with? Aiden is not a one-woman man. Do you have even a clue of how many women he’s bedded in the last year alone? Do you really think someone as cheap as you can hold his attention for more than five minutes?”

“I guess we’ll find out,” I say, and I’m done here so I head for the door. She sidesteps and blocks me.

“No. We won’t. Because you need to back the fuck off. He and I have history, and you’re in the way of us continuing our story. Either you back off, or I will make your life a living hell.”

“Are you for real?” I ask.

This bitch needs to step away.

I may still be mostly the old Carly, the sweet girl who lets people walk all over her, but now is a good time to maybe smackdown a bitch. Plus, we drank a lot of wine tonight, so I have a bit of liquid courage behind me. I’m pretty sure that in a smackdown scenario, I could take her. She won’t want to ruin her manicure. Me? I’ll go old school, pull out my earrings, and it’ll be a beat down.

I don’t get a chance. The door flies open and unfortunately, hits the back of her kind of hard.

My 6’2” buff and beautiful alpha is here, in the ladies’ room with us, and he has that look of murder on his face. He has this look on his face a lot where this chick is concerned.

Awe…  he’s come to rescue me. Huge brownie points.

“Sienna, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

She winces and steps aside. “You hit me with that door, Aiden.”

“Good. Saw you come in and was not thrilled with how long whatever you’re up to was taking. You look like you’re trying to stop my girlfriend from leaving the bathroom. Stay the fuck away from her. You get in her face or anywhere near her space again, and you’ll deal with me and I will not be happy.”

She pouts a little.

He gets right in her face with extreme intimidation. “Do you fucking understand?”

“Yes,” she squeaks, cowering.

“You make that angry face a lot around this girl, Aiden.”

His head snaps to face me. He furrows his brows.

“I don’t make you make that face.” I’m shaking my head.

He loses the anger on his face and watches me. He tilts his head and folds his arms across his chest.

“You wanna know what kind of faces I make him make?” I ask the girl.

She looks at me like I’m an alien.

I do my best O-face and let out a little growl. I don’t do a bad job of making it sound a bit masculine.

“Ohhhh, Carly, baby. That feels soooo good…”

Sienna is looking at me like she smelled something foul.

“Alright, peaches. Let’s get you home before you turn into a pumpkin.” Aiden is now laughing at me, and then he’s pulling me along, out the door.

“Hah!’ I laugh. We leave that bitch in the bathroom.

“I knew you were tipsy, Carly, but you’re fuckin’ tanked.”

“I am,” I laugh. “Let’s take a selfie. I’m going to put it on Facebook. Are you on Facebook?”

“No. No time for that shit.”

“How can I be all braggy with pictures of you and tagging you as my relationship if you’re not on there?”

“I’ll make an account, then. Just so you can link me as your relationship.”

“Yay. I have a hot alpha boyfriend who rescues me from evil bitches in the ladies’ room. You are a dream come true, Aiden Carmichael.”

He’s shaking his head in amusement as we get back to our table where there is a paper bag with rope handles and our check is sitting here, too.

He reaches for his wallet, opens the leather envelope and drops some bills in, and then grabs the bag with one hand, my hand with his other.

I skip along as we leave the restaurant. We get outside and I make him stop and I take a selfie of us.

“Okay,” I announce after we get the selfie done and I confirm it’s a good one. “Now, silly pic!” I make a goofy face. He smiles at me and I snap at him. “You have to make a goofy face, too.”

We both do a goofy pose, him with his tongue out, me with my tongue touching his cheek.

“Perfect!” I say, wiping his cheek with my hand after I capture the moment.

Aiden has a huge smile on his face all the way home.

“We’re about to get to another great part of the evening, Hot Sauce,” I tell him, still skipping.

“I hope it’s not the Carly puking her guts up part of the evening…”

“Nope. I haven’t thrown up drunk since I was fourteen.”

“Don’t break your record tonight, alright?”

“Alright. Don’t you wanna know what part of the evening we’re coming up to?” I ask.

“Yeah, baby. Tell me.”

“Drunken gorilla sex,” I inform.

“Oh really?” Aiden lights a cigarette. “Interesting…”

“Ew. Smoker. Bleck!”

“After that nice meal, peaches, needed a smoke. I don’t smoke much nowadays. My body is my temple.”

“Well, good. And when we get home, I hope you’ll wash your mouth thoroughly before you try to put it on me so I don’t turn green trying to worship at your temple.”

“Not a problem, baby. Tell me about this drunken gorilla sex.”

“Well… it’s like drunken monkey sex, in other words, wild, but it’s sexier than monkeys. Like, Bruno Mars We’ll be Fuckin’ like Gorillas sexy.”

“Got ‘cha.”

“That ex of yours, Aiden? She’s a BFC. Bitch-faced cunt.”

“You’re right about that.”

“She’s going to make my life a living hell.”

“No. No she’s fucking not.”

“She says she will if I don’t back off and let you two continue your story. But, I’ll fight her if I have to. I got no problems ruining my manicure.”

“Carly, I’ll make it so she doesn’t fuck with you. Do not give it another thought. No one fucks with you.”

“Okay.”

“That security guard?” he whispers in my ear.

“Yeah?”

“He tried to sniff around the building yesterday.”

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah. I’m having someone meet him in a dark alley tomorrow. He’s gettin’ the shit kicked out of him. He’ll be told he gets anywhere near you or me again, he loses an eye.”

I gasp.

“No way he will fuck with you again.”

“That’s a little scary, Aiden.”

“That’s how you make sure people don’t fuck with you, baby.”

“I’m a little more turned on right now that I even was in the restaurant when you went all alpha on that BFC. Now, I want to drop to my knees in the middle of the street and give you reward head.”

He barks out a laugh. We’re approaching the front of our building.

He bends and throws me over his shoulder. I squeal as he strolls through the lobby.

He sets me on my feet inside the elevator.

“Elevator head?” I offer, dropping to go to my knees.

He catches me by the armpits and hauls me back up.

“No. Cameras,” he says.

“Ohhhh.” I give him a nod. “Glad you’re on top of that.”

He shakes his head in amusement.

We get inside and I’m undoing his shirt before he’s got the door locked. I get up on my toes to attack his mouth and smell the cigarette smoke and I rear back. “Let me go slip into something more comfortable, okay? You go clean out your ashtray mouth.”  

“Sure, baby,” he says and takes our dessert bag into the fridge.

I sit on my bed to get my shoes off because bending over to do it makes me too woozy. So, I get one shoe off, but that was hard work so I decide to take a break before I tackle the other one. I lay back and post our selfie on Facebook. We look good. And we look happy. We’re all dressed-up fancy and we’re both smiling and cuddly. And then I post our goofy selfie, too. And that’s the last thing I remember doing.

***

 

It’s Saturday. I wake early with Aiden in my bed. He’s naked. I’m down to my bra and undies. I’m not sure if he took my dress off or if I did. I’m about to roll away to go to the bathroom and get the taste of yuck out of my mouth, when he reaches over and grabs me by the waist.

“Hey, Curly. Where do you think you’re going?”

“To brush my teeth.”

“Then what?”

“Coffee?”

“Wrong.” His eyes are closed. He’s naked. He’s naked and Aiden Jr. is awake.

“Breakfast?” I try, smiling.

“Depends on what you’re havin’ for breakfast.”

“Um… sausage?” I try.

He snickers and smiles with his eyes still closed.  “Right answer.”

“Be right back,” I say, and I slip across the hall to the bathroom.

When I come back, he’s on his back and his hand is on his beautiful hard cock. His eyes are open, and he watches me get to the end of my bed. I climb up.

“Good morning,” I say.

“Good morning to you, too,” Aiden returns.

“Not talkin’ to you,” I say. “I’m talking to him.” I grab Aiden’s cock and stroke it.

His smile makes my heart sing.

I enthusiastically give him head. He tries to stop me before it’s about to be over with no happy ending for me, but I don’t let him. I slap his hand away and increase the suction and the bobbing until he groans out my name, coming in my mouth, then going lax after I swallow it all down.

Satisfied that he’s satisfied, I sit up, cross my legs and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand.

“So, that’s payment for passing out after being a tease last night.”

He shakes his head. “Found you passed out with one shoe on. Your cell phone was on your face.”

I laugh at myself. He laughs with me. Or at me. It doesn’t matter which, because it’s funny.

“No hangover?” he asks.

“Nope. I don’t puke, don’t get hangovers. Sometimes I pass out in strange places and sometimes I oversleep but that’s about it. I’m a little fuzzy so don’t expect any deep conversations until I’ve had many cups of coffee, but I’ll be good.”

“Good.  Wanna get breakfast now or on the road? Braeden is expecting us at eleven.”

“It’s only eight o’clock. How about we get Braeden and take him to breakfast?”

 

***

Experiencing San Diego Zoo for the first time with Braeden who is not even three yet, but tells me he’s been there a thousand times, is fantastic. He serves as tour guide, holding my hand throughout, and I take about two hundred pictures. Many of them are of Braeden and Aiden posing in front of animal habitats.

I briefly met Aiden’s sister, who was in a bathrobe and cursing Aiden for showing up early so she couldn’t make herself look decent before meeting me. I wave it off. Even make-up free and in her housecoat, she’s a very attractive woman with long dark hair and big chocolate brown eyes like Aiden’s. She seems very down to Earth. I like her immediately. I also see how much she loves Aiden. She looks absolutely supportive of our relationship.

Lilly is asleep, so I pout that I don’t get to see her, but Adele promises me that she’ll get me some Lilly time when we get back.

We’re back just before dinner time and they invite us to stay for Chinese take-out.  Austin comes by, too.

I missed seeing him at work on Friday. While we’re in the kitchen, just us two, as I’m getting a drink refill and he’s filling up a second plate while Dirk, Aiden, and Adele are in the dining room, I whisper, “So… Meryl?”

Austin gives me a pissed-off look and I’m figuring he’s not going to answer my question, but I’m wrong.

“She led me on,” he says.

I blink and give my head a shake. “She led you on?”
Not Meryl. No way.

“She and I clicked. She kept trying to keep it in the friend zone, so I tried to respect it, but she was giving me mixed signals. Then she pushed it and we went farther than she was comfortable with, though it was absolutely consensual, and she got upset and told me she had to go. She has a fiancé at home.”

I do a hard blink.

“A fiancé?”

“Not officially, but same as. She’s expecting him to propose. Son of her father’s best friend.  Close to her family. It’s not arranged marriage but sounds pretty close to it.” He shrugs.

“I’m sorry, Austin. If it helps, I don’t think she tried to hurt you on purpose.”

“It doesn’t help. I just wanna forget it. She’s on the other side of the world now, so it doesn’t matter.”

“Carly, bring out some more kung pao, will ya, baby?” Aiden calls out. I lift the carton and slip by Austin, giving his shoulder a squeeze. His head is down and he’s looking pissed.

I bring Aiden more chicken.

I’m mulling over the Meryl and Austin information and the baby starts to cry, so Dirk gets up to go get her, so that Adele can finish her dinner. Braeden is at the table with us, in a booster seat, trying hard to master chopsticks. He’s making a huge mess.

Dirk is with us a moment later with baby Lilly in his arms in a tiny pink bundle.

I start to gasp like a lunatic and hold my grabby hands out. He puts her into my arms and I start cooing immediately.

She’s blinking at me, looking around, and then she starts punching the air with her tiny fists. Aiden leans over and kisses her forehead and then kisses my cheek.

“Uh oh. Baby fever. Watch out,” Dirk jokes.

“Nothing to be afraid of,” Aiden shrugs and it makes me warm inside.

“I meant watch out Carly. Maybe it’s Aiden that has the baby fever…” Dirk teases.

I simply smile and play with Lilly’s perfect tiny hands. Oh yeah. Some day? Babies with Aiden? It’s kind of soon to mull it over right now, but oh definitely… I can see it. He’d totally be a DILF.

We hang out for coffee and dessert after dinner and then Austin and Aiden talk about dinner at Austin’s the next day with their parents.

They start talking about all the weirdness surrounding their parents’ odd relationship and the recent development of Quinten wanting to stop Audra from leaving him, despite them having a marriage of convenience for years and years and the bombshell that she’s sleeping with Quinten’s golf buddy. Sienna’s father. And how it led to Sienna pursuing Aiden.

“It’s like he’s having epiphanies with his health, finally. The heart attack a few years ago didn’t do it,” Adele says, “But now? Now that he has grandkids? Now that Aiden is moving home? He’s looking to fix what’s broken. I don’t know if she’s capable, or interested, though.”

Aiden’s moving home? I try not to react, but I’m feeling happy inside.

They mull their parental woes over throughout coffee and dessert and then Aiden and I say our goodbyes. I like his brother and his sister. And Dirk. And my sister isn’t likely to become domestic anytime soon, so Aiden’s niece and nephew? I’ll happily be an auntie-figure for them. If he and I stay together, if we become something, it’ll be me as their auntie forever.

It’s way too soon to think of all this stuff. We’ve been dating less than a week. We’ve known one another two weeks and I hated him for the first week. Like… hated him.

It’s like all that’s in his life right now, making it a crazy rocky ride in stormy waters, is making him reach for something to anchor himself. His family. His home town. And also me, I guess.