EIGHT
“We had to take a written test today, of all things,” Cat told Aiden as they sat down in the corner booth together. Bob and Kevin followed them, he noticed, arranging themselves on one side of the table just as they’d done before.
“Really?” he asked with a curious chuckle. “So how did you do?”
“I passed it, of course,” she shrugged. “I guess they wanted to be sure anyone who might work behind the front desk would know how to work with a computer, and since I didn’t select any one particular category, and Kellen saw that I have an MBA, he’s decided to run me for both housekeeping and administrative positions. Lucky me, I get to have the best of both tortures.”
“Oh, I’ll bet you don’t mind that at all, miss over-achiever,” he teased her.
“You’re right,” she agreed. “I don’t.”
Aiden pretended to be Scott for the greater part of the week, and every evening he and Cat shared a meal together with his two sidekicks in tow. She told him about all the various tests she was given, and all the drills on cleaning rooms and doing the laundry. What she didn’t tell him was more telling than what she did, as far as he was concerned. Cat had won every single contest, but she never said a word.
In between their own drills and tests, the divers also managed to go out and bring in more coral remnants. Aiden managed to turn twenty people into eight within the first three days, though obviously it was Declan, and not him, who had to give the extras the boot. Originally he had thought to hire six divers, but that was the one thing about being the boss he liked. A guy could change his mind.
On the fifth day of the job fair, when he came to the dining hut in search of Cat as usual, Aiden was contemplating when exactly he ought to tell her who he was. Mostly because it was Friday night, and he was remembering all the teasing he’d received from his friends about that being date night. He couldn’t quite say why, but he was feeling nervous and giddy all at the same time when he came in, and their eyes locked and held.
“Scott! There you are,” Cat chuckled, coming to his side. “We had such a busy time today, you can’t possibly imagine. Well, especially me and about five others, since we were competing to see who could clean up the cabins the fastest. Me and three other ladies had to keep competing several times in a row until Kellen finally determined which of us truly has the fastest time.”
“Well, I’m sure it was you,” he told her, smiling. He gave her hand a little squeeze. “Kellen told me that you win hands down every time.”
“You’ve talked with Kellen about me?” Cat asked, blushing.
“Well, maybe once or twice,” he shrugged, then glanced at her slyly. “I couldn’t help it, you know. Whenever we are together, I have such a good time. I just wanted to know more.”
Cat chuckled. “I’ve really been enjoying it too. It makes me hope we’ll both get hired.”
Aiden’s face fell. “Cat, there’s something I’ve been hiding from you, and it’s starting to eat me up inside,” he admitted. “But I don’t want to tell you here, at the resort, since it’s—well, I suppose you could say it’s a private matter right now. Something I don’t want any of these people to know until later on. Will you come out with me tonight so I can explain it to you?”
“Wow,” she said, blinking a few times. “I wanted you to ask me out, but I wasn’t expecting anything about you having something to hide as part of the asking. That sure does make it tough to decide whether or not to go. I’ve always had one rule in my world, and that is that the people I hang out with need to tell me the truth.”
“It’s nothing bad, necessarily, just—well, kind of strange, I suppose,” he replied. “Something I was trying out that seems to have worked well for the most part, except as it pertains to you. I want you to know about it before the others so you won’t be taken by surprise.”
“Okay, fine, now that I’m curious as hell,” she said, laughing. “You’ve talked me into it.”
“Great, then,” he said, smiling. “How about if we forego this meal for now? For once, I’d like to know we’ll be dining alone.”
“What, you mean you want to go now? I thought maybe I’d get a chance to change clothes and clean up first, since I’ve just spent the last three hours running drills.”
Aiden chuckled. “Don’t worry, we’re going to go change clothes. Did you bring along anything worthy enough to wear to the Rock Reef Club? They serve some excellent meals.”
“No way,” she grumbled. “All of those type of clothes are probably dripping with seawater in my closet back home.”
“Wow, that’s rough,” said Aiden. “I guess we’ll have to scale it down a little. I know just where we can go. What do you say we get cleaned up, and I’ll come get you in about an hour?”
“Sounds wonderful,” said Cat, smiling shyly.
“One thing, though?”
“Hmm?” she asked, looking up at him.
“I’d like to get this out of the way before we go,” he said, suddenly cupping her chin and drawing her lips up to his, kissing her. “Sorry, that’s the other thing I’ve been thinking about. I wanted to do it so I won’t spend the whole night being nervous about it, you know?”
Cat shook her head. “You’re weird, you know?”
“So I’ve been told.”
“See you in a while,” she said, then abruptly turned and darted for the door. Aiden wondered if she was just as embarrassed as he now felt, and he came back to the reality of the room and all of the onlookers inside of it. Smooth, he though, mentally kicking himself in the head. Real smooth.
Why was everything so difficult with this girl? First he had to go and meet her when he wasn’t even himself, and second he had to be an idiot and kiss her right there in front of everyone. That was going to look really good when she realized Scott Denton didn’t even exist, but was a combination of his middle name and the maiden name of his grandmother rolled into one. Did he think kissing her now would make him feel less nervous all evening? Not even close!
Wondering if that was going to be the only kiss he ever got from the girl, Aiden sighed and stepped back out of the dining hut, slowly heading for the main hotel building to give Cat enough time to disappear from the lobby before he entered it himself. His own room was conveniently located on the bottom floor, and he headed there now, already cataloguing just which outfits he had brought along with him, and which one of them would be the most likely to make him look to hot to send packing once he told Cat the truth.
He settled on a pale blue dress shirt, and did not select a tie, leaving the top two buttons undone. This particular shirt didn’t have long sleeves, so he was unlikely to get too warm, and it had the added advantage of showing off those biceps, just in case the view might help. He snickered at himself and rolled his eyes. Cat wasn’t the kind of girl who let physical concerns rule her world—surely even his subconscious must have figured that out.
Next he tugged on some gray slacks, and then tugged on some black loafers. He grabbed a light, gray jacket which he didn’t bother to put on, and finally headed for the door, feeling about as confident as bug caught in a spider’s web as he did so. He hoped for the best, of course, but the odds were Cat wouldn’t be happy at all.
Aiden, even a nervous Aiden, was not the kind of person who shied away from anything. When he reached Cat’s door, he didn’t hesitate to knock, and it didn’t take her long to open it either. She was wearing a red top with black sequins that etched out tiger stripes, a knee-length black skirt, and her sensible black flats. She was absolutely beautiful.
“Cat? You look amazing,” he said, reigning in an overwhelming urge to start kissing her again. “Are you ready to go?”