Falling for My Best Friend's Brother

I pressed home on the phone and quickly got back to the messages screen again. I clicked on Elizabeth Jeffries’s name and waited for the messages to load. I looked at the smiley face at the bottom of the screen and frowned. How dare they send smiley faces to each other? I quickly scrolled up the screen so that I could read all the messages that were available on the phone before Aiden walked back into the room. I rolled my eyes at the obvious flirting. Elizabeth was asking him if he wanted to come over to try her lasagna. Lasagna, my ass, I thought as I read the message. Then she asked him over to try her roast chicken. Then they talked about going to the museum and she was thanking him for taking her. My fingers gripped the phone as I read a message from her asking him if he wanted to go camping this weekend. He’d responded with a flirty message saying “only if you promise to keep the bears away from me” and she’d replied, “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” I could feel my face growing warm as I kept reading. My stomach was churning and my head was starting to pound. I was starting to feel upset. Why was Aiden flirting back with her if he liked me? How could he kiss me, but go to her house for frigging pasta? What was going on here? Did he like Elizabeth or did he like me? And was that why he’d gone to the bathroom as soon as he’d gotten her text? Had he gotten carried away with himself with me on his lap? And then her text had reminded him of her? I frowned as I put his phone back down on the desk. All of a sudden, I didn’t feel so light and excited.

“Hey, sorry about that.” Aiden walked back into the room with a smile and then looked at his watch.

“No worries,” I said, trying not to stare at his lips. Lips I’d just been kissing. Lips I wanted to feel against mine once more.

“I should go,” he said as he walked towards me. “I just realized the time.”

“Oh,” I said, my face growing red in embarrassment. He was going? Right after I’d asked him to come to my room and talked about wanting to experiment? I felt shame filling me as I realized he was blowing me off.

“Unless you want to finish watching the movie first and need someone to protect you?” He rubbed my shoulder and I offered him a weak smile.

“I’m fine,” I said stiffly. How had we gone from making out to polite acquaintances in five minutes? I sighed inwardly as I realized that I just couldn’t figure Aiden Taylor out.

“Okay, well, I’m sorry you had a bad date.” He gave me a pointed look and paused, but I didn’t say anything. “Thanks for a good night.”

“Yeah, you’re welcome,” I said, not really sure how to respond. I mean, what did you say to a comment like that? Thanks for letting me sit on your lap and kiss you? Thanks for letting me feel your hardness on my ass as I sucked on your lip? Thanks for grazing my breasts and making me feel like I’m on fire? And the good kind of fire, not the scary “I might burn” fire, but the hot, sensuous, “I’m going to get laid and it’s going to be amazing” fire.

“Have a good night, okay?” he said softly and I watched as he moved in closer to me. His eyes gazed into mine, and I held my breath as he gave me a light kiss on the lips. “See you later, Alice,” he said as he pulled back, and all I could do was nod like an idiot as he picked up his phone and walked out of the room, leaving me in a daze. I had no idea what had just happened, but I knew that there was a distinct change in our relationship. I just didn’t know what it meant.

Chapter Seven

Coffee Dates Aren’t Always Dates

“Come on, Alice, Aiden is going to be meeting me at the coffee shop in about fifteen minutes, so you need to hurry.” Liv poked her head into my bedroom and clapped her hands to rouse me.

“I just woke up.” I stretched and groaned as I stared at Liv. “And I can’t just show up by myself.”

“Tell him that I told you to meet me there as well.” She grinned. “And then I’ll text and say I couldn’t make it.”

“Liv,” I whined, not wanting to go but still jumping out of bed and opening my closet quickly to find something to wear. “I’m not going by myself,” I said and looked at her. “He invited you to coffee, not me. And after last night, there is no way in hell that I’m putting myself out there again.”

“Just hurry, Alice.” She sighed, but she didn’t try and change my mind. I had told Liv all about the previous evening when she’d gotten home and even she was wondering what Aiden was up to. “I tried to wake you up earlier and you didn’t respond.”

“I was sleeping,” I groaned and pulled a T-shirt on over my tank top. “How do I look?” I glanced at Liv and she glanced back at me quickly.

“Great, now brush your teeth quickly. You don’t want morning breath.”

“Argh, I hate morning breath.” I ran to the bathroom and grabbed my toothbrush and quickly filled it with a generous dollop of Aquafresh.

“And wash your face, too. You have booboo in your eyes.”

“That’s because I was sleeping just three minutes ago.” I yawned dramatically.

“What do you care about more? Sleep or love?”

“At this moment, sleep,” I groaned and yelped as I felt Liv brushing the knots out of my hair. “Liv!” I whimpered as I spat my toothpaste into the sink. “That hurts.”

“Do you want to go to meet Aiden and show him how beautiful you look in the morning or would you rather look like you were just drooling into your pillow?”