Chapter 55

FREYA

Reyna choked, then squealed, “This is good, Jesus! This is some romance fiction–level stuff!”

Her coffee had gone cold, the sandwich long forgotten as she devoured my latest life updates. My mind had been racing all day, trying to process last night. The events kept flashing before my eyes, almost as if I were a teenager experiencing sex for the first time.

“Oh, to be in love!” Avery sighed dreamily, replacing the empty raspberry scone tray with a full one.

“We’re not in love,” I said defensively. My tone was so sharp, I wouldn't blame Avery for disbelieving me.

“Sure, honey,” she replied with a knowing smile. But it was true. We weren’t in love. What we had was very new. We were testing the waters, I think. I was scared to get my hopes up.

My mind drifted back to the night after that monumental dinner. Aiden’s words had sounded genuine, even tortured. It seemed the inability to say them sooner had been physically painful for him. Still, I was hesitant to trust my love life; it had let me down too many times in the past.

Reyna’s excited drawl pulled me from my thoughts. “God! How did your life get so exciting!” Smiling, I shook my head at her dreamy expression.

It was Sunday, and she was at Meringue for our weekly meet-up. We'd missed a few Sundays lately, and she wasn't happy about it. So today, from the moment Reyna walked in, I wasn't allowed to work.

Avery happily took over for me. She worked so selflessly that I felt no salary could ever truly compensate her. It was a slow day, allowing Avery to join us for lunch.

“Sure you don’t want a fresh coffee?”

Reyna ignored my question. “So, how is he? Is he good? Is he, like, big? He looks like he would be.”

I groaned. “Okay, enough with that.”

Reyna had demanded I tell her what had been keeping me so busy. Yes, she was dramatic. So I updated her on everything: my new business venture with Connor, the less-than-amiable family dinner at the Knights, and Aiden’s confession. Since then, she hadn’t stopped gushing about Aiden.

That brought me back to this morning. I knew he didn’t work on Sundays. So when he left in a hurry, I felt a little dejected. He hadn’t explained much, just said he had “some work to do.” I hoped that wasn’t code for “I’m avoiding you.”

Not that anything had happened that would make him avoid me. Nope. I was just being paranoid. He probably really did have important work.

“Oh, please! You have got to give me some details,” Reyna whined. “You’re fucking a man who looks like he walked out of a GQ magazine photoshoot. He’s richer than the English royals, and oh, he’s been obsessed with you for years. You’re practically living the American dream.”

I playfully rolled my eyes and was about to bite into my sandwich when a delivery guy walked in. He was holding a…

“Delivery for Freya Wilson.”

“And he sends you flowers while you’re working,” Reyna observed, staring with a raised eyebrow. She looked impressed. So was I.

It was incredibly sweet of him. All worries about this morning vanished as I went to get the delivery.

Avery sighed blissfully as I returned to the table with the bouquet. The sweet fragrance filled my nostrils. It had a note:

-Aiden Stop thinking about you, Sweetheart

I blushed, but I barely had a chance to read the note before Reyna snatched it from my hand. She read it aloud, then showed it to Avery, who let out an “aww.”

“Not jealous!” Reyna returned the note.

Avery sighed blissfully again. “I need to find a man who will send me flowers.”

“Yeah, me too. Although, on a less ambitious scale. You know what? I’ll settle for just a hot guy. My Lady Jane hasn’t had a visitor in months.”

I raised a questioning eyebrow. It was highly unusual for her to go without sex for months.

“What happened to that guy from Conscott?”

She made a face. “He likes ketchup with his pizza.”

Avery agreed that this made him less appealing. It did, to some extent, but still…

“Well, does his dick work?”

Reyna paused before adding another reason, as if it were the ultimate argument: “He lives with his mama, and his mama pays his bills.”

That was actually true. I scrunched my nose. “Okay, case closed.”

“Yeah,” she snorted, looking down at the flowers before her eyes gleamed with excitement. “You mentioned Aiden has a brother? Is he good-looking?”

This was her brilliant plan: she wanted me to set her up with Cillian because she liked Aiden. But you can’t judge one person by another. They were completely different, polar opposites, I’d say. Besides, at the party, Cillian seemed interested in Erica, or maybe he wanted to kill her—one couldn’t tell. But there was definitely something there.

“Yeah, but I think he has something going on with Erica. I’m not sure, though.”

“Too bad,” Reyna sighed, returning to her croissant.

Should I call Aiden to thank him for the flowers? That seemed like the right thing to do. How do people respond to receiving flowers? Fuck. Had I ever received flowers from anyone since my senior prom? Nope. I groaned inwardly. This was just plain sad.

I had dated many people since then, hadn’t I? I guess Aiden’s bar was really low.

“I should call him and thank him for the flowers,” I said aloud.

Reyna shrugged. “Or you could show up at his office and give him a blowjob. To guys, nothing says ‘thank you’ quite like a blowjob.”

I blinked at her suggestion, my cheeks flaming. She chuckled at my incredulous expression.

“What? We should turn the tables on love.”

“Thanks. Really good advice,” I said sarcastically. She waved a hand dismissively.

“Anytime.”