Anything to Have You. Paige Harbison

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СКАЧАТЬ silent as we waited for Marcy to return from the kitchen. My stomach churned and I bit my tongue as I tried to both think of something to say and stop myself from talking. She came back after only about a minute, coming over with one small plate with a perfect slice of pie on it, and two forks.

      “Enjoy.” She smiled, and went back over to my dad. She sat in my spot and started in on my half of his pie, and—I suspected—on distracting him from my conversation with Aiden.

      “You have the first bite,” I said, pointing to the sharp top of the triangle. “It’s the best part until you get to the back crust.”

      “You sure? I don’t want to steal your favorite bite.”

      “Oh, please, I have it at least once a week.”

      He laughed and took the bite. His eyebrows went up and he nodded. “That’s extremely delicious pie.”

      A smile tensed my cheeks as that hint of an accent showed through on the word pie. I wanted to tease him for it, like I might ordinarily do, but something stopped me.

      “Isn’t it? It’s my favorite.”

      “Yeah. Wow.” He took another bite.

      I liked that he liked it. I didn’t know why.

      “So...what’s up?” I asked.

      “I wanted to make sure everything was cool about last night.”

      “Oh, you mean—” I dropped my voice “—sleeping in the same bed? I didn’t tell Brooke. She didn’t ask, either, I don’t think it matters. I say, let’s not bring it up.”

      He looked at me for a long moment, looking a little frozen, and then took another bite. “Yeah.”

      I became conscious suddenly of my increasingly strong heartbeat. “Or do you mean...”

      He waited for me to go on.

      “I know we were flirting...when we were playing cards and all,” I said. After sitting around feeling guilty and dehydrated all day, I had begun to fear that maybe I had been the initiator more than I realized, and that perhaps it had all been in my drunken brain that he had been flirting with me, too. “I’m really sorry about that. I totally didn’t mean to be like that. I mean, Brooke is my best friend.”

      “Right. I guess we’ll forget about the whole thing. I’m sorry, too.”

      “You have no reason to be sorry, I was being a flirt. I don’t know. I must have picked up the habit from Brooke and not even noticed.” I laughed, feeling nervous and knowing I was talking a lot.

      “She’s certainly flirtatious.”

      “Hey...I know she acts how she acts, but that’s just because she’s like that. It’s nothing to do with you or how she feels about you.”

      That felt better. That made up for how I had acted a little bit: doing some damage control for her.

      “Right,” he said again. He seemed to go into deep thought, and I felt suddenly like I had made him angry again.

      I took a deep breath, glanced at my dad’s table to be sure they weren’t looking at us and then asked, “Aiden...we didn’t hook up...did we?”

      Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I couldn’t believe I had asked that. But no, it was good that I’d asked, I needed to know. Needed to be sure. Because while the evidence pointed to Eric...I had woken up with Aiden, and if I was forced to choose sober who I would rather kiss, I knew who that would be. Even admitting that to myself was difficult, but there it was.

      He hesitated, probably thinking I was an idiot, and then said, “No. We didn’t.”

      “Right. Of course not. It’s really embarrassing how little I remember. It’s pretty messed up.”

      “Not a good feeling, I’m sure.”

      His tone was still clipped and impatient-sounding.

      “So, um, I guess let’s go back to normal. Is that okay?” I asked.

      “Yeah. Sure.” He gave me a tight smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Well, I better head out. You should, too, the roads are getting kinda tricky out there.”

      “We will. I guess I’ll see you in the morning—you’re picking us up?”

      “School’s canceled tomorrow, I just heard it on the radio.”

      “Nu-uh, really?”

      “Really really.” He still looked annoyed. I longed to bring him out of whatever it was.

      “Well...Tuesday, then, I guess.”

      “Tuesday it is.” He pulled out a ten-dollar bill and put it under the plate I had just taken the last bite off of.

      “Oh, you don’t have to—”

      “Natalie, it’s fine.”

      He stood, and we both walked over to my table. Dammit. I had probably just made him feel super weird.

      “Nice to see you guys, have a good night. Drive safely. I was just telling Nattie—Natalie—that the roads are getting kind of slick.”

      “Yes, we’re going to head out pretty soon here. Nice seeing you again, Aiden, keep your eye out for other drivers.”

      He gave another tight-lipped smile and a nod before waving and walking out. I watched as he made his way to the car and got in. He took a second before starting the car, running a hand through his hair and staring at the wheel. After a second, he started it up and pulled out of the spot quickly and effortlessly.

      I watched him go, not sure at all how to feel. Something was different. Something was up with him. If we had hooked up, and I didn’t remember, I couldn’t really see him not telling me. If he was mad at me for hooking up with Eric, that would be weird, too. Maybe he thought it was my fault I had stayed in the bed with him. Maybe he was right. Maybe he felt weird about having to lie to Brooke about it.

      I thought for a second about simply telling her, but quickly decided that, no, that was a stupid idea. She really would kill us both.

      * * *

      BROOKE TEXTED ME not long after and told me she wanted to come pick me up to sleep over. My dad agreed to let me, but only if he drove me, because of the weather.

      “You’re not hungover at all?” I asked her, walking in and tossing my bag on the steps.

      “Oh, Nattie.” She laughed. “It would take a lot more to get me hungover.”

      “But you were pretty drunk,” I said.

      “Yeah, but I usually only get hungover if I don’t eat or something. Anyway, hi!” Brooke plopped herself on the couch in the living room. “Did you have more fun than you thought you would last night?”

      “I did, actually...yeah. You and СКАЧАТЬ