“I prefer to choose my own fate.”
“I was worried about telling you, but you deserved to know.”
“And when did you start…uh…?”
“Acting like a jealous idiot and misusing my connections in UACT to stalk anyone who showed an interest in you?” He grins, but there’s an apology in his eyes and uncertainty.
“Yeah, that.” I smile to let him see I’m not mad, and then another thought occurs. “Uh. How long has it been going on?”
“Since the night you met Dax in the gallery.”
“That’s a long time.” I think back to the last time I saw Dax before that night at the Tower. He’d looked so handsome and so defeated. A beautifully dressed ghost escaping the rich people gathered at the grand opening of a new art exhibition. I’d behaved coldly. I recognised him but saw such a huge change in him. He went from rags to riches, and for people like us, the only way to do it so fast is to sell your soul. I didn’t trust him, and yet I couldn’t stop myself from talking with him. I should have admitted it sooner. “Too long not to have seen what was right in front of me.”
“As soon as I knew about your memory skills, I wondered if you knew and were staying quiet or if it hadn’t triggered somehow?”
“I recognised him and I didn’t too,” I admit. “The boy I met was Vale, like me. The man in the Tower was Heights. I couldn’treconcile the two.”
“The shock wouldn’t have helped either. You were a mess. Walking muscle memory and wide eyes. When I walked in the bar, I wanted to reach out and hug you,” Aiden admits.
“By the time I realised, it was better to stay quiet. If he didn’t remember me, then I didn’t need to bring it up. With all the misunderstandings between us already…”
“It felt safer to just stay quiet?”
“Yeah.”
“But now you know we were with you…?”
“By with me you mean privy to all my crappiest moments?”
“You do have a habit of being a trouble magnet. The number of times I had to stop people following you home after your shift at the bar. That little toad Gresh being the worst offender.”
“Ugh. He is a toad. Thank you. It might be late but thanks for looking out for me.” Aiden nods. Another thought occurs. One that has me writhing in humiliation. “Sooo…umm…does that mean you know about Michael?”
“That dipshit boyfriend who thought romance was driving you to a secluded spot and showing you his backseat?” Aiden pushes off the wall, his shoulders square, and his tone dips into anger. “Yeah, I knew about Michael Tailor. I know he ditched you at the end of the high street in the middle of the night and expected you to make your own way home too.”
He growls out the words, still furious about it after all this time. Was that why me made sure our first time together was so gentle? We’d woke and screwed twice more after that, but he’d made serious efforts the first time to—how did he put it? —romanceme?
No matter his reasons, he knew all my secrets now.
I try to play it off. “Well, shit. Welcome to all my embarrassing moments.”
Aiden grabs my shoulders. He shakes his head vehemently. “No, that was HIS embarrassing moment; not yours. If I hadn’tpicked you up, God knows—” He stops talking.
Oh God! He really did know about all of it. I lean into him, placing my forehead against his chest so I don’t have to see the rebuke in his eyes. “The taxi driver? You were the,this-is-my-last-drop,taxi driver?”
He kisses the top of my head and admits it. “I couldn’t let you just walk home in the Vale.”
“Shit! I should have realised.” Holy fuck. How didn’t I know? I was always so self-aware and tuned in to what was happening. My success relied on looking for threats. Maybe that’s the problem; these guys would never have registered as threats.
“You were a bit distracted.”
He’s not wrong. I considered it a miracle that I made it home at all that night. My head had been all over the place. I look up into his eyes. “Distracted? I was livid. Humiliated. He’d just taken my…” I almost spilled the secret that my ex somehow sweet-talked me into losing my virginity in that backseat before dumping me in the middle of the Vale, way too close toHanson’sfor comfort. Then I collect myself before I appear any more naïve than I already am. “Let’s just say that free cab ride home was the highlight of my year.”
“He didn’t deserve you,” Aiden blurts, looking oddly guilty.
“Yeah, I figured that out.” The hard way.
“We probably don’t deserve you either.”
