Try Again Tomorrow
1204 Words
Aiden gives me puppy dog eyes. "Zephyrine, please! I didn't mean to hurt you! I really wanted to go through with it, I just freaked out."
"It's okay, I just want to go to bed. We can talk about this in the morning." I don't wait for him to respond before I throw myself onto my bed.
He smiles. "Okay, tomorrow." He looks me up and down. "By the way, you looked amazing."
I bury myself under my covers. "Goodnight Aiden."
"Goodnight beautiful." His words are nice but don't have their intended effect on me.
I try so hard to fall asleep but my mind won't stop racing. I knew I had too high of expectations for what would happen between Aiden and I, but tonight was a lot. I'm still not even sober enough to judge how I feel about everything. The fact that I can't stop thinking about how sucky I've been to Grant doesn't help me get to sleep either.
I give up on sleep and decide to stretch my legs. I'm not even sure why, but I end up in front of the room Grant's sleeping in.
I open the door slowly, not wanting to wake him if he's sleeping. I think he's asleep until I hear a raspy voice. "Rinnie, you okay?"
"Umm, yeah. I'm sorry." I don't even know what to say.
"That was convincing." He flips on his other side to face me. "Sorry for what?" He sounds both concerned and amused.
I try again to apologize. "I'm sorry I didn't know you and your ex-girlfriend broke up and that I meet her when you were together. I've been an awful friend to you."
He chuckles. "You walked over here in the middle of the night because you feel bad I'm single? Rinnie, I dumped her. I'm all good, but I appreciate it."
I take baby steps in his direction, his eyes on mine the entire time. "Why'd you dump her?"
He pulls an Uno reverse. "Why do you sound sad?"
"Oh no you don't!" I scold him. "I asked you first!"
"Fine, it's stupid." He huffs. "I'm more into someone else."
I bite my lip to stop myself from cheering. He likes V, I just know it. As her best friend, I need a confession from him. "Who?"
"Your mom." He smirks at his terrible joke, proud of himself. "Your turn to answer my question. Why are you sad?"
"Aiden and I are finally going somewhere, but he's giving me whiplash. He wants me one minute and the next he's running away."
He doesn't answer right away. When he does, his voice sounds tired. "In xe all honesty, I'm not so sure he's ready to settle down. He seems to enjoy his frat boy lifestyle."
"I have faith we'll work through it." I move a piece of hair out of my face. "You don't want to hear about all this girl drama. Who do you like?"
He groans into his pillow. "Describe these mixed signals, a guy's perspective on this could be beneficial."
My eyes trail down to the floor. "No way I'm telling you! It's embarrassing."
He pats the bed next to him. "Come here."
I sit on the edge of the bed, holding my robe tight.
"If you tell me what happened, I'll give you three guesses on who I like." He offers.
It wasn't the best deal in the world but I knew it was the best I could do. V would be so mad if she knew I had the opportunity to figure out if he likes her and didn't seize it. "Don't make fun of me, okay?"
"I can't make any promises." He smirks.
"Grant." I complain.
"I won't make fun of you."
I nod to myself. This is for V. "He and I almost hooked up. Just as we were about to, you know, he freaked out and said he couldn't do it." I can't even look at Grant.
"Let me get this straight. You guys were butt a** naked and he jumped up and said, 'nah, nevermind'?"
"No!" I say, feeling a little insulted. "Neither of us were naked. In fact, he was fully clothed."
I feel Grant's eyes on me. "What?! Does that mean you weren't fully clothed?"
I shrug as if I don't care but I do. I care so much. "I had my underclothes on."
"You mean you were in lingerie?" He asks in disbelief.
I finally look at him. "Stop making this a big deal."
His expression softens. "I'm sorry, it's just annoying of Aiden. Do you want my opinion?"
"Please, but make it nice."
His eyes narrow. "I would not only never let Aiden anywhere near you again, I'd kill him."
"You said you'd make it nice." My voice is hoarse.
He adamantly shakes his head. "No, you told me to make it nice, I never agreed."
I go to stand up but to my surprise he grips my hand and pulls me into a tight hug. I squeeze him back with all my might.
We stay like that for sometime before he finally pulls back. "So, ummm, anyways." He laughs and leans back on his hands.
I smile. "I needed that."
"Me too."
I cross my legs. "Melissa Fowler?"
He makes a face. "That girl who made an add on Craigslist asking someone to get her pregnant?"
I laugh. "Yeah, she pretty."
"Pretty crazy. You think I want a kid right now?"
I knew she wasn't the one, but I couldn't make my plan to figure out if he likes V obvious. "Hmmm." I tap my finger on my chin. "Jenna Baker."
He rolls his eyes. "I told you I was just helping her fix her car."
I shrug. "I don't know, you guys spent quite a lot of time together."
"Her car was quite a wreck." Grant was great with cars. Everyone with any car troubles went to him. "You're down to one guess."
Now was the time. I take a deep breath. "Okay my final guess is Vanessa."
He tilted his head. "What'd you just say?"
I speak up. "Vanessa."
"Why would you think that?"
I grin. "I saw the way you were acting around her at the bar yesterday. You were loving her pretending you were her boyfriend."
Blue eyes bore into me. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"Do you like Vanessa?"
He looks flustered. "Doesn't matter."
"You said I get three guesses, you have to answer!" I repeat myself, with more confidence this time. "Do you like Vanessa?"
He throws his hands up in defeat. "Yes, okay? I like Vanessa. I like her so much I dumped my girlfriend and am got you home safely to impress her."
He only took me home to impress Vanessa? Does that mean he would've left me there otherwise? It doesn't matter, he likes Vanessa. He likes Vanessa and that's great news. I can't wait to tell her!"
"Now that that's over, wanna watch a movie because I'm not going to fall asleep anytime soon."
I clear my throat that feels dry all of the sudden. "Yeah, I'm down."
He opens the sheets for me and I make myself comfortable.
- Writer
