“Really?” I blinked. “It’s that simple?”
“It’s that simple.”
33
SYLVIE
“Where are we going?”I asked for the tenth time. Normally after training I’d be running off to my maid job. Tonight, I’d called in sick rather than show up looking like I’d been in a fight. I’d presumed we’d head back to Aedan’s apartment and—hopefully—talk about things. But he’d dragged me in the opposite direction as soon as we’d left the gym and now we were in a shopping street. It was evening, but the day’s heat had soaked into the sidewalks and buildings and now it was throbbing slowly out around us, turning the air to soup.
“Down here,” he said, checking a map on his phone. “Apparently.” He’d changed, after the gym, putting on a blue shirt that matched his eyes. I hadn’t even known heowneda shirt. Thinking about it, it looked suspiciously new.
We rounded the corner. The next street seemed to be nothing but boutiques.
“There,” Aedan said, satisfied. “This must be it.”
“Whatmust be it?” I was looking around for a bar, or a cheap diner, or maybe a sports club. I wondered if he was taking me to see a fight, as some sort of training exercise.
He took hold of the top of my head and gently turned it to look at the boutiques.
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“We’re going to buy a dress.”
“That’s ridiculous. You don’t have the knees to pull it off.” I looked up at him to see what the hell was going on.
“I’m serious,” he told me. “I’m buying you a dress. As a gift.” I could hear how utterly alien the words felt to him, even though he was trying to make it sound as if he did this every day. I just stood there and blinked at him.
He towed me over to the nearest window. “You’d look great in that one,” he said, pointing to something that was all red velvet and laces.
I shook my head—in disbelief, not disapproval, because actually itwasa pretty awesome dress. “What’s got into you?” I asked. “I don’t have money for stuff like this.”
“I’m buying.”
“Youdon’t have money for stuff like this! And neither of us have time! I’m fighting Jacki again in two weeks! We need to be training! We need to be planning! We—”
“We need to be taking a break.Especiallyyou.” He grabbed my hands and held them. “Look. I know you’re scared. I know you feel like you’ve gotta work every hour until the fight, or it’ll be all your fault if you lose.”
I went to protest...and then realized that he’d described exactly what I’d been feeling.
“I know because I’ve been there,” he said. “I understand. But the fight can’t be the only thing in your life or you’ll burn out. That’s why I had to get you out of the gym.”
“But whythis?”I asked, waving my hand at the store windows. “Why not just take me for a beer?”
“Because you deserve nice things,” he said softly.
I stared at him, my heart swelling in my chest. It had been a hell of a long time since I’d worn anything other than jeans. The girly, dress-buying, nail salon side of me had died with my mom. And I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed it.
“Okay,” I said grudgingly. “But maybe notthatone. I’m not sure all the laces are...me.”
“I kinda like the laces,” Aidan said with a wicked grin.
I pulled him to the next store. “How aboutthis?”I asked. It was white and long and silky and just about the prettiest thing I’d ever seen.
“That could work,” he said, grinning. But he wasn’t looking at it as much as he was looking at me—at my own stupid smile. He just wanted me to be happy.
“Aedan?”
“Yeah?”
