“Did you miss me, Milo?” I say, bending down to give him a good scratch behind the ears. He responds eagerly and jumps up to give me doggie kisses on my face.
“Milo, no,” Aiden commands.
“No, no, I love puppy kisses,” I say as I continue to pet him.
“Are you hungry?” Aiden asks.
I stand up. “Starving, to be honest.”
Aiden reaches for my hands, then draws me closer and puts them on his chest, his large hand encasing both of mine. “This might backfire on me, but I wanted to surprise you tonight. So I took the liberty of ordering dinner for you, but if you don’t like what I got, I can get a pizza. I want you to know I didn’t do this in some kind of chauvinist, ‘I’m going to order for the woman’ way, but just to surprise you.”
I love two things about what he just said, and both reveal new layers of Aiden to me. One, the fact that he went to extra effort to surprise me is important. That tells me—once again—how thoughtful he is and how it’s important to make me feel special.
But the whole chauvinist comment? He earns a million gold stars for being conscious of that kind of behavior. I tuck these revelations into my heart, where I know I’ll examine them later when I try to go to sleep tonight, but can’t because I’m busy thinking about Aiden.
“You have a surprise for me?”
“Yeah. Come on.”
He leads me into the kitchen and tells me to have a seat at the breakfast bar. I hop onto a stool, and he opens the fridge,retrieving takeout cartons. I get excited when I see they are all from one of the poshest Japanese restaurants in Miami. A squeal escapes my lips, and Aiden’s whole face lights up, as if he’s won the jackpot, merely from the sound of my happiness.
This man is either going to be my forever, or he’s going to ruin me for the rest of my life.
“You know this place?”
I nod eagerly. “Yes. I love it! I’ve only been once, but it was amazing.”
Aiden exhales in relief. “Good. So this is a banger surprise, then.”
“Yes,” I say happily.
“Let me share what I ordered for us.” He sets down a large row of containers, and I begin to laugh.
“I forget what it’s like to eat with hockey players,” I tease. “Jamie and Ethan had my mom going to the grocery store every day, because no matter how many times she stocked the fridge, they plowed through it.”
Aiden sets down the last container and looks at me. “No, this is because I didn’t know what you would like. I wanted to make sure you had something to eat.”
OH MY GOD, I AM FOREVER RUINED IF I DO NOT END UP MARRYING AIDEN.
Then a sheepish smile appears on his gorgeous face. “Not that I won’t eat most of it, though.”
I smile back at him, my heart fluttering again inside my chest from how cute he looks. “So what do we have?” I ask eagerly. “Give me the big reveal!”
He opens the first container. “Blistered shishito peppers.”
“Yum. Love those.”
“Thank God,” he teases. “Next, let’s see what this is.” Aiden picks up the box and looks at the writing on the side. “Ah. Let me do the reveal so I don’t spoil the surprise.”
UGH, he is too cute!
He sets it down and opens it. “This is a spicy tuna roll.”
“That’s fantastic, I’ve ordered that before,” I tell him. “You’ve scored two goals, now let’s see if you can get a hat trick.”
Aiden chuckles. “Well, this one is a no-brainer, so I’ve got the hat trick unfairly,” he says, opening the next container. “Wagyu steak with a miso glaze. I knew you would at least like this.”
“It’s still a hat trick,” I say.
