I move away from them, heading toward the sign for the restrooms. It’s a hallway I can hide in for a second. While my mind flits through all of the possible outcomes of me saying hello, Leo rounds the corner. He winks at me when he enters the restroom. I follow him in.
“You need to fucking watch yourself, Leo. You’re playing with fire. You might be getting transferred, but you’re pissing off a lot of people. That’s not good for business. You’re new to the Teams, so let me be the one to say, you are only one indiscretion away from being fired completely.” I mean it to sound like a threat. I am his senior, but he knows enough that I alone would be hard-pressed to have him fired without solid, indisputable evidence.
He pisses into the urinal and tilts his head back, eyes closed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t touched Kendall. We’re just friends.”
“Bullshit,” I scoff. “Stay the fuck away from them. This isn’t a game. This is their life.”
He zips his fly and readjusts his cock. “Not a game? Life is a game, brother. Have a good night.” He winks at me as he leaves, and I’m left holding fury and jealousy.
I slide down the filthy wall until my ass hits the ground. I don’t know how long I stay in here trying to come up with a plan that will backfire on Leo and expose the truth, but I snap directly out of it when Polly slides into the men’s room and flattens her back against the door.
“He said you wanted me to meet you in here?” Polly whispers. “Is that true?” I don’t know if it was Mercer, who was trying to do a good thing, or Leo, who is trying to set me up, but in this moment I don’t have any fucks left to give. I stand up.
She stalks toward me, her ass hanging out of the cheap dress she poured herself into. When she’s in front of me, I take her hands in mine. “Listen,” I say, swallowing hard, “Polly, I want to apologize for being an asshole.”
Her face changes, and her head tilts to the side in confusion. “I forgive you,” she mumbles.
“I was a bad man.” I sigh. “I did a lot of bad things to people who didn’t deserve it. I’m trying to be better now.” I lean over and kiss her cheek just as Magnolia blows in the door.
“Oh my god, this chick again?” Polly hisses. “She has a radar on you or something! I thought you were finished with her. That’s what you said.”
“I never said that,” I clap back, gently moving Polly out of the way. “Magnolia,” I plead. “Please, talk to me. Please.”
She nods. “I don’t care that you’re in here fucking Polly, Aidan. Trust me. They told me this is where you’d be.” Magnoliaglances at Polly and back to me. “I’m resigned to the fact that you will always be the same.”
“He’s not fucking me,” Polly says, folding her arms across her chest and yanking on her hem. Magnolia’s gaze darts to the dress.
She rolls her eyes. “Yeah. Sure. We both know Aidan Mixx is a skirt chaser, and yours looks just his style.”
I clear my throat. “I’m not fucking Polly.” I enunciate each word.
Magnolia holds her palms up, shaking her head. “I need you to tell me everything about Leo. Right this second.”
“Why? What happened?” I ask, taking a step toward her. She’s so fucking beautiful I can’t help myself. I’m drawn to her. My skin prickles with awareness. Polly huffs out a string of curse words and leaves us. Magnolia locks the door, and my dick jerks. It’s still on love autopilot—doesn’t know that’s not what a locked door means anymore.
“Is he with Kendall?” Magnolia asks, biting her lip to control the quivering. “He is so young. I should have known.”
I put my hands in my pockets and look at the floor. Her pain isn’t something I’m prepared to deal with tonight. Not again. Not ever again. Not at my expense, at the very least. “I’ve been keeping tabs, and everyone says he’s not with her. Like that. But I don’t know for sure. I’m sorry. Other than him focusing on ways to ruin my life, I don’t know anything else.”
Her breathing turns ragged, and she cries out. My feet react before my brain determines the right course of action, and she’s folded in my arms and sobbing into my chest in the next second. “He said he likes them young. Says you all like them young. Kendall was looking at him,” she says, hiccupping, “like she knows him. Really knows him, Aidan. I don’t know what to do.”
“I already did all that needs to be done, Magnolia. He’s being sent to the Cape Cod base in less than a month. Until then I’ll beon him like white on rice. He won’t get near her. I promise you, okay? I’m handling this.”
“Why are you being so kind to me?” she whispers. Pressing a kiss against her head, I inhale her scent like a dying man’s last breath. I don’t care if she realizes I’m taking her in like oxygen. It’s a desire so strong I don’t have control over it. I need a fix.
She pulls away, and her glassy blue eyes are so stunning I have to close my own to compose myself. Being this close to her without having permission to have all of her is a brand of torture even I wouldn’t condone. “Magnolia. It was the truth. Everything I said before. It wasn’t some twisted lie to get you back. I’m sorry. I know it doesn’t change anything because Kendall has to come first. I understand. Maybe someday in the future when Kendall is ready to reveal the whole story, we can make something again. I’ll wait for you, but I can’t be the bad guy stuck between you two. Not when the only person I want to be for you and her is the good guy. The hero. The one who saves you. I’d never do anything to jeopardize our relationship. Leo is a bad kid who has infiltrated a battlefield he had no right to fight in.”
She wipes underneath her eyes to clear the watery black tears. “I need to talk to her. We need to talk to her, Aidan. I’m not promising anything because as much as I love you, I have to love her more.” The reason I love her is part of the reason I may never have her again.
“But you love me,” I say, smirking a bit at the words dancing in my head. She still loves me. “I’ve gotta grasp onto something.”
She shakes her head sadly. “I’m going to talk to Kendall and bring her to the shop to show her the window display tonight. Meet me at Magnolia’s Steals in a few hours. With you there, she might open up. Maybe she’ll be forced to tell the truth.” I can hear the heartbreak in her voice, and I don’t want to know whatthat battle feels like. The love for a man versus the love for her child.
“And yes,” she says, interrupting my thoughts. “Of course I love you. Even if you bang bimbos in a men’s restroom. Obviously I am beyond helping. I’m a desperate breed of a doormat.”
I grab her chin. “You are not a doormat. I was not having sex with Polly. I was apologizing to her for being an asshole in my former life. I haven’t been with any women since you, and I don’t want to be with any other woman except you. You are the end-all, be-all to women for me. You’re it. The only one.” The urge to press my mouth against hers rises. Leaning in, I get close, she even closes her eyes in wait, but I pull away. “You’re not mine, so I’m not going to kiss you.” She’s so near I can taste her breath and scent her skin. My head swims. My cock stiffens. I imprint this as a moment of pure torture and bliss wrapped into one.
She pulls away, wipes her eyes once more, and unlocks the door. The magic moment is broken. I didn’t think I’d have this chance again to share this close space.
