“So? Are you looking at his arms? I’m sure he can hold youup.”
“I can,” Aidansaid.
“Thanks, Darby. Ah, yeah sure. Let’s do it. Sunday is better. It’s kinda crazy here on Saturday and Monday I have off. I can stay out past my curfew on Sundaynights.”
“Great. Let me know a good time and I’ll come pick you up. We can have dinner rightdowntown.”
“Soundsperfect.”
Aidan didn’t know if they were at this stage of whatever was going on between them yet. He took a risk and leaned down, kissing her lightly on the lips. Shae was smiling and maybe blushing a bit when he stepped away. Aidan took that as a goodsign.
“I’ll call you,” Shae said, her voice sounding all breathy. Aidan didn’t take that as a bad sign either. He decided to quit while he was ahead and turned for the door, carrying enough baked goods to keep Matt happy until lunchtime.
?
Shae couldn’t breathe. As soon as Aidan disappeared around the corner, she casually excused herself from Darby. She needed to put the beautiful flowers Aidan had bought her in water. As soon as she was alone, the wheezing started and she felt like she was going to cry. She knew she needed to talk to someone. She could call her mom, but then her mom would leave the hospital and come over just to check herout.
The last thing she needed was Dr. Kenney with her medical gear bursting through the door, scaring the shit out of Darby and her customers. She grabbed her phone out of her apron pocket and started at the top of her “most likely to calm me down” phonetree.
It was a crapshoot whether or not her cousin would be with a client or teaching a workout class, but Keira answered after a fewrings.
“Hey boo. How was lastnight?”
“Fine. It was great actually. I think I’m having a panicattack.”
“What’swrong?”
“Aidan just stopped by the shopagain—”
“Oh no. Is he being creepy? I have a client in ten, but I can ask Daniel to have a little ‘check yourself’ chat withhim.”
“No. That’s not it atall.”
“Oh right, he sent you scandalous pictures last night. What happenedthere?”
“The pictures led to more...adultstuff.”
“Okay. You have to tell me why you’repanicking.”
“I don’t know! We kinda totally had phone sex last night, with a video component, and then this morning he came by the shop with flowers and asked me out on a seconddate.”
“Do you not want to go out with him? ’Cause you don’t have to. Even if the video intercourse wasgood.”
Keira’s silliness was helping. Shae’s heart slowed down enough to let her laugh. “I do want to see him again. I think I’m nervous. Like really, reallynervous.”
“Ah okay. I’m just going to say this. I get why you’renervous.”
“You do?” Shae leaned against the edge of her stainless steel counter and tilted her head back. She should have never let Erica near herphone.
“Yes. I was a mess when Daniel and I started dating. A bumbling mess and now look atus.”
“Right, but then you and Daniel got engaged forty-five minutes later.” It had actually been something like three weeks, but it was pretty close. “I’m not trying to marry Aidan. We literally just started dating. I don’t even know if we are dating. We might just be hanging out or whatever the youths are calling it these days. We haven’t even had sex yet.”Oh now you’re just filling yourself with shit, that voice in her head said.As if you showing him every inch of your minora and majora didn’t count assomething.
“Okay, so you don’t want to rush into things. You don’t want to label it yet. That’s fine. Don’t. Just tell him that you want things to goslow.”
“But I don’t know if I want things to go slow. Ugh,” Shae groaned. “What is wrong with me? I want to spend more time with him. I definitely want to sleep with him. But every time I see him, it’s like my brain stopsworking.”
“Shae, you’re dating for the first time since high school. You’ve been out of the game for over fifteen years. It’s okay to be kind of confused. It’s okay to be a lot confused. And I know it doesn’t help that he’s super hot. I had the same problem with Daniel. I used to just stare at him. Heck, I still do! I mean, we’re both hot, but it’s weird to be matched with so muchhotness.”
