“You’re my friend,” I said, weakly, knowing it wasn’t much of an excuse.
“Aiden’s your friend. I mean, you’ve known him as long as you’ve known me. I’m not kidding about that crush. Anytime you didn’t come home with me after school, I got interrogated about where you were. And if you were okay. It was kinda sweet, actually.”
“Did he ever actuallysayhe had a crush on me?” I asked.
“Does anyone ever actually say they have a crush on anyone? Like, especially at fifteen?”
That was a good point.
“Listen, you can either go see your batshit familyandyour ex alone, or you can take a tattoo artist who wears a lot of eyeliner. The leastyour typein the world. They’ll stop trying to set you up with Mandi again if they think you’ve gone insane.”
“Like the rest of them, you mean?”
“Your dad’s okay,” Kieran said. “But what do you care? You never talk to them anyway.”
Kieran was right, on every point he made. My family was nuts, I didn’t want to date Mandi ever again, and Aiden was the leastmy typeperson in the world.
My dad was okay, too. I couldn’t blame him for my mom torturing him for twenty years before she divorced him for not putting up with it anymore.
“Look, you wanted a date, I’m handing you one on a silver platter. Take it or leave it.” Kieran shrugged.
The more I thought about walking Aiden into the wedding, the more the idea appealed. I wondered if he still had that oversized leather jacket he wore everywhere.
Mom would hate him. Mandi would hate him.
Kieranwasright. He was perfect.
“Should you be volunteering your brother without asking him first?” I asked, still fighting to shake the last of my nerves over this. It was a stupid thing to do, and I knew it, but I couldn’t see any other way to come out of this without promising to give things another shot with Mandi.
I didn’t want to end up like my dad.
“I’m not, I’m telling you he’ll agree. Besides, he could use a vacation and he loves snow. You said the wedding was at that ridiculous hotel in Quebec?”
“It is, yeah. Does he have a passport?”
Stop making excuses.
“Oh yeah. He gets invited to international conventions and stuff all the time. Aiden’s famous, man. He’s out of your league now.” Kieran grinned at me.
He was proud of his younger brother. Both of them, I thought. Devin, the baby, was a world-class daredevil. Everyone and their sister followed him on Instagram.
I didn’t, but only because I’d never had an account and couldn’t figure out what part of my life would possibly be photo-worthy on a regular basis. The occasional pretty sunset or really nice latte heart probably wasn’t enough.
“Fine,” I agreed, which did absolutely nothing to help my nerves. Kieran had already said no—it stung less because he was my friend and I knew it wasn’t because he didn’t like me, but…
I hadn’t seen or spoken to Aiden in years. This would be like asking a stranger on a date.
Except thedatewas a week-long trip to a wedding in Canada where I wanted him to at least pretend he liked me.
“Finish your coffee and get off your ass,” Kieran nudged. “He closes up shop at two on Sundays.”
I glanced up at the kitchen clock behind Kieran to see that it was twenty-to, and drained the last of my coffee in two gulps. Now or never. I had to leave first thing tomorrow.
“I’ll text you the address,” Kieran promised as I shrugged on my coat, pulling his phone out. “Tell him I love him.”
“Will do,” I promised, heading for the door.
If I was going to do somethingthisstupid, I might as well do it quickly.
