“I also do piercings, but that’s not nearly as much fun,” he added.
Damien laughed, and I couldn’t tell if he was uncomfortable or if that was just… the way he laughed. I hadn’t gotten to know him all that well.
For Aiden’s sake, I hoped it was just the way he laughed. For Hallie’s sake, I kind of hoped he was uncomfortable. I couldn’t have lived with a laugh like that.
“He’s got walls covered in awards,” I said, because at least Aiden had done something with his life.
“I remember you in school,” Hallie said. “You used to hang out with the art teacher, Mrs… wow, what was her name?”
“Mrs. Martinez,” Aiden said without missing a beat. “We still talk. She came in and had me do a paintbrush on the inside of her left forearm with a whole rainbow of paint spilling off the bristles. Meant a lot.”
Every time Aiden said something about his life I felt like he was peeling back another layer for me, letting me closer and closer to the core of who he was.
It wasn’t even that he intentionally hid it, I thought. It was that no one had ever bothered to look.
Or thatIhadn’t bothered to look. Aiden probably had dozens of intimate friends who knew him as well as they knew themselves. But for me, this was a whole new world.
And it was more than a little magical.
“She was a lesbian, wasn’t she?” Hallie asked.
Aiden smiled. “Never asked her exactly how she identifies, but I did go to her wedding. She’s married to a really nice hairdresser now.”
He’d been close enough to theart teacherfor a wedding invite?
But then, of course he had been. EvenIknew that people picked on Aiden. He didn’t let them get away with it—he’d handed out more than one black eye in his time—but it must’ve been stressful all the same.
Better to hide where he knew he was safe.
I should’ve done something about that, I realized with a guilty pang. I’d only been a kid, too, but I’d been older, and at least younger kids would have listened to me. Two years was a huge gap at that age.
Not so much anymore. If anything, Aiden felt more mature than me. Better travelled, further along in his career…
Happier.
But then most people weren’t as happy as Aiden was, or as comfortable with themselves. I definitely wasn’t.
The dinner conversation turned away from Aiden’s life choices and back to the wedding, but not before he offered me a tiny, warm smile that curled around my heart.
Aiden was doing his best for me, it only seemed fair that I repaid him in whatever small way I could. Even if it was only playing the proud boyfriend.
We walked out of the restaurant shoulder-to-shoulder, my face hot from the glass and a half of wine I’d swallowed down while I was trying to avoid getting involved in any topics that I knew would go badly if I spoke my mind on them.
In contrast, Aiden had been the peacemaker. Not evenpeacemaker, he’d been the diplomat who neatly avoided a conflict breaking out by steering people away when he sensed tension in the room.
From me, probably.
I winced as the headlights of an approaching car swung around and hit me right in the eyes, the otherwise dark parking lot suddenly lit up like midday by the ridiculous high-beams of an equally ridiculous SUV.
My mom ran over to the latecomer with an excited squeal while my eyes were still recovering enough to see anything. Aiden’s body pressed close to me was the only thing stopping me from stumbling and losing my balance.
“Mandi!” Mom enthused, shrill in the snow-banked quiet.
My stomach swooped.
Aiden shuffled a little closer to me, though I wasn’t sure if it was protective or seeking protection.
I wouldn’t have blamed him. One or the other was bad enough, but Mandiandmy mom together were a force of nature.
