“I havenotagreed to that nickname!” Aiden tries but everyone just laughs.
Janie looks at me so I explain, “I called him Lady Bridgerton when we met because he looks kind of like a Jonathan Bailey but obviously I meant Lord!”
“Braxton, get up here and do this,” my boyfriend tries to command the mayor’s son. But he’s trained us all too well.
Janie snorts next to me as she watches the teenager cross his arms and widen his stance and say, “I’m available for hire.”
“Bloody hell. What do you want?”
Braxton gets excited, “Well, Seth got this Xbox game that—”
“A thousand dollars,” the grump cuts him off.
Braxton chokes and nods and his friends cheer as he grabs the bottom of the ladder so Aiden can climb down.
“You’re no fun,” Max huffs as Aiden reaches the ground.
“I can be fun,” Aiden says in his sex voice, walking up to me and wrapping his arms around my back. He kisses me once, hard, then pulls back to say, “I missed you.”
“You were up there for like five minutes,” I laugh. He shrugs.
Janie makes a gag sound, “Quit being cute, it messes with my firmly held beliefs that you’re horrible.”
Aiden continues to kiss the crap out of me as everyone heckles us.
I pull away, “Don’t you have a meeting?”
“I do, at the bakery, let’s go,” he says with a squeeze of my hand.
I frown, “You’re meeting your important construction contractor guy at the bakery?”
“Of course. I wanted your coffee.”
I laugh.
He comes in for my coffee every morning, as promised. He wakes up in the wee hours when I do, goes to bed some nights when the sun is still setting, either next to me or on FaceTimewith me. He has taken me to Dubai and London so far. He’s done all the things he said he wanted to do.
Except ask me to marry him.
He’s said he wants me to marry him.
He’s said he wants to propose.
Even though it’s only been a couple months, I thought he might propose on the London trip. In his penthouse flat, overlooking the Times, he turned to me and said, “Tell me you love me.” To be fair, he had said it a million times and I hadn’t yet. But I still raised my eyebrows at him. He chuckled and said, “Please? Do you love me?” Of course I said yes. Then he picked me up, kissed me senseless, and had his way with me up against his giant windows.
But no proposal.
We have a trip planned next month to Paris, maybe then.
“You alright?” He asks me as we make our way down the street.
Just wondering when you’re going to propose.“Great,” I say instead.
He tucks me into his side and kisses the side of my head before stepping ahead and opening the bakery door. Janie gags again right behind us.
I smile and inhale the scents of sugar and coffee. It looks the same in here. Sounds, smells, feels exactly the same. Feels like home…with a side of anxiety.
But that anxiety is not mine anymore.
