Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
I headed to his hotel room door, took a deep breath, and knocked on it four times.
When he came to open it, my breath got caught in my throat, and I started choking on my own air. I turned away from him and tried my hardest to clear my throat. My eyes began to water as panic began to rise in my mind. I began coughing hard, unable to cover my mouth due to the box within my hands. Was I choking? Oh gosh, I was choking in front of Aiden as he blankly stared my way.
“Sorry,” I said, forcing myself to swallow as a few more coughs slipped through. Once I gained my composure the best I could, I looked at him and smiled. “Hi.” If you looked up the word awkward in the dictionary, my photograph would be plastered there.
Aiden stared at me coldly, and a chill raced up and down my spine as he didn’t say a word.
I cleared my throat—again. “I wanted to apologize for throwing up on you last night. I normally can hold my alcohol better, but the mix of fried cheese and slushy, and—”
“Is that all?” he harshly cut in. His eyes were unamused, and his stance was hard as he crossed his arms. Was his chest always that broad? Regardless, it was clear that I didn’t dream up his standoffish appearance the night before like I’d hoped. He wasn’t the same gentle boy I fell in love with.
“I, well, no, I, uh—”
“Words, Hailee,” he ordered. “Use your words like a grown-up.”
Well.
That’s rude.
I shook my head and held the box out toward him. “I bought you new shoes. You’re still a size thirteen, yes? They’re probably a lot cheaper than the ones I ruined last night, but I figured it was the least I could do to make up for it.”
“I don’t want your shoes.”
The flurry of butterflies in my stomach was having their wings ripped off one by one. I inched the box closer to him, glanced around the hallway, and whispered, “Just take the shoes, Aiden.”
“I don’t want them,” he repeated. He stepped back into his room and went to shut the door, but I put my foot in place to stop it from closing.
“Aiden, please.”
“What do you want?” he snapped, his eyes packed with hatred. A hatred I thought I’d daydreamed the night prior. A hatred that I thought I’d never see come from him. A hatred that broke my heart.
“I… I—”
“Words,” he barked in a low scowl. His harshness threw me for the biggest loop. Never in my life had Aiden been so rude to me, even when we ended things. Sure, he texted me being confused, and I ignored his messages, but he was never rude. Just hurt.
Plus, he treated everyone else in town as if he was a golden retriever, the nicest man alive. Why was he being so painfully rude toward me after all these years? Besides, he moved on! He had his dream life. His rudeness was uncalled for.
People break up in life, Aiden. That doesn’t mean you have to be a total dickhead.
“What’s the matter with you?” I shot back. “I’m trying to be nice.”
“You should stop trying. It’s not working.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re being a dick.”
“Good. Then maybe you’ll leave me alone.”
“I—”
“We aren’t doing this.”
“Stop cutting me off!”
“Then finish a fucking thought!” he hammered back, his veins popping out of his neck.
“I would if you wouldn’t cut me the heck off! Geez! I came to bring you a pair of shoes, you jerk. You don’t have to be like that. I figured after all this time, we could maybe be on good terms, but—”
“We aren’t.”
“Stop cutting me off,” I said once again.
His brow knitted, and he glanced at my foot blocking him from closing the door. Then he looked back at me. “Move your foot.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Hailee,” he sternly said. Hearing his lips say my name? It was a new kind of heartbreak because he used to say it so gently. “Move. Your. Foot.”
I moved it.
He slammed the door in my face, leaving me standing there with a shoebox in my grip and my ego buried six feet under.
As I walked away, his door swung open, and he called after me again. I turned toward him, hopeful that he’d come to his senses and was ready to apologize to me for being so cold and nasty.
He approached me slowly, and with each step he took, my heart began pounding faster and faster within my chest. He was so close that my mind made up a crazy idea for a second that he would lean in and kiss me right then and there. That he’d been fighting a war in his mind, and his outburst was just because he didn’t know how to act around me after all this time. That his lips missed my taste so much that he was going to fall back into me.