Page 38 of Not in My Book

“This is what we need out of a romance to start with,” Ida said, dragging our attention away from each other. “But I needmore. More stolen touches and physicality—thegoodparts of a romance. You’reclose,but it’s not there.”

I shot Aiden a look as an idea popped in my head. What if we went out on another fake date? We’d been so closed off to each other and that night was the closest we’d gotten to opening up.

He must’ve known what I was thinking because he immediately shook his head.

“You’re right,” I spoke up quickly, before Aiden could stop me. “We’ll go on another fake date.”

“But more romance this time,” Ida said, hesitantly. “Are you sure you two are okay with this?”

“Don’t worry about it,” I said before Aiden could answer her. “I’ll plan it this time so it’ll definitely be more romantic.”

“I picked a literal candlelit restaurant,” Aiden protested.

“And it was a good start, but we need a little more.”

“What’s more romantic than acandlelit Italian dinner?”

“Look, if you’re inLady and the Tramp,” I countered, “it’s plenty romantic—”

Aiden rolled his eyes. “Lady and the Tramp? Did I miss the part where we shared the same piece of spaghetti?”

“Oh, youwishwe—”

Ida cleared her throat, cutting us off. “Everything okay over there?”

“Of course,” I said quickly.

She tsked. “Regardless of what you two do in your free time, I expect the romance to progress in the next chapters.”

Once we were outside the building, Aiden cornered me the way I’d done to him the other day. Except he used his height to his advantage. My back was against the wall of the building, his hand pressed to it near my ear.

“Ooh so scary,” I teased. My heart was pounding against my chest, which was moving up and down heavily with every breath. He was hovering over me, his eyes boring into mine. I pressed my thighs together as the image of him like this wandered in my mind way farther than I wanted it to. If he hadn’t pissed me off so much, this would’ve been hot.

“What the hell is your problem?” he snapped.

“What’smyproblem? What’s yours?” I demanded.

“Why are you proposing fake dates? Wasn’t the first one painful enough?”

“Yes! Which is why we need another one.” I pushed him away from me and glared up at him. “You’re the one who shut down when we were writing the chapter. If you hadn’t, maybe Ida would’ve thought it was romantic enough.”

“I didn’t shut down,” he said tersely. “I had to go, that’s all.”

“Oh please, you deleted half of it.”

“You’re the one who wouldn’t stop shaking the fucking table. You’re the one who said our date wasn’t romantic enough.”

“Well, it wasn’t!” I moved past him and started to make my way toward Union Square. It was rush hour, and I was hoping I’d get lost in the crowd. I walked quickly, my height finally an advantage as I blended into the crowd.

Suddenly a hand wrapped around my wrist. Aiden pulled me out of the throngs of people.

“Don’t walk away,” he growled.

“I’m over it,” I said. “I’m overyou. If we can’t have a friendly conversation—”

“A friendly conversation? It felt more like an interrogation—”

“How can I get it through your head? That wasMax and Hunter, not Aiden and Rosie.”

---