Page 80 of Not in My Book

His cheeks tinted and said, “I’m glad you like it. If you trust me, I’ll order for us?” I opened my mouth, but he held a hand up to stop me. “And my Christmas gift to you is that it’s on me. Don’t worry about the money, okay?”

I sighed. “Normally I would protest, but after learning you’re a secret billionaire—”

“I’m not even amillionaire,” he said with a laugh.

“—I suppose I can allow it.”

A little while after he ordered, the waitress came back with a giant plate of fries and two bowls of decadent hot chocolate with straws sticking out of them.

“This,” Aiden said, scooting one of the bowls closer to me, “is the iconic Frrrozen Hot Chocolate.”

My eyes lit up. “Explains the straw.”

“Since you live essentially off sugar and nothing else, I thought you might like it.”

I took a sip and moaned. The texture was a bit unusual, but the chocolate was so sweet that I eagerly sipped more. “How have I never known about this?”

Aiden took a sip from his own and said, “The first time I asked a girl out on a date, I took her here. Shehatedit. She thought there was something morally abject about having something frozen and hot simultaneously.”

I raised a brow. “Did you two go on a second date?”

“No. Not liking frozen hot chocolate is a deal breaker.”

I smiled. “Did you bring all your dates here to test it out?”

“A few,” he admitted. “The worst was a girl who was lactose intolerant but was too embarrassed to tell me. She had the frozen hot chocolate and spent the rest of the date in the bathroom downstairs.”

I winced. “Poor girl.”

He shrugged. “It could’ve gone worse.”

“The worst date I went on was when I was in middle school.” I leaned forward.

His eyes sparkled in excitement as he sipped on his drink.

“Back then, Ireallyliked this guy. He had Justin Bieber hair and said ‘swag’ after everything. Somehow he got my number, and we texted back and forth. We never really talked at school though so I thought it was more of a love letter type of romance, which made it even better for me.”

“Of course,” Aiden said.

“Eventually, he asked me out on a date andobviouslyI said yes because it was my first dateever. I gave him my address for his mom to pick me up and everything. We were going to seeThe Hunger Gamestogether because I had read the books and loved them, which I also thought was really romantic.

“When I opened my front door, his smile vanished and he started looking around. He said, ‘Oh, hey Rosie. Is Lizzie here?’ Turns out, he thought he was texting Lizzie, my best friend, the entire time and was going on the date withher.”

“Oh no.” Aiden’s eyes widened.

“He’d never said my name, and I thought it was so romantic that he only ever called me ‘babe.’ His mom saw the whole thing from the car and forced him to go out with me anyway.”

Aiden’s elbow was bent on the table, his hand covering his mouth. “I’m sorry, it’s not funny.”

I rolled my eyes, sipping my hot chocolate. “It’s a little funny.”

He shook his head, but his eyes still had that glint. “Rosie, that’s kind of traumatic.”

“Thank you!” I said, tossing my hands in the air. “That’s what I said! My parents were like, ‘Oh, you’ll get over it. It’s character building.’ ”

“What happened when you explained the situation?”

“Let’s just say it was the worst two hours of my life.”

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