Page 36 of A Man of Prestige

“Can you really not tell me anything about what you do?”

“Nope. Classified,” I assure her.

“That’s so lame. Whatever. Oh, did you see who’s opening?” she says, switching our conversation over to the concert. I spend the rest of dinner trying to stay focused on our conversation while continuing to keep my eyes open for anyone appearing suspect or unusual.

We finish our dinner and walk across the street to the arena. I watch the crowd as we listen to the opening act. I follow Elena to the bathroom and then pretend I had to go too. The concert is fun, but I’m nervous the entire time. Part of me wants to call Aiden and tell him that I feel like we’re being watched, but that ship has sailed.

“You need this more than me,” Elena says as we wait for the encore. She hands me the rest of her beer. Laughing, I take it. She has a point.

“Thanks,” I say as I down the rest of her drink. “I’m glad you came down. I really needed a day off.”

“Clearly. Maybe we should shop for a new guy,” she says as she pulls out her phone to show me a dating app that she uses.

I shake my head. “No way. I’m over meeting guys on dating apps.” I haven’t actually done that, but I’m not about to admit this to her.

“You need to get back out there,” she insists. “Just try. You haven’t been the same since…” She trails off and puts a hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she says but it’s muffled.

“It’s fine. It was a long time ago, right?” I say, wishing that the statement was true. In fact, it hasn’t even been a full twenty-four hours.

“Maybe you should find him and talk to him. You did say you saw him at a conference recently, so he’s still gotta be here.”

“Elena, it’s over. If he wanted to be with me, he’d be with me.”

“Ella, you can be so stubborn! I don’t know what your fight was about. But you never gave him a chance. And then, you hid…everything. Sorry…I know it’s hard for you to talk about,” she says, looking apologetically at me.

My sister had been there. It wasn’t until after I lost the baby that I took the assignment overseas. Only Elena knows about what happened. I didn’t tell my parents. And now, Aiden won’t ever know the truth either. His stubborn ass just made assumptions. Meanwhile, after he had told me that he never wanted children, I decided I couldn’t go back there. I’d raise our baby alone. I somehow ended up on my sister’s futon in her college room crying. I didn’t tell her everything about the fight. I merely said I broke up with Aiden and there was no way I’d ever get back together with him. We were just incompatible. We made a sister pact, and she kept her end of the bargain by never speaking about it. When I started having contractions at seventeen weeks, I went to the hospital, but it was too late. The baby was gone. Elena stayed by my side the entire time. I named her Angela Janis, in honor of Aiden’s mom. Her ashes sit in my nightstand drawer. I wanted to tell Aiden all of this, but when he assumed that I just got rid of the baby without so much as a conversation with him, I was gutted. How could he think I would do that? That I wouldn’t at least talk with him. I loved him. I wanted to spend forever with him. Did he not feel the same way that I did? Did he not want to spend forever with me? He always had said he did, but maybe that wasn’t true after all.

I feel tears well in my eyes.

“I’m sorry, Ella,” Elena repeats and hugs me.

“It’s OK. We should have fun and not think about those things, alright?” I assure her as I sniffle. The band comes back out, and she gives me one more worried look. I smile and move my hips to the music. She takes my hand in hers and squeezes it before holding them high and waving them back and forth. And this is why I love her. She can pull me out of my darkest moments. She is the light, just like the meaning of her name implies.

When I first met Aiden, I had this thing about the meanings of names. His meant fire and mine meant a star. I thought it was a sign. How could I have been so wrong?

Chapter17

Aiden

“Thanks for coming,”Hugh says as we sit at the restaurant, eating our food in awkward silence.

“No problem. I’m just sorry our parents missed it,” I reply because I truly am. It’s shitty that they aren’t here, especially Sadie.

“It’s just grad school,” he says with a shrug.

I want to argue with him, but Hugh is too kind. He’d let his mother get away with murder, and he pretty much has.

“Any plans for tonight?” I ask, trying to make small talk. Hugh might as well be like a distant cousin that I see only at holidays.

“Some friends want to meet up later for drinks.”

“That’s cool,” I note, grimacing at how I sound old saying those words.

“I suppose.”

I put my hand up to motion for the bill. Our server nods. I slide my credit card across the table.

“Thanks,” Hugh says.

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