Page 86 of Unmasking Love
“So what does Aiden do for a living?” She asks. I know as soon as I tell her he’s a professional athlete she’ll wildly overestimate his income and status level and figure out a way to try and use it to her advantage. I want to protect Aiden from that, from her, from my past.
The lie slips out before I can think twice about it.
“He restores furniture for a living.”
“What?”
“He renews old furniture and gets it ready to be sold again.”
“Like garbage?”
“Sometimes it’s people’s trash I guess, yeah. Other times people come to him to fix stuff,” I’m making it up as I go and I hope I sound convincing.
“And he’s made a whole career out of this?” She asks skeptically.
“Yep.” I smile and then take a sip of my drink. If they ever do meet I’ll have to tell him about his new career.
“Well, it’s nice of him to think about you while you’re gone I suppose.” She mumbles and picks up a magazine and starts to page through it.
We sit quietly for the next hour or so while I enjoy my Horchata and mom aggressively flips the pages of Vogue. The sun moves across the sky and finally she swings her legs over the side of her lounger.
“Okay, let's go to the room, dinner is in an hour and you need to get ready.”
***
My phone buzzes with a FaceTime call as we walk back to the room after dinner. Mom got us a suite so there are two bedrooms and a living area between them. I decline the call and text Aiden that I’ll call him back in a few minutes when I’m alone.
He had a game tonight and I checked the score throughout dinner.
I change out of my dress and into one of Aiden's shirts. I miss him and wanted to feel close to him. When I settle into bed I call him and hold the phone up to my face.
"Hey beautiful." He says softly. "You look sun-kissed."
"I do?"
"Yes, warm and delicious and I wish I was there to lick the salt off your skin."
I squirm my legs together, he says stuff like this all the time and I can't believe it's for me.
"We'll have to plan a trip sometime then."
"We will." He shifts so one hand is behind his head making his bicep pop and my eyes fixate on it. He sees, and flexes.
"I miss you," I blurt out. I've never said that to a boyfriend before. I never wanted to be seen as needy. Instead I would try to set up dates and ways for us to be together, like making him lunch and bringing it to work, but with Aiden? All bets seem to be off.
"I miss you, too, Harper. Tell me about your day."
I go into the details of my flight and how beautiful the resort is. I don't go into detail about Mom and the strain in our relationship I feel. She means well. She just doesn't understand that I do things differently.
"I saw the team won. Tell me about the game." I volley back to him. He tells me about the morning skate. About lunch at the hotel. About suiting up. How he was given a special edition hat to wear on the bench and then he signed it and tossed it over the glass to a kid at the end of the game.
A yawn slips from my lips and he smiles. "Gosh, sorry."
"Don't be sorry, I'll let you get some rest. And don't think I didn't notice that t-shirt you little thief."
I blush and tuck my chin into the collar. "I wanted to feel close to you."
“If only I had something of yours to take with me on the road.” Aiden ponders and slowly he pulls something up between his fingers. It looks like a blue ribbon.
