Page 49 of Spring Fling
We circled back to the parking lot and when we got to the cars, I wished we had come together instead of meeting up. Letting Joego and driving away by myself didn’t seem all that appealing.
“You want to meet me someplace for an early dinner?”
I chuckled at Joe’s question. “Are you asking me on a date?”
Joe laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Shit. Maybe? We’ve done this all fucking backward, haven’t we?”
Most relationships probably didn’t start like ours did. However, I liked how we started off as friends and developed into so much more. Okay, maybe most people started as friends, but Joe was Nathan’s friend first. I’d been the awkward kid who had been dragged along and became infatuated with him.
“Not completely. There’s still time to win me over.”
We were being sappy and ridiculous but settled on a restaurant a little closer to home. It was stupid how much I hated the short time I had to be away from him. Traffic wasn’t bad, so we got to the place in fifteen minutes. I didn’t hesitate to run to him and hold his hand as we walked inside. I’d never pictured myself being the person who wanted to be all touchy and show lots of affection in public, but Joe brought it out of me.
“Good afternoon, gentlemen. How many are joining you today?”
Joe looked around as the hostess asked the question. “It’s just the two of us, thanks. Can we get a table with a view, please?”
The woman nodded and led us toward the back of the restaurant, where a large bank of windows pointed straight out to Lake Washington. The lighting was dim, but the sun reflecting off the lake did more than enough to illuminate the room. We sat acrossfrom each other at the small table while the hostess placed a menu between the two of us.
“Your server today will be Katrina. She should be by in just a moment.”
With that, she was gone, leaving us alone for a moment to look at our meal choices. The place was a little more pricey than I’d expected, but ever since the trip, Joe had been trying to impress me. I was afraid he felt like I needed these things.
My foot nudged his under the table. When those gleaming blue eyes met mine over the top of the menu, I smiled at him. “You know, I’d be cool with McDonald’s Drive Thru, right?”
Joe laughed, placing his menu on the table and crossing his arms over it to lean in closer to me. “I’m well aware you’d be fine with that. I think you deserve to be treated better. You will be treated like royalty.”
Chapter 32
Joe
Aiden fidgeted with the edge of his shirt as he looked around my room. With as much time as he’d spent in it over the last few weeks, it was strange to see him so nervous. Maybe taking him on a date had shifted things, but I’d meant every word about treating him special. He was much more to me than someone fun to fuck around with. He’d wormed his way where no one else had. I couldn’t imagine life without him in it.
Which meant I needed to come up with a game plan on how to handle things with my parents. Leaving wasn’t an option and the longer I went without telling Aiden about things felt like I was lying to him. How much was it lying if he didn’t know anything about it to begin with? None of my friends did. How did you tell people that your parents made some bullshit deal to ship you off if you didn’t figure out your future on your own?
There were loads of people who didn’t have things figured out immediately after school. I did. To an extent. Maybe making erotic videos on the internet wasn’t sustainable long term, but for now, it worked for me until I could figure something else out.
“You’re sure this is okay?” Aiden looked to the stairs as if making sure that my sister wouldn’t bother us.
I laughed off his question, scratching at the back of my neck as I went to my closet to pull out my supplies.
“You act like we haven’t recorded shit here before. I record all my stuff here.”
Aiden nodded, blowing out a shaky breath.
“I know that, but isn’t this a little different?”
I paused as I set the ring light on top of the tripod. It clicked on and cast the room in a bright fluorescent glow. “Different in what way?”
Aiden’s shoulders rolled in a shrug as he sat on the edge of my bed, fingers back to fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. It was so odd to see him so uncomfortable. The guy had fucked me on a public beach and hadn’t been this nervous.
“Like, it was one thing when I was filming you, or if you’re filming by yourself...” He took another deep breath, his eyes closing as he sorted his thoughts. “I guess I’m worried about getting caught.”
Maybe it was stupid to smirk, but he was clearly looking for me to reassure him. “Aiden, sweetheart. The last time I checked, we were both adults here. My sister knows that you’ve been coming around a lot, even staying over. She has rules about that and doesn’t care that you break them.”
He nodded at my explanation. “That’s fair. Okay.” And that seemed to be all he needed. He stood and grabbed another tripodfrom the closet, setting it up at the foot of the bed and placing the camera on it.
That was another thing I needed to tell him. This wasn’t our first time recording together, and I still had the flash drive from our first time down in Mexico. All the little secrets building up were so fucking bad. This wasn’t treating him like royalty, the way I swore to him at dinner.
