Page 45 of Crazy in Love

“Aiden back tomorrow?” Jason asks as I come back from the garden house.

Hayley has been so good this week. She's been taking her medications and Andi is building a great relationship with her, which has taken a load off my shoulders.

“Yeah, but he lands late, so he is picking me up Monday night for dinner.”

Aiden went to America for a business conference in New York. I was totally jealous. It’s New York, who doesn’t want to go there? I would love to travel more around the world, but with everything with Hayley, it’s not happening any time soon. He left on Wednesday night and has been calling every night, and even though I see him when he’s here, there was something different about us talking on the phone to each other.

There were so many different things we talked about. He told me about his mum’s dream about him marrying that Cathy woman I met at the fundraiser, and how she is pushing both Aiden or Lee to be with her. His mum is desperate for one of them to be with her, so I’m already in her hate book.

I did ask him why it’s never happened between them, with the amount his mum has tried. I was surprised he has never even slept with her. He just told me he has never been turned on by her. Now both Lee and Aiden are scared of introducing the women they are with, or love, to their mother. I mean, what will she do, disown them?

“You miss him?” Anika asks as she joins us on the sofa.

“I do. Would have liked him to be here today.” Aiden was not happy that I didn’t tell him it’s my birthday this week, so now he has planned something for Monday, and he’s not telling me what. I like the idea of him surprising me. No one has ever done anything like this for me before. I’ve always craved love and affection but never found anyone who gave it to me, and now I do I’m so happy with my life. My dad always joked that I was a try Pisces, loving, caring and affectionate, which made me laugh every time.

I’m not sure what our relationship is, since we have spoken about it once, in the beginning when I just wanted to have fun. We just see each other and don’t have a label on it, and we both seem to be happy with that. We’ll just let things happen and see where they go.

“We’re still going out tonight, so don’t even bother making an excuse-”

“I know, I know,” I cut Jason off. They’ve both been going on about tonight all week. I would be crazy to cancel on them now. I won’t hear the end of it.

This week, work was busy. I’ve had my morning classes with my new client, Mr. Jones. Another businessman who works all day and said he wanted to start the morning in a peaceful mindset. Four times a week, I will be working with him, and because he’s my first client of the day, he is paying me a bit more money for it, which is a win for me.

I look down at my phone vibrating on the table, and smile when I see Aiden’s name appear. “Hey.”

“Happy Birthday, Saylor.”

“Thank you.”

“I hope you’ve been having a good day. There should be a delivery coming any second now. I hope you like your gift.” I walk over to the door when someone knocks on it.

I put the phone on the kitchen counter, hitting the speaker button, so I can bring the box further into the house. It’s heavy, I mean, really heavy.

“You didn’t have to buy me a gift,” I tell Aiden.

A part of me thought he wasn’t going to buy me anything, but a small part was hoping he would send me flowers. Something small, not the big box that I’m looking at.

“I wanted to. I saw how happy you looked when you saw these, and I want you to smile like that all the time. “Are you opening it?”

“You want me to Facetime you?” I ask, and just like that, the line goes dead, knowing he’s about to Facetime me now. “Hey.”

Aiden stares at me as I lean on the box, and smiles when he finishes checking me out. “Gorgeous, as always, now open your gift.”

I turn to the box and tug the tape off, pushing the bubble wrap away and pulling out the frame, then just stare at the first artwork in front of me, completely shocked. Jason pulls out another piece of artwork from the box, and I gape at them both.

It’s the Mickey Mouse pieces from the fundraiser, the ones I couldn’t stop looking at, the ones that made me smile.

I pass the piece to Jason and take the phone from Anika so I can walk out to the garden. “Aiden, I can’t take these-”

“Saylor, I got them as a gift. Happy birthday,” Aiden cuts me off, and I have nothing to say to him about it. I know much the starting bid was, so do I want to know how much he spent on buying them for me in the end?

“Aiden-”

“Saylor, say thank you and smile when you hang them in your room,” Aiden tells me. The look on his face right now tells me that no matter what I say, he’s not going to listen.

“Thank you,” I say and give him a smile, sitting down on the bench. “Looks like you’re still in bed.”

“I am. Got a few things happening today, then might pop out to do some shopping. Would my girl like anything?” Aiden sits up in bed, and my eyes move over his sexy body. I’ve missed touching him.

---