. More than anything, I felt guilty for all my critical theories about Aiden’s life. I had been afraid to ask questions, and my hypotheses had been completely wrong.
Aiden came out of the bathroom, his beard neatly trimmed, and he was dressed in his usual shorts and muscle shirt. I looked down his body slowly before moving back to his eyes, only to find he had an eyebrow raised at me.
Caught ogling, I blushed. I wasn’t ready for the heart-pounding feelings I had when I was in his presence and needed to get myself back on track. We still had important things to discuss. I looked down at my hands for a moment, twisting my fingers around as I got my thoughts in order.
“Aiden,” I said, “I owe you an apology.”
“You aren’t the first person to think that I was the bad guy,” he said, his voice sounding sad. He picked up his red cap and ran his finger over the edge of it before he placed it on his head. “My mother started telling me that right after the first tat. She said I looked like a gang member and would never get a decent job.”
“I don’t care if I was the first or not,” I insisted. “I still made the assumption, and I’m sorry for that. I…I should have asked. I should have made you tell me all this before. Maybe then, I wouldn’t have run away. I wouldn’t have refused your calls.”
Aiden swallowed visibly.
“That hurt,” he admitted quietly. “I really thought you…that maybe you could be the one who understood. I thought you didn’t have those kinds of notions about me. I thought you had seen me for who I was.”
I walked over and took his hand before leading him back to the couch so we could sit more comfortably, and I laid my hand on top of his.
“I did see you, Aiden,” I said. “I just let my own fears get the better of me, and I’m sorry for that. I really am.”
He turned his hand over and locked our fingers together.
“I’m sorry I didn’t come clean earlier. I could tell you had your reservations, but I didn’t want to have to live through it all again. I didn’t want to explain what was happening, and it drove you away.”
“I’m here now,” I reminded him.
“Yeah,” he said with a smile, “you are.”
He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed my knuckles.
“Where do we go from here?” he asked.
I squeezed his hand, and he looked at me expectantly.
“I don’t know what happens next,” I admitted. “I came here because Redeye asked me to and because I was worried about you. I called in sick to work, but I can’t keep that up for long. I need to go back home.”
Aiden nodded slowly.
“I guess my cooking hasn’t convinced you to stay here forever,” he mused.
I chuckled.
“I don’t know about that just yet,” I said. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of this.”
Aiden flexed his fingers and furrowed his brow. He took a deep breath and licked his lips before speaking.
“Do I have another chance with you?” he asked. “I know I fucked up the beginning of this by not telling you everything sooner, but I have to know if there’s still hope here.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond at first. The last few days we had been together, before the fiasco at the restaurant, I had certainly felt like we were a couple, but we hadn’t put a name on it. The way it all happened was so foreign to me, I hadn’t even considered it.
So where did that leave us now? Putting a name to it made it all the more real, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. There was still so much about each other we didn’t know, and even with some of the misunderstanding cleared up, we had distance to consider. I was also still hesitant, still afraid. I hadn’t talked to Mare or my mom about him. None of my friends had met him.
I had my doubts, but they were focused more on my own insecurities and fear of the unknown than anything else I might learn about Aiden. Before I had heard about Cayden and the people who destroyed Aiden’s life, I had been focusing on my concerns about Aiden and his supposed lifestyle. My perceptions were different now. If I had known everything from the beginning, would I have doubted him in the first place?
No, I wouldn’t have.
Everything was clearer to me now. The distance was going to be a challenge, but weren’t there challenges in any relationship? There might be other things I didn’t know about Aiden Hunter, but learning about each other was part of the excitement. He had some baggage, certainly, but didn’t we all? It was a risk, but if I had learned nothing else from my time in Miami, I had learned that risks could be worth it.
“Yes,” I said, “there’s hope.”