Playing It Safe(6)

“Aiden.”

My voice catches in my throat when I ask, “Aiden, what?”

She chews nervously on her bottom lip because if there is one rule in regards to my personal life it’s this: never speak of Satan, a.k.a. Aiden. However, I’ll make an exception this one time and give you the abbreviated version.

Aiden was my boyfriend right after college. We were together for two years, five months, and sixteen days. But who’s counting? Um, this jackass, that’s who. I put up with so much bullshit from Aiden, it was sad.

For example, he had this “I’m finding myself” phase where almost every day for a good four months he was all about trying to get in touch with his inner Aiden, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. He started out by devouring every self-help book he could get his hands on. Then he changed his eating habits to a macrobiotic-type diet. This didn’t bother me too much because I could always fend for myself come dinnertime. But when he started talking about going to get his-and-hers enemas, I was done. It got to the point where whenever he said he was “working on Aiden,” and yes he would refer to himself in the third person, I would tell him to just look in a goddamn mirror and call it a day. Then there was his “I’m a gamer” phase where he would tune the whole world out for hours at a time, sometimes entire weekends, just so he could cultivate his video-gaming skills. Because according to Aiden, he was going to “get the gold at the next World Cyber Games.” For the record, that never happened.

That’s just a couple of the things he did over the course of our relationship that I dealt with. And why did I put up with it? Mostly because I was young and na?ve and very much in love. And because he would tell me that I was his girl and that we were going to get married and have lots of babies and a whole slew of garbage that I ate right out of the palm of his hand. That is, until the day he called and said that he never wanted to see me again.

“Yeah, that’s really funny, Aiden,” I had said to him.

He was dead serious because the motherf*cker had up and left for California that morning to shack up with some broad he had never met in person. Thank you very much, World Wide Web.

Long story short, ever since him I’ve been extremely wary when it comes to men and letting my guard down. And as luck would have it, I’ve had the worst pick of the litter since him.


“He’s here,” Lisette says.

“Here,” I repeat. “As in at this party?”

My eyes canvass the crowd, darting from face to face until Lisette stands in front of me to block my view.

“It’s worse than that,” she says.

Before I can ask her how that’s possible, I peek over her shoulder and see him.

The years have been kind to the devil incarnate. Aiden looks better than ever, to my utter disappointment. I’d been wishing he would have developed a deformity à la Hunchback of Notre Dame by now, but no such luck. He still looks male-model worthy with his cropped black hair, piercing blue eyes, and what I know is a lean, muscular physique hidden beneath his dark suit. The bastard could still give David Beckham a run for his money.

Lisette snaps her fingers within an inch of my nose. “Hey, are you okay?” she asks.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine.”

I’m not. In my head there are alarm bells going off, and all I can think of is why the hell is he here?

“Did you know he was going to be here?” I ask while trying to sneak another peek over her shoulder.

“No! How can you ask me that?” She sounds appalled that I would even entertain the idea for a second. “Did you know he was going to be here?”

My shocked expression along with my eyebrows flying up to my hairline is enough of an answer.

“Relax. I just meant that since the name of Sophia’s fiancé was Aiden, you might have asked about it.”

“Who’s Sophia?”

“Julia, that’s the bride-to-be,” she deadpans.

“Oh! You mean ‘baby,’” I answer.

“Who’s ‘baby’?” Lisette asks.

“Never mind,” I grumble under my breath. “Wait a minute, what did you mean you thought I would have asked about Sophia’s fiancé’s name?”

She gently grabs my arm and tries to move me, but I don’t budge. And that’s because I finally put two and two together as I see Aiden take “baby” in his arms and kiss her as if she’s the last woman on earth.

“Julia, come on,” Lisette says softly. “Let’s get you out of here.”

“You have got to be shitting me. He’s engaged to ‘baby’?” I ask her in a deathly quiet voice.

It’s too late to leave because I’ve been spotted. Sophia, “baby,” or whatever the hell her name is, is pointing me out to Aiden and leading him by the hand to where I’m standing.

“Dammit, they’re coming over here. What do I do?” I ask Lisette through clenched teeth.

She steps to the side and whispers, “Act natural.”

“Easy for you to say,” I say under my breath just before they reach us.

With each step the look on Aiden’s face is priceless. He obviously had no idea that I was the party planner. And when he’s finally standing right in front of me, close enough for me to kick in the nuts if I were so inclined, his eyes quickly move between me and Sophia in disbelief. She’s completely oblivious to the potential shit-storm brewing right in front of her. Honestly, I feel bad about how she’ll react when she finds out because she’s a genuinely nice person and I’m sure she won’t want to know how much of a dick her fiancé is.