Playing It Safe(7)

“There you are,” Sophia says happily. “I was looking all over for you. I wanted to introduce you to my fiancé, Aiden.”

“We already kn—”

Aiden speaks over me and cuts me off. “Met.”

Sophia looks confused, and I’m staring at Aiden with the phoniest smile I can muster.

“You two know each other?” she asks.

“No,” he tells her. “I mean we met earlier tonight.”

Sophia seems reassured and smiles at him. “Awesome! Didn’t she do an amazing job, honey?”

I’m too shocked to say anything, and my mouth drops open as a result. Lisette pokes me in the ribs with her elbow, and I turn to see her give me a chiding look. I mouth What? to her, and she plasters a fake smile across her red lips. When I turn my attention back to the lovebirds, they’re staring at me expectantly. Well, Sophia most definitely is. Aiden looks more like a deer in the headlights.

“So will you do it?” Sophia asks.

“I’m sorry,” I answer her. “I didn’t hear what you were asking me.”

She laughs. “I was wondering if you’d be willing to help plan the wedding.”

Hmmm, let’s see … help plan the wedding of an ex who I thought would be the man I would be marrying someday. Um, that would be a big no.

“When is the wedding?” Lisette asks.

She can’t be serious. It’s my turn to poke her in the ribs, but she doesn’t even flinch.

“April fifteenth,” Sophia says with a lilt in her voice.

“Oooh, I’m sorry, Sophia,” Lisette responds with just the right amount of regret in her tone. “But we’re solidly booked from here to next summer.”

Wow! I’m impressed with Lisette’s lie, and I grin from ear to ear in approval as she tilts her head to acknowledge me.

“That’s too bad,” Aiden says while hugging Sophia from behind.

“Yeah, too bad,” she agrees with a sad smile. “I really would have loved to have you do it.”

“I would have loved to help,” I finally say even though I want to laugh like a lunatic at the absurdity of the situation. Of course, that would be after I kick Aiden in the nuts. And maybe stab him in the eye with a dull knife.

“Sophia!” someone yells from the far side of the tent.

“Oh, I have to go,” she quickly says and then extracts herself from Aiden’s embrace. “I’ll catch up with you later. Okay?”

“Sure thing,” I answer with a curt nod.

And then there were three.

“I’ll leave you two to talk,” Lisette abruptly announces and walks away.

And then there were two.

We stare at each other for a few seconds as if in a standoff; there are so many thoughts swirling through my head that I can’t pluck just one out. But if I know Aiden at all, which I really don’t, as proven by his disappearance and sudden reappearance, he’ll have some crap to say about all of this.

“It’s great to see you, Julia.”

“It’s great to see me?” I try the words out slowly. The feel of them on my tongue tastes as bitter as I sound. I hate that I’m still affected by his dismissal of me after all these years. I hate that I’m that girl: jealous and unforgiving and yes, still heartbroken.

He sighs and runs a hand through his short hair. Looking around nervously, he smiles sheepishly at me before taking a step forward. “I don’t know what else to say, but it is great to see you.”

“You don’t know what else to say to me?”

“Did you turn into a parrot since I last saw you?” he quips with a laugh. “The Julia that I knew would at least have something to say.”

I take a moment to gather my thoughts, opening and closing my hands into fists at my sides. I tilt my head to the side when my mind clears and the right words are finally at the ready.

“You no good, son of a bitch, assclown have the balls to think this is cute, don’t you?”

He raises his hands in defense.

“It’s not a question I want you to answer, Aiden.” I roll my eyes. “And as for ‘the old Julia,’ she’s gone. But the new and improved Julia has a ton of things to say to you. Shall I start at how I faked every orgasm? Perhaps I should start with how you disappeared five years ago, never to be seen or heard from again?”


The faking orgasm bit is a total lie. The man knew how to make my body sing like no other has been able to do since, but it gives me a glimmer of happiness to say it anyway. Does that make me a vindictive bitch? Probably. Do I care? No.

“Okay, okay,” he says and reaches out with his hand to grab my arm. He pulls me along to the corner of the tent while whispering, “Do you mind keeping your voice down?”

We come to a stop, and I look down in disgust at his hand still gripping my arm. “Get your f*cking hand off of me.”

Aiden does so immediately and looks over his shoulder. Thankfully, Sophia still hasn’t noticed our little tête-à-tête.

“I guess the idea that you could look past this was just a pipe dream, huh?” he asks.

“You know what, Aiden? After tonight I’ll never have to see you again, so why don’t we forget we ever saw each other, and you can go back to whatever rock you crawled out from under.”