Playing It Safe(87)

“Are you f*cking serious?” I ask in disbelief. “Am I understanding this correctly? You said all that shit about Alex and Marisa and it wasn’t true? All of it because I said I faked every orgasm?”

He chuckles against my skin. “It worked, didn’t it?”

I am officially the stupidest person on the face of the planet. I should have gone with my gut instinct where Aiden was concerned. But instead, here I am, trapped between a rock and a hard place, literally, and I’ve royally f*cked everything up with Alex when he had been telling me the truth the entire time.

I seethe with rage, and my voice almost cracks when I say, “You have three seconds before I go Bernadine on your ass.”

“Who’s Bernadine?” he asks, but keeps right on pressing kisses against my neck.

“Three, two, one. I warned you.”

I bring my leg up and knee him in the balls, silently thanking Billy Blanks for that one month of Tae Bo that I did religiously during the summer.

He stumbles backward a step or two while cupping himself and writhing in pain, and he has the nerve to look genuinely surprised. “What the f*ck, Julia?”

“Get out of my house right now, Aiden. I’m warning you. Don’t make me angry—you won’t like me when I’m angry.”

Barely standing up, he slowly walks toward the front door while cursing under his breath. I follow closely behind. When he reaches it, he turns around to say, “You’re not going to tell Sophia, are you?”

“Good-bye, Aiden.”

He asks one more time.

I put my hands on my hips and swing the door wide open to spell it out for him. “Three, two—”

“Okay, okay, I get the hint,” he says and finally leaves.

I slam the door shut behind his sorry ass and then let out a scream of frustration and anger for falling for his bullshit from the very beginning. How could I have been so easily manipulated? And of all the people to believe over Alex, who has been nothing short of perfect, I chose Aiden? What is wrong with me?

After a few minutes of letting it all sink in, I go into the kitchen to grab my good friend Grey Goose from the freezer. It’s then that I see the list that I was so gung ho about a couple of months ago staring back at me. I stop and tear it out from underneath the magnet that’s keeping it in place, staring at the final entry.

            4. Forget about dickhead and have fun with Alex.

I read it another few times before crumpling it in my hands and throwing it in the garbage can in disgust. Forgetting about the vodka, I end up on the couch again instead. I curl up into a tight ball, mentally cursing myself for not taking my own advice, for not seeing what was right in front of me all along. And trying to figure out how the hell I can possibly get myself out of this mess.





CHAPTER THIRTY


Did you tell Sophia?” Sabrina asks.

“Of course I did,” I say. “I’d want to know if it was me. Wouldn’t you?”

She thinks about it for a second and then says, “Yes, I would. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what she does with the information.”

“Ah, that’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? But at this point it’s out of my hands. If she chooses to stay with him, so be it.”

It’s been a few days since the whole Aiden debacle. I finally came to my senses and realized I needed my best friend’s advice sooner rather than later. So I texted her earlier today to let her know that I would Skype her tonight after I got out of work. To say she was shocked to hear about the developments with Alex and me would be putting it mildly. But she was more shocked to hear about Aiden’s part in all of it. Quite frankly, I still am too.

“So what are you going to do?” she asks in a soft voice.

I sigh out loud and rub my eyes with the heels of my hands in frustration.

“Uh-oh, you’re sighing—that can’t be good,” she says.

“Sabrina, I’m scared.”

“Alex obviously loves you. What’s there to be scared about?”

This time my sigh is tinged with a small chuckle.

“Seriously, I love you to death, Julia, but if you sigh one more time, I’m going to stab you in the eye.”

“I really f*cked up, Sabrina. Like huge, gargantuan f*ckup. The kind of f*ckup that if I was him, I don’t know if I have it in me to forgive so easily.”

She raises one eyebrow and grins. “And who said it was going to be easy?”

“Nobody, that’s the point,” I say with another sigh.

“What did I tell you about sighing?”

“Duly noted,” I reply.

“Look, Julia, there’s no doubt that you messed up. What you said to him about Katerina was so harsh, even for you. But sometimes we say and do things that we don’t mean. We don’t think about the repercussions while it’s happening because all we can think about is protecting ourselves. And that’s exactly what you were doing.”

“Do you mind explaining that to Alex for me?” I ask. “It sounds so much more logical coming from you.”

“Very funny,” she says.

“I have feelings for Alex that I honestly thought I would never have for anyone after—”

“Don’t you dare say his name,” Sabrina says, cutting me off. “He forever shall be known once again as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.”