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With me, he is still much more formal. I have no idea how to make him drop his guard around me, and somehow this thought makes me sad while pissing me off at the same time.

Two hours later, Aden has introduced me to more people he is acquainted with, but it doesn’t seem he is close friends with any of them.

“You know a lot of people,” I mutter.

“Comes with the job,” he admits. “But most of it is just loose contacts. Lynn is my only real friend.”

“And your crazy assistant.”

Aden blinks. “I am not sure if I would call him a friend.”

“But he doesn’t annoy you?”

“True.”

“You feel like you can be a bit more yourself with him?”

“Again true.”

When I stay silent, Aden looks at me amused. “Our bar for friends is pretty high,” he says. “Seeing how you have three amazing friendships, I was expecting more.”

“It’s just…“ I groan. “I don’t know the guy. But he seems to be fun and quirky, and genuinely nice. Not that I want you to flirt with him, of course, and maybe you shouldn’t hang out with him too often.” Yeah, now I sound jealous. Either way I look like a complete nutcase.

“I have a hard time letting anyone in,” Aden tells me. “I don’t mind Cedric. He is a good person and a good assistant. But I am very careful about allowing someone to see more of me than I show to the outside.”

“But you befriended Lynn.”

“It’s rather her who befriended me,” he admits.

“And how come you let it happen?” I pause. “Sorry for being so curious. I just want to understand.”

Aden is quiet for a while. “She saw something no one else could see,” he finally says. I wait for more explanation, after all, Lynn was his brother’s girlfriend. It’s certainly unusual for the ex-girlfriend of a sibling to suddenly befriend the younger brother. There has to be a story behind it. But Aden falls silent again. It seems this is all I will get out of him for tonight.

I gaze around the room, noticing some guests occasionally eyeing me curiously. It only strikes me now that to them, I probably am like an alien. If it’s true what Lynn said, then Aden has never brought anyone along since, whatever happened years ago. Neither she nor Aden clarified it.

“You brought me along to this event and introduced me as your boyfriend,” I finally say. I am not sure if I understand why. We only met twice so far, and I feel like we connected, but I wasn’t sure he felt the same.

“I did. But you heard what Lynn said. It was very unusual for me.”

I can’t help but stare daggers at him out of mere curiosity. “But why me?”

“I don’t know,” he admits. “I just felt like it. Believe me, I don’t understand myself either. Seems like you just ticked a certain box for me I didn’t know existed.”

Well, that’s not bad! He is obviously not sharing an awful lot about himself, rather the opposite, but when he says it like that, it makes me feel less anxious.

thirteen

*ADEN*

Noel seems to suck everything up that happens around us like a dry sponge. I didn’t expect him to be so interested in the whole event, in Lynn, and in everything surrounding me. Somehow, the realization makes me both happy and terrified.

“How about we get some fresh air?” I offer. “It’s getting really crowded in here.”

“Good idea.”

Noel follows me through the two halls, still crowded with people, before we step out onto a broad balcony.

“Wow!” Noel stretches, sucking in the fresh air of the night. “I didn’t realize there was a second balcony, and it’s so big too!”