"I have to go." I roll my eyes. "See you later."
Aiden drives off as Bess walks up to me. We're around the same age. She's a mom of two and lives here in town. She got community service for having too many unpaid parking tickets.
"Who's the hottie?"
I smile. "That's Aiden. My boyfriend."
My heart's bursting being able to call him that. It's the first time I've actually said it. I can't wait to say it again. I want to tell everyone I know, but that'll have to wait. I just hope it won't be too long.
Chapter Seventeen
Aiden
I knock on Sophie's door, excited to be getting another night with her. We'll have a nice dinner, stroll down Main Street so she can see the lights, maybe have dessert back at the inn, and then go up to my room. I'll spend the night with Sophie in my arms, feeling her soft skin against mine, listening to her soft breaths as she sleeps. Morning will come before I'm ready, and then I'll have to tell her goodbye.
I'm already dreading being apart from her. I've considered sneaking over to her apartment to see her but one of Celine's friends lives in Sophie's building. I can't risk her seeing me with Sophie and telling Celine. And Sophie can't sneak over to my place because Celine hasn't given me her key back. If she showed up unannounced, she might catch me with Sophie.
So for now, my time with Sophie will be limited to our weekends in Vermont, which is why I want to make the most of every minute.
I knock again. "Sophie, are you in there?"
She opens the door. "Sorry, I was on the phone."
She's dressed in jeans and a hoodie, her hair up in a ponytail. The restaurant we're going to is kind of fancy. I thought she might wear a dress, or at least a nice sweater. I have on dress pants with a dress shirt and sports coat.
"Oh, I can't go," she says, noticing me looking at her clothes.
"What do you mean you can't go?"
"I need to drive back to New York. I'm really sorry, but if I don't go back I risk losing any chance at this promotion."
"When were you planning on telling me this?"
"Just now. I didn't know about this until a few minutes ago. I was dressed and ready to go to dinner when she called."
"Who?"
"Celine."
"Celine called you?"
"She's completely freaking out about the client dinner. She said her father wasn't happy with the menu and now she wants to meet tomorrow morning to go over other options."
"That's ridiculous. She can just serve what we always serve. We do these client dinners all the time. It's always either steak or lobster, or sometimes it's both."
"Really? Celine made it sound like it's different every time."
"Because she wants to make you work harder. She likes people waiting on her. You're new so she knows you'll go along with it."
"Bianca goes along with it too. She does whatever Celine tells her."
"By new, I mean the company you work for. Celine knows your boss wants more business from her so she's going to make you work for it. But not this weekend." He gets out his phone. "I'm going to call her."
"Aiden, no!" I grab his hand before he makes the call. "She'll know something's going on with us."
"How?"
"I don't know, but there's no way she's letting you change her mind. She's insisting I go back there for this meeting. She wants to present new options to her father first thing Monday morning." I sigh. "Aiden, I don't want to do this. I want to be here, with you. I was so excited for tonight. I've been looking forward to it all day. But I can't lose my job."
"I understand," I tell her, but I'm beyond disappointed. And I'm angry at Celine. She's completely unreasonable. She could've scheduled this meeting for later in the day but that would interfere with her Sunday afternoon yoga class followed by Sunday dinner with her parents. I know calling her wouldn't change anything but I'm desperate for more time with Sophie.
"Give me your bag," I say, motioning to it. She hands it to me and I set it down, then bring her in for a hug. "I get why you need to leave. I'm just sorry to see you go. I really wanted us to have another night."
"Me too," she says, sounding just as disappointed as me.
"At least we'll only be apart a few days. We'll meet here again on Friday."
She looks up at me. "I won't be here. Next weekend's the dinner. I have to stay in New York."
"That's right. I forgot about that. So two weeks? That's a long time."
"You can text me, right? And call me?"
"I can, but I'll need to be careful. I don't want my text popping up on your phone when Celine's around."
"I'll change your name in my phone. I'll give you a fake one. You could be Bart."
"Bart?" I laugh. "Why Bart?"
"It's the first name that popped in my head. I'll come up with something else. Aiden, I really need to go."
"Don't you mean Bart?"
She smiles. I'm going to miss that smile. "Bart, would you mind walking me to my car?"
"I'd be happy to."
I put her bag over my shoulder and take her hand, keeping hold of it as we go down the stairs.
Tom sees us and smiles when he notices our hands are linked. "Heading to dinner?"
"I'm afraid not." Sophie hands him the key. "I need to head back to New York."
He frowns. "Oh, that's a shame. Anything I should know?"
"An issue with work came up. A last minute emergency."
"I'll be checking out too," I say.
Sophie looks at me. "You don't have to leave."
"There's no reason to stick around. If you give me a minute, I'll get my stuff and follow you back to New York."
As she finishes checking out, I hurry to my room, quickly pack my stuff, and meet her in the parking lot.
"That's
