Always next to you

Chapter Thirteen

NICOLE

I didn't get any good ideas.

It was hard to think of anything tangible when my brain was feeling at the moment. Jessi and Lizzy caught me and Aiden kissing. Why didn't I stop him when I had the chance?

After making a scene at his office, one look was enough to make me fold. So far, the only thing I stood my ground, and it's the fact that I didn't want to be a sleep partner. It's hard to stop myself from wanting more, but I did.

For this reason, I stayed away from Aiden for two days. I have many reasons to avoid him; the first of which was our embarrassing moment at the office building. The second reason was that the conditions for me being his sleep partner were not things I agreed with.

If Aiden wasn't my boss, I would've been alright with sleeping with him when we were both in the mood. Both he and I don't want anything to ruin that.

Aiden had everything I'd imagined my dream guy to be. The things I thought Tyler had when we started dating. Now that I saw the real deal, I was terrified. But I was not in any way ready for another relationship.

My computer pinged, notifying me of a new email. I quickly opened it since I had been waiting for a reply from Harvey. It was another rejection.

"What the hell do you want?!" I screamed to no one in particular.

I was alone in my apartment, working for the past two days on three different pitch ideas for the presentation, but Harvey rejected all three. At first, I thought he was doing it on purpose, but after reviewing the first two I submitted, I found some flaws.

If Harvey rejected this last idea, then it means I needed to try again. If I continued at this rate, I wouldn't have anything to present and Aiden would have wasted his time vouching for me. Maybe I didn't deserve anything I had like Harvey said.

My phone pinged from the couch in my living room. I had pushed it far away from me because I kept receiving text messages from Aiden. I ignored them because I never gave him my number or permission to text me.

Deciding to take a break, I downed what was left of my morning coffee on my desk and set my screen to sleep. The notifications on my phone were over 40, most of which were from Aiden. However, I noticed that most of it was from Instagram.

Tyler1997 posted a new photo.

I stared at the notification for a few seconds while trying to ignore the familiar sting in my chest. I logged into my burner account before I tapped the notification. The photo was a date picture from Tyler and his girlfriend.

They looked so good together and that hurt even more than knowing he cheated.

"If he loved her so much, why did he make me fall for him?" I whined.

It hurt so much to see them smiling heartily while I was in pain. I was scared, unable to trust again. Who knew if I would fall in love again? There was Aiden, but we would never work. People in his world didn't have a say in who they loved. I know that much about my family.

A text message entered my phone from Mia.

'Where the fuck are you, bitch? You stood me up on Saturday and now disappear?'

'I'm sorry, I've been busy with work.'

'Good to know you ain't dead in an alley somewhere 😂' she texted back.

'Are you free right now?' I asked her.

The three little dots popped up to tell me she was typing. While I waited, a text came in from Jessi.