The Pretend Girlfriend

Chapter Twenty~ Aiden Opens Up......Sort Of

Either outside was much warmer than Gwen originally thought, or the interior of the limo was like a fridge. As soon as she sat down, her skin prickled at the cold touch of the leather seat. After the roar of the crowd and the thunder of the horses, Gwen welcomed the quiet of the car.

"That was fun," Gwen said, still feeling heady over her victory. $ 2000! She thought. Of course, it wasn't really hers. But she'd still won it. And if she couldn't have it, a charity getting it sounded good.

It was quite the rush, really. She reminded herself to try and avoid gambling in the future, just in case she had one of those addictive personalities. That thought made her smile.

She remembered her mom and dad talking when she was in primary school about an older cousin of hers who had an addictive personality. For the longest time, she'd thought that it meant a person was so interesting and cool that you couldn't help but like them a lot.

"Something funny?" Aiden said, noticing her expression.

Despite sitting in the back of the limo, this felt almost normal. Being with Aiden, that is. He wore normal clothes. In the shadows of the car , you couldn't tell they were top-notch items. He looked almost like the boy next-door. He sat across from her, taking up most of the seat. He looked pretty worn out, and Gwen figured that running and organizing an event like that had to take a lot out of you. No matter how much you worked out.

"Just thinking about something I used to believe when I was a kid," she said.

"I used to believe that putting a trading card in the spokes of the back wheel on your bike made it go faster."

Now that was an image simply too adorable to ignore: a young Aiden carefully getting the card set just right to make the bike sound something like a baby motorcycle.

Gwen laughed, "Well, at least it sounded cooler."

"Oh, you have no idea how much that annoyed old Henry," Aiden replied.

It was the only time Gwen saw him become wistful at a memory of his father. Usually, he spoke the man's name like anyone else would talk about the bill collector who wouldn't stop calling.

"I bet your mom thought it was cute," Gwen said.

She'd been wondering about the elusive Mrs. Henry Manning. There had been absolutely no information about her in the Wikipedia article, and Aiden had yet to mention her. She thought this might be her "in." But her words wrought an entirely unexpected effect. The smile disappeared from Aiden's face, wiped away as though it had never been. He sat back and sighed that deep philosophical sigh.

"I suppose," he said, then, changing the subject, "I hope things are going well with you?"

Gwen didn't pursue the mom thing anymore. It was clearly a delicate issue. Almost as delicate and precarious as this sudden good mood and rapport the two of them had established.

"Well, I have an essay due soon. And a midterm that I'm disgustingly unprepared for..."

"Then I suppose I'll have to try
and not keep you for too long," Aiden said.

"What do you mean? Hey, why are we going over the bridge? Aren't you dropping me off at my place?"

She'd been too engrossed in her own memories, and far too distracted by Aiden, to pay attention to where the car headed. Concentrating, she managed to recollect a point several minutes ago when the car slowed down for a while. Probably to pay the toll to get onto the island, she realized. Looking out the window, she saw the now-familiar sight of the river flashing by below.