When I get home, I immediately run to the bedroom for the gift.
"What is it? The same watch you told me about?" exclaims Meg.
"Yes, I want your life to change at least a little, but for the better, since you don't want to move here to me," I jokingly reproach in response and rush to hug my friend.
How hard it will be to part our ways again!
"Do you know what I was thinking? Teach me how to cook at least one dish," she suddenly suggests.
"Hmm...We can try to make a creamy soup, I seem to have made it well before."
Some ingredients are missing, but this doesn't stop us.
What to do with this soup afterwards is a big question. I'll probably just put it in the fridge when it cools down, it's unlikely we'll eat it at night.
"Mm, it seems to be working out well," I say when Aiden comes into the kitchen while Meg is in the bathroom.
I scoop some broth into a spoon, blow lightly and gently bring it to the guy's face, but instead of doing what's planned, he ignores the soup and unexpectedly kisses me on the lips.
He's lucky that by some miracle I manage not to spill a drop on him.
Meg suddenly appears, and I turn my attention back to the pan.
***
As I expected, no one cares about my soup because of the late time, however, Meg still tastes a little and appreciates, "Write down the recipe for me, I have to make it!"
"This is a recipe from Aiden's grandmother, I'm going to rewrite it for you from her cookbook."
When late at night it's time to get ready for bed, we decide to arrange Meg on a large sofa in the living room, where I am very happy to carry another set of new bed linen that I bought earlier.
After the shower, despite the late hour and fatigue, I take a book from the bedside table and, lying on my stomach, continue reading from the page where the bookmark is (one of the notes that Aiden sometimes leaves for me).
Some time later I don't hear any sounds, but I feel the mattress sag.
Aiden almost weightlessly runs his fingertips along my spine and kisses me first on the neck, then leaves a trail of kisses all the way to my naked shoulder.
"You're distracting me," I purr, trying to fight the burning feeling.
The guy painfully slowly runs his hand along my thigh and clings to me indecently tight.
"I really missed you today," he whispers in my ear.
"Meg is sleeping in the next room, she can hear us. Let's wait until the morning until she wakes up and goes to the bathroom."
"And when will she wake up?"
"Probably at 6 a.m., as usual according to the schedule."
"Baby, I love sex, but not to such an extent that I get up for it at the crack of damn dawn," Aiden kisses me on the shoulder again, going down to the shoulder blade.
No, I won't back down. "We can make out," I suggest, turning to him and leaning on my elbow.
"Just make out?"
"Yes. Promise?"
"All right, I promise."
Without wasting a minute, the guy seals our lips and kisses me so that I feel all his hopelessness.
"Aiden," I try to interject as his hand goes down along my stomach.
"What?"
"Stop it."
"I can't help myself when you're around."
Our breathing is hot and intermittent from tension. Finally, having finished with the internal struggle, I throw my leg over Aiden's thigh.
"What do you think you're doing?" the guy asks, looking at me with predatory eyes, while I try to remain at ease. "Just getting comfortable."
It's not surprising that soon the promise is shamelessly broken.
***
Aiden wakes me up around eight in the morning, and my first question is, "Is Meg still here?"
"Yes, she's still sleeping, but we'll have to leave soon. I'm already risking a lot, letting you sleep longer: in the light of day, the probability of being noticed is much bigger."
His fears make me finally wake up and get ready. Immediately after washing, I head to the kitchen to make a light breakfast, simultaneously thinking about what to put all the things Meg bought into so as not to arouse suspicion on the other side.
So far, I see only one option - to give her my bag, which I brought from home along with the documents.
For all this unexpected, but pleasant turmoil of the last day, I managed to distract myself from my failed interviews and not fall into the abyss of self-flagellation. Probably, this moment is just delayed for a short period of time.
"In the next life, I want to be a volcano so I can sleep for centuries," mutters disheveled Meg in one of my pajamas, with the leg pulled up, and rubs her slightly swollen eye.
"I know just how you feel, Meggie," I smile back at her. "Aiden said you need to be on your way very soon, so I hurried to prepare breakfast. Sandwiches were the fastest to make. Unless you want soup," I laugh.
"You know, actually, I can eat anything for breakfast: soup, salad, pie, roast, and so on, but now I really don't have time for that." My friend takes a sandwich and her face darkens.
"When you finish, we will go to pack your things: our task is to fit absolutely all yesterday's purchases and gifts."
Finally getting down to business, I'm surprised to find there is still quite a lot of space in the bag.
I should have bought more books after all!
"Are you ready?" Aiden looks in on us a little too soon.
"Yes," Meg replies, while I say "No."
I will never be ready for a new goodbye.
Instead of words, I once again reach out to my friend to hug her tightly. In all the years of our friendship, we haven't hugged as much as we have in the last 24 hours.
"It's time, Vivi. I don't want to let Aiden down," Meg whispers, patting me on the back.
"I wish you a safe trip," I get out words.
At the moment when the idea comes to me to go with them, Aiden expresses his categorical disapproval, explaining that the responsibility for both of us will put even more pressure on him.
Trying to control my emotions, I hug my friend once again before going out and stand on the stairwell, watching them go, after which I run to the window and watch the car with my dearest people disappear.
To distract myself, I decide to go to the nearest park, get some air and be filled with the tranquility of nature.
When I'm alone with myself, self-eating attacks me again. I feel worthless once again. I still don't work where I want to, I failed the interviews (which I'm unlikely to regret, but it's still tense, because I once again continue to beat at closed doors, trying to find a place for myself, and keep failing).
I'm afraid those efforts in acquiring relevant knowledge may simply not be useful to me, because I don't have the opportunity to apply them somewhere.
After admiring the beautiful flowers in the local greenhouse, I get on the bus and return home in thought to meet Aiden - I need his support and warmth so much now.
His words and hugs magically give me hope and strength to fight on and go forward, even if I don't quite understand what awaits me around the corner.
I decide to get off one stop earlier to pop to the store: yesterday, in Grace's cookbook, I chose Caesar salad for cooking and today I can't help myself, how I want to try it.
In fact, I only need to buy a few ingredients - we have stocked up on groceries quite well recently.
Approaching the apartment building and rejoicing that in the near future I will be able to please myself and Aiden with delicious food (the recipe doesn't look so complicated), I look up to check if the guy has returned home, and I see something that makes me slow down first, and then stop altogether and go around the corner.
There is a beige car right in front of our entrance.
A police car that shouldn't be here.
I peek cautiously around the corner, trying to make out Aiden's car, but fortunately, it seems he hasn't arrived yet.
Adrenaline is beating hysterically through my veins, a swarm of thoughts does not allow me to focus on the most important thing. Did they come for me or for Aiden?
How many times have I worried his smuggling activities would bring him to prison, and now the fears are confirmed.
But at the same time, the police could have come for me, since I automatically ended up on the missing people list. And what if they did notice on the cameras that I was recently in my parents' apartment, and tracked me down? Or did they suddenly detain Aiden and Meg and find out there was another lawbreaker?
God, there are so many questions, my head is spinning, but I can't just keep standing here - I have to either hide or surrender.
And I choose to surrender, because even if they came for Aiden, I will find a way to negotiate with them to take me instead of him.
==== THE END OF THE SECOND BOOK OF THE SERIES ====
TO BE CONTINUED...