“Not exactly troubles. I just don’t know how to handle a situation, if it is a situation. She’s very funny. Very sweet. But sometimes out of nowhere, she just kind of shuts down or—it feels like she’s keeping stuff from me because she thinks I’m going to reject her in some way. She usually opens up about whatever it is with a little encouragement, but—I don’t know. I feel she’s holding back something and making assumptions about me and how I’m going to react to her all at the same time. That’s the best way I can describe it.” Hopefully he was making somesense.
“You said she wasdivorced?”
“Yeah.”
“Could be stuff with her ex. Divorces aren’t like regular break ups and she’s dating again? If Dave and I split up, I don’t even know how I’d get back into dating again. Do you know anything about the ex or why they brokeup?”
“Yeah. Without going into too much detail, he blamed her for some shit she had no control over and then they gotdivorced.”
“Ah, okay. So the ex was a dick. Yeah, she’s probably still a little wounded in the heart department. She might be having rejection issues, which is totally understandable, especially if her ex was adick.”
Aidan didn’t like the sound of that. “She did say they kind of had a rough split, over some rough stuff.” Aidan and his ex-girlfriend had been pretty serious, but they weren’t close to getting married and they definitely had never fought over bringing children into the world. He had no idea what that must have been like forShae.
“I mean, I’m saying this knowing the small bit of information you’ve givenme.”
“Yeah.”
“My advice? If you want to keep hanging out withher—”
“I do! I like her a lot.” Aidan almost shocked himself with how true those words were. He’d been hanging on to some sort of feelings for Shae for a long time. The short time they’d spent together only confirmed his suspicions. Shae was someone he could definitely seem himselfwith.
“Okay, well just keep hanging out with her. Let her know she can always talk to you about what she’sfeeling.”
Aidan laughed as he leaned against the wall next to the elevator. “That won’t be a problem. She’s honest and so vocal with that honesty that I think she’s embarrassingherself.”
Emily’s own chuckle came back through the phone. “Well if she’s awkward and dealing with baggage, be extra nice toher.”
“Iwill.”
“Don’t worry, Aid. Things will work themselves out. Be good to her and if it feels like it’s not working out romantically it’s okay to step away too, without being a dick to her of course. There should be two happy people in arelationship.”
“Good point.” Not that Aidan was considering bailing on Shae because of her clear hesitations. His sister did have a point though. “I’m going to head up to myoffice.”
“Okay cool. Should I call you back later and you can ask me how my day is going, you little shit?” Aidan let out a burst of laughter as he turned and pressed the up button with his elbow. The thing usually took forever. For once the door sprang open. Aidan stuck his foot over the threshold to keep it fromopening.
“How’s your day doing,dude?”
“Well as soon as my toe stops throbbing, I think it’ll be right on track. Got three orders in this morning, so that’ll keep me busy for theweek.”
“Oh nice.” His sister and Shae had more in common than he realized. Emily also owned her own small business making customjewelry.
“Yeah, I love marriage proposal season. Maybe one day I’ll make something for one of your womenfriends.”
“Yeah, maybe. On thatnote.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll talk to yousoon.”
After he made sure to include hellos to Dave and the kids, he ended the call and stepped into the elevator. His sister was right. He just needed to treat Shae right and let her be herself. Hopefully in time she would see that there wasn’t a single thing about her that he found to be weird or strange or even remotely unattractive. He’d already brought her flowers, so more might be overkill. Maybe there was another way to show how he was feeling about her. He left the elevator, brainstorming ways to further woo her. He made it two feet into the office before Matt was on him, almost knocking the box of bagels out of hishands.
“Tell me you went to SweetCreams.”
“No man, get off me. I got bagels. They’re closed on Mondaysanyway.”
Matt backed off, with this sour look on his face like Aidan had just crushed his wildest dreams. “What’s the point of you dating this chick if you don’t bring in the highest quality of baked good everyday?”
Aidan set the bagels and his messenger bag down on his desk, then adjusted his glasses and leveled Matt with a serious stare. “Are you out there dating women just for free food? Are ya,buddy?”
“You say it like that’s a bad idea. The girl likes you. The girl likes to bake. And I personally think I should benefit from these truths in your buddingrelationship.”