Page 10 of The Flirty Forward

I stare at him. “You were supposed to be here at 7:00.”

“Eh. Fifteen minutes is barely late.” He grins at me. “I bet you’re one of those people who is never late.”

“Yes, because I’mresponsible.”

“Or boring,” he mumbles.

I stare daggers at him, but he just grins. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, Stephanie.”

“I wish I could say the same,” I say as I walk past him and out into the living room. Brielle is staring at me with wide eyes when I make it to the table. I don’t look at Aiden as I take my seat and move it as far away from Sebastian’s as I can.

Brielle recovers first. “Well, I hope everybody is hungry. I made beef stew.”

“It’s delicious, Baby,” Aiden says in a low voice as he wraps an arm around her and tugs her close. “How are your numbers?” he asks softly.

Brielle beams at him. “Really good.”

I look down at my stew and take a bite. While I am so happy for my best friend, sometimes it’s a little bit much to take in. I guess it reminds me that I have nobody that cares for me the way Aiden cares for Brielle. And if that’s not the most depressing thought, I don’t know what is. Desperate to escape these melancholy feelings, I jump to the first conversation my mind thinks of.

“So, Sebastian thought he could get his niece out of one of my assignments by flirting,” I blurt out and mentally cringe; that was not what I meant to say.

He laughs next to me. “That was not flirting.” I turn my disapproving gaze on him. “What?” he asks, wide-eyed. “I wasn’t flirting. Believe me, you would know if I was flirting.”

“Whatever you call it, it was terrible,” I say deadpan and take another bite of beef stew.

“What did you do?” Brielle asks, humor in her voice.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he says, gesturing with his hands.

“You sound pretty defensive for not doing anything wrong,” I say calmly.

He turns to me with wide eyes. “I was just trying to help my niece.”

I nod. “Yes. The one you told didn’t have to do her assignment.”

“No, I told her we would talk to her teacher and explain what happened—”

“You told her that she didn’t have to do it,” I interrupt.

“Because she didn’t have what she needed,” he says, exasperated.

“And you couldn’t—” I start, but Brielle cuts me off.

“All right. Wedding plans.” She turns to Aiden. “Right?” He nods and scowls at Sebastian. I for one am glad I’m not on the receiving end of the scowl, but it doesn’t seem to faze Sebastian in the least.

“Remind me again why we’re meeting so early when the wedding isn’t for months yet?” Sebastian asks.

“Because Brielle said so,” Aiden growls from across the table.

Sebastian puts up his hands. “Right, Grumpy Gus.”

My eyes widen at his comment, but Brielle just grins. “Hey, nobody’s allowed to call him that but me; and I haven’t called him that in a long time.”

“But youdid,” Sebastian points out, grinning.

“Okay, yes, I did; but that was before,” she says, patting Aiden on the chest. “He’s so much nicer now.”

“Yes, just like a cuddly teddy bear,” Sebastian says dryly. I laugh; I can’t help it. Aiden is anythingbuta teddy bear. I’m pretty sure that Brielle is the only one that sees a soft side to Aiden. Fans of hockey certainly don’t see that side. He's always fighting on the ice. Of course, Brielle says he’s better now. I don’t really know. I haven’t seen enough games to know, especially this season. I haven’t watched a game yet this season. I’ve been busy.

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