Aiden doesn’t answer, then after a moment, he speaks. “Leave. Both of you.”
“Nah.” I can hear the grin in Levi’s voice. “We’re staying for that breakfast.”
“In your dreams.”
“Wait,” Astrid says in a suspicious tone. “Is Elsa here?”
“No.” Aiden doesn’t miss a beat.
Why is he lying about that?
“She is, isn’t she?” Levi laughs. “Princess, go search upstairs and I’ll search the downstairs.”
“Deal.”
Aiden grunts.
Footsteps come closer.
I run back to the room and close the door. I quickly remove my jacket and pretend to put it back on.
A knock comes through before the door cracks open. Astrid’s head peeks inside. When her sparkly green eyes meet mine, a huge grin breaks on her face.
“Found her!” She barges inside.
Her denim overalls are buttoned all wrong and her brown hair is dishevelled at best.
I try not to recall what I heard happen between her and Levi downstairs.
“Morning, Elsa.”
“Morning.”
She leans in, face scrunching as if she’s about to tell me a top-secret. “I have huge news. Aiden is making breakfast.”
I offer her an awkward smile. “Okay.”
“Okay? What do you mean by okay? This should go in the Daily Mail or something. Hell. Jonathan should use it for marketing.” She pauses, narrowing her eyes on me. “Wait. Your lack of reaction can’t be because he made you breakfast before, right?”
I nod.
She stares at me with a parted mouth.
“Is it that strange?” I ask.
“Strange? Try miraculous. Aiden never makes breakfast. Not even when Levi forces him to help out.”
“He’s not the type who can be forced into doing anything.”
Understanding covers her features. “True.”
“Did you just come over?” I try to sound innocent like I didn’t hear her and Levi fucking each other’s brains out.
God. I’m so bad.
“Yeah. We wanted to spend the weekend at the place that started it all.”
“Started it all?”
She beams. “Levi and I started at the Meet Up. Crazy, right?”
I shake my head. “You guys are so good together.”
“Right? I agree. I need more people like you to say it to his fangirls.” She laughs before a nostalgic expression covers her features. “We weren’t always on good terms, you know, but I think the clashes in our personalities are what brought us together even more. Like yin and yang of sorts. We’re not there to be each other, we’re there to insert a piece of us in the other half.”
I heard about their rocky relationship last year, but I never asked. It’s understandable, though.
Levi might appear fun, but he has his own demons. Just like Aiden, he keeps them carefully tucked under the surface.
And this petite girl, only a year older than me, has managed to not only see his demons but to also make friends with them.
Hell. She fell in love with them.
Astrid seems like the type of girl who’s all in. She took Levi the way he is and even loved him for being who he is.
Maybe that’s why Levi watches her like she holds the world in the palm of her hands.
She doesn’t have to worry about the fangirls. Levi never looked at anyone the way he looks at her.
The look of a king to his queen.
The look I thought Aiden was about to give me last night.
“I know how hot-headed those with the King last name can be.” Astrid takes my hand in hers. “But they can have a big heart.”
That only includes Levi.
Aiden doesn’t have a heart.
I can be a naive fool and try to find it, but it’s full of wires in there.
I’ve already wounded myself enough, I can’t do it all over again.
“Well, Aiden is negotiable.” She winks. “But he’s been so different since you started to spend time with him.”
“Different how?”
“He smiles more and he appears a tad more human. Not to mention that he’s preparing freaking breakfast! You’re a miracle maker.”
We both laugh at that.
“Astrid, may I ask you something?”
“Any time.”
“How were you able to reach Levi?” Not that the cousins are the same, but they share similar traits.
“Reach him?”
“How did he open up to you and showed you his true self?” My head hangs. “I can’t even scratch the surface with Aiden no matter what I do.”
She appears thoughtful for a while. “I didn’t do anything special.”
“N-nothing at all?”
“I only showed him my true self and in response, he showed me his. Remember the yin and yang I mentioned earlier? It’s exactly like that. You take as much as you give. You can’t close off and expect him to bare his soul.”
“But I’m not closed off.”
“Maybe not consciously, but subconsciously?” She throws her hands in the air. “I’m not that good at psychology rubbish, but all I’m saying is, if you show your genuine self, then Aiden will be compelled to show himself, too.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
“Then the fucker doesn’t deserve you.” She laughs. “But seriously. You’re wrong about thinking that you can’t scratch the surface with him. I believe you’re already deep inside him, you just don’t know it yet.”
I don’t think so.
“Frozen!” Levi peeks his head inside, wearing a grin that appears so much like Aiden’s when he’s genuine — which is rare as hell.
“Her name is Elsa,” Astrid scolds.
“Frozen is a term of endearment, princess.”
“Only to you.”
“Morning, Levi.” I wave at him.
“What’s your magic trick to have that dickhead make breakfast?”
“Being herself.” Astrid winks, and I can’t help the smile that breaks free.
We should meet more often. She’s one of the most real girls I’ve ever met.
Even though she’s the daughter of Lord Clifford, a renowned member of the House of Lords, she’s more down to earth than commoners.
“By the way,” Levi shouts in a voice loud enough to reach downstairs. “He cooks like shit.”
“You’re only salty because you don’t get to eat it.” Aiden’s voice comes from downstairs.
Astrid and I snort before we break into laughter.
“I’ll go help.” Astrid pats my arm again. “Come down when you’re ready.”
She stops at the doorway, stands on her tippy toes and places a kiss on Levi’s mouth, then escapes before he can clutch her.
My chest warms at the sight.
They’re really so compatible together. It makes me wonder about how rocky their relationship was last year.
“Are you coming?” Levi asks.
“Uh… yeah, sure.”
I remove my jacket and remain in my shirt. It’s too warm inside for a jacket.
Levi steps into the room as I place the jacket near the backpack.
“How is it with him?” he asks.
No idea how to answer that.
Good would be a lie. Bad would be a lie, too.
“It’s complicated,” I tell the truth.
“Well, he’s the complicated type.” Levi laughs. “You didn’t listen to my warning, so you reap what you sow.”
I face him. “Your warning?”
“At Ronan’s party, I told you that you should stay away from Aiden for your own sake, not his.”
Right. He did tell me that.
Does that mean Levi knows something about what happened to change Aiden into who he is?
Now, I have to ask without sounding too obvious.
“It’s not like I had a choice.” I shrug. “You know him better than anyone.”
“No one actually knows Aiden. We can only try.” He smiles a little. “But I’m glad you’re taking a chance on getting to know him, too.”
“A chance?”
“He’s not conventional.”
I nod once. Of course, Levi recognises Aiden’s true nature. They grew up together in the same house.
“This change happened somewhere in his childhood, right?”
He nods. “He was a quiet child by nature, but that incident changed everything.”
“You mean Alicia’s death.”
“Yes, that one was the icing on the cake, but it’s not —”
“Breakfast.”
Both Levi and I startle at Aiden’s voice. I was so focused on what Levi was saying that I didn’t notice him come in.
“How about you make a sound, you fucking creep?” Levi scoffs.
“How about you leave?” Aiden shoots back.
“Dream on.” He winks at me. “Come on. Let’s eat.”
I start to follow him out.
A strong hand clutches me by the arm and wrenches me back. “What the fuck were you talking about with Lev?”
His eyes are darkening by the second.