Chapter 17: Renee

More than once, I was tempted to get up and bail before Aaron even had a chance to get here. Still, I resisted the urge and stayed where I was alone at one of the tables, nursing a Pina Colada between my fingers that’s not even pretending to have enough booze in it.

The place is swarming for a Thursday night. Couples are getting drunk at the bar, men play darts, growing louder with each finished pitcher of beer, and single women prowl the place, ready to dig their claws into whatever half-decent jock makes the rookie mistake of looking their way.

I didn’t like bars. In fact, I hated them. I didn’t like crowds in general, actually, and Carly said it was due to my introversion or whatever.

But I was not the same girl I used to be, right? Not even close.

Or that’s what I was trying to convince myself of, anyway.

College was a way to be someone else, to do different things, meet new people and pretend like the old you were someone you’d never even met, let alone someone you once were.

I was still having a hard time with that part, especially regarding Matt, Jake, and Aaron.

But as Jami mentioned, what is the best revenge for three guys like this? Three men I was equally smitten with. Three men I couldn't stop thinking about at all times of the day. Even after my night with Jake, it somehow didn’t deter me from the other two. In fact, it only made me want them more.

But if I was going to seek revenge, I had to act the part.

I was still working on that.

The bell over the door jingled at five to nine, and Aaron came in. He looked adorable in a clean pair of jeans and sneakers. His jacket was zipped up against the cold, and a green winter hat with actual reindeer prancing around the fabric hides his ears. I couldn't even hold back the smile as Aaron spotted me across the room and came over, taking a seat across from me at the table I’d saved for us.

“You look beautiful,” he said, shrugging off his jacket and pulling off his hat. He smells good, like some new cologne, but it was weird on Aaron. He’s never been the cologne-type, as far as I could remember.

“You didn’t look too bad yourself,” I said with a grin that I couldn’t stop from playing on my lips. “Love the hat.”

“Oh, this old thing?” Aaron held it out for me to see, shrugging sheepishly. “My grandma made it for me two Christmases ago. Every attempt I’ve made to lose it hasn’t worked out. Somehow it ends up back on my head.”

“I don’t know if anyone told you, but it’s only September. Christmas isn’t for a few more months.”

“Bah humbug.” Aaron winks at me, hardly looking up from my face as the server comes over and takes his drink order. Then, he orders me a second Pina Colada.

“Extra rum, please,” I said to her, and the server rolled her eyes and walked away. Aaron chuckled.

“I know I’m not Matt or Jake, but I can’t be that bad of company.”

“Who said you were bad company?” I shrugged my shoulders in a small, flirty way until I had Aaron’s undivided attention.

Not like that was ever an issue to begin with, really. I was confident that neither Aaron nor Matt knew what happened with Jake and me. I was surprised he’d been able to keep his mouth shut.

For now.

“See, Aaron, I don’t really know you, do I?” I continued, admiring how his lightened brown hair fell into his eyes. “All I know about you, Mr. Connor, is that you were a very mean kid in high school. You all were.”

“I thought you didn’t want any more apologies,” Aaron said, a grin on his lips.

“No apology needed, just stating the facts.” I lean forward on the table, hands crossed in front of me. “My point is, I don’t know the real you, who Aaron is now. How do I know what kind of company you may or may not be based on what I know of you in the past?”

“I think you’re too clever for your own good,” Aaron said, his eyes twinkling. “You always have been.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that once or twice.”

The server delivered our drinks, and when I took a sip of my Pina Colada, I was pleasantly surprised as the rum burned my tongue. “Now, that’s more like it.”

“Cheers to that.” Aaron raised his drink in the air as a toast, and I clinked with him. His cheeks were tinted red, which was adorable on this man, and even the ears poking through his mess of almond hair were tipped with red.

“I was enjoying this already,” I told him, allowing my body to relax with my mind. “Thanks for saying yes to my date.”

“Well, you know …” he looked around awkwardly, blushing even harder, and it took everything I had in me not to laugh. “I figured you'd have said no after our first run-in if I had asked you.”

“I probably would have,” I admit, savoring the pineapple taste on my tongue. “After all, I like to take charge in a relationship.”

Aaron is silent as he watches me, eyes reading my face like an open book. This man could see straight into my soul and out the other side. He just has that depth to him.

“Wow,” he said after a moment, nodding his head. “You really are different, aren’t you?”

“Different how?”

“Confident. Secure with who you are. You’re nothing like the girl I remember from high school.”

I took another drink, licking my lips. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“I think it’s a little bit of both,” Aaron said, shrugging. I keep my eyes on him, chewing on my bottom lip. I hadn’t exactly expected that.

“How is it bad?” I asked him. “Is it bad because I’m not such a loser anymore? Is it bad because I finally feel good in my own skin?”

“No, Renee, that’s not why it’s bad.”

I leaned forward until my face was only six inches from his, then I reached out a hand and placed it over his, squeezing. “Then why?”

“It was bad because there was nothing wrong with you, to begin with,” he said finally. “It’s bad because three jerk guys in high school made you feel like you weren’t good enough, forcing you to become an entirely different person. It’s bad because if you hadn’t changed a tiny thing about yourself, you would still be the woman you always were. The nerdy, super-intelligent, shy girl deserved the same kind of respect you still do now.”

I didn’t know if it was his words or how he said it, but for a moment that went on for far too long, I was speechless, and an intense emotion washed over me. He’s seen right through me, just as I expected he would. What I never realized, however, is precisely how much he understood.

Without thinking twice about it, I pulled my hand back from his and dropped it into my lap, clearing my throat. I was not about to cry in front of my date. Aaron seemed to sense something turning in me because he smiled kindly and stood up to excuse himself.

“I’m going to use the restroom. I’ll be back.”

I nod and watch him go, a warm feeling spreading through my body and to the ends of my limbs. His words cut deep, but for the first time in a long time, the words didn’t cut to hurt me.

Feeling a bit sassier than I had been moments ago, I slide from my seat and cross the floor toward the restrooms. A fire is burning deep inside, smoldering, growing with every second passing. I wanted to hold Aaron, press my lips against his until we’re one person, a single entity combined as one.

Fanning myself, I leaned against the cut-off, private wall between the two washrooms just as Aaron emerged. He spotted me there and stopped dead, a smirk playing on his lips. I have my lip pulled between my teeth, teasing him, my shirt drawn down farther than before.

“Well, hello,” he said, coming towards me. Slyly, I turn my body towards the women’s restroom and push open the door, poking my head in without taking my eyes off Aaron.

“Is anyone here?” I called. “Somebody is trying to tow your car.” When no one answers, I take Aaron’s hand in mine and pull him in, locking the door behind us.

“What’s going on?” Aaron starts to ask, but I press my lips to him to shush him, fingers on my right hand working down towards the lump in his jeans that is growing steadily by the second.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Aaron held my face between his hands, breathing heavily, and I shrugged. I didn’t care anymore. I wanted this. I wanted him.

“I think this is a great idea,” I whisper, and Aaron grins, his mouth hot against my skin. There’s a small box on the wall that holds individual packets of condoms, the perfect thing for a bar, I guess, and I grab one from the box and rip it open with my teeth. Aaron didn’t have to ask twice. In one quick, fluid motion, he lifted me off the ground and set me down on the bathroom counter, forcing my legs open with his knees. I was wearing a dress tonight, one I wasn’t sure I could get on board with, but it seemed to have worked out flawlessly as Aaron flipped the skirt up and pulled me towards him until I could feel his dick throbbing hard against the front of his jeans. He kissed me, teasing my lips with his tongue, and I was hungry for him, like a starving, ravenous animal.

“I want you inside of me,” I moaned. I wrapped my legs around his waist and used my feet to kick his jeans to his ankles until the only thing between his cock and me were two thin layers of fabric. Aaron nibbles on my neck as I move my hands down and push the boxers off his waist, then I allow my head to fall back as Aaron’s fingers work their way up my thigh, towards my panties, and he shimmies them off. As I grab the condom to slip on him, Aaron slides a finger inside me.

I gasped, lightheaded, as the fire in my abdomen licked flames against my insides. As Aaron forced a second finger into me, making me squeal, I slipped the condom onto his hard cock. With a groan, Aaron pushed his body into mine, filling me up, and an electric shock of ecstasy ripped through me. My fingers moved to his head, tangling in his hair, and Aaron rocked with my body, the two of us in sync, a single person.

“Oh fuck,” he moaned, and I could tell he was reaching climax; I was too, and my body tightened around his cock. I reached release before he did, and our lips met once more as I slid my tongue between his teeth, teasing him, driving him over the edge.

Afterward, we held each other, unable to move, breathing heavily, trying to catch our breath. Aaron’s face was flushed, and mine was too. I’d never felt so fucking good. So alive.

“Jesus,” Aaron said, his forehead resting against my own as I buttoned up his jeans. “You’re so fucking amazing.”

I laughed and closed my eyes, breathing him in, wishing, for the second time in my adult life, that this moment would never end.