by Sam Ayers
“Jo, hon, are you okay?” he asked, panicking when he saw that she was crying.
“It’s burnt! I destroyed it!” she wailed and plopped on the floor. Aiden inspected the pasta she had been making; it didn’t look that bad; he could easily fix it.
“I’ll take care of this, darling. Please don’t cry.” He smiled and helped her up before kissing her cheek. She wrapped her arms around him immediately and sobbed.
“I’m a failure when it comes to cooking,” she cried again.
“No, baby. You aren’t a failure; you just have to keep trying,” he reassured as he made her sit on a chair and went to fix their dinner. They had invited Alex and Abigail over, and Jo had challenged Alex that she would cook everything without Aiden helping her. She sobbed as she watched him fix her disastrous meal. He was adding something and expertly stirring as he kept looking at the recipe book.
“Here, Jo. All done. Taste and tell me if it’s good,” he called, moving the spoon towards her. She took a bite and started weeping again.
“That bad?” He raised his eyebrow.
She wiped her tears and said, “It’s perfect! You are perfect and I suck!”
He couldn’t help but chuckle at her face; she looked like a three-year-old, and her face was red as he pulled her towards him. There they stood hugging, him chuckling quietly as she sobbed.
“Let’s make a deal. I won’t tell Alex about the disaster, and you will smile for me and pretend this never happened,” he whispered and kissed her brow.
“Deal!” She gave a small smile and hugged him tightly.
“I’m going to call Alex now. Please, err . . . step away from the kitchen, love.” He kissed her brow one last time before walking away to the drawing room.
He called Alex and found out that they were still at home.
“Al, you said you’d be here at 7:00PM sharp!” Aiden groaned.
“I know, dude. Getting ready!”
“Who? Abigail? Why do women take so much time to get ready?”
“Hey! It’s not Abby; she’s already ready. I’m the one who’s still changing,” Alex said as he stood in front of his wardrobe choosing a t-shirt.
“Gosh! You’ll never change!” Aiden groaned again as he plopped on the couch. He remembered how it used to be when they shared an apartment during college. Alex would take hours to choose what to wear and finally Aiden would end up choosing something for him.
“Red or blue?” Alex asked.
“Color of the jacket?”
“Hmm . . . black?”
“Red, then, and don’t you dare be late again.” Aiden sighed, raking his fingers through his hair.
“See you soon!” Alex hung up and put on his favorite red t-shirt. Walking out, he saw Abigail sitting on the couch. “Ready, baby?”
“A long time ago,” she replied sarcastically and grabbed his hand. He always took Aiden’s help when he couldn’t decide on something, just like with the t-shirt incident. “You take forever to change!”
“But, babe, I was just choosing the color! You know that’s hard,” Alex replied with an innocent puppy dog face.
“Seriously, Alex, why are you acting like a kid?”
They were about to get into the car when he grabbed her hand and swiftly pushed her between him and the car. Her back was to the door, and she blushed as he leant closer. He grabbed her hands so that she couldn’t try to escape, and traced his nose along her jaw and placed a soft kiss under her chin. Slowly, he started moving downwards, placing a trail of soft kisses on her pale skin. Abigail moaned when she felt his breath on her neck.
He suddenly straightened and pulled the door open for her, leaving her utterly confused.
“We were getting late, weren’t we?” he asked, grinning.
She glared at him and was about to sit down when he pulled her back to him, completely removing any space between their bodies. “Oh, don’t do that, baby. I can’t keep my hands off you; I just wanted you to feel the way I feel when you brush me off.”
“Are you done? If so, I would like that kiss now.”
Alex grinned. Who was he to say no to a lovely lady? Swooping down, he molded his lips to her, pushing her right against the car again.
* * *
Yet another disaster had happened. Jo had decided on making brownies. The only problem? She forgot to set the timer. The result? A kitchen filled with black smoke and charred brownies.
She started sobbing again when she finally realized she was a disaster at cooking. She was clutching her writer’s hat as she sobbed. She thought it would give her inspiration and motivation to cook; it did, but it didn’t save her brownies.
Worried by the burning smell, Aiden came running to see Jo hiding her face in the curtain. When he heard her cry, he asked, “Hon, what’s going on?”
“Go away! Don’t wanna talk!” she wailed and hugged the curtain tightly.
“Darling, come here, I’ll give you a hug. Please leave the curtains alone.”
She turned around and jumped on him, almost knocking him off the ground. “Ouch!” He groaned and rubbed his head. She was behaving like a child – which he really liked – but why was she crying?
He made her sit on the couch and asked her to wait for a minute. She pulled off the cushion beside her and hugged it tightly as she kept thinking about how Jake always told her to stay away from the kitchen.
Aiden came back with a plate of her favorite red velvet swirl brownies. “Shhh! You don’t have to tell Alex that you didn’t make them.” He winked.
She giggled. “Where did you get these from?”
Aiden shrugged. He didn’t want to tell her that after her trying to make pasta, he had had an inkling to call his mother and have a backup plan ready. After all, the worse that would have happened was Jo would have made her brownies and he’d have kept these for later. But now, looking at the charred remains in the baking tray, he was extremely happy he had thought ahead.
The red velvet brownies looked fabulous, a gorgeous mixture of red and white chocolate over deep red, moist, and soft cake.
When they heard the doorbell ring, he put the brownies in the refrigerator and walked towards the door. He opened to see Alex grinning at him, with Abigail next to him.
“Hi, Aiden!” Abigail said, hugging him as she walked in.
“Hey, Abigail! Hi, Al!”
“Bro, whatcha making?” Alex asked, rubbing his hands and grinning widely.
“I didn’t cook tonight. Jo did!” Aiden smirked. Jo came out of the room and hugged Abby.
“Joey, were you crying?” Abigail asked. She knew Jo too well to know when and why she cried. Josephine Winters only cried when she burnt something. Abigail wondered if the dinner would be edible.
She hoped for all their sakes that it was. As much as she loved Alex, he could be highly inconsiderate at times and she didn’t want him saying something about Jo’s cooking. They had just come to a truce, and she didn’t want anything upsetting Jo and the delicate balance that they had all finally found.
“Thanks for inviting us over.” Alex grinned at Jo and gave her a hug.
She mock-punched his shoulder. “Why are you being so formal?”
“Is it just me, or is anyone else starving? After seeing Jo cook I can’t help but want to taste it ASAP,” Alex said with a smirk. Jo grinned and left to set the table and Abby followed to help her.
“Heard anything from Adele yet? What kinda honeymoon is this? She has completely forgotten her family! No calls and no emails,” Alex said when the girls walked away.
Aiden sighed and said, “Let’s talk in the study.”
Alex couldn’t help but chuckle when he saw the mess in front of him. Books, papers and pens were scattered all over the table. Aiden sighed and picked up his glasses. He had a stylish pair of rimless glasses with dark blue sides that matched his eyes perfectly. He sat on a chair as he put his glasses on and sighed heavily again.
“Don’t tell this to anybody! Especially my parents, or I
’m dead!”
Alex raised an eyebrow. This sounded like trouble. “Go on, bud!”
“Their honeymoon ended two days after they left. On the second day, Gabriel got a call from work saying that there was an important case to handle, so they returned immediately. I got a call from Adele and she sounded upset. I haven’t told anyone, and I’ve been meeting her in secret. She doesn’t want to upset anyone, so she decided to pretend that she’s still enjoying her honeymoon and will return in two days.”
“You two are in big trouble, you know that?” Alex muttered. “Why do you guys think that you can handle everything by yourself?”
“What do you suggest, then? I told her about Jo rejecting my proposal and she wanted to meet me. I thought she was still away, but she was here all along. And now Gabe has gone to some medical conference and she’s at home, all alone. If Jo wasn’t here, I would have called her. But I’m planning to spend some time with her tomorrow.”
“Aido, she’s married! She can take care of herself. Now it’s time to move back and let her live her life!”
Aiden shook his head. “I can’t do that! I can’t see her in pain!” With that, he got up and went to the living room, leaving a very surprised Alex alone.
The bond between the twins had always run deep. But at times like this, Alex seriously wished they weren’t so dependent on each other. Adele needed to talk this out with Gabe, not Aiden. They were just beginning their marriage, and she had to let him know when she was hurt. They were the ones married to each other. The fact that Gabe had gone to a conference irked Alex and he wondered again why Adele was so in love with him.
Dinner was enjoyable and they loved the food. But when it came to dessert, Alex took a bite of the brownie and shook his head.
“You think you can fool me by making me eat Aunt Lynn’s brownie and saying Jo made it?”
“No one is trying to fool you! Mine got burnt. They are still there, though; want to eat them instead?” Jo mocked. Alex pulled his brownies closer and shook his head like a child.
After dinner they sat in the living room, sipping coffee as Alex told them how cool his V.P. work was. Just then, Aiden remembered that he needed Alex’s signature on a document, but as he got up to get it, Jo stood up and said she would bring it to him. She went to his room and searched for the file in the drawers.
“Jo, check the one on the bottom right corner,” Aiden called.
“Okey dokey!” she answered and started to search for it again. She opened the wrong drawer, but something caught her eye as she was about to close it. It was a beautiful black box and, when she opened it, she found a solitaire engagement ring. It was so beautiful that she couldn’t bear to see it. She closed the box and shut the drawer after placing it back. She found the file and took it back to Aiden. She knew that was the same ring he had on the day he proposed, but as she had said no, she hadn’t seen it.
Quietly, she sat next to Abigail and handed over the file to Aiden. When she noticed the initials A.D.R on the document, she asked, “What does A.D.R stand for?”
“Huh? My name,” Aiden replied casually and showed Alex the documents.
“What does the ‘D’ stand for?” Jo asked again.
“Darren. Aiden Darren Reid. I only use it in the official documents,” he said and turned towards Alex again.
As it was getting late, Abigail got up and said she was going home. Jo got up too. “I’m gonna spend the night at Abby’s. See you boys later,” she said, kissing Aiden’s cheek.
“Jo, wait!” Aiden called after her, but she winked at him, blew a kiss and walked away. Abigail kissed Alex and followed her. When the girls left, Alex jumped on the couch and sat there grinning at Aiden.
“What?” Aiden asked, curiously.
“You guys had plans tonight?”
Aiden sighed before replying, “Yeah, she told me she was going to spend the night here. She always does. What’s gotten into her? I’ll be right back. I need to keep this file in its place.”
He got up and walked towards his bedroom. When he opened the drawer to keep his file, he felt something was off. Looking a little closer, he noticed that the ring box had been moved. He guessed that Jo had seen it and it had freaked her out, which was why she left with Abigail.
“She saw the ring, dude!” Aiden called as he came out of the room.
“Oh my God! You need to show it to someone else now, right? Did she get a phone call yet? Oh, no!” Alex panicked. “That girl from that well will crawl out and get her now!”
“ALEX!” Aiden shouted, shaking his shoulder. “Shut up! I’m not talking about a freaking movie! Jo saw the engagement ring I bought for her.”
“Oh! That ring!” Alex sighed in relief and then chuckled. Aiden groaned and plopped on the couch next to him, punching his shoulder as he sat.
“Ouch! Moron!” Alex moaned. “Look, bud, girls need alone time. So we should just give them some. Let her go, she’ll be alright soon.”
“Alone time? Hmm . . . I wonder what Adele would be up to now.” Aiden sighed.
“Let’s go say hi to her!” Alex grinned and got up.
“You know what time it is? She must be asleep.”
“C’mon, dude, you twins have no life! Get up, we are going!” Alex pulled him up and pushed him towards the door, handing him his jacket on the way out. They got into his car and Aiden sat on the passenger side, looking at the lights go by. Alex, who was driving, was humming a tune.
Alex’s car was a sleek black BMW M3 convertible that seemed to glide rather than move down the road, and usually, when Alex was behind the wheel, it went at speeds that were extremely high.
With the wind sweeping through their hair, Aiden smiled, closing his eyes to feel the wind flow over his face. Alex had old cheesy love songs on at full blast, and was singing along loudly, completely off-tune.
When they reached Adele’s home, Aiden walked forward to ring the doorbell, but Alex stopped him.
“Let’s sneak in, Aido. We haven’t done that in a while.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Come over here, the window at the back is always open.” Alex walked towards the backyard.
“How do you know about that?” Aiden asked, curiously.
“Err . . . I visited Rachel last year and she left the window open,” Alex said awkwardly and moved forward.
* * *
Adele sat on the couch, eating Chinese food and watching a crappy romance drama. She heard a noise and dropped the TV remote. Being all alone at home, she wondered if that had been a good idea. She slowly grabbed a pillow and moved towards the noise. She saw a dark figure in front of her and began to hit it with the pillow as it came towards her.
“Blast it! Adele, stop!” Alex shouted and Aiden ran towards the wall to switch on the light.
“Alex, you moron!” she shouted back, hitting him harder.
“Aaahh! Stop hitting me!”
“How dare you break into my house? I thought you were a freaking thief!” she yelled as Aiden pulled her back.
“Oh wow! You hit a thief with a pillow?” Alex chuckled and got a punch on his shoulder.
“Ouch! Woman, control yourself!”
She slammed the pillow into him again. “You jerk! I was scared to death.”
She moved away and plopped onto the couch. Alex sat next to her and put his arm around her shoulder and she groaned. “You’re eating Chinese? Give me some!” He pulled the bowl of noodles from her hand and happily took a big bite.
“Why the hell are you here?” She groaned.
“We came to see you, but this alien here wanted to break in!” Aiden sighed.
“I’m noft a ailgiren!” Alex mumbled. A few minutes later, he continued, “Actually we are here to take you out for some midnight ice cream. You know, just like old times!”
Adele smiled at that. “That sounds kind of nice actually, but one condition. Stop eating my noodles and get your feet off my couch!”
He nodded before taking a huge
bite and setting down the bowl. Adele had by then gotten her jacket on, and the trio made their way to an old hangout, an ice cream place that was open 24/7. It was a small quaint place with extremely well-mannered staff, and the ice cream was always delicious.
While Alex pondered like a child wondering what to get, Aiden got a double vanilla scoop while Adele went for the triple scoop strawberry delight. Finally, Alex settled for a Rainbow Cluster, which was a scoop each of seven different flavors and had a generous amount of chocolate chips on top.
“You planning on eating that whole thing?” Adele asked.
“Yup! And I’m gonna have a banana split after. Just this isn’t going to satisfy me.” Alex winked at her before digging into his ice cream.
Aiden chuckled at Alex’s antics and took a bite out of his own sweet dessert. This was liberating, and brought back memories of when they were teens and had snuck out to eat ice cream.
Alex pointed his spoon at Adele. “So, dear cousin, how goes eternal confinement?”
Adele laughed. “Seriously, Alex! Only you would call it that.”
Alex made a face. “Well, when you are marrying a sourpuss like Gabe, I can’t help but worry for your happiness.”
“I’m happy.” She sighed, not convincing herself. “I’ll be fine, guys, don’t worry about me.”
They ended up spending the whole night talking about stuff from their past and lost track of time.
The next morning, Aiden and Alex picked up Jo and Abigail to have lunch at the Reid’s. Adelynn had been extremely excited to officially meet the girls as her boys’ girlfriends. Somehow, when they sat down, Jo ended up squished between Ashton and Alex, while Aiden was on the other side of the table with Aubrey hanging on to him, all the while glaring at Jo like she was sure she would snatch Aiden away.
Lunch was casual and pleasant, with the food and conversation flowing smoothly over the table. Alex and Aiden had both groaned when Lynn had pulled out their baby albums and then proceeded to show the most embarrassing pictures to Jo and Abby.
Abigail couldn’t help but smile when she saw a picture of baby Alex who was so chubby and cute. As they looked at all the pictures, one particular photograph caught Jo’s eye. She picked it up to see a very familiar face. It was a picture of a boy who stood alone, with a strange faraway look in his eyes.