Aiden's Story (A Watcher Novel)

by S. J. West

  I tapped on your window three times to make sure you came to it before I phased over to the little cove on the mountain across the lake from your house. I stood there waiting to catch a glimpse of you and to make sure you found my gift. When I saw you walk up to the window and peer out, I suddenly lost the ability to breathe. The sun was at just the right angle to illuminate your face in the warmth of its glow, making you look like a true angel. I breathed a sigh of relief when you opened the window and reached a hand out to pick up the little blue box tied shut with a white piece of ribbon.

  Unfortunately, you turned away then and went further back into your room to open it. I wish I could have seen your face when you saw what was inside, but I contented myself by just standing there and waiting for your party to begin.

  When you stepped out of your house later that day, I saw the sun glint off my gift to you around your neck. I was happy that you decided to wear it that day. I wasn’t sure if you knew who it was from until Jess confirmed it for me later.

  Mason came to see me in my house in Memphis later that evening and told me about Gabe’s vision of you. Of course, none of us knew what it meant then, but I knew no matter what the outcome we would survive it. And we did, beautiful.

  Two weeks after that birthday, you decided to call me.

  I wish I could tell you that I was alone when you called, but I wasn’t. I had received another unexpected call earlier that day from someone who hadn’t reached out to me in almost a year.

  Nadiye contacted me and asked if we could meet. Her voice sounded urgent over the phone, and I felt like I owed her a debt so I honored her request. She was still living in Istanbul at the time, and I asked her to meet me at my apartment in town.

  When I answered the door to let her in, she looked just as beautiful as I remembered. Her long black hair was styled in loose curls around her face, which barely had any make-up applied to it. She was wearing a blue strapless summer dress with matching high heels. She looked perfect enough to be featured on the cover of a magazine.

  “You sounded upset over the phone,” I said to her. “What’s wrong?”

  “Can I come in?” She asked since I hadn’t moved away from the entryway yet.

  “Of course,” I said, allowing her to walk into the apartment.

  She walked over to the sliding glass doors and said, “I’ve always liked this view. It’s perfect.”

  I stood a couple of feet behind her waiting for her to say more.

  Finally, she turned around to face me.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked her again. “Why did you need to see me?”

  “I’m getting married tomorrow,” she told me with a half-smile that didn’t look very happy. “But for some reason, I still can’t seem to get you out of my head, Aiden. I thought…I hoped if I came here and saw you again my feelings for you would vanish.”

  “And have they?”

  Nadiye shook her head, tears welling in her eyes.

  “No,” she cried. “I’ve tried so hard to forget about you, but I just can’t seem to. That night when I caught you with that other woman in your office, I knew exactly what you were doing. I knew you were pushing me away the most effective way you knew how, but I was too proud to force you to face the fact that you cared about me.”

  “That was almost a year ago, Nadiye. We’ve both moved on.”

  Nadiye walked up to me and gently caressed the left side of my face with one of her hands.

  “But I don’t think I can let you go just yet, Aiden. Not without saying a proper goodbye to the life we could have had if you had let me love you.”

  She reached behind her with both her hands, and I heard the distinct sound of the zipper of her dress being drawn down. Before I knew it, she was standing completely naked in front of me with only her high heels on.

  “All I want is for you to make love to me one more time, Aiden. Maybe then I can finally forget about you.”

  Having Nadiye present herself to me the way she did was like giving a person addicted to sugar the keys to a candy store. I knew it was wrong, but I took her in my arms anyway and began to kiss her. When I heard her moan, it fed the beast inside me, and I immediately phased her to my bedroom. I laid her down on the black silk comforter on my bed and quickly stripped my shirt off. I was just unbuttoning my jeans when I heard my phone ring downstairs.

  “Don’t answer it,” Nadiye begged me. “They can wait.”

  The phone rang a second time.

  “I have to get it,” I told her. “It might be work.”

  I phased down to the living room and picked my phone up off the kitchen counter before it could ring a third time.

  “Hello?” I answered.

  But I didn’t get a response back. I could hear breathing on the other end of the line and looked at my phone to see if I recognized the number calling but I didn’t.

  “Hello?” I said again, confused how a stranger could have gotten my number.

  Then, I finally heard you say, “Hi.”

  I still didn’t recognize your voice, but I did reply with my own, “Hi.”

  Finally, you revealed your identity by saying, “This is Caylin.”

  I didn’t know what to do. I debated on whether or not I should just hang up on you, but decided I couldn’t be that rude, not to you.

  “You shouldn't be calling me, Caylin,” I told you instead. “How did you get my number?”

  “A...friend gave it to me,” you confessed, and I assumed that friend was probably Leah.

  “I see,” I said, closing my eyes because all I wanted to do was talk to you, but I knew the phone call wasn’t right. We weren’t supposed to be talking. It was against the rules your parents had set into place, and I wasn’t going to risk losing you for such a little thing when we could have so much more in only three years’ time. “I do appreciate you making the effort to contact me. I really do. And please don't take this the wrong way, but I can't talk to you. I made a promise I would wait until you were older, Caylin. I don't intend to break my word to your family. So, if you care about me at all, please, don't try to contact me again. Not until...not until it's the right time. Do you understand?”

  When I heard you start to cry, my heart felt like someone was twisting it inside my chest. All I wanted to do was take you into my arms and tell you everything would be all right. But I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t go to you because that would mean breaking my promise to your parents.

  “Yes,” I heard you say through your tears, “I understand.”

  “Please, Caylin, don't cry,” I begged, holding a hand to my chest in a failed attempt to ease the pain in my heart. “It's only a few more years. They'll pass by before you realize it. And in that time I want you to know that you will always be in my thoughts. But, you have a little growing up to do first. Your parents are right. You're not ready for me.”

  “I don't think they're right,” you replied stubbornly, which made me smile because it was one of the first glimpses into your personality that I was allowed to discover on my own.

  “I know you don't,” I told you. “But trust me, you're not ready for me yet. And…” I looked over to the staircase leading from the living room to my bedroom. Sitting there in my discarded shirt was Nadiye, watching and listening. “I have some issues of my own I would like to work out before we meet again.”

  “Like what?”

  It would have been a simple question to answer for most people, but I couldn’t tell you about my past over the phone. That type of conversation had to happen in person.

  “I would rather wait to have that discussion when we can talk face to face,” I told you. “I plan to share everything you want to know about me with you when the time comes. But, right now, I want you to focus on enjoying the next three years of your life and not worrying about when you'll see me again. Just remember that I will be thinking about you until that time comes, ok?”

  You fell silent and I worried that you might be mad at me, but then you said, “Than
k you for the necklace.”

  “I'm glad you liked it,” I replied, relieved because it sounded as though you were just stalling. I didn’t want to end the call with you either, but I knew we needed to. I remained silent so you would come to the same conclusion.

  “I won't try to call you again,” you promised me.

  “Thank you for finding a way to call this one time,” I said, closing my eyes as I imagined myself holding you tight. “It was good to hear your voice. I needed it.”

  A few seconds later, you said the words I had been dreading to hear, “Goodbye, Aiden.”

  “It's not goodbye, Caylin,” I told you. “Just a delayed hello.”

  “Ok. I guess I'll see you in three years.”

  “You can count on it.”

  I waited until you ended the call. Then I placed the phone back down on the kitchen counter and turned to look at Nadiye.

  “Who was that?” She asked me.

  I re-buttoned my pants and said, “My soulmate.”

  “Soulmate?” Nadiye questioned, sounding as though such a concept was foreign to her. “If she’s your soulmate, why were you just about to make love to me in your bed?”

  I sighed and rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands.

  “That’s a very good question,” I replied, feeling guilt over what could have happened if you hadn’t called me when you did, Caylin.

  “And why do you have to wait three years to be with her?”

  “Because she just turned fifteen and her parents don’t approve of us being together until she’s eighteen.”

  “Why someone so young, Aiden?”

  “You don’t get to choose who your soulmate is,” I told her. “It just happens.”

  “Three years is a very long time,” Nadiye said. “I don’t see you being faithful to her for that long. And from what I know we were about to do, I would wager you haven’t been faithful to only her yet.”

  “My heart is hers,” I told Nadiye. “That’s what matters.”

  “So you don’t think she’ll be upset when she learns that you’ve been sleeping with other women between now and three years from now?” Nadiye scoffed. “Obviously, you don’t know women very well. She’ll be shattered.”

  “And this coming from a woman who was offering herself up to me on the day before her wedding? How do you think your fiancé will feel if he finds out?” I asked, throwing her words back into her face.

  Nadiye lowered her head looking somewhat ashamed. “I know now that I can’t marry him. I think I was just looking for an excuse to call the wedding off and you seemed like as good a one as any.” Nadiye looked back at me. “But if you truly love this girl, if she really is your soulmate, you need to find a way to stay true to her, Aiden. Otherwise, you’ll just end up breaking her heart. You understand that, right?”

  I hesitated, but I nodded because I did know. I had always known there wasn’t any justification for my actions, addiction or not. For you, I had to find a way to channel my energy somewhere else to get my mind off my sex addiction and off you until the time came when we could be together.

  “She’s a lucky girl,” Nadiye said to me. “Deep down, you’re a good person, Aiden. You’ll make a fine husband to the right woman, but you really need to get yourself together before you try to plan a future with this person. I think you know that.”

  I nodded. “I do.”

  Nadiye stood back up, stripped off my shirt, and tossed it to me. She quickly put her dress back on and walked over to me.

  “I wish you luck,” she said, kissing me on the cheek.

  “I wish you the same,” I told her. “I hope you find a man who can give you the happiness you deserve.”

  Nadiye smiled sadly and said, “I hope I do too.”

  After Nadiye left, I sat in my living room trying to figure out what to do. My mind was a complete blank on how to solve my problem. I decided to call the one person who I knew would either beat me to a pulp or help me with my dilemma.

  I called Malcolm.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  I put my pencil down because my hand is starting to cramp. I have no idea what time it is or even what day it is. Suddenly, I hear the rattle of pans come from the front of the apartment. I stand up and walk out of my office to see who is making such a racket.

  To my surprise, I find Brand and Malcolm standing in my kitchen.

  “What are the two of you doing here?” I ask.

  Sitting on the kitchen island are two full grocery bags.

  “We had to get away,” Brand tells me, pulling out a frying pan I had in one of the lower cabinets. “Lilly and Tara were driving us crazy. I made up an excuse and told them we needed to come here and make sure you were eating.”

  At the mention of food, my stomach begins to rumble.

  “Well, if it makes you feel any better, I haven’t eaten in quite a while. I’ve only taken small breaks in my writing to eat a few snacks when I got desperate.”

  “Good,” Malcolm says, pulling out the groceries from the bags and setting them out on the island. “That means if Lilly asks us anything we can truthfully say you were starving when we found you. You know that woman can always tell a lie from the truth, even though she was never a Watcher. She must have inherited something from Michael. It’s extremely annoying and inconvenient sometimes.”

  I chuckle because I understand Malcolm’s predicament. Caylin had been given the same gift from Brand so it made surprising her with anything rather difficult.

  “How far along are you in your journal?” Brand asks, turning away from the stove he had just set the frying pan on to give me his full attention.

  “I just wrote about Caylin calling me right after her fifteenth birthday,” I tell him.

  “Ahh, the ‘phone call’,” Brand says with a small smile. “I think that was the first time I thought you and Caylin might actually have a chance together. I was surprised when you called me to let me know she had contacted you. It showed me just how much you had grown from when I knew you in Heaven.”

  “And I didn’t even have to threaten him with bodily harm to do it,” Malcolm chimes in. “He came up with the idea all on his own.”

  “I knew if Caylin had been my daughter, I would want to know,” I tell Brand. “And I wasn’t sure she would admit it to you. Lies always have a way of coming out sooner or later. We had enough going against us. I didn’t want something so innocent to be taken the wrong way.”

  “You’ve proven yourself to be someone worthy of Caylin these past few years,” Brand tells me, giving me the highest praise a father can. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have said yes when you asked Lilly and me for her hand in marriage. We both know how much you respect and love our daughter. I don’t think any parents could have asked for more. We’ve all had our own demons to lay to rest, Aiden, and I hope writing all of yours out will finally do that for you.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate you saying that. I think writing it all down and reliving it has helped me to see how far I’ve come.”

  “Not without help,” Malcolm subtly reminds me.

  “No, not without a great deal of help,” I agree. “By the way, I’m about to write about your concept of tough love.”

  “I only tortured you a little bit,” Malcolm professes with a roll of his eyes as if I’m completely exaggerating. “Let’s keep in mind that you came to me and practically begged me for it. You do remember that part, right?”

  I sigh. “Yes, I remember.”

  “Then stop complaining and help us cook something to eat. I’m starving! Tara and Lilly have been running us ragged all day. You and Caylin should have taken me up on my offer to pay for an elopement.”

  “Lilly would have killed you if they had accepted,” Brand tells Malcolm matter of factly.

  “What would have been the difference?” Malcolm jokes. “At least I would have been able to keep my sanity.”

  “You’re joking, right?” Brand says, looking at Malcolm as if he’s completely lost his
mind anyway. “You know you can’t stand it when Lilly is mad at you, not even for one minute. How long do you think it would have taken her to get over you paying for her daughter’s elopement?”

  “Point taken,” Malcolm replies in total defeat. “It doesn’t matter anyway. In three more days, it will all be over.”

  This announcement brings me up short. “Three days?”

  “Yes,” Brand answers. “Didn’t you realize how much time has passed?”

  “No,” I say with a shake of my head. “I promised Caylin I would have the journal finished before the day of the rehearsal. I want her to read it before we get married.”

  “Why? Do you think she’ll change her mind?” Malcolm said with a small laugh.

  I remain silent.

  Both Brand and Malcolm narrow their eyes on me.

  “You don’t really believe that’s a possibility, do you, Aiden?” Brand asks.

  I can’t seem to voice my greatest fear aloud. So, I just shrug my shoulders and remain silent.

  “I don’t think there is anything from your past that would surprise Caylin,” Brand tells me. “She might not know the details yet, but she does understand what you were before. All she cares about is the man that you are now. She loves the man she’s been with every day for the last two years. As long as you continue to be that man for her, she will love you for the rest of her life.”

  “And if you don’t, you have my promise that I’ll tear you apart and bury your parts around the world,” Malcolm says.

  I can’t quite tell if he’s joking or completely serious, but my money would be on the latter.

  “You have my permission to do just that if I ever do anything to hurt her,” I tell him, fully meaning it.

  “All right, come on,” Brand says. “Let me give you one last cooking lesson before you marry my daughter.”

  After we eat, Brand and Malcolm help me clean up the mess we made before they leave.

  Brand decides to give me one last bit of advice.