The Spanish Love Deception

Chapter 113

My palms started sweating. My sister was onto something. And I needed to start talking, give her

anything.

I downed the contents of my glass in one single gulp—exactly how tradition specified too.

“Fine, okay.” I placed my empty glass on the table. “All right, so the day Aaron and I met …” I started,

my eyes unconsciously jumping to Aaron’s face and finding him looking at me with a new kind of

interest. I returned my gaze to Isabel. “It was a cold and dark November 22—” I stopped myself, feeling

the need to explain why I remembered the date so accurately. “I remember because it was the day of

my birthday, not because—” I stopped myself again. Then, I shook my head. I had barely started, and I

was doing an awful job already. This was why I should never, ever lie. “Anyway, it was November.”

Aaron’s hand brushed my back very softly. The touch unsettled me at first, but then it magically instilled

confidence in me. Just how he had done earlier that day. How he managed to do that, I couldn’t know.

But when he moved his fingers over the fabric of my thin blouse, right above my shoulder blades, I felt

a little less like a fraud.

“But that isn’t important, I guess,” I continued, and I had to clear my voice lightly because it had come

out a little shaky. “When I first met Aaron, it was the day he was introduced as a new team leader by

our boss.”

Aaron’s touch turned loose and airy, and then it stopped altogether.

Trying to keep my head on the story and away from the dainty trail of goose bumps he’d left on my

skin, I continued, “He entered through that door, all cold confidence and determination. Looking larger

than life with those long legs and broad shoulders, and I swear everybody in that meeting room fell into

silence. I could immediately tell he’d be that kind of man everybody … respected—for lack of a better

word—without more than a word or two. Just by the way he looked around, assessing the situation. As

if he were looking for possible threats and coming up with a way to eliminate them before they could

manifest. And even then, everyone seemed to be charmed by the new guy.”

I remembered perfectly how everyone had first gaped at the handsome and stern new addition and

then silently nodded in appreciation and awe. Me included at first. I’d never admit it, but back then, I

had gotten as far as thinking I could let that deep voice of his lure me to sleep every night, and I’d be

content for the rest of my days.

“So, yeah, every single one of my colleagues was pretty much enraptured. Not me though. I wasn’t

fooled that easily. All throughout Jeff’s and Aaron’s speeches, I kept thinking about how nervous he

must have been. I kept noticing his shoulders inching higher and his gaze growing … unsure. As if he

were holding himself from bolting out that door. So, I came to the conclusion that he wasn’t as

standoffish as he looked, standing there. He couldn’t be. It was just nerves. One couldn’t possibly give

off that vibe on purpose. It was his first day, and that was some intimidating shit. I thought he just

needed a little push in the right direction. A little friendly welcome to fall into place.”

And then I proceeded to do a very dumb and impulsive thing. Just how I always managed to do. “And I

couldn’t have been any more wrong.” I chuckled bitterly. “Maybe Aaron wasn’t nervous—I wouldn’t

know. But he didn’t need any kind of push. He was not looking for friends. And he certainly was aware

of what impression he was making.” I returned back to the present in that moment, and I was greeted

by three pairs of confused eyes. My throat dried out. “I mean, that obviously changed. Eventually,” I

added quickly in an unfortunately unconvincing way. “Because we are super in love, so yay!” Throwing

my arms in the air, I cheered, trying my best to get the control back, but the gesture landed nowhere

near where I’d wanted it to.

Isabel’s face fell slightly, and right before her frown could fully form, Aaron surprised me by coming to

my rescue.

“Catalina isn’t wrong. That day, I was a little nervous,” he confessed, and my head swirled in his

direction.

Aaron’s gaze was on my sister, which was good because we were in desperate need of some damage

control that required all his attention and charm. But also because I didn’t want him to see my

expression as I watched him. That trip down memory lane had left me a little too raw for hiding how I

really felt about that day.

“I didn’t have any plans or hopes of making friends, not during that first meeting and not any day after,”

he continued.

Well, that wasn’t a shock to me, not after almost two years of enduring the consequences of that

position.

“And I was plenty obvious about it. The last thing I wanted was someone getting the wrong idea and

thinking I was there for anything that wasn’t doing the best job I could. And in my book, that is not

compatible with telling jokes and exchanging family tales. That day though, Lina showed up in my

office. A little after five p.m.” He looked down at his hands, and his eyelids sheltered the blue in his

eyes for just a heartbeat.

For a reason I couldn’t explain, my heart raced in my chest at the memory. Embarrassment. It had to

be the physical reaction to reliving that embarrassing moment through Aaron’s words.

“Her cheeks were flushed, and there were some snowflakes still clinging to her hair and coat. She was

carrying a gift bag with a ridiculous pattern of tiny party hats printed on it. As I took her in, I was certain

that she had gotten the wrong office, that she couldn’t possibly be there, carrying some kind of gift for

me. Maybe she was looking for the guy who had sat there before me.”

I watched his throat work as his words held his audience’s attention.

“And I was going to tell her, but I didn’t stand a chance. She started babbling some nonsense about

how cold New York was in winter and how irritating people turned when it snowed, how chaotic instead

of peaceful the city actually was. ‘As if it’s my fault that New Yorkers hate the snow,’ she said. ‘It’s like

the cold numbs their brains, and they turn stupid.’ ” Aaron smiled sheepishly. Very briefly, one moment

there and the next gone.

And I kept staring at his profile, eating up his words and how they sent me right back to that day.

At that point, my heart banged against my chest with growing urgency, as if it were a wild thing, asking

to be let out. Begging to ask all the questions taking shape in my head and threatening to do it itself if I

didn’t.

“She placed the bag on my desk and then told me to open it. But the cold must have numbed my brain,

too, because instead of doing that, I kept gawking at it. Petrified and … intrigued. Staring at it and not

having the slightest clue as to what to do with it.”

He had done that, and his reaction had made me panic and jump into crisis-control Lina. Which had

been my second mistake that day.

“When I didn’t reach for it, she shoved her hand into the bag and pulled the contents out herself.” Aaron

chuckled, but he wasn’t laughing. Because the curt noise was almost sad.

I wasn’t laughing either. I was too busy chewing on the fact that he remembered everything. All of it. In

detail. My chest filled with more questions.

“It was a mug. And it had a joke printed on it. It said, Engineers don’t cry. They build bridges and get

over it.”

Someone laughed then. Isabel or perhaps Gonzalo—I wasn’t sure. With all that crazy banging, my

heart had somehow moved up my throat and to my temples, so it was hard to focus on anythingCcontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

besides its beating and Aaron’s voice.

“And you know what I did?” he continued, bitterness filling his tone. “Instead of laughing like I wanted

to, instead of looking up at her and saying something funny that would hopefully make her give me one

of those bright smiles I had somehow already seen her give so freely in the short day I had been

around her, I pushed it all down and set the mug on my desk. Then, I thanked her and asked her if

there was anything else she needed.”

I knew I shouldn’t feel embarrassed, but I was. Just as much as I had been back then, if not more. It

had been such a silly thing to do, and I had felt so tiny and dumb after he brushed it away so easily.

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