Nobody Like You

Chapter 7 Aiden: Run, Run, Run

I was an idiot. That was the only explanation for what just happened. I was so close to kissing Gabriella and if we hadn't heard everyone cheering, I probably would've let it happen. She was so beautiful and way too good for this Collin kid who clearly didn't give a damn if she was there or not. At the end of the day, it didn't matter. I couldn't be anything more than her bodyguard unless I wanted to get fired and judging by the threats coming, they wouldn't be better off without me.

Once I talked to Mr. Carter about the most recent threat, he and Mike agreed that we needed to have security cameras installed on the property to catch anything that was happening and that I needed to always carry my gun around. Now that this person has probably been stalking the family, now wasn't the time to make any kind of move on Gabriella.

As I drove back to the mansion, I tried to avoid looking in the rearview mirror at Gabriella. Collin kept trying to touch her leg and I could tell she wasn't into it. When I noticed that he wasn't wearing his seatbelt properly, I checked behind me for any cars before I slammed on the brakes, sending Collin headfirst into the back of the passenger seat.

"What the hell?" he groaned, angrily as he held his head in pain.

"Sorry about that, a random stray cat walked into the street," I quickly explained. "Wouldn't want to hurt the thing now, would we?"

As he complained about his now growing headache, I caught a glimpse of Gabriella sending me a small grateful smile. That could've been a good sign that meant that she wasn't too mad about earlier.

When we got to the mansion, Collin turned to Gabriella with hopeful eyes. "Maybe we could do this again sometime. Just the two of us though."

She looked over at me and I looked away, not wanting to influence her decision. Whether she said yes or no was none of my business. When I heard her agree to the request, I quickly walked inside to escape from the moment. I shouldn't care about her seeing Collin again since I practically rejected her but that didn't mean I wanted to stay and hear about it.

Just as I was about to go through the back patio door to get to the path to the guest house, I heard a small voice call out from behind me.

"Aiden!" Alexis said, running up to me. "The party was so much fun. Thanks for convincing my mom and dad to let me go."

I smiled at her. She reminded me so much of my brother, Chris, when he was her age and it made me enjoy her presence. "Anytime kid, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."

Gabriella walked in, looking like she was about to say something to me until she noticed Alexis next to me. "Hey Lex, how was the party?"

"Awesome. I was waiting up for you because I wanted to show you the stuff I got from the goodie-bag."

"Okay, why don't you meet me upstairs in my room and I'll be right up?"

Alexis nodded before turning back to me to give me a quick hug. "Good night, Aiden."

"Good night." As she ran upstairs, I shifted my focus to Gabriella. "So, I guess you had fun tonight, huh? Agreeing to a second date is a good sign."

She nodded. "Yeah I guess I just wanted to give Collin another shot. He might actually be a pretty great guy if he wasn't up to win any awards or anything. I want to see what he'd be like with just the two of us. Especially since..."

"Since what?" I raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Gabriella hesitated and looked down before looking back up at me with resentment flashing in her eyes. "Since the person I was interested in doesn't feel the same. Girl's got to move on, right?"

Realizing that she was referring to me, I swallowed hard and nodded. "Right."

Without another word, she turned and went upstairs. As much as I wanted to stop her and tell her that I did feel the same way, my feet wouldn't move. I couldn't do this with her. It was my job to protect her and Alexis and make sure they were safe. I couldn't have my judgment clouded by any kind of feelings for her.

___________________

The next morning, I was woken up by a knock on my door. I looked at my phone and when I saw that it was 6 a.m., I groaned before getting out of bed. I opened the front door and saw Mike standing there in jogger's gear.

"Hey what's going on?" I asked, sleepily.

"I was about to go on a run and wanted to see if you wanted to join me since you're off duty today," he suggested.

Normally I would've told him to fuck off for waking me up early on my day off but I was tossing and turning all night from thoughts of Gabriella so a run sounded like the perfect thing for me. "Yeah sure, give me a minute."

He nodded and waited outside as I went to put on shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers before joining him back outside. Once we got to the front of the mansion and started running, memories from last night came flooding to my brain. Driving Gabriella and Collin, watching him touch her, her staring up at me as if she wanted to kiss me, then me remembering that nothing can happen between us as long as I worked here. All of it was so frustrating and just made me run faster.

When we finally stopped to take a break, Mike looked at me. "You good? You seem like you got something on your mind."

"How can you tell?" I asked, looking down at the ground as I tried to catch my breath.

"The way you just ran kind of gives it away. No one runs like that unless you're trying to run from something. Maybe from feelings for a certain pianist?"

My head snapped up to look at him. "What?"

"You have feelings for Gabriella," he smirked. "Don't bother trying to deny it because it's written all over your face right now."

"How'd you figure it out?"

"I might've overheard you guys last night. It took me a minute to put the pieces together but I've known Gabriella for a long time and I could tell there were some feelings happening between you two."

I raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "Is this the part where you threaten me not to try anything or you'll tell Mr. Carter?"

"No of course not, your secret's safe with me. Besides it sounded like you already decided for yourself not to try anything. Which would explain why you ran so hard just now."

"Well even if I wanted to try something with Gabriella, I can't. I need this job too badly."

He paused for a moment before looking at me curiously. "Why is that, if you don't mind me asking? I don't know too much about your background other than you working for that firm overseas."

I hesitated, unsure if I wanted to share anything about myself to Mike but when I remembered that he was willing to keep whatever was going on with me and Gabriella a secret, I realized that I could trust him. "My dad left my mom and she was struggling to make ends meet so I left the firm and came back here to get a better job so I could help her out. She still has my brother to take care of so whatever money I make here I send half of it home to her. So whatever feelings I might have for Gabriella have to be ignored so I can keep my job."

Silence fell on us until Mike sighed. "I get it. Your mom needs you but don't forget that you're still young. You're allowed to think about what you need too."

"Not right now. Especially not when we have a psycho out there stalking the family. I can't let my feelings cloud my judgment to the point where I can't protect them. I have to just focus on my job right now, not some feelings that might end up going away anyway."

"Did they feel like they were going away when you heard about her going on a second date with that kid?" When I gave him a knowing look, he laughed and shook his head. "Then trust me, they're not going to go away anytime soon."

As much as I hated it, I knew Mike was right. These feelings for Gabriella were only getting stronger and the more I thought about her dating that asshole, Collin, the more I wanted to punch a wall. I shook my head of the thoughts and looked at Mike sullenly. "Well I guess until then, we keep running."