The Pretend Girlfriend

Chapter Seventeen~ Who are you, Aiden Manning?

"Just remember this later on," Henry told her, picking the pen up and tucking it back into his jacket.

"Later on when?" Gwen said, drunk with her small victory over him.

"When things get difficult . Please see yourself out," he said.

Then he went over to the window and looked out over the Manhattan skyline, which still blazed with the early morning light. That had miffed her a little, but she took his silence for pouting and left.
His secretary said something about a car as she stormed past, but Gwen didn't want to hear it. And that led her to the current moment, feeling the smooth, almost silent descent of the elevator that would be packed full of suit-wearing business people in a few hour's time.

She wasn't sure why she'd done it. She had a feeling, an inkling, but certainty eluded her. Part of it was just to try and get another one-up over Henry, of course. But some small portion of her still thought about how much easier that money would have made her life. How much easier (or perhaps "simpler" was a better term here) her life would be without Aiden in it.
After all, he'd only really been a part of it for so brief a time. Surely, these last few days weren't enough to leave a lasting imprint?

The elevator halted at the ground floor. She'd grown so used to the motion that her stomach continued downwards for a few moments more. The doors chimed softly as they slid open, and Gwen once more found herself walking through the cavernous main lobby, her footfalls echoing off the vaulted ceiling.

Outside, the breeze ruffled her hair. She took a deep breath, wondering if this was how a long-term prisoner felt when they finally stepped out into the open air as a free person.

How could someone spend their whole life in a building like this one, riding the elevator up and down all day every day? Maybe that was why Aiden never seemed to spend much time there, as far as she could tell.

At the curb waited the same black Town Car that had taken her to meet with Henry. The driver got out when he saw her and went for the door, but she got to it first. It was nice when Aiden got doors for her, but she was getting tired of never getting to open her own doors. It was good to know that she could still do so under her own power.

The driver climbed back in and soon they were off once more. Traffic had picked up a bit, but was still pretty light. Gwen thought about breakfast and her stomach growled. If the driver heard, he pretended not to notice. She started wondering what it would be like to be a driver. She bet it was lonely, sitting there while the rich and famous pretended you didn't exist, or that you were nothing more than another component of the car, an appliance to get used as needed. But that, she knew, was just a distraction from her real concerns.

Like why she'd just turned down the free out that Henry had just offered her. It's because you still think you have a chance, Gwen thought. She glanced furtively up at the driver again, as though he might have some way of hearing her thoughts and reporting them back to his boss.

But that, of course, was ridiculous. However, ridiculous seemed to be her new way of life. Who in their right mind did the sort of things she'd been doing these last few days, signing girlfriend contracts and all that?

No, this was all Aiden's fault, she knew. He'd lured her in with good looks and a good mystery (the mystery being: just who is this guy?). And just like a good fish , she'd taken the bait and now found herself stuck on the end of his line.

Not that she was doing much to free herself. And that was the thing, she knew as she watched the river flash by beneath them, she'd thrown that pen back at Henry because she wasn't about to give up on Aiden. This really could be something special, if only he'd let it be.