Page 56 of The Boyfriend Algorithm
“He’s something.” The elevator dings. The doors open. Ben steps out, holds the door for me with one arm. “I’m not saying anything’s wrong. I’m saying something’s different. And I haven’t figured out what yet.”
He walks down the hallway toward his room, stops, and turns back. “Ruby.”
“Yeah?”
“If he’s what you say he is—a software consultant from Richmond who went to Virginia Tech and has normal parents in Florida—then I like him.”
He turns back toward his room, then pauses again. “But if he’s not what he says he is, you know you can tell me. Right? Whatever it is. I’m your brother first.”
He doesn’t wait for an answer. He walks to his room and closes the door, and I stand in the hallway holding a plate of croissants and a coffee that’s going cold and a secret that gets heavier every time my brother looks at me with those cop eyes and chooses to trust me instead of his instincts.
I let myself back into our room. Aiden is standing by the window, looking out at the vineyard, and he turns when I come in.
“You were gone twenty-seven minutes,” he says.
“I ran into people.”
“Your heart rate is elevated.”
“I ran into my mother AND my brother AND Josh. My heart rate is allowed to be elevated.”
He tilts his head. Reads my face. “What happened?”
“Nothing bad. Just—” I set the plate down. Sit on the bed. “Ben knows something’s off about you. He can’t name it, but he feels it.”
Aiden is quiet for a moment. “He’s observant.”
“He’s a cop. It’s literally his job.”
“Would it help if I talked to him. One on one?”
“Aiden, no. I just—” I press my hands over my eyes. “I need today to go well. I need you to be careful around Ben. Don’t volunteer information. Don’t quote my sleep statistics. Don’t tell him my revenue numbers.”
“Understood.”
“And if he asks you a question you can’t answer honestly, just—”
“Deflect. Change the subject. Ask him about himself.” He pauses. “Humans love talking about themselves. You told me that.”
I drop my hands. Look at him. He’s standing by the window in yesterday’s clothes with his hair still flat on one side and the morning light catching his face, and he’s looking at me with the same steady focus he’s had since the utility room, and I think about what my mother said.
Aiden is not nice. Aiden is good.
He really is. He doesn’t have a bad bone in his body, he doesn’t have any bones in his body, but whatever. Semantics.
Six hours until the ceremony.
I’m not ready.
But I’m not alone. And for the first time in a long time, that feels like enough.
Chapter Fifteen
Ruby
Til Death Do Us Part
Natalie looks like a painting.
