Chapter 3

Aiden

"I thought so." Ana squeezed his hand. Her hand was sweaty. "As soon as I saw you, I thought, 'He's a hopeless romantic.'"

“People say that all the time,” he said, echoing her.

I’m impressed you said that with a straight face, Horatio commented.

Shut up, Aiden told him

"Anyway, when I met her, it was love at first sight. I’m sure it was the same way for you and your husband.”

Ana’s face suggested otherwise. “What was her name?”

“Phoebe,” he said immediately.

“I thought it was Pamela,” Hans interrupted.

Aiden gave him a warning look.“Phoebe. I’ve never felt so connected to another person. It was like we were made for each other, perfectly matched in every way. Every moment with her was like living in a dream. I knew we had to be together forever, so I finally proposed to her on a beach at sunset. There were doves flying in the sky. I can still see the way her face glowed in the light when she said yes.”

“What happened next?” Ana asked breathlessly.

He sighed and looked down again, fully aware that half the table was listening now. “Oh, the usual. We began making plans for the wedding. It was going to be amazing. The greenest place you’ve ever seen, filled with flowers and butterflies. We were going to have a cellist and a choir of children to sing wedding songs.”

“Don’t forget the horse,” said Hans. “Pamela was going to ride in on a horse.”

“Phoebe was going to ride in on a horse,” Aiden corrected.

“A white one?” asked Ana.

“Yes, of course.” He never mentioned the horse’s color when he told this story, but women always guessed white. “Everything was perfect. Then, a few days before the ceremony, we had our compatibility test. You know what that is?”

“They force you to do it to get married,” she said promptly.

That wasn’t exactly true, not anymore, but he’d found it was a common belief here. It carried more mystery and romantic complications. They loved that out here.

“Well, we weren’t a match—not by their standards, at least.”

Ana gasped. “So you weren’t allowed to get married.”

“Oh, we could, but there were…punishments.” He left it at that. Her imagination would do far more than his storytelling skills could do. “We didn’t care, of course. We still went forward with the wedding and planned to leave the country afterward, before they could come after us. Only when the day came…she didn’t show up.”

“They…they got to her first?”

He shook his head. “Worse. She backed out. She was too afraid of what would happen. She wasn’t brave enough to be with me. And so, after that…well, how could I stay in the country that had torn us apart? It was too painful. I had to leave.”

So help him, Ana actually had tears in her eyes. She squeezed his hand even tighter. “You poor thing.” He hoped she wouldn’t try to “comfort” him later. It happened sometimes when he told the story. Sometimes that was actually his goal but certainly not this time. “I can’t imagine what you must have gone through.”

“It surely seems unreal, doesn’t it?” asked Hans. “It’s impossible to believe anyone could endure a tragedy like that. You’re out.”

Aiden looked down. His pile was gone. “S****.” He hadn’t been paying attention while talking. There went his pay for the week.

Hans shook his head in false sympathy. “Tragedy just follows you around, doesn’t it?”

“Aren’t you going home soon?” Aiden asked pointedly.

“Tonight, actually.” Hans waved his hand when the bet came around to him and gathered up his winnings into a large pile. “In fact, I should go right now. The plane’s probably waiting on me.”

The news hit Aiden harder than it should have.  Aiden had gotten used to having his friend around and suddenly felt as though he was about to be swallowed up into darkness.

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