Her Younger Millionaire

The offer was half-hearted at best and he was secretly relieved when Tina shook her head. “I’ll pass. You mind if I smoke?”

Seeing as how he now had a whole candy bar to himself, Aiden wasn’t about to begrudge her a smoke. “Go for it.”

The moment of silence that followed was only punctuated by the snick of Tina’s lighter and the crinkle of the Twix wrapper as they both indulged in their chosen oral fixation. (Or digestive fixation. Aiden wasn’t sure whether inhaling candy counted as oral.)

“Y’know, I was kinda expecting you to try to talk me out of this,” Tina said suddenly and Aiden’s head snapped up, cheeks full of food.

“Muh?”

“Smoking,” Tina clarified, holding up the cigarette between her fingers before taking another drag. “I figured you’d tell me I was damaging the team morale by risking cancer or some sh*t like that.”

“Hey, what you do on your own time is none of my business.” He frowned and corrected, “I don’t think we’re at that stage where we own each other…yet?” He grinned. “I can judge you in the privacy of your own home if you want though.”

Tina chuckled, exhaling smoke into the cool air. “I’ll pass, thanks.”

“You’re missing out,” he teased. “I’d be awesome at one-on-one judging.”

“Wow, remind me never to have s*x with you. That’s kind of intimidating, dude.”

She put her cigarette to her lips again and Aiden swallowed back the urge to connect s*x and Tina’s lips in some kind of inappropriate yet highly predictable context.

Surprised by the lack of bi*chy comments about him not telling her he was in charge of this team building – not that he’d seen her since she’d canceled on him last night- now that Tina had her nicotine fix, he ventured the question, “Is that due to stress or habit?”

Tina’s brows creased for a second but smoothed out when her gaze dropped to the packet of smokes in her hand. “Habit.” Her lips twitched up in a smile and she admitted, “And stress maybe.”

“You know stressing people out is like the opposite of what I’m trying to do today, right? Your boss didn’t hand me a memo saying, “Drive all my staff to nervous breakdowns by 4pm”.”

The complaint was good-natured and he was relieved when Tina didn’t sound offended as she replied, “I know. I just- I don’t like this therapy sh*t, I guess.”

“Don’t think of it as therapy. I’m not a shrink and I’m definitely not going to go delving into any childhood trauma.” He shrugged. “Unless you need someone to talk to about the Halloween costumes, in which case I’m all ears. That sounded adorable.”

“Hey,” Tina protested playfully. “What happened to professionalism?”

“I’m on break,” Aiden pointed out. “And you were dressed up like a unicorn. A unicorn.”

Shaking her head, Tina sighed in feigned exasperation and Aiden reassured again, “Honestly, it’s not meant to be like therapy. This is just you guys getting to know each other while I stand there and help you along where I can.”

“I know.” Aiden hesitated at the tiredness in her voice and wasn’t as jubilant as he’d expected to be when Tina acknowledged, “Look, I know you’re just doing your job in there and I don’t wanna give you sh*t for it.”

With an impressive effort, Aiden resisted the urge to ask outright why she’d been such a dick earlier if that was her view on things, but he managed to scale it down to the vague question, “You got problems with therapists or something?”

Tina took another drag on the cigarette before flicking the ash down onto the ground. “Something like that.” She dropped his gaze and volunteered the information, “My ex was a motivational speaker.”

She said it like she was divulging a grave and serious tragedy, and Aiden did his best to turn his laugh into a convincing hiccup.

From the expression on Tina’s face, she wasn’t buying it and he settled for an apology instead. “Sorry, it’s just…it’s good to talk about these things.” Tina seemed appeased and he took another bite of candy before he asked, “What was wrong with that? I mean, just for future reference in case…” Feeling like he was lying by omission, he admitted, “Okay, also this is the first really personal thing you’ve said to me and I want to know everything.”

He saw Tina’s eyes widen slightly at his honesty and held his breath for her reply. “I guess I should’ve met you before I broke up with Drake. You could’ve given him some pointers.”

The emphasis on the pronoun was faint but definitely there and Aiden tried to hold back a smile at the knowledge that Tina was at least impressed with his honesty.

“He loved his psychobabble,” Tina continued, bitter but not angry. “You know when you have a sh*tty day at work and just want to come home, have a drink and watch whatever crap is on TV?” If she’d added in ‘jerking off’, that would’ve described Aiden’s normal evening routine and so he nodded. “Well, he always wanted to talk everything out. He wasn’t happy unless he could go through every second of my day to find out what had happened and how to make it better next time.”

“Sounds like an asshole,” Aiden said with feeling.

“Pretty much.” Tina blew out some more smoke and she watched it disappear into the air. “I broke it off when he started quoting motivational posters during s*x.”

There was no disguising his laugh that time, and Tina gave a self-deprecating smirk. “I have awesome taste in men.”

 “Hey! I’m plenty awesome,” he protested before asking. “So I’m guessing that’s why you weren’t exactly enthusiastic about being here today?”

“Could you tell?” Tina returned sarcastically before grinding her cigarette out against the railing and tossing the butt into the disposal can by the door. Aiden watched with a confused frown as she pulled out a stick of gum and started chewing, and she explained, “Arnie hates the smell.”

Grateful for an opening, he asked casually, “Oh, how’s the dog doing anyway?”

Tina laughed. “Great. He’s very well behaved and predictable. Low maintenance which is great considering…”

“Considering what?”

“Oh you know, the amount of time I don’t have for sh*t,” she clarified before chuckling again. “No, John’s pretty much contented with his life, all things considered. Who knew he’d have an affinity for cats though?”

“Hey,” he protested, trying to sound hurt. “John is awesome.”

“Yeah whatever.”

“Do your co-workers know? About us I mean?”

“Nope, do you want them to?”

“Well, yeah, why not?” he admitted. “I have manly pride at stake here.”

Tina smiled again, getting closer to the happy and relaxed expression he’d seen her wear with Claire earlier. “Sorry to disappoint. If it helps, Claire was pushing for me to ask you out – she wants something nice to look at when she hangs out with me.”

Aiden wasn’t sure which part of that sentence he was supposed to process first: the fact that Claire thought he looked nice, the fact that Claire thought he looked nicer than Tina did, or the fact that Tina had just broached the idea of them being officially out as a couple. In the end, he opted for righting the most heinous wrong and countered with passion. “How can she think you’re not nice to look at?”

Tina’s lips parted in surprise. Cringing at what he’d just said, Aiden stammered, “I, uh- I just meant you’re definitely more good looking than me. That’s all.”

He was pretty sure Tina was struggling not to laugh at him as she replied, “Um, thank you?” Standing upright, she shrugged and said, “Anyway, I told her you’d shoot me down if I tried to ask you out, what with me disrespecting your career choice and all.”

“That was before I knew about your douchebag ex,” Aiden said hurriedly, uncertain where Tina was going with this but very much wanting to be on board. He was surprised to realize he was telling the truth when he added, “My opinion of you went up, like, five points in the last ten minutes.”

“So I’m now on, what, minus 15 instead of minus 20?” Tina grinned, pulling the door open and backing inside. “Guess I’ll just have to improve some more if I wanna ask you out.”

She disappeared back into the building, leaving Aiden holding a half-eaten Twix and feeling thoroughly confused.