Gathering her courage, Keeley carefully made her way down the stairs to where Aaron was sitting on the couch. He glanced up at her with a blank expression as he petted Dinah.
"Was that the bath bomb you mentioned?"
"No," she mumbled, embarrassed. "It was just regular bubble bath. I accidentally added too much. What are you doing here?"
"It is my house," he pointed out. "My meetings finished up early so I decided to come home. I did text you."
Her phone was sitting on the kitchen table where she left it before storming upstairs to prepare her bath. Sure enough, there was a text from a few hours ago. She must have received it when she first met up with Ryan but didn't feel her phone buzz in her pocket.
"I was out; I didn't see it."
A soft smile appeared on his face. "You certainly seemed like you were having fun back there."
She buried her face in her hands. Where was a nice hole she could bury herself in when she needed it?
"Murder me, Harry," she moaned.
"Who's Harry?" he asked stiffly.
Keeley peeked through her fingers. Of course he didn't recognize the quote. It was a miracle he'd recognized the time she quoted Star Wars at him.
"…it's a quote from the fourth Harry Potter movie. Someone says it when they're super embarrassed so Lydia and I started using it all the time after seeing it during our junior year of high school."
He lightened up immediately. "Oh. I haven't seen any of those."
"The books are better but the movies are still pretty good. You'll probably never read the series so I'd recommend watching it instead."
"Watching things does take less time than reading them…and I have heard of those. They're children's books, aren't they?"
"Kind of. They were originally but they got pretty dark towards the end so I think the target audience aged along with the main characters, if that makes any sense," she explained.
"Ah. I take it you like them?"
"Yeah, Kaleb and I started reading them together back in 1999. He didn't get to read the fifth one onwards. I had to finish for both of us."
Aaron's expression grew slightly worried. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up something painful."
She shook her head. Talking about her lost family members was good for her, in a way. So they would never be forgotten. She had been thinking about them both a lot lately since the anniversary of their deaths was coming up.
"Don't worry about it. I loved my brother; never talking about him dishonors his memory."
"You were close," he stated rather than asked.
"Very. He was my best friend even though he sometimes annoyed me so much I thought I'd tear my hair out. But that's just how siblings are," Keeley said with a fond smile. She had done to same to him.
Aaron grew pensive as he considered stroking the cat in his lap. "I wouldn't know. It must be nice having a sibling. Although in my family it would have been a competition to see who would be the heir so we probably would have hated each other."
Keeley blinked at him in shock. It was one of the most personal things he had ever said about his childhood. Honestly, it made a sad sort of sense he turned out the way he did based on what little she knew.
All things considered, he could have been a lot worse. She didn't excuse his actions but she understood them, to a point. That reminded her of what she wanted to ask him.
"Were you lonely growing up?"
She sat on the other side of the couch because it felt awkward being the only one standing and listened eagerly for his answer. A mystery might be about to be solved.
He looked down. "Yes but I didn't realize it at the time. Actually…I didn't realize what I was missing out on until I met you."
"Me?" Keeley asked in surprise.
"I had never felt like that before. I was confused at first but eventually it hit me that the positive emotions I felt around you were different than the negative ones I felt around everyone else. You were the only one I didn't feel lonely being around."
Wow. That was a lot to take in. So she had been right before; he was lonely and awkward rather than cold and unfeeling.
But that didn't necessarily mean that he had actually been in love with her. She certainly wasn't about to ask that right now. It didn't really matter anyway since she was over him, right?
Aaron continued before she had the chance to speak, looking up at her earnestly. "I should have told you this a long time ago but you always have been the best part of my life. You were the first and only person who liked me for who I was rather than for who they thought I should be. I never forgot that."
Keeley stared at him. This was one of the most sentimental things she had ever heard come out of his mouth. Always been the best part of his life? That was a pretty bold claim to make.
"I know you're planning on leaving to achieve your dream in six months…I want you to be able to do everything you've ever wanted, I really do. But in the meantime could you stay here with me?
"It would be easier for you to commute to school than if you were staying with your dad. You wouldn't have to be apart from Molly. You can use my DVR, eat all my snacks, and take as many bubble baths as you want. It's a big place; you'd hardly even have to see me if you didn't want to. Just stay."
She didn't know what to say to that. She couldn't deny that living here would be more convenient than being all the way out in Brooklyn. But could she really do that morally? Stay here with someone she was trying to leave?
"I don't know, Aaron," she said, biting her lip. "It's a lot to think about. Can I get back to you tomorrow? I'm going to go stay with my dad tonight."
"Take as much time as you need."