Between the Lies

21| Suite

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Suite

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Chapter 21: Suite (Vanessa's POV)

As we walked out of the airplane and our feet hit solid Hawaii-ground, I stretched my arms above my head, going on my toes, a tiny squeal coming out of my throat.

Aaron stretched beside me a lot more gracefully and pulled me to walk with him as we entered the airport and headed to pick up our luggage.

I stood beside Aaron and looked at the belt as it moved around slowly, hoping to spot my suitcase. Aaron's bag came first and I was expecting him to take it and then step back, but he just stood there and kept looking at the belt. I paused, eyeing him. "Are you going to grab that for me?"

"Obviously," he mumbled, bending to retrieve it. He stood upright, placing my suitcase on the floor slowly, and then faced me.

"Obviously?" I lifted a brow.

He shot me a pointed look. "People. All around us," he faked a whisper. I hummed, reaching to take my suitcase only for him to push my hand away. "Let's go wait by the exit."

The jet lag tonight is about to be a lot to handle. New York is five hours ahead of Hawaii. We landed here at six-fifteen pm, New York time. Now put that to Hawaiian time and it's only one-fifteen in the afternoon. So, we're behind by quite a few hours.

Outside, both of us sat on a bench and took in a deep breath at the same time. Hawaiian air. I turned to look at him as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and ran his hands down his face. "Aaron."

"Hmm?" He looked at me over his shoulder, his black Henley stretching over his shoulders and fitting perfectly.

"Are you only a gentleman under false pretenses? Only for your so-called girlfriends?" I asked, genuinely curious.

It's not like Aaron and I don't argue at all anymore, of course, we do. We still go straight for the other person's ego, but lately, we've been able to put all that aside and work for the Wicked Ruins project and this other project as well. I know he puts on a show, but I'd be lying if I said I was never curious if he really was this type of guy.

"What do you think?" he questioned.

"I wouldn't ask you if I knew."

"Really? I think you would. Make it some sort of test."

I rolled my eyes. Actually, he wasn't wrong, I would if this wasn't the situation we were in. "Well, this is not a test. I'm just curious. You've always been a dick to me and now because of what we're doing, you're being such a gentleman. For the most part, I guess. It's weird."

I mean... he's actually pretty nice to the other girls at work. It's just our thing to argue.

"It would be even weirder if I wasn't and we told people we were together. Come on." He stood up as the others joined us, stepping out.

As the hosts, Davidson and Judith had all the attention. "All right," he announced, "I say from here we all get a cab. Two people per cab maybe? I've emailed everybody the hotel details, that way you know where to go. And we can meet there. All of you have reservations under your own names, so once you're there, you can check into your rooms."