Aidan felt her stiffen against him and massaged a bit deeper. Maybe the best thing to do would have been to ask what's wrong, but he's almost afraid of that answer. He may be an expert at lying to himself but that doesn't mean that deep down he doesn't know the truth, and the truth is that 'just friends' don't do some of the things they've been doing.

So he decided to just keep lying to himself. He was good at it and had a lot of practice. In a way, it was almost familiar.