The Issue With Dating Aiden: The Hastings Siblings, #4

By Alicia J. Chumney

"You want to fake date me so you will have a date to your sister's wedding?"

After a series of failed relationships, fifth-year college Senior Aiden Hastings has sworn off dating. He's more than ready to finish college and try again after graduation. What he doesn't expect was to meet Emily Bates during one of his summer classes.

When Aiden sits next to her during class, Emily recognizes him from several classes they shared, even though they sat on opposite sides of the room. What she didn't expect was to quickly form a close friendship with him. With her focus mostly being on her school work, Emily never took the time to form many friendships or date; that was something that could wait until after her graduation. However, Aiden's presence in her life is causing her to question her previous decisions.

When one of Aiden's ex-girlfriends is asked to be a bridesmaid at his sister's wedding, Aiden asks Emily if she would 1.) be his date to the wedding and 2.) pretend to date him to 'make it look real.' As they grow closer, the lines between pretending grow hazy, and Aiden and Emily have to decide whether to risk their friendship or their hearts.

The Issue with Dating Aiden is the fourth book in the Hastings Siblings Series, but it can be read alone. It is recommended, but not required, to read The Consequences of Being Aiden first.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alicia J. Chumney
• Release date: May 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9798223221401

Book preview

The Issue with Dating Aiden

The Hastings Siblings

Book Four

Alicia J. Chumney

Copyright © 2023 by Alicia J. Chumney

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover Design: Jennifer Prieto-Ayres

Editor: DL Modrzyk

1. Young adult 2.  College Romance 3. Contemporary Romance

First Edition

Table of Contents

Dedication

Author’s Note

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

Thirty

Thirty-One

Thirty-Two

Thirty-Three

Thirty-Four

Thirty-Five

Thirty-Six

Thirty-Seven

Thirty-Eight

Thirty-Nine

Forty

Forty-One

Forty-Two

Forty-Three

Forty-Four

Forty-Five

Forty-Six

Forty-Seven

Acknowledgements

Also Available by this Author:

About the Author

Dedication

To my Grandfather, Jim Chumney. 

For being my biggest supporter and cheerleader whenever I brought in a new book to show you.  For telling me to not give up on my dreams.

May he rest in peace.

Author’s Note

A fragment of Ainsley’s and Brendan’s story was referenced in The Jane Austen Variations – First Impressions Trilogy – Book 2 (Second Chances) and Book 3 (Third Time Lucky).  It was a tiny scene that got Elizabeth Barnes to start thinking about relationships in a different way.

While there is some overlap between the stories and characters, The Hastings Siblings’ stories began long before any global pandemics and lockdowns happened.  Global events that happened in The First Impressions Trilogy will mostly remain out of The Problem with Dating Aiden.  It is safe to assume that any mask-wearing necessary for any scene – like the referenced scene with Ainsley, Brendan, Elizabeth and Jane Barnes, and Emma Woods –  takes place even if not implicitly stated.

Full transparency, regardless of how many ways I’ve attempted to make the story work, I cannot get Aiden’s plot line to work while including these global events and lockdowns.  Aiden’s story – as it would fall within the First Impressions Trilogy reference – would begin during the summer between Elizabeth Barnes’ Freshmen and Sophomore year, during the lockdown. 

One

––––––––

All he wanted to do was to make some hamburgers without compromising with fast food burgers.  Aiden wanted something thicker than a quarter of an inch and considerably more filling.  Instead, he was faced with a room filling with smoke as he managed to burn the meat – thankfully without setting anything on fire – and turned them into something vaguely resembling hockey pucks.

Reacting quickly, Aiden Hastings dropped the pan containing the charred hamburger patties in the sink.  He’d deal with cleaning that skillet later. Not thinking, he turned on the faucet. The sizzling sound of cold water hitting the hot skillet was nothing compared to the feel of hot steam mixing with the smoke already fogging up the kitchen.  It was a miracle the fire alarm didn’t go off between all the smoke and the smell and everything else filling the tiny kitchen area.

After taking over his sister’s part of the lease, the last thing he – or Brendan – needed was Aiden getting them kicked out for being a safety risk.  Could the landlord or the apartment’s managing company do that?  That was something he didn’t want to find out.

I really need to learn how to cook, he said aloud to the empty room.  How do I have a caterer for a mother and never learned how to cook?

If his best friend and new roommate, Brendan Duke, knew that Aiden had smoked up the kitchen trying to cook hamburgers, Aiden would never live it down.  Thankfully, Brendan was away helping Ainsley temporarily move back into their parents’ house. 

It felt weird not living in the same place as his sister.  While, up until this month, Aiden had not lived with Brendan and Ainsley – not wanting to know what his sister and best friend were getting up to in their private lives – he knew taking over Ainsley’s part of their lease would be beneficial for both him and Brendan.  Financially, at least.  The apartment his friend and sister had found during their sophomore years was cheaper than the money he was paying for an on-campus apartment. 

Because he opted to work at Miller’s Diner during the summer months and over winter break, he had two more semesters left in school.  The extra two hundred dollars per month being saved in apartment costs – plus the gas money from his usual commute to the diner – in his wallet would be a godsend. 

This would be the first summer he would not have the forty-minute commute from campus to the diner, opting to ‘take over’ a campus job one of his friends had been doing instead.  While he would miss the ready cash being a server gave him, he was not going to miss the commute necessary to keep his on-campus apartment secure. 

Adding to his decision to stay near campus, Aiden had never fully realized how much not taking any summer classes and only taking the bare minimum needed to be a full-time student would delay his intended four-year graduation.  It was a silly mistake for an accounting major, but he had to concede that not taking a larger course load was better for his stress levels. 

Brendan, because he changed his major from computer science to physical therapy during their sophomore year, had one more semester until he graduated.  Thanks to his baseball scholarships, he only had that one semester to fully pay for.  Ainsley – Aiden’s brilliant sister – had taken as many classes as she could comfortably handle each semester, including Maymester, and over the summer terms and had managed to graduate within four years; she had wanted to limit her student loan debt as much as possible, even though she had a few scholarships of her own.  She kept saying she didn’t want to start her teaching career with a lifetime of debt.

Regardless, this semester was going to be weird.  He had never lived with Brendan; not even during the one year they had all lived in the dorms.  Brendan had been placed with the baseball players and Ainsley was in the girls’ dorms where she had met her new best friend – Sorcha Gaines.

Even in high school, he had never gone to the games and other things as just him and Brendan.  He had always insisted on Ainsley tagging along with them in high school as a failed attempt to set up his best friend and favorite sister.  It was also an attempt to get Ainsley’s nose out of a book and into the world around them; that attempt failed as well.

He was excited to have fun this semester with his friend before Brendan graduated in December and married Ainsley next summer.  It would be one of the last few times where they would be able to do almost whatever they wanted without Ainsley or whoever Aiden was dating at that moment tagging along.  It was, he realized now, something he had put in motion by always insisting that Ainsley join them, but he had been well aware that Brendan wouldn’t mind if she tagged along on most of their plans.  The only place she had refused to go with them was to Blythe’s Pizza, and that was mostly because of Brendan and Aiden’s other friends; she could barely tolerate being around them for extended periods of time.

But, no matter what she said, Ainsley could not convince them that she actually enjoyed attending the basketball games Brendan and Aiden wanted to watch.  If she truly enjoyed them, she would not have been bringing her textbooks into the games and reading her assigned pages while Brendan and Aiden watched.  It made Aiden even more curious why she kept going to Brendan’s basketball games when they were in high school.  There had to be more to it than because Aiden insisted in high school that she join him so he could have somebody to talk to when Brendan was playing. 

Shaking his head as he wondered how he and Brendan would manage without Ainsley around, he wandered over to the nearest window to air out the kitchen.  She was the only person in their trio who had paid any attention to Nadia Hastings cooking. 

Regardless, his musings didn’t change the fact that he was still hungry, even if letting his thoughts wander a little did distract him from the ache that started to form in his stomach.  It had been hours since he had eaten breakfast and that had quickly been followed with helping Brendan load Ainsley’s things in the back of Brendan’s truck. 

Grabbing his keys and wallet, Aiden made certain that somebody couldn’t break into the apartment through the window before leaving to get something to eat.  He would take care of cleaning the skillet later, hopefully before Brendan got back from helping Ainsley move.  But right now, he had the more important task of finding something to eat.

Burgers?  Pizza?  Fried Chicken?  Tacos?  Did he want to head to the campus food court and get a chicken sandwich or go to one of the fast-food places and get something there?  There were too many choices.

Two

––––––––

It felt weird.  It felt more than weird.  It had been years since she had lived in her parents’ house.  The occasional trip back for a weekend or holiday didn’t really count and the last time she spent any real time at the house was during the winter break her freshmen year. 

There wasn’t much to move.  The bulk of the things – because that’s what they were –Ainsley and Brendan had collected over the three years they had lived in the apartment were things she was more than willing to leave behind. 

Her book collection was coming with her, even though it would add to the mess of the already extensive collection in her bedroom.  As much as her mother, Nadia, claimed she was going to bring in some more shelves and organize the books in Ainsley’s room, she never had in the three years since she made the threat.  Unless those bookcases were floor-to-ceiling bookcases, it was highly unlikely they would be enough to organize the hundreds of books scattered on furniture and on the floor in Ainsley’s room.  It was a miracle that the floor had not caved in from the weight of the miniature library. 

But those books did save Ainsley some textbook money.  Except for books she did not already own for her other classes or the special editions with articles included that were needed for her upper-division English classes, a good chunk of her English books could be found in her personal library. 

Are you okay? Brendan asked from the driver’s side of his truck.

Graduating has become very real, Ainsley confessed.  I never thought about the fact that I’ll need a car to drive to whatever school I get hired at.  Or that until at least after December, we won’t be living together.  We’ll barely get to see each other.

The next semester will go by so quickly, Brendan pointed out as he slowed down the truck as they entered a speed trap area.  The speed limit was about to quickly drop from sixty to thirty.

That doesn’t change the fact that I’ll need to get a car.  Mom and Dad let me get away with sharing the car with Aiden because we were all going to the same college.  Because if I needed to go anywhere, you could take me or I could borrow your truck or Aiden could take me or I could borrow his car.

She quickly glanced at the truck bed that was packed with books in boxes and clothes in trash bags and the one suitcase set she had brought with her to college.  How was it possible that after three years of living on her own, she had so little stuff?

It’ll be fine, Brendan reassured her. 

We can’t know that.  I haven’t driven that often in the past four years because I was afraid that I’d gave a dizzy spell and hit somebody.  Or run off the road.  Or something to injure me or somebody else.  She stared out the window at the passing scenery as she confessed her anxiety.

Ainsley... Brendan started to say, reaching over and squeezing her thigh. 

Or what if my depth perception is off? she continued.  My therapist told me years ago that I needed to start driving again when my doctor gave me the all-clear, but I just couldn’t.

Did you tell her about your anxieties about driving? he asked her, feeling her place her hand on top of his.

Ainsley confessed that she didn’t.  I didn’t know how to address it.  I wasn’t allowed to drive until our sophomore year and by then my anxieties about it grew and grew and grew until I didn’t realize that I needed to talk to her about it.  By the time my doctor said it should be safe for me to drive, I had already stopped seeing her. 

But you have driven before.  I remember.  I was in class and you needed to borrow my truck to go on a PMS supply run.  Brendan remembered seeing the text on his phone telling him to not worry if he got out of class and his truck wasn’t in his parking spot, that Ainsley had needed to borrow it.

That was a year ago.

And you went to get your driver’s license renewed last year.

But I didn’t have a driving test.  I only needed to park in the parking lot and provide the various paperwork that they needed to renew my license.

But you still drove Aiden’s car over an hour to go to the DMV closet to your parents’ house.

Ainsley said nothing to Brendan’s comment.  She didn’t want to confess that she had driven to her parents’ house and then had her mother drive her to the DMV on the off chance they made Ainsley take the test over again and she failed it.  Nobody except Nadia Hastings knew that piece of information.

It will be fine, he tried to reassure her, giving her thigh another quick squeeze.  And your parents already said they were taking you to a car dealership for a graduation present.  They can help you find something you feel comfortable in.  I know you don’t actually feel comfortable driving my truck or Aiden’s car.

How do you know that?

I can see how you white-knuckle the steering wheel whenever you do have to drive my truck.  And Aiden has seen you do it in his car as well.

Ainsley confessed, Your truck is up so high, and Aiden’s car feels like it’s almost scraping the ground.  Which is insane because it’s the car I drove during high school.  The only reason I gave it to Aiden was because his truck had died on him and I didn’t have the medical clearance to drive.

They said nothing for about ten minutes until Ainsley turned to look at him and said, I’ll call my former therapist and see if she can get me in for a few sessions and help me deal with this anxiety.

Brendan nodded his head.  Is it possible you are anxious about not getting a teaching job?

Ainsley blinked.  And I’m projecting my driving issues with my worry that I won’t be able to pull my own weight in our relationship?

Possibly.

I’ll call my therapist, she promised.

They lapsed into silence again.  Ainsley and Brendan realized early in their relationship that they didn’t need to fill their silence with unnecessary chatter and found some comfort in simply being together.

About twenty minutes had passed, and they were approaching the north side of the next town when Brendan asked, Do you want to stop at one of the fast-food places here or wait until after we’ve unloaded the truck at your parents’ house?

Ainsley considered her answer.  If we wait, my parents or your parents will want to feed us.  They’ll make a big deal about me graduating and want to take us all on a celebratory dinner.

Well, Brendan drawled, you did decline walking at graduation.  They still want to celebrate your achievement.

Ainsley looked out the window again at the passing buildings.  He thought she wasn’t going to say anything or pick a place to eat until she finally said, I didn’t want to trip and fall in front of a huge crowd while climbing those three steps to the stage.  Or while crossing the stage.  Or walking down the stairs.  Or any of the hundreds of other little moments that could have tripped me up or made me dizzy or caused my depth perception to be wrong.

Brendan had nothing he could say to that except to give her hand another reassuring squeeze.  Even though she had