Page 52

“Wow, that was intense,” Vance says as I drive down the highway.
The tears in my eyes blur my vision. My grip on the steering wheel tightens. From the moment I drove out of view of the complex, I’ve been trying hard to hold onto my emotions.
From the corner of my eye, I see Vance look at me with worry. “You okay? You look like you want to murder somebody. Did I do something to offend you?”
I shake my head. “No. You did nothing wrong. It’s all me. I should never have let myself hope.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just when I was beginning to wonder if Jake felt the same way about me, he changes his mind.” I held back my feelings for years, never thinking he’d want to know. And now it’s too late. He’s moved on. I didn’t move fast enough.
“What are you talking about?”
“Isn’t it obvious? He treated me like I was dead to him.”
What did I do to make Jake that angry? It’s not like he cares about methatway. He even laughed last night. But just now, he almost acted…jealous.
Ugh. Forget it. I’m too frustrated and pissed off to figure it out now. His words and the disdain on his face… They’re stuck in my brain, playing on an infinite, torturous loop.
No reason. No explanation. And once again, love has taken me in the wrong direction.
How am I supposed to fall in love if love itself keeps taking me down the wrong path? I was right when I went to college. Maybe I was better off staying in the UK. It would have been safer; I wouldn’t have had my heart broken all over again.
And this time, it hurts so much more.
“If loving Jake means he can just change his mind about me like that”—I snap—“for whatever reason, at any time, I’m better off alone.” I wish I could turn off this pain inside me. Since I can’t, I’ll settle for hoping I never find myself in this situation—getting my heart broken—again.
“Mia, that’s not true. Jake is crazy about you.”
I gape at Vance. “You’re not blind. You saw what happened back there. And you still think he’s crazy for me?”
“He is.”
“He’s not. He made that pretty clear.”
Vance pauses. “Why do you think he gave you the cold shoulder?”
“I don’t know. Does he need a reason? Obviously he’s not interested in me anymore. That’s what happens every time a man thinks he wants to pursue me. The minute I get comfortable with them and start to open up, they leave. I should have known Jake was no exception.”
“Mia Knight, that is not true. In fact, hell, it’s the exact opposite.”
“You don’t understand.”
“Youdon’t.”
I scoff.
“I’m serious,” he continues. “Jake didn’t give you the cold shoulder because he wasn’t interested anymore. He did it because he was hurt.”
“How?” I question as I weave through traffic. Is Vance insinuating that Jake was, in fact, jealous?
My natural instinct is to go into repair mode. To figure out how to either fix the situation or fix myself so he’ll stay. But if Jake is going to bail over a misunderstanding—when he didn’t even ask what’s up between me and Vance—is trying to patch up everything between us even worth it? The man I’ve had a crush on for years doesn’t want me, period.
“He saw us together and jumped to conclusions.”
“If you knew that, then why did you antagonize him?”
“I wanted to see if he’d fight me for you, maybe confess his feelings. Clearly, I overestimated the situation.”