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She takes my silence as a prompt to continue. “Has Bryce ever told you about my ex? Her name is Bianca.”

“You know Bryce would never tell me about an ex unless it involved your safety,” I remind her.

“True.” She sighs. “All right, Bianca and I were together for a couple of years. I thought we were going to end up married. She came from money, her parents coddled her, and wanted to give her everything she wanted. You know that’s not my style, but she tried to change that.”

The story unfolds from there, how Bianca wanted to open a marketing firm with Mia but have her parents give them money to cover all the upfront costs and how offended she was when Mia didn’t want to take such a generous gift. While Mia loves being able to help small business owners see their dreams come true, Bianca only wanted to make money for being on social media all the time—even I know that’s not all there is to marketing.

Mia had thought they’d figured it out and everything would be fine, until she came home one day to find all of Bianca’s stuff gone. A few moments later, she’d received a text message that declared their relationship done and a waste of time.

“Shit, Mia.” I frown, reaching out to squeeze her arm. She lets me, wiping angrily at the corners of her eyes. “That’s horrible. No one deserves to be walked out on like that.”

“That’s not even the worst part.” She laughs bitterly. “The worst part is that she decided ruining my trust wasn’t good enough; she wanted to ruin my career, too. She moved forward with opening the firm, then proceeded to steal my clients from underneath me. She ran my name through the mud. My reputation in Charlotte plummeted and the firm I worked for was ready to fire me rather than protect me. Which further broke my heart because that action went against everything I thought they stood for.”

The pieces of this puzzle, the explanation for what Mia’s doing here, slowly comes together. “And that’s why you’re here?”

She wipes her eyes again, nodding. “Bryce offered me a job. It was the chance to get away from it all, to start over surrounded by people I could trust. He pretends what he did wasn’t a big deal, but we all know it was.”

“He does have that tendency,” I reply thoughtfully.

She agrees before taking a deep breath. “So there’s my story and part of the reason why my already shaky trust issues have completely taken over. It’s part of the reason I’m not ready to face the past, Ronan.”

Shaking my head, I offer her a smile. “You don’t need to explain it to me, Mia. Take as long as you need. Maybe we can be friends, at least?”

She considers the words for a second, biting her lip. “See,friendis making warning bells go off in my head.”

Because she doesn’t trust me anymore. Whatever I did—whatever happened—added to her shaky foundation, and Bianca sent everything tumbling down. Where I had a chance before her ex, I now have to fight for my life because someone didn’t realize the good thing they had and destroyed it instead.

But I won’t pressure her. I won’t force her to make decisions she’s not ready to make. Not now; not ever. “All right, not friends. What would you call us?”

“What about frenemies?”

I snort at the word I haven’t heard since high school but can’t fight my smile when she holds her hand out to me. I shake it. I could still have some fun with this. “Fine, we’ll be frenemies. I think I’ll like this.”

Her brow arches. “Yeah?”

“Oh, yeah. I can still tease the hell out of you, but still know you like me just a little bit.”

She rolls her eyes, then squints up at me when I stand. “And why would you want to do that?”

I lean down until our noses are practically brushing. She takes in a sharp breath and her eyes flutter closed, which makes me smirk. “Because, Mia, you’re still hot as hell when you’re mad.”

Her hazel eyes snap open and lower into a glare as I pull back, laughing. “Grow up!”

“Oh, trust me.” I smirk at her, allowing my eyes to track down the amazing view I have before me. “I’m plenty grown up and you already know that.”

“Oh, my god.” She groans, exasperated. “You’re seriously annoying.”

“Sure,” I call over to her as I make my way to the door to unlock it. I hear her get up to follow me. “Pretend all you want, Mia, but I happen to know something important about how this situation will end.”

She stops a couple of feet from where I’m holding the door open for her, putting her hands on her hips. “Yeah, and what’s that?”

“The enemies—or frenemies—always become lovers in the end.”

Her eyebrows shoot up her forehead, eyes going wide, and a faint blush coats her cheeks as she stomps inside. “I should have never come here this morning; I should go back to yesterday.”

“What was so great about yesterday?” I flip the lobby light on, turning to lock the door behind us since we’re not open yet.

“Well, yesterday I liked you. Yesterday I cared about you.”