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Under the Dirt and Grime

Mia

“Can’t breathe.”

I muttered the words into Aleks’s chest, his arms and legs wrapped around me and crushing me to him like I might disappear if he were to give me so much as an inch of space. We’d kicked the covers off, but he kept me warm, and I chuckled when he released me only enough to make sure I had breathing room but not enough for me to move otherwise.

“Better?” he asked, kissing my hair on a smile.

“Well, at least I’m not nose-deep in your armpit now.”

“Don’t act like my scent doesn’t make you feral.”

“Ew. Don’t say scent like that.”

“You love my scent ,” he said again, rolling until he was on top of me. I laughed and shoved at his chest when he started sniffing under my arms and all around my neck like a hound dog. “And yours is like catnip to me.”

“I smell like you right now.”

“No,” he argued. “You smell like you. Jasmine. Honey. Du schmocksch wie sAlpeglüe.”

“You’re doing that thing where you speak another language.”

Aleks leaned up on his elbows, still heavy on me in the most delicious way as he swept my hair back, his eyes searching mine. “I said you smell like an Alpine sunset.”

My neck flushed with heat, and I tickled the nape of his neck with my fingertips as a smile found my lips. “Why is that so corny it’s romantic?”

“They tend to go hand in hand.”

I sighed happily as he rested his forehead against mine, both of us touching one another in long, unhurried strokes.

“Was last night a dream?” I asked quietly.

“It was real, Strings.” He kissed me, his lips firm and sure. “All of it was real.”

We stayed that way for a while, the sun rising over the city outside his windows. I knew there were so many people we’d have to answer to today, so many things we’d have to figure out, but I didn’t want to move. I wanted to live right there in that bed with Aleks until the day blended back into night, until I had no choice but to eat, or shower, or use the bathroom.

Too soon, my stomach growled loud and angry, and Aleks chuckled before planting a trail of kisses all along my neck up to my mouth.

“Breakfast?” he asked.

I sighed. “I guess.”

Another smile. Another kiss. Another flip of my heart. “I’m on it,” he announced, and then he reluctantly rolled off me, giving me a glorious view of his backside as he did.

I watched him shrug on briefs and joggers, biting my lip on a smile when he decided to forego his shirt. With a wink and a promise to feed me, he disappeared down the hall.

I flopped back into the sheets, smiling ear to ear as I let my eyes close. I was exhausted, body and mind and soul, but sated in a way I’d never been before.

I debated staying there until he brought a plate of eggs to bed for me, but selfishly, I didn’t want to miss the view of him cooking shirtless. So, I peeled myself out of bed, stopped in the bathroom long enough to pee and use my finger as a toothbrush, and then I ran my nails through my crazy hair to tame it as much as I could.

The kitchen already smelled amazing, potatoes frying in one skillet while bacon sizzled in another. He was just putting a cast iron loaded with eggs, cheese, and vegetables into the oven when I slid onto one of the barstools at the island to watch.

“Came for the show, I see,” he teased me, rounding the island long enough to reward my arrival with a long, toe-curling kiss before he was back to handling the stovetop.

“Couldn’t resist.”

I’d also brought my phone, though I’d set it facedown on the counter in front of me. I stared at it now, knowing I couldn’t hide from the people we owed answers to for long.

“Thinking about Isabella?” Aleks asked as he flipped the bacon.

“Among many others.”

“Call her,” he encouraged. “Let her yell at me. That always makes her feel better.”

I smirked, flipping the phone in my hand. I’d turned on my do not disturb last night so the thing wouldn’t buzz all night long. As soon as I turned it back to normal, the flurry of notifications I’d missed sprung onto the screen.

All of them faded to the background when I saw a recent text from Austin.

King of Fragile Egos (9 minutes ago): I wanted to give you a warning, but my publicist advised against it, so I’m sorry you’re waking up to this. I’m not doing any of it to hurt you, Mia. It’s just show business. And honestly, you should have known better than to pull something so stupid. It’s not right to lie to your fans for your own benefit. Garrett has a reputation in this industry that he’s worked hard for, and he was fair with his reviews of your album. Just because you can’t handle a little critique doesn’t give you the right to discredit him the way you and your team have been.

King of Fragile Egos (4 minutes ago): I hope you understand where I’m coming from. Maybe when the dust settles, you and I could get together. I really do miss you, love.

My heart beat faster and harder with each word, denting my ribcage and strangling my breath. I didn’t even click into his thread, just scrolled up to the other notifications I’d missed.

Google alerts and headlines assassinated me one by one, along with a string of missed calls and texts from Isabella, Giana, my agent, my tour manager, my mom, my dad — everyone I knew.

All of them either demanding I call them, asking if I was okay, or a combination of the two.

“Mia?”

I heard my name through what felt like a dense fog, my heart thumping in my ears now as the headlines popped up again and again.

“Mia, what’s wrong?”

Aleks was at my side now, tilting my chin with his knuckles, his concerned eyes finding mine beneath bent brows.

I couldn’t speak.

I just handed him my phone with trembling hands.

Exposed: Mia Love and Aleks Suter’s Relationship Was All a Lie

Austin Westbrook Spills the Tea: Inside Mia Love’s PR Nightmare

From Fake Love to Real Scandal: Mia Love and Aleks Suter’s Lies Exposed

Austin Westbrook Calls Out Ex Mia Love for Lying to Her Fans in Scathing Tell All

Sources Confirm Mia Love and Aleks Suter’s ‘Relationship’ Was Just Smoke and Mirrors

Mia Love’s Album and Tour Crisis: Is This the End of Her Career?

Aleks Suter and Mia Love’s Publicity Stunt Gone Wrong: Fans React

I watched his face as Aleks scrolled through the headlines I’d just read, the ones now burned into my brain forever.

Tell all.

Lies.

Crisis.

Fake.

Exposed.

Austin had done a tell all with Garrett. There was an article and a podcast to accompany it. There was some inside source that had given them all the proof they needed. They were on a mission to take us down.

And they’d done it.

Black dots invaded the edges of my vision the more Aleks scrolled, and when he cursed under his breath, I used that word as permission to panic.

“Oh, God,” I whispered, eyes welling with tears as I shoved a hand through my greasy hair. “Oh, God .”

I stood, ready to pace behind Aleks as my ribcage squeezed painfully tight around my lungs, but my legs were like lead. I couldn’t move. I was having a heart attack. I was going to die.

“Come here.” Aleks dropped my phone to the counter, grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me into him. I was in a daze, not fighting against him even slightly as he wrapped me in his arms. “Look at me.”

But I couldn’t.

I stared at my bare feet on his wood floor, heart racing faster and faster, ears buzzing.

They know.

They all know it was a lie.

“Mia, look at me.”

When I still didn’t, Aleks dipped his head until he was in my eye line. His hands were on my shoulders, steadying me. His eyes bore into mine.

“It’s going to be okay.”

My phone started buzzing on the counter, the jolt of it so hard the thing was moving across the granite like a bug. Aleks slapped it like one, too, before hastily shoving it in the pocket of his joggers to muffle the noise.

But it didn’t matter what he did now, didn’t matter if my whole team tried to shield me from the damage. I’d already seen it.

Headline after headline, article after article, brand after brand. There were photos of Aleks with the girl from last night, the one we’d set up ourselves, now used against us. There were pictures of when I dated Austin — the ones snapped during our fights when he looked calm and stoic and I was losing my mind.

He made me that way.

He made me crazy.

The manipulation, the gaslighting… it seeped into my bloodstream like poison, turning me into someone I didn’t recognize.

And now, more than a year after our breakup, I still wasn’t free from him. He still had power over me.

Months of carefully laid plans, all erased with just one interview where he said it was all fake.

“They’re exposing us, Aleks,” I whispered, finally blinking away my haze to look at him. “They’re exposing me .”

“Mia.”

“This is it. This is going to ruin everything. My album, my tour, my career .” That pressure was back in my chest, stronger than ever. “It’s over. It’s all over.”

My phone was still buzzing in Aleks’s pocket, and he cursed, fishing it out before his lips pulled to the side. He showed me the screen. “It’s Bella.”

I shook my head. I couldn’t face her — not yet.

Aleks didn’t question me or point out the very obvious fact that I one-hundred percent should be speaking with my publicist right now. He just declined the call and walked over to his couch, shoving my phone between the cushions before he returned to me.

His hands slid to frame my face, thumbs against my jaw, fingers curling in my hair.

“The Internet is ablaze. All the magazines, the news outlets, the talk shows. The fans… they… God , they’ll be furious with me.” Tears slid hot down my cheeks until they hit Aleks’s skin. “Austin and Garrett won. They got what they wanted. This is it for me.”

That made Aleks’s jaw click, and he tightened his grip on me, waiting until my eyes found his before he spoke.

“They didn’t win.”

“Aleks, did you see the headlines?”

“I did.”

“Then how can you possibly—”

“I know how we can shut them all up. I know how we can prove their story wrong.”

I blinked at him, over and over, frowning as I tried to think of what solution he had come up with because I didn’t see a damn thing as an option. They weren’t wrong — we had lied to everyone. “How?”

Aleks swallowed, his eyes flicking back and forth between mine like he was trying to think of something, like he wanted to have the answer, but also knew there wasn’t one.

I knew it.

He didn’t have an idea because there was no idea to be had. There was no way to save this. I’d dug myself into this massive black hole and now I’d be buried alive in it.

I opened my mouth to tell him that, but stopped short when he slid his hands down to grab mine. He kept his eyes on me for a long moment before his gaze dropped to where he held me. He brought my knuckles to his lips, kissing each one.

Then, he slipped the fake engagement ring he’d given me off my finger.

And he dropped to his knee.

“Aleks,” I warned, my heart racing again but for a completely different reason.

“Marry me, Strings.”

He sang the words like the sweetest song, each syllable tickling my ears like the perfect string of notes. One hand held mine, the other held the ring, and his gaze was steady and sure, his beautiful, dark eyes watching me and waiting for an answer.

“I… I don’t understand.”

“Marry me,” he repeated. “Not for show, not for some stunt. For real.”

My mouth was dry, hand trembling where he held me. “I… we can’t. They’ll know. They’ll know it’s fake.”

“No, they won’t.”

“They’ll think we’re just doing it to save our asses.”

“They won’t, Mia,” he assured me, squeezing my hand. “Because there’s nothing fake about the way I love you.”

I couldn’t contain the small gasp those three words wrenched from me. I covered my mouth with a shaking hand, brows folding together.

“You heard me,” he said, as if he could read my mind, as if he could sense the disbelief rushing through me. “I love you, Mia. I’ve loved you for years. I loved you when you slept down the hall from me and when you rested your head a thousand miles away. I loved you when you weren’t mine to love, and I love you still. It’s not fake. It never has been.”

He looked down only long enough to place the ring at my fingertip, and then his eyes were on me again, waiting for permission.

“I meant every word I said on that yacht. I’ve meant every touch, every kiss. There’s nothing I want more in this world than for you to wear this ring, for it to mean you belong to me and I belong to you.” He swallowed, his voice cracking a bit when he added, “For you to be my wife.”

Fresh tears swelled in my eyes, blurring the beautiful image of this man on his knees for me.

“But only if you want this, too,” he added quickly. “If you let me have you, all of you… I’ll be everything I can be for you. I’ll be the best of myself, the version of me you’ve always seen under the dirt and grime. I can’t promise I’ll be everything you deserve, or that I’ll be the best man you’ve ever been with. But I can promise you that you’ll never know a day in this life without fierce, protective love. I can promise that I will care for you, put your dreams first, put you first in every way. I’ll never try to contain you. I’ll never try to change you. I’ll always be right here, by your side, to cheer you on or push you to be better or hold you when you need to fall apart.”

He wet his lips, eyes dancing between mine.

“Even if they do think it’s fake at first, they won’t for long. Because when they see me bawling when you walk down the aisle to me, they’ll know. When they see how I watch you perform in a sold-out stadium, they’ll know. When they watch us grow old together, you the mother of my children and me still threatening to bury any motherfucker who dares to speak one ill word to you? They’ll know.”

I laughed a bit through my tears at that, shaking my head as I hung on to every word.

“And even if they never know, even if they always wonder,” Aleks continued. “We’ll know. You will know, Mia. You’ll never have to wonder. From this moment on, I will be yours entirely.” The corner of his lips quirked up. “To be honest, I always have been.”

He let out a shaky exhale, the speech done, and then he looked down to the ring and back up at me.

“So?”

“This… this is insane,” I whispered, but I was smiling, swiping away tears with my free hand.

“And genius.”

“And absurd .”

“You’ll be stuck with me.”

At that, I lowered to my knees, covering his hand with mine. “The only place I want to be.”

“Yeah?” Aleks’s eyes were filled with light and hope.

“Yeah,” I whispered, crying again, shaking my head and looking from him to the ring and back again. “I’m not getting a divorce,” I warned him sternly. “I mean it. If we do this—”

“I’d sooner walk away from a fight on the ice than ever let you go, Strings.”

I laughed, biting my lower lip as I searched him for any sign of this being a joke.

I found nothing.

He was serious. He wanted to marry me.

And God , I wanted to marry him, too. I wanted to walk down the aisle to him. I wanted him to wear a ring that told every woman he was mine. I wanted the headlines to be real — the touches, the kisses, all of it.

So, I pressed my finger into the ring just a centimeter, a silent request.

“Is that a yes, Mia Love?”

“It’s a hell yes.”

And when Aleks slid the gold all the way to my knuckle, the stormy gemstone sparkling even brighter than it had that day on the water, I smiled.

“Let’s bury this motherfucker under all the shit he’s talked about me,” I said.

Aleks had the grin of the devil when he helped me stand, like that was the only thing he’d ever wanted to do, like it was his purpose in life.

He pressed his lips to mine, one word vibrating through me before he was carrying me back to the bedroom.

“Let’s.”