Page 26 of Stuck With Mr. Frosty (Delectable Protectors #5)
MIA
U sually, a shot of tequila and some good music is enough to fix my mood, but not tonight.
I dance with Rosie, my hips moving to the beat, my hands high above my head.
But even as I try to throw myself into the thought of having a good time and enjoying myself, at least for my last night here, I can’t.
Each time I look around the room, I keep hoping to see Aiden.
I keep thinking that maybe he’s going to be in a corner waiting for me to talk to him.
Maybe he’s going to come over and tell me that he can’t live without me.
Although that sounds a bit melodramatic.
Maybe I’m just hoping that he’s going to come over and tell me it was all a mistake.
Rosie looks at me, her eyebrows pulling together and her mouth dipping into a frown. “You don’t look like you’re having a good time.”
“That’s because I’m not.” I take a sip from my beer and stop dancing, heading over to the side of the room while she trails behind me.
“I thought you were going to be right. That this would be a good way to get my mind off everything, but the longer I spend here, the more I wish I was on the road back home.”
Rosie pulls me in for a tight hug. “Look. I know this isn’t how you wanted to spend your last night here, but I appreciate the fact that you can do it for me. If you want to go, I’ll walk you back to the cabin and we can call you a car.”
June hustles over, her eyebrows pulling together. “What do you mean, call her a car? You’re not going to stay for the rest of the night?”
“No.” I give her an apologetic smile and shrug, doing my best to try and seem like I’m not being torn apart on the inside.
“I loved being here this season, and I think I might try and come back next year over Christmas break. I don’t know if I’ll be able to work here, but I’d like to at least come visit all of you. ”
June scoffs, pulling me into another hug. “If you don’t come and visit me, I’m gonna be mad. Your mother would be proud of you and all that you’ve done here this year.”
Tears gather in my eyes, a couple of them spilling over. “Thank you. I didn’t know how much I needed to hear that from somebody who knew her.”
“I know it’s hard, but if you ever need to talk, you have my number. And I’ll be more than happy to offer you a position again. I mean, I am leaving, but I think I can pull some strings for you.”
I laugh and hug her tighter before stepping away. “Thank you. I’ll let you know when I know.”
June stares at me for a moment longer, like she’s trying to figure out what’s going on in my head.
Then she steps away with a little wave and a smile, but it feels like it’s the last time we’re going to speak to each other.
I’ve made a lot of good friends here, but I don’t know if I can talk to somebody who was close to my mother.
Not after everything I’ve learned while here.
As much as it would be nice to hold on to those memories, I think I just need a clean break from Aspen.
Rosie’s smile drops as she looks past my shoulder at something. “Oh,” she says. “I don’t know if you want to talk to Aiden tonight, but it looks like he’s here to talk to you.”
I turn around, and sure enough, there’s Aiden storming across the mess hall toward me, his hands curled into tight fists at his sides, a look of determination in his eyes.
“Not even a little bit,” I say, exhausted with this entire situation. “I don’t think there’s anything left for us to say.”
“No,” he says, “there’s plenty for us to say. Mainly me.” He sighs, his hands uncurling. He runs a hand through his hair, knocking off his hat in the process. “A lot that I should tell you.”
“You think now is the time to tell me when I’m about to be leaving?”
“Well, I had to do a little bit of thinking first.”
I scoff. “Oh yeah, what thinking?”
“The kind of thinking that leads me to the conclusion that I’m an idiot.”
“You could have figured that out sooner and spared us both a lot of trouble.” I hear the bitterness in my voice, but I don’t care. This is what weeks of hurting has done to us. There’s a tightness in my chest that I haven’t been able to shake since the day he started acting cold.
It only seems to get worse the longer I stand there with him.
“Come on, Mia, talk to me for a minute.” His hand hovers close to mine like he’s thinking about reaching out and touching me, but he doesn’t.
That’s probably a good thing. If he did, I don’t know if I’d be able to withstand the urge to melt back into his arms and pretend that everything was fine.
To put off talking about all the things that went wrong between us.
At least if I leave now, I don’t have to talk about any of those things.
“Mia, please. Just talk to me.”
I cross my arms in an attempt to hold myself together.
“How many times did I ask you to talk to me? How many times did I try to get you to tell me what was bothering you? And you just threw it back in my face. You dismissed me like I was nothing. Like the weeks we were together meant nothing to you. I think we’re done talking. ”
“That’s it?” he asks, his voice breaking. “You’re just going to run away? Don’t you ever get tired of running? You do mean something to me, and I don’t want us to end like this.”
I bark out a bitter laugh and brush by him. “You could have figured that out earlier. I don’t have time for this right now. I need to go finish packing my things, and then I need to get the hell outta here.”
He doesn’t try to stop me, not that I want him to. I’m done. I can’t keep holding on and hoping that things are going to change or that I’m going to find out why he even distanced himself from me in the first place.
It hurts too much to keep holding out hope for us when I know I shouldn’t.
I should’ve known from the beginning that I was only going to break my own heart. That he was never going to get attached to me the way I grew attached to him. I knew it from the beginning, but I still hoped that, in time, there would be something more to us.
Maybe he was right about me when we met. Maybe I do spend too much time with my head in the clouds.
But somehow, as I leave the mess hall, I can’t bring myself to regret falling in love with him.