Page 13

Mia paced the small room, stopping every now and again to glance anxiously out of the window before resuming her pacing. Any minute now, and Luna wasn’t even here.

“Need anything?”

Rachel said, popping her head around the door.

Mia shook her head. “Just…”

“Some privacy?”

suggested Rachel with a grin. “Don’t worry, I’ll make myself scarce.”

“I don’t mean to throw you out of your own kitchen,” said Mia.

“You can’t have a dramatic show-down in public,”

Rachel pointed out. She winked. “It’s going to be alright. This is the first step on the path to something else, something new.”

She pulled a face. “And that’s someone at reception. Prepare yourself, I think it’s probably him.”

She disappeared, and Mia took a deep, shaky breath. Her nerves were coiled tightly inside her. She still hadn’t figured out what she was going to say. How did anyone explain something as horrible as walking out on a wedding? And Luna was supposed to be here. Luna had promised to be here.

A soft knock at the door startled her. She froze for a second before she crossed the room and opened the door, her stomach twisting itself in knots.

And there he was.

Mikey stood in the doorway, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. He looked… exactly the same and yet not, all at the same time. His face had its familiar lines, his hair was as mussed as always. But he held himself differently. His usual, easygoing demeanor was gone, replaced by something that looked sharper and more brittle.

“Mikey,”

she said softly, stepping aside to let him in.

“Mia,”

he said, voice strained. He walked in and stopped in the middle of the room, looking around as if he was trying to orient himself. “Nice place. Cozy.”

He rubbed at his nose. “Romantic even.”

“Yeah,”

said Mia. She cleared her throat. “It’s… nice.”

She cleared her throat again. One more time and it would seem like she was catching a cold, she told herself. “Um, thank you for coming?”

It definitely came out as a question, not a statement.

Mikey let out a humorless laugh. “Not exactly how I pictured us seeing each other again after the last time I saw you. But here we are.”

She closed the door and leaned against it. How was she supposed to do this? She looked at him, willing her old feelings to come back, willing things to be normal again, but it just wouldn’t happen. “I know this is… odd. I’m sorry, I—”

“Don’t,”

he interrupted, turning to face her. “Don’t start with an apology, Mia. I don’t even know what you’re sorry for yet.”

She swallowed hard, her throat dry. “I’m sorry for how I handled everything. For hurting you.”

That much, at least, was true.

His jaw tightened. “You left me at the altar, Mia. In front of everyone we know.”

“I know.”

Her voice was barely above a whisper. She was so close to crying that she could taste the tears in the back of her throat. “I didn’t mean for it to happen like that. I don’t know what did happen. I just… I just couldn’t do it.”

“Why?”

His voice broke just as he asked it. He blinked and pulled himself together. “What did I do wrong?”

Mia felt the weight of the question settle on her chest. She’d asked herself the same thing a thousand times and there was only one answer, even if it wasn’t the answer she wanted. “Nothing. It wasn’t about you, it was about me.”

How much easier would all this be if he had done something wrong? How much easier would it be if he’d cheated or lied or stolen?

He gritted his teeth. “That’s not an answer. We were happy. At least, I thought we were. I thought I knew you.”

“I thought I knew me too,”

she said, voice getting louder now. “You’re not the only one trying to get used to a new reality, Mikey. I thought I knew everything, thought I had everything planned out. And then there I was sitting in my room, all ready and dressed and made up and I realized that I knew nothing at all. I realized that I’d spent my whole life doing what I was supposed to do, being who I was supposed to be, and that I couldn’t do it anymore.”

He stared at her for a minute, his expression a mixture of confusion and pain. “So… you’re having some kind of identity crisis?”

Before Mia could answer, the door burst open, and Luna strode in like she owned the place. “Oh good, you started without me,”

she said cheerfully, completely ignoring the tension in the room.

Mia felt a slight easing of the nerves in her stomach. She’d come. Finally. Things would get better now, surely. Not that she was completely clear on how this plan was supposed to work. Not that she’d put any thought into this at all, come to think of it. The ball of stress in her stomach contracted again, and she started to find it hard to breathe.

“I’m here to save you from yourself,”

Luna said, giving her a wink. She turned to Mikey, hand extended. “You must be the ex-fiancé. I’m Luna. Girlfriend extraordinaire.”

Mikey stared at her hand like she was holding out a dead ferret. “Girlfriend?”

“That’s me,”

Luna said, strolling over to Mia’s side and sliding an arm around her waist, pulling her in close. “We’re madly in love. Can’t keep our hands off each other.”

This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. Not that she knew how it was supposed to go. But this was… wrong. Mia felt her face starting to flush as she tried to wriggle free. “Luna, stop—”

“Don’t be shy, love,”

Luna said, grinning at her. “He deserves to know the truth.”

Mikey looked from one to the other, his brow furrowed. “Hang on a sec. Are you telling me that you left me for… for her?”

“No,”

Mia said quickly, her voice going up an octave. “That’s not—”

“Yes,”

Luna cut in smoothly, her expression suddenly serious. “She left you because she realized that she’s in love with me.”

Mia’s jaw dropped. “Luna!”

“What?”

asked Luna innocently. “I’m just being honest.”

Mikey took a step back, running his hands through his hair, eyes wide. “Wow. I… I don’t know what to say. I didn’t even think… I…. wow. This is… a lot.”

“I get it,”

said Luna sympathetically. “I know it can’t be easy losing someone as amazing as Mia. But she’s happy now. Isn’t that what matters? Isn’t that what we want for people we love?”

Mia’s heart stopped working for a second as Mikey turned to her. “Is this true?”

he said. “Are you happy?”

She opened her mouth to answer, but the words wouldn’t come out. She glanced at Luna, who was watching her with an expectant look, and then back at Mikey, who looked like he’d seen a lifebelt and was clutching for it. “I’m… I’m figuring things out,”

she said finally, weakly.

Mikey nodded slowly, the fight draining out of him. “I suppose… I suppose that’s all I can ask for right now.”

He turned to Luna, his face hardening. “Take care of her.”

Luna put her hand over her heart dramatically. “You have my oath.”

He stared at her for a second, then turned back to Mia. “I… I need a while,”

he said, before stumbling toward the door.

He left and Mia stared after him, her emotions tangled. She still felt guilty, still confused, but also very, very relieved. Things weren’t better exactly, nothing was solved. But she and Mikey had spoken. That had to be a start.

Luna let out a low whistle. “Well, that went better than expected.”

So Mikey was gone. Leaving her with… Luna. She turned, eyes blazing. “What the hell was all that about?”

“All what about?”

Luna said, feigning innocence. “I saved the day! I swooped in and showed him we’re dating, just like we agreed.”

“That’s not exactly what we agreed on. You could have been more discreet, broken the news a little more gently. And you didn’t have to lie.”

“I didn’t lie,”

said Luna. “You did leave him. And we are dating. Sort of.”

“But I didn’t leave him for you!”

“You probably would have if you’d have known me then,”

Luna said, lifting one dark eyebrow.

Mia groaned and pressed her hands to her face. “This is a disaster.”

“Nope, it was genius,”

said Luna, pulling out a kitchen chair and sitting on it backwards. “Now he’s convinced we’re together, and he’s out of the picture. Mission accomplished, just like we decided.”

“With Mikey feeling even worse than before,”

snapped Mia. This wasn’t what they’d agreed. It wasn’t how she’d thought things would go. In her head, it had all been a lot more… civilized, maybe. A lot gentler anyway. “Do you ever take anything seriously?”

Luna’s smile faltered for a moment, but then she shrugged. “Not if I can help it.”

“Well, maybe you should,”

Mia snapped. “This isn’t a joke, Luna. That was my life you just steamrolled. A life that you’ve just assured that I can’t go back to.”

“But… you wanted to fake date,”

Luna said, looking slightly stunned.

“Yeah, maybe. Maybe something to gently let Mikey down, a way to let him keep his pride. I didn’t want him to think that I’d been cheating on him all along, how is that supposed to make him feel better?”

Luna stood up, expression softening. “I’m sorry. Honestly. I didn’t mean to make things harder for you. I just… I didn’t want you to get hurt, that’s all.”

Mia sighed, her anger fleeing just as suddenly as it had come. She was equally to blame for all of this, she supposed. She had agreed to the idea, and she knew that Luna was a loose cannon. “I know. And I appreciate your concern. But I need to handle things my own way.”

“Fair enough,”

Luna said, holding up her hands in surrender. “But for what it’s worth, I think you handled it beautifully.”

Mia couldn’t help but laugh. She shook her head. “You’re impossible.”

“And you love it,”

Luna said with a wink.

Mia rolled her eyes, but a smile was still tugging at her lips.

She really didn’t want to admit it, but there was something about Luna’s relentless optimism that made her feel a little bit less lost. And a little bit scared.