Page 15 of The Almost Bride

Luna burst into the hotel lobby like a tornado in shorts and shirt. Her legs were long and tanned golden, her flowing white shirt set off the darkness of her hair and eyes. Mia took a breath and thought that she’d overdone things.

She looked down at her short sundress and sandals. She’d dressed for a date. Luna was dressed for… a day at the beach, maybe?

“Where are we going?”

she asked suspiciously.

“We are going on the most romantic date of your life,”

Luna declared, loudly enough that Rachel glanced over from the reception desk.

“Romantic?”

hissed Mia. “I thought we were going for believable?”

“Believable and romantic aren’t mutually exclusive, you know,”

Luna said, grabbing Mia’s hand and pulling her up out of her chair. “Come on, trust me.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,”

Mia groaned. But she found that her curiosity was piqued despite her reluctance.

“You two off out then?”

Rachel said, as they made their way to the door.

“On a surprise date,” said Mia.

“A romantic one,”

added Luna. “Very romantic. Highly romantic. Romantic enough that Mia might not return, she might just swoon herself to death.”

Rachel eyed her. “Just make sure she’s home by midnight.”

She turned to Mia. “Luna might turn into a pumpkin by then.”

Mia bit back a laugh. “I won’t be late,”

she promised.

“See that you’re not. You told me you’d do breakfast service in the morning,”

said Rachel.

“I’ll have her back in plenty of time… for breakfast,”

Luna said, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“Get out of here before I hand the poor woman a chastity belt,”

Rachel growled.

Luna was still laughing as she led Mia outside to where an old tandem bicycle was propped up against a lamppost. It was bright yellow, slightly rusty, and had a wicker basket attached to the front that was currently filled with a backpack.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,”

Mia said, eyeing the bike warily. “Where did you get this?”

“Sam at the bookshop lent it to me,”

Luna said. “And it’s a classic. Nothing says romance like peddling in synch into the sunset.”

“It’s only five in the afternoon,”

Mia pointed out, making a mental note not to buy any books from Sam anytime soon. “And what says romance like arguing over who’s steering and then spending the rest of the night in casualty with head injuries?”

“Oh, ye of little faith,”

Luna said. “Hop on!”

Very reluctantly, Mia climbed onto the back seat, putting her hands tentatively on the fixed handlebars in front of her. Luna settled onto the front seat and then turned around to flash a grin at Mia over her shoulder.

Mia felt her heart skip again in that funny way.

“Hold on tight,”

Luna ordered.

They wobbled their way down the street. Mia was surprised to find herself laughing, struggling to find a rhythm and trying desperately not to hit any tourists.

By the time they reached the edge of town, Mia was breathless. Partly from the exertion, but mostly from laughing at the pure silliness of it all.

“Jesus, I think we’re a danger to pedestrians,”

she gasped, as Luna steered them slowly toward a convenient tree at the edge of a wooded trail. “How have we not hit anyone?”

“My stellar luck and brilliant steering skills,”

Luna said.

“Mostly the luck, then?”

“You’re welcome for the excitement,”

said Luna, hopping off and securing the bike to the tree. “And now we move on to phase two of The Most Romantic Date Known to Man.”

“I’m a woman,”

said Mia. “And what, pray tell, is phase two?”

“A hike,”

said Luna. “Along part of one of the most famous walks in the entire country, no less.”

Mia glanced down at her sandals. “A hike? In these shoes?”

“Flexibility, spontaneity, improvisation, all keys to romance,”

said Luna airily, grabbing the backpack and taking a step along the little trail. “Come on, Cinderella. I’ll catch you if you trip. Or give you a piggyback, if you like?”

Mia bit her lip, looked at the trail, then at Luna’s receding back, and sighed. In for a penny, she supposed.

The trail wound through a little patch of woodland, dappled sunlight filtering through the leaves. The heat of the day had lost its hard edge, and the air was pleasant and full of the scent of plants and flowers.

As they walked, Luna kept up a steady stream of commentary, pointing out weirdly shaped trees, places she’d played as a child, and making up fantastical stories about some of the things they were seeing.

“See that squirrel over there?”

she whispered, pointing at a chubby gray squirrel that was perched on a branch.

“What of it?”

asked Mia. It looked like a perfectly normal squirrel to her.

“Definitely a spy,”

Luna said with authority. “Probably working for some sort of underground acorn cartel.”

Mia laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Ridiculously charming, you mean,”

said Luna. “And you could stand to be a wee bit more ridiculous yourself. You’re always so serious.”

“I’m an adult. I’ve got responsibilities. I need to be serious,”

Mia said, feeling slightly stung.

“Responsibilities that you ran away from,”

Luna said.

Mia felt a twinge of guilt that she pushed down. “I’m working on it,”

she said, even though she really wasn’t. She was ignoring things. Ignoring everything in the hope that it would all go away. And Luna, whether she knew it or not, was helping her do that.

“Come on,”

Luna said. “Just over here.”

Mia followed her to a small clearing next to a merry little brook that was burbling its way through the woods. Luna opened up the backpack and pulled out a blanket that she spread over the ground, and then a modest picnic of sandwiches, fruit, and two bottles of water.

“Ta-da,”

she said, gesturing grandly. “A feast fit for royalty.”

“What has the royal budget come to these days?”

Mia teased, smiling as she sat down.

“Hey, it’s the thought that counts,”

said Luna, sitting beside her and handing her a sandwich. “And I put a lot of thought into this.”

Mia patted her hand. “You did. And it’s lovely. Actually, really romantic. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,”

Luna said with a wide grin. “Now, why don’t you tell me why you really walked away from that wedding? We’ve got time. And privacy. You might as well get it off your chest.”

Mia sighed. “Honestly?”

“Honestly,”

said Luna.

“I… I saw a woman in a bikini.”

Luna choked on her water. “Wait. What? This is a crisis of sexuality? Why was I not the first to hear about this?”

“No,”

Mia said firmly. “It wasn’t like that. It was…”

She took a breath and told Luna about the woman in the changing rooms. How she’d laughed, how she’d been so imperfectly perfect and comfortable in herself.

“And then I stole a Snickers from the newsagent,” Mia said.

“Mmm-kay,”

said Luna.

Mia shrugged. “I think I was looking to be a bit more imperfect, you know? Like I spent my whole life being perfect, and then I see this imperfect woman and she was so much happier than me. I just… I don’t know.”

“I understand,”

Luna said, her eyes soft. “I really do.”

“And then I couldn’t breathe properly and it all led up to me not getting married. In some weird way.”

Mia put her sandwich down. “It’s complicated. I just… I felt like I was trying to fit into a life that wasn’t mine. A good life, a fine life, but one that wasn’t meant for me.”

“So you walked away,”

Luna said, leaning back on one elbow. “That takes guts.”

“Stupidity,” Mia said.

“Guts,”

Luna affirmed. “Trust me. I know a thing or two about running away.”

Mia tilted her head. “Oh?”

Was Luna about to be serious about something?

Luna leaned back on both elbows now, looking up at the still-blue sky through the leaves. “I left town when I was eighteen because no one here thought that I could do anything worthwhile. Myself included, I suppose. They all saw me as this aimless, flighty mess. So I decided… to prove them wrong, I guess.”

“And did you?”

asked Mia softly.

Luna shrugged, her shoulders going up to her ears and back again. “Depends on how you measure success and achievement, I suppose. I saw some amazing places, met some amazing people, but…”

“But?”

“But I’m back here, aren’t I?”

she said, looking back up again. “Broke, back where I started, still trying to figure things out. I visited once in all that time, the day I turned twenty-one. Only to have my grandmother refuse to have anything to do with me. Yet here I am, trying again.”

“It must have been hard to come back,” said Mia.

“It was,”

Luna said. “But I had no choice, not really. And in a way, it’s sort of freeing as well. Like, okay, this is who I am, take me or leave me. I don’t have anything to prove to anyone. That’s what I learned.”

Mia smiled. “I think I’ll take you,”

she said gently.

For a long, quiet moment, the air between them was heavy. Luna’s hand reached out and brushed away a stray leaf from Mia’s hair, her fingers lingering for just a heartbeat too long.

Mia’s breath hitched, her heart shuddered, she looked up and met Luna’s gaze, those dark, dark eyes. For a second, the world shrank until it was just the two of them.

Then Luna pulled back, breaking the spell with a sheepish grin and jumping to her feet, starting to pick up the remains of their picnic. “We should probably get back before it gets dark.”

Mia nodded, her heart still racing in her chest. “Yeah, um, good idea.”

The ride back into town was quieter; they rode in sync now, with no need to argue, their feet moving perfectly together. They even made it up the steep hill to the hotel without incident. And when they arrived, Luna got down from the bike and leaned it against the wall.

“So, was it convincing enough?”

she asked, her tone teasing but her eyes searching.

Mia hesitated. Perhaps it had been a little too convincing. She smiled. “It was… unforgettable.”

“Mission accomplished.”

Mia didn’t know what else to say. Her heart felt funny. So she walked toward the hotel door, turning just once to glance back at Luna, who gave her a jaunty wave before jumping back onto her bike and riding it off into the evening.

She opened the door and went into the cool quiet of the reception. Her thoughts were a tangled mess of confusion with something she really wasn’t ready to name yet.

But for the first time in a very long time, she felt alive.