Fireworks 1 and 2

Chapter Seventy-Two

    Mia stared out of the window of her hotel room. Beautiful pool view. Beautifully furnished hotel room. In the heart of Los Angeles, a beautiful city. And all she could think about was a man. She couldn't stop thinking about him, even if she tried. What had he been thinking? Who doesn't mention being recently engaged?

    She heard her cell phone vibrating on the nightstand next to the bed. She cast a glance over her shoulder at the phone, saw its screen light up. But she knew she wasn't going to answer it. It was most likely another text message or another phone call from him. She wasn't ready to talk to him. She didn't know if she ever would be.

    A day had passed and she still didn't know what she was going to do. She knew what she should do - go back home, to Texas. Work on inking a contract deal with one of the record labels that was interested. Leave all thoughts of Drake in the past. Allow him to work things out with his fiance. "His fiance!" she shouted, raising both hands to her hair in frustration.

    "Bitch, some of us are trying to sleep!" Bri called from her bedroom down the hall.

    "My bad!" Mia shouted back. She wrapped her arms around herself and continued to stare out of the window.

    While dealing with her own situation with Drake, she'd forgotten about the personal drama Bri was dealing with. On top of being a new mother and having to adjust to that idea, she also might not have her boyfriend at her side by the time the child was brought into the world. Which had to be devastating.

    Mia left her bedroom, walked down the hall, and knocked softly on Bri's bedroom door.

    "Seriously?" Bri asked her.

    Mia opened the door and stepped inside the room. "Like you're even sleeping."

    "Not for a lack of trying," Bri muttered. She was lying on her side in bed, but her eyes were wide open.

    It was early evening, much too early to go to sleep, but Bri's morning sickness had extended into the afternoon hours. This pregnancy was taking its toll on her, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Mia sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed her friend's back. "Are you sure you don't want to go to the hospital, get checked out?" Mia asked worriedly.

    "I hate hospitals," Bri mumbled, turning her face into the pillow.

    Mia sat there for a long time, rubbing Bri's back and comforting her as much as she could.

    Bri lifted her head and peered at Mia. "What about you? What are you going to do?"

    Mia shrugged. "Go back home, I guess."

    "Then why are we here?" Bri asked her. "Instead of being on a plane back to Texas?"

    Mia sighed and shrugged.

    Bri gave her a knowing look. "Because you want to work it out with him."

    Mia lowered her eyes.

    "You want to work it out with him, but meanwhile you're ignoring his messages and his phone calls," Bri went on. "Which...makes no sense, when you think about it."

    "I'm not ready to talk to him yet."

    "You're never going to be ready to have that kind of talk, Mia," Bri told her. "You didn't even stay long enough to get his complete side of the story."

    "What complete side of the story could there be?" Mia asked. "He had a fiance he never told me about."

    "He said he thought it was over. You could have gotten more information about why he thought that," Bri pointed out.