Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Ninety-Six

"As much as I blame him for what he did do,

I know that I shoulder some of that blame too."

    Mia scribbled in her notebook while aboard Drake's private jet. The crew was headed to Detroit, Michigan. His boys were loud and boisterous. Drake, in stark contrast, was quiet and pensive. He tapped the keys on his Blackberry while stroking his jaw. She hated times like this, times when she was sitting so close to him and yet felt so distant. The last thing she wanted was for them to be at odds with each other again, after they'd already overcome so much.

    "You're everything to me," he repeated over and over again while looking down at his notebook.

    His voice and the emotion he put into his words tugged at her heartstrings. It overloaded her senses and made it hard for her to focus on her own writing. She shifted in her seat and tapped the end of her pen on her notebook.

    "The finger next to your middle is missing a ring to me," Drake sang aloud.

    A few of his boys twisted around in their seats to look back at him.

    Mia closed her eyes and turned to stare out of the small, circular window to her right.

    "You think I'm afraid of losing her, but she's not a ting to me. What I had with her was nothing but a fling to me. And now she's like a sister, but you're everything to me."

    She felt him grab the hand she had resting on the armrest of the chair. "I want you to understand that defending her unacceptable acts are just as unacceptable."

    "You're right."

    And she had a choice. She could continue being standoffish with him and run the chance of really losing him, or she could hold her man closer to her instead of pushing him away because of her own insecurities.

    He squeezed her hand.

    After a moment of consideration, she squeezed his hand back.

    "At some point, I'll stop fucking up," he vowed. "I promise."

    She laughed and tilted her head back against the headrest.

    Chubbs twisted around in his seat. "You guys are finally out of your funk?" he asked them.

    "Finally?" Mia repeated. "The longest I've been mad with him is, like...two days."

    "It felt more like two years," Drake interjected. "I can't stand it when you're mad at me."

    "Stop giving me reason to be, then," she told him matter-of-factly.

    Chubbs turned back around, apparently not wanting to be dragged into their discussion.

    "I will." He leaned his head back on his own headrest.

    "And Aubrey?"

    He turned his head. "Yeah?"

    "Singing that song and changing the lyrics up like that...that's cheating."

    Stroking the back of her hand with the pad of his thumb, he said, "Well, I'm willing to cheat as much as I need to in order to make sure you don't walk away from me."

    She grew quiet.

    "You think that I'm not afraid of losing you...but you're wrong. In this life, there isn't much I'm afraid of. Because of who I am, there isn't much need for fear. But one of the things I'm most afraid of is losing you or anyone else that I love."