Fireworks 3 and 4

Chapter Three

    Technology was truly something. A man performs onstage with a woman for a good 10 minute dancing/flirting session, and by the time he walked off the stage, at least twenty blogs already had video clips from the first half of the segment. By the time Mia and Drake were seated in the backseat of their SUV, gossip media was going wild with stories and reaching for the stars.

DRAKE AND MIA ON THE OUTS? DRAKE AND RIHANNA BACK ON?

DRAKE DUMPS MIA FOR RIHANNA

AUBRIH IS BACK TO BEING A THING

    Drake made sure to hold Mia's hand as they rode to the next destination, a nightclub were the show would go on. He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb, and brought it up to his lips so he could kiss the back of it.

    Her eyes cut over to him.

    "You okay?"

    She nodded. "Yeah. I'm okay."

    "Are you sure?" The look in his eyes said that he wanted for her to be okay, that he didn't want to go through with any of this. He had said as much in the meeting they'd had months ago.

    She tugged his hand up to her mouth so she could kiss it. "Really. I'm okay. We've been through worse things than this, right? This is nothing."

    He laughed and slung an arm around her shoulders. "After this, I say we go on vacation somewhere. Hide from everyone else. Go to some little island, completely off the grid and just get...lost for a month."

    "Your fans would love that," she said sarcastically.

    "I can drop a few tracks for them. A surprise mixtape filled with throwaways to hold them over until I get back. Something." He leaned in close and started nuzzling her ear.

    She giggled and leaned into him, closing her eyes and savoring the moment. "A vacation does sound nice."

    "No phones," he said into her ear, his voice dripping with syrup.

    "Like you could live without your phone," she whispered back.

    He grinned sheepishly. "So maybe we bring them, but only check them once a day."

    She laughed and turned away from him.

    "I was kidding about that part," he added.

    "No you weren't," she contradicted knowingly.

    "I wasn't, but I could live without my phone if I have you."

    There it was, the burning hot sensation that touched her cheeks whenever he said something sweet like that. Even after all of this time, she still felt it. She squeezed his hand and stared out of the window.

    The car pulled up to a club, at which point Chubbs hopped out from the passenger seat and opened the door on Drake's side. "Here's what's going to go down. Robyn is in the car behind us. Drake and Robyn go in first, holding hands. Mia, you wait here for ten minutes or so, and then you go in."

    "And sit where?" she asked, more out of curiosity than sarcasm.

    "Wherever you want to sit," Drake told her.

    "So it's okay If I'm photographed sitting on your lap while you're sitting next to your ex-girlfriend or ex-whatever-she-was?" Mia asked, sliding a look in his direction.

    He laughed. "Probably not, no."

    "Ah, so there are limits." She turned her eyes back on Chubbs.

    "I'm sorry about this," Drake told her. "If you want this to stop, just tell me. I'll drop it all."

    "It's fine," she said, waving a hand in the air. "I've always wondered what it felt like to be the side chick. Tonight, I'll get to find this out. Let's get this show on the road, shall we?"

~~~~~~

    Note to self: Whenever you sign up to play the side chick role for your man, make sure to bring a friend along so that you at least have someone to talk to. Drake had given her a security detail, but they weren't the most talkative people in the world. They might as well have been two tree trunks standing behind her for how quiet they were. She watched the clubgoers dancing on the dancefloor, signed autographs for the few people who approached her. The objective was to not draw unwarranted attention to herself. Tonight was supposed to be about Drake and Rihanna.

    She sat in a dark section of the club where lights were scarce and ordered drink after drink. Once she started feeling tipsy, she started ordering glasses of water. One look up to the VIP section where Drake and Rihanna were partying, and seeing the two of them leaning in close and talking to each other, though, and the alcoholic drinks were put back into rotation.

    Kudos for her baby...he'd somehow detected how irked she was, and had tried to comfort her in the car. He'd tried to make sure that she knew that he was hers. He'd done everything that he was supposed to do, from the jump. Her eyes slid over to Rihanna, though, who was hiding a smile behind her hand. Ever since that meeting three months ago, it was hard to look at the woman and see any of her actions as being genuine.

    Raising a glass to her lips, Mia took a long drink and set the glass down only once it was empty.

    "Why is such a beautiful woman drinking alone?" 

    The voice was familiar to her, and it made her skin crawl. "I'm not drunk enough to have this conversation with you."

    Basketball player Zach LaVine slid into the booth beside her. "I couldn't help but noticing that the man you were staying loyal to is up there right now flirting with an old flame."

    "And you somehow felt like it was your business," she said in a feigned jovial tone. "I'm more curious to know how you came to that conclusion."

    "Ouch, the claws are out tonight."

    "I almost lost him because of you."

    "And now you've lost him because of her," Zach said, tilting his head in Drake and Rihanna's direction. "So tell me something: how does that feel?"