Fireworks 3 and 4

Chapter Thirty-Two

    "It was work. But there were some fun moments in there."

    "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, Aubrey." Mia's mouth was smiling, but her eyes were not. Seated on a wicker patio chair on the master bedroom balcony, she watched him closely with one smooth, gleaming leg crossed over the other.

    Focusing on the least intimidating thing on the balcony, he gestured towards the glass in her hand. "What are you sipping on?"

    One of her eyebrows arched. "Aren't you going to ask me how my interview went?"

    He'd actually been surprised when none of his friends texted him about the interview she'd given. Usually at least one of them texted him with a play-by-play. This time, nothing. "I'm sorry. How did your interview go?"

    Her eyes lowered to the liquor in her glass. With the slightest movement of her hand, the liquor in the glass began to swirl. She entertained herself for several moments, watching the swirling liquid. "I haven't been the perfect girlfriend."

    Here it is.

    "I've had my moments of being too dramatic, responding too emotionally to the women in your life, to silly little drama. I've distanced myself from you more than once. Hell - I've even run away from you a few times." A brief sadness touched her eyes, but in the blink of an eye it was gone. "It's crazy...I look back on some of those tantrums that I threw and I criticize myself for how I reacted. I wonder why I couldn't have just...taken what was happening with class and grace? Why I couldn't have just let some of those things roll off? But no...I was extra. I did the most. Ignoring those extra moments, though, would you say that I've been good to you?"

    "Of course," he managed to get out, although his throat was closing up tight on him.

    "Wouldn't you say that even when I was my angriest at you, I had your back? Always?"

    "Mia."

    "Answer the question."

    "Yes. You've had my back, always."

    She nodded slowly.

    "Mia."

    The stare she gave him was brimming with expectation. "Yes, dear?" she asked, tilting her chin up and staring him in the eyes.

    He shook his head, unable to get any words out. The speech he'd practiced in the jet, and on the way here, flew out of his head - just out of reach.

    "Nothing to say?" she questioned in a mocking tone. "Nothing you want to tell me?"

    "I love you."

    Her free hand clapped over her heart, and a pained expression touched her pretty features.

    "I love you so fucking much. You know that."

    "Then who the fuck is Sophie?" she asked in a whisper.

    The name was poison to his ears. Tainted memories plagued his eyes and ears, the sound of mingled laughter in a restaurant with a thinning crowd. Light teasing. A brush of the hand, more flowing liquor. More puffs of relaxing substances. Stumbled steps leading outside of the restaurant and into his chauffeured SUV. Tentative touching and a kiss that he'd broken off. Another unabashed kiss planted on his lips, and this time he was slower to pull back. Nearly tripping his way out of the vehicle, and her helping him into the hotel while repeatedly asking his hotel room number. He could remember thinking that he shouldn't give the room number to her. He and his woman were on the outs, but he still considered himself off the market. Giving another woman his room number was a bad idea. But then she was asking so much, he just wanted to shut her up. The room number came tumbling out of his lips and then they were stumbling onto and off of a sleek, gold elevator and down a long, winding hallway with gorgeous design touches and embellishments. He especially remembered the hypnotic pattern in the carpet, since his head had become too heavy for him to hold up. When he returned to the present, he found Mia narrowing her eyes at him. He had the grace to blush.