Fireworks 3 and 4

Chapter Thirty-Eight

    The media ate it up. All of it. It was an even bigger moment than the infamous Drake and Rihanna onstage exchange as he presented her with the MTV Vanguard Award. Gossip magazines loved flirting with the idea that Mia was going to take Drake back. They used the opportunity to run down the history of female celebrities who took back their cheating celebrity counterparts.

    Everywhere Mia turned, she saw her own face. If not images frozen in time on her social media timelines, then it was video clips on TV, or audio clips on the radio.

    "Um, hello bitch."

    "Hi, Bri."

    "Question for ya..."

    Mia laughed while towel drying her hair. "Shoot." She padded around the bedroom of her condo in bare feet.

    Instead of asking any questions, Bri played audio on the other end of the line. It was Mia's voice, saying, "Don't stop trying." The audio stopped playing. "Really, bitch?"

    "I take it you disapprove?"

    "That's a bit strong, but I am curious as to what would make you encourage him."

    Draping the damp towel on the back of her desk chair, Mia shed her robe and walked into her closet. Her cell phone remained on top of her bed, screen facing upward, with Speakerphone activated.

    "Everyone, probably including him, thinks you're taking him back."

    Mia was quiet as she slid her nightgown over her head. She briefly allowed herself to fall prey to the fantasy of taking him back, tried to imagine how life would be if she did. She would undoubtedly lose boss bitch points in the eyes of the public, even considering the very public, heartfelt apology he'd sang to her. Not that the public's opinion of her next moves was her main concern. "I had my reasons for responding the way I did," she said cryptically.

    "Well, I'm listening," Bri prompted.

    Adjusting the straps on her nightgown, Mia backed out of the closet and closed the door. "Throughout those three years, I refused to talk to him. It hurt too much to even look at him, so...I just stayed away. But...I did reach out to his friends...the ones I'm cool with, anyway. Chubbs. Mark. OB. I asked them not to tell Aubrey, but...every month or so, I would just check in to see how he was doing."

    "I didn't know that," Bri said in awe.

    Staring into space, Mia shrugged. "I had to. For the longest time, he was my entire world. And just because he betrayed me and pissed me off, I...couldn't stop caring about him. Wanting him to be okay. But it seemed like over the months, he got worse. More withdrawn. Doing less public appearances, until he wasn't making any at all. There were even talks about the Raptors pulling the ambassadorship from him because he wasn't going to the games, wasn't talking up the team. He wasn't holding up his end. DeMar said that the team would never think to take the ambassadorship from him, but...things were bad for him." She sat on the edge of her bed. "A part of me felt like, Good. You know? Things should be bad for him. But another part of me, the part of me that missed him and still loved him, wanted him to be okay. That part of me wasn't loud enough that I would just go over there and talk to him. He didn't deserve that from me. He hadn't earned that. But...I don't know."

    "So, you gave him hope for what?"

    "To help him heal and get better," Mia said, lying back and staring up at the ceiling. "Because as long as he is trying to win me back, he is going to get himself back out there in the public. He's going to try to show off for me. He will be too busy trying to win me back, to feel sorry for himself."