Fireworks 3 and 4

Fireworks: Forever Chapter Twenty-Six

    "What, you couldn't call me?"

    "So you could talk me into staying?" Mia countered.

    Drake paced the length of his bedroom. "I was going to tell you."

    "Right before you moved in with her?"

    "I-" He shook his head. "I was trying to figure out a way to tell you."

    "After everything we've been through, I could have handled it, Aubrey," she stated flatly. "What are we doing? This whole thing is going to collapse if you aren't honest with me. If this thing has us lying to each other, we've already lost!"

    "Okay. Okay." He sat on the edge of his bed. "You're right. The longer I waited, the harder it was to tell you, and shit just kept happening."

    She was quiet at the other end.

    "I miss you."

    A short sigh, followed by, "I miss you, too."

    He fell back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, holding the phone up to his ear. "You saw the pics and videos from last night?"

    "The whole world has seen those, at this point," she told him. There was a jealous edge to her voice that made him smile a bit.

    "In the name of being completely transparent with each other, Solana confessed that old feelings are starting to come up."

    "Of course she did," Mia muttered.

    "Mia."

    "What? Ugh." 

    "Let me come over," he urged.

    "For what?"

    "So I can assure you that you're the only one I want," he said.

    She went quiet again, and he hated it. He could read in between the lines when words were used, or when he could see her facial expression. When there was nothing to see or hear, he didn't know what was going through her mind. Was she giving up on them? On him? Did she worry that because SZA expressed having feelings for him, that those same feelings would rise up in him? "You can't," she said finally. "You shouldn't. And they're listening to our calls, so I don't even want to talk to you on the phone."

    "Let me come over," he said again.

    "You can't come over," she refused.

    "Baby."

    "Stop. I have to go."

    "I'm coming over anyway," he declared stubbornly.

    She laughed. "You'll be left standing outside," she warned him.

    "Okay, bet."

    "Don't come over," she told him.

    He hung up on her, laughing when he imagined he rolling her eyes and chucking her phone across the room. There was no way in hell he was going to lose her to something stupid like this. She did remind me of something important, which is that we can't have important conversations on the phone anymore, he realized as he packed a change of clothes.

~~~~~~

    Contrary to what she'd threatened on the phone, Mia threw her condo door open. "What the hell do you want?" she demanded.

    Grinning, Drake scooped her up and kicked the door closed behind him. He struggled to use his elbow to engage the lock on the door while pressing feverish kisses to her lips.

    "Who do you think you are, bursting into my place like you own it?" she asked, laughing and squealing as he carried her into the bedroom. 

    "Where's your phone?" he asked instead of responding.

    She pointed at the nightstand.

    He gently set her on the bed and snatched the phone from the nightstand. With both his phone and hers in hand, he disappeared. A moment later, loud music was playing from the living room.

    "What are you doing?" she asked when he returned.

    "Making sure I'm not losing you right after I got you," he said, kicking off one shoe. 

    "In the note I left you, I told you that I wasn't mad at you," she reminded him. "That was to prevent bold moves like this. This isn't necessary."

    "Yeah, well, maybe it's necessary for me," he said, untying the other sneaker before kicking it off. "Maybe I wasn't ready for my house to be empty when I got back. Maybe I was expecting to see you. Maybe I was expecting to be able to hug you and cuddle you before falling asleep."

    She tilted her head to the side and folded her arms across her chest. "Maybe we need to chill on those expectations while we're acting out these soap operas for the people."

    "Maybe, for once, fuck the people," he said, raising a knee onto the bed beside her. "Maybe, I love the people and have given a lot to the people, and now is the time for me to have what I want."

    "And what is that, Mr. Graham?" she asked, leaning back because he was forcing her to do so. 

    His grin widened. "What I want is both above me, on the highest of echelons, and also beneath me, where she belongs," he sang to her softly, bending along with her and cradling her face while kissing her. 

    She giggled against his lips, throwing her arms around him and pulling him down closer to her.

    Later, with the side of her face pressed against his chest, she told him, "You know that we can't keep doing this, right?"

    "Get that negativity out of here," he grumbled. His chin rested on top of her head, and a thick, muscled arm wrapped around her. 

    "If we don't want them to suspect anything, we have to stay away from each other for awhile," she insisted.

    "We can wear disguises," he said right before letting out a huge yawn. "Sneak in each other's back doors. Back doors..." He gave her ass a pinch and laughed when she yelped. "Stay lowkey with it. We could make a hot game out of it."

    "We could also get caught," she said, sounding a lot more serious than he was being. 

    He frowned down at her. "They didn't say that we had to stop seeing each other."

    "But they did say that the public has to buy that we aren't together anymore," she stated. "If we're getting caught sneaking to each other's places, how does that look?"

    "We were broken up," he said, his voice deep and groggy. "You went on this massive tour and I had to spend time apart from you then. I just got you back, Mia."

    "I just got you back, but...you're the one saying that we can't play around with these guys. Right?"

    "Ugh."

    "It's not forever or anything. Think of this as a break from me."

    "I've had enough breaks from you to last a lifetime," he muttered. "I'm sick of taking breaks from you."

    "Just this one more little break," she promised.

    He did a lot more grumbling before easing into a restless sleep. 

    She pressed a series of kisses to his bare chest before falling asleep in the crook of his arm.