The Thousand Words We Spoke (A Novella)

Chapter Ten

Her bedroom had that perfect old familiar feeling to it. Mia had taken so few things with her to college and allowed her bedroom to remain intact when she got the apartment that everything remained as it always had and gave her some much needed comfort. Even her closet and drawers were mostly full and her bathroom stocked, so she never had to pack when visiting.

It was a strange feeling being under the same roof as Adam again. He hadn't tried talking to her for the rest of the party, but Mia had felt his eyes on her for the rest of the night. No matter what room she and her mother were in, Adam hadn't been far behind. Even her mother, who was bordering on shit-faced halfway through, had noticed his lack of discretion.

Perhaps the most strange feeling of all that night was when Mia had to excuse herself to take a phone call. It was Richard's friend in Arizona, letting her know the job was hers if she wanted it. She loved what Mia did with the museum's website and social media accounts and offered her a job consulting with companies on theirs. It was a dream job for her, and her decision became final when she accepted the offer. She'd be moving in two weeks.

Mia finished washing away the night's makeup and hair products, slipped on her robe and went back into her bedroom, only to find Adam there laying on her bed.

She was so close to telling him to leave, but when Mia looked closer at him, she just couldn't do it. Instead, she slipped underneath the blanket he held up for her and rested her head against his chest and her hand on his stomach, just as they did on the night that changed their lives.

"I'm going to miss this," Mia couldn't help but admit, tears already forming in her eyes as she thought about everything from her first memory of him to her last, to one they were heading towards.

Adam rubbed at her arm and squeezed her body against his own. "Then stay."

She shook her head against him. If only it were that easy. "You know I can't."

"If I thought there was a chance in hell you and I could work without it destroying everything else, nothing would stop me from being with you." He kissed the top of her head. "I want you to know that."

"I wish we could be like everyone else," Mia admitted to him. "Just go on a regular date, share a kiss at the end and see where it all takes us."

"That'd be nice." Adam's hand moved up to her hair, and Mia couldn't suppress the whimper that escaped her lips. "Is there any way we can just go back to how things were between us? Just for tonight? My mini Mia munchkin head and your knight in shining Adam?"

That would be the best Christmas gift Mia could ever get, even if it disappeared before presents opened the following morning. "I think we could do that. Why don't you tell me about the favorite places you visited while you were away?"

"Besides our honeymoon?" Adam asked with a light laugh.

That discussion felt like a lifetime ago and it broke her heart all over again, knowing they'd never go. "Besides there."

They talked for hours; him about his travels and her about everything in her life that he'd missed that she didn't talk about in her letters. It was only temporary; both of them knew that. Tomorrow would be another day and force them back into reality, so they waited for the sun to rise before finally allowing themselves to drift to sleep.

*****************

The sound of a door slamming shut jolted both of them awake and Mia shot forward, opening her eyes to a room full of angry looking people. Adam's brother and parents, her grandparents, her father, and her mother, who was obviously not as angry or surprised as the rest of them.

Her father attempted to charge at Adam, but Adam's brother, William, held him in place the best he could. "You son of a bitch!"

"I promise you, this is not what it looks like at all," Mia shouted, causing her head to pulsate. They'd stayed up late enough where it was only a mild hangover, but it was still there and still throbbed.

"The hell it isn't! That bastard has his hands all over you!" Her father shouted back.

Mia looked and saw only one of Adam's hands on her, which pressed against her shoulder. "Go downstairs and I'll be down in a minute to talk to you."

"Come on, honey," her mother encouraged, taking her father's arm and tucking him out of the door.

William just shook his head at Adam, while everyone else couldn't even look at either of them as they left.

"Well," Adam spoke in a groggy voice, "at least now we know how they would react if we had tried for a relationship."

"Exactly as expected?"

Adam nodded. "So, what are you going to tell them?"

"The truth... for the most part."

Mia got up and went into her top drawer for pajama pants, sliding them on beneath her robe before grabbing a sweatshirt from the drawer below. Since she wasn't facing Adam, she dropped her robe and put her sweatshirt on, hearing him mutter something behind her.

Mia turned once she'd fully dressed. "Let me handle it, okay?"

Adam let out a forced laugh. "I have zero intention of fighting you on that."

He climbed out of bed and followed her out of the room and down the stairs, slowing down his pace once they reached the living room. Everyone's eyes fell on them and Mia had to pretend that her every movement wasn't being dissected as she sat on the couch next to her mother.

"Last night, I took the offer for a job in Arizona," Mia confessed, not able to look anywhere other than her lap.

"A job," her mother repeated slowly. "In Arizona."

Mia nodded and ran her fingers through her bed head, immediately getting caught by the tangles. "Earlier last night, I told Adam I applied for it and that if I got the job, I'd be moving pretty much right after New Year's. Last night we stayed up talking and fell asleep at dawn. That's all that happened." All that happened last night, anyway. "He guessed this would be our last time seeing each other for a while, so..."

"You took a job in Arizona?" Her father asked. "Doing what?"

Mia looked up from her lap, first at Adam, who hadn't known they had offered her the job and looked near tears again, remaining silent in the doorway, then at her parents, who appeared the same as they sat on the couch. "A consulting firm that helps businesses with their social media pages and their websites. She liked what I did with the museum, and I have a degree in graphic design, so this is the perfect fit for me. I wanted to move away last year, but put it off."

"And when did you say you were moving?" Her father asked.

"I start the job on the fifteenth, so I'll be leaving in about a week and a half. I'll still have to find someone to sublet my apartment, but I don't think that will be much of a problem."

Adam's father was standing by the Christmas tree next to his wife, but went over to sit on the nearest couch. He'd always been like a third grandfather to her. When her mother's dad died, he took over the position, and she was closer to him than the one who had died. "What brought all this on, honey? Something like this you normally should tell your family about right away."

Mia looked down and played with the tie on her sweatshirt. There was no way she could bring up the truth, run away, then allow Adam to deal with the fallback. "I didn't want to leave while Adam was still away. Now that he's back, I guess I'm just ready for my own adventure. I applied on a whim, but now that they offered me a job, I really want it."

All of it was a lie, but there wasn't another choice. Adam didn't deserve to face ridicule for something she did.

As her eyes fell on her mother, she saw that she understood the truth and gave her a reassuring nod. The rest of them couldn't know what the two women or Adam knew. Ties between the two families and the future of the business rested upon this lie. The hope of their understanding couldn't be relied on.

"I'll come up in a few days," her mother said, breaking the silence. "Help you pack."

"That'd be great."

On the next beat of silence, Adam walked out of the room and out the back door.