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That wasn’t going to happen. She loved Lane and Mike, but she wasn’t the type to kiss and tell. She’d be taking those “dirty details” to the grave.
“It was nice, but I think that’s all I’m going to say.”
She definitely wasn’t going to tell them that they’d exchange I-love-yous.
“I’m an old married woman,” Lane whined playfully. “I need to live vicariously through you.”
“It’s like I’m not standing right here,” Mike sighed loudly, but a smile was twitching on his lips. “If you want romance, I can handle that. I’m the king of romance.”
Mike was no slouch in that department. He was always surprising Lane with flowers or a fun night out. Only a few months ago, he’d surprised Lane with concert tickets to her favorite singer.
“You are the king,” Lane said. “Maybe we should go on a romantic weekend like Mia and Grant.”
“I’ll make the reservations,” Mike promised. “Prepare to be wowed and swept off your feet.”
“It’s been a while since I was swept,” Lane laughed. “Now I have high expectations.”
After chatting for a little longer, Lane and Mike left with plans to meet them the next day for dinner. Mia unpacked a tossed a load of laundry into the washer before sitting down at her desk and beginning to go through her to-do list. She’d done extra work prior to leaving for the long weekend, but as always there were a few small fires to put out.
By dinnertime, she’d done a second load of laundry, handled several tasks, and was starving. Not in the mood to cook, she ordered some takeout and settled in front of the television for the evening, watching a movie that always put her in a good mood.
The next few days flew by quickly as she was busy with a new project for work. She and Grant kept in touch via text and calls, but it wasn’t the same. She missed him. A whole bunch. In only a few days, she’d managed to become used to being around him all of the time. She should probably slow things down, but she’d never felt like this before in her life.
She was in love, and it was wonderful. She wanted more of it not less. Every day seemed filled with sunshine and rainbows.
Mia hadn’t received any more weird texts which was good. A few times when she was out at the grocery store or at the gym, she’d looked over her shoulder, wondering if anyone was watching her. She was sure this was more from paranoia than anyone actually following her around. She was hopeful the whole episode was done and over with, and she could move on with her life.
After work tomorrow, she was planning to head to Grant’s town to spend the weekend. They didn’t have any definite plans except for Sunday dinner with his family. She was nervous but excited to meet them. This was a big deal. Meeting the family meant that this relationship was serious. She’d known it last weekend when they’d professed their love, but this was a huge step forward. She wanted them to like her, and she wanted to like them, too.
She made it an early night since Friday was going to be a long day. She was lights out by ten, her eyelids heavy. Grant had sent her a sweet text right before bed, and she fell asleep with a smile on her face.
It was three hours later when she was woken by an awful, unexpected, and loud sound - her home alarm system going off. Struggling to wake up, she heard her phone on the bedside table buzzing. It would be the alarm company calling to ask if this was a false alarm.
She answered it and the man on the other end of the line told her to stay put where she was and lock the bedroom door. The police were on their way, and he would stay on the call until they arrived.
All of Mia’s instincts were to grab the baseball bat under her bed and run into her living room to see what was going on. It took all the strength she had to simply sit on the edge of her bed making inane conversation while listening for sirens in the distance and footsteps downstairs.
She’d had to continue to remind herself to breathe in and out calmly, but at the same time she was visibly shaking, her nerveless fingers gripping the phone tightly so she wouldn’t drop it. If there was an intruder in her home, she was sure he could hear her heartbeat and breathing. Her pulse was currently so fast, she wouldn’t have been shocked if the whole damn neighborhood heard her.
It felt like forever, but it was probably only a few minutes later when she heard a knock on her bedroom door and a loud voice on the other side announcing they were the police. The man on the phone assured her that they were, indeed, the cops, and he could now end their call. He wished her good luck and then was gone.
On shaky legs, she walked to the door and opened it to find two large and uniformed men standing in her hallway. They were both wearing identical grim expressions, but they spoke to her kindly, asking if she was okay.
Am I alright? I don’t have a clue.
It all seemed to be happening to someone else, and she was simply observing what was going on like it was an episode of a terrible television show. The officers asked her several questions, writing down her answers before asking even more. At some point, she’d become flustered and upset and miraculously another officer appeared with a bottle of water that wasn’t from her own kitchen.
The questions weren’t difficult, but she was in no shape really to make much sense.
Did she have cameras? Yes.
Did she hear anything? No.
Did she see anything? No.
Could she walk around the house with them and let them know what might have been taken? Yes, she could do that.
Was there anyone that they could call for her? Yes, but Mia had a feeling that Mike and Lane were already downstairs worried sick. They would have heard the sirens and seen the flashing lights. As for Grant, she didn’t want to call him in the middle of the night. He was on duty and was working, dealing with his own town’s crime. He didn’t need hers to worry about, too. She’d call him when the sun was up.
