The man’s voice may have interrupted, but I don’t let Mia go as we turn to face the officer in her doorway. “Hi, sorry. Is it my turn for a statement now?”
“Yes, ma’am. And if you’re open to it, one of the boys has requested the opportunity to apologize and return your belongings. You can still press charges after if you’d like.”
Mia straightens, letting go of me with one arm to wave the cop off. “I don’t plan on pressing charges, but I’ll take my stuff and the apology.”
An argument is on the tip of my tongue about not pressing any charges, but when the lanky kid walks in, I get her point. The kid’s seventeen at my best guess. I’m sure others are pressing charges, there’s no need to pile on.
“Hi, Miss Wright, I’m Michael Tharpe from a few floors up. I’m really sorry for any damage me and my friends caused. It was a stupid dare that got out of hand. If I could go back, I would, but I can’t.” He sheepishly hands Mia a bag, and any and all eye contact disappears. “I’m really sorry,” he adds quickly.
Being the woman I’m quickly falling for, she offers him a sweet smile. “It’s okay, everyone does stupid things. I appreciate your apology and giving back my—” Mia looks in the bag, and her words simply die off as she busts out laughing. “Oh my god.”
With my curiosity piqued, I reach for the bag, and Mia hands it over, still fighting her laughter.
“Dude, what the fuck? You took my girlfriend’s lingerie?”
Mia only laughs harder, and the kid goes bright red, but then his eyes go wide when he finally looks at me. “Are you Adam Reyer with the Boston Blues? Holy shit! I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I’m a huge fan. I’ve been watching you since you played in Seattle. This is insane! I’m sorry, I didn’t know she was your girlfriend…I swear!”
Mia wipes the tears from her eyes. “I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time.” She takes a breath. “Babe, why don’t you give me that, and I’ll get you a marker to sign something for the kid.”
“Really?” The kid beams.
“The fuck I am. He broke into your apartment, Mia.”
She rolls her eyes at me. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’m not signing anything in that fucking bag for him.”
“This is sick!” The kid is practically bouncing with excitement, but the cop knocks him down a peg.
“Yeah, hold on to this one. I don’t suspect the rest will go a tenth as good as this.” He holds his stare until Michael mellows out, but then he turns to me. “Could I also get something signed?”
Fucking hell. “Yeah, I guess so.”
After signing the kid’s T-shirt and a sticky note for the cop, they move on to the next apartment. I only feel slightly bad for both of them, considering they’re headed over to the cheating asshat next.
“I hope you know that kid’s going to be telling this story for the rest of his life.”
Mia snorts, finally closing her door the rest of the way. “For sure. I can hear it now in his fun facts about me in college class: I stole Adam Reyer’s girlfriend’s lingerie, and then he signed my T-shirt.”
“I can’t believe you had me sign stuff for him.” I shake my head at the thought. “Only you would turn that kid’s whole night around after being so fucking stupid.”
Mia bites her lip as she wraps her arms around my neck. “Oh, come on, he said he was sorry. Plus, it takes a lot of guts to voluntarily hand the stuff over while doing it. There were four of them that got caught, but only one wanted to try to make it right. He deserved a little something.”
I hum softly, letting her touch calm down my annoyance at the situation. “Out of all the things to take…did anything else seem missing?”
I look around her pretty pristine bi-level apartment. With the open concept down here, everything I can see looks fine, but clearly, they made a beeline for what I’m assuming is her bedroom upstairs.
“No, other than my lock, my place seemed untouched. I honestly hadn’t even thought to check my underwear drawers. I only checked my jewelry and my safe.”
“Could be smart to double-check. I could definitely stay and help with that,” I tease.
The sound of Mia’s laugh continues to be my source of joy despite her hitting my shoulder as she does it. “Adam!”
“What? It seems like we need to be sure. Maybe you should try a few on…”
The corners of her mouth tug up before she rests her head on my chest. “I’m glad you came over.”
“Me too.” I place a kiss on her head. “The pizza should be here in about half an hour. Did your landlord say when he’d fix your lock?”
