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I don’t waste any more time listening in. I run to the bedroom and skid to a halt in front of it, throwing it open without bothering to knock.
It’s empty. Mia’s bags are gone.
And on the bed is a note.
S—
Thank you for everything. Please know that I do believe in you. You’re going to make a wonderful chef.
I’m sorry for this. It was so easy to love you.
Goodbye,
M
P.S. We were always friends.
58
MIA
I shutmy computer and slide down until I’m horizontal on Penny’s bed.
Part of me wants to scream. Screaming sounds like an acceptable course of action, given the fact Alice won’t stop blowing up my phone about the presentation, Professor Santoro keeps piling on the requests, Giana hasn’t gotten the hint that I don’t want to rehash the barbecue with her, and I haven’t seen my boyfriend in over a week.
Ex-boyfriend.
He’s not mine anymore. I made sure of that when I wrote him that note.
That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. Somehow, I thought that the heartbreak wouldn’t be as deep if I was the one initiating it, but that was a lie. I’ve thrown myself into work since the moment I got back to Moorbridge, because the moment I take a breather, I can’t think of anything or anyone but Sebastian. I might be staying at Penny’s dad’s house, but there are reminders of him everywhere. When I found the note he left on the jersey in my bag the other day, I shut myself in the bathroom in the lab and tried to breathe through the tears—until Alice banged on the door.
Whenever I do let my mind wander, it runs over all the memories, big and small, and I miss him so much I feel like I just took a rusted knife to my throat. I hurt him. I know he’s ambitious, I know he’s going to succeed at whatever he ends up doing. There’s probably going to be a Sebastian Callahan restaurant empire one day. And what we said about each other’s families…
It’s better for him if I’m not involved in his life. He’ll find someone else eventually, a woman with a family he loves and is happy to be part of. A woman who fits into his life so perfectly, he’ll laugh when he thinks about how he thought I could ever be that person.
I just have to scream through it until the feelings fade.
By the time he got back to New York, I had already moved all my things from his house to Penny’s father’s place. Mr. Ryder and his fiancée, Nikki Rodriguez—also Penny’s boss at the ice rink in town—have been generous about letting me stay here. It’s what I should have done in the first place, sucked it up and spent a few nights here, then moved into the new dorm room McKee offered me. If I had stayed firm, I wouldn’t have gotten involved with Sebastian again.
I wouldn’t have fallen in love.
I wouldn’t have had to steal back my heart.
I grab a pillow and press it over my face. I do scream, my voice hitching on a sob by the end. My phone chimes again. It’s practically Russian roulette whenever I look at it. Will it be Giana? Alice? Izzy? Sebastian?
There’s a knock on the door. “Mia? Can I come in?”
I throw the pillow aside and sit up. “It’s your room.”
“Well, just in case you were naked or something,” Penny says as she pushes open the door. She frowns as she takes me in. I’ve been too busy to do much but eat and take quick showers. My hair hangs limp, I have chipped nails, and I’ve been wearing the same sweatshirt for days. “Is everything okay?”
“The presentation is a disaster.”
She sits on the end of the bed. “No way. It looks amazing.”
“Alice chewed me out for mislabeling a diagram.”
“She can go to hell.”
