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I chewed on the inside of my cheek, wondering how I should answer. The truth was the only option with Mia.
“She was.” I paused, looking for the right words. “Very different in certain situations. It usually depended on who she was around and how much she felt the need to impress them. But the person you met today isn’t far off from the woman I married back then.”
Mia nodded slowly, her attention moving back to the dark water.
“I had no idea she was going to show up today,” I swore, the guilt suffocating. “If I had known, I would have put a stop to it.”
“I know,” she murmured, offering me a small smile. But it was loaded, and it hid a lot more she wouldn’t tell me just then.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “For all of it; my mom, my ex, the kiss, just- ugh, I’m sorry.”
She pushed away from the barrier with a deep breath and flashed a wide smile my way. “You don’t have to be sorry,” she said, her suddenly cheery mood taking me off guard. “We’re just a marriage of convenience, not love, right?”
Her words stung, and my gut twisted uncomfortably. “Right,” I said slowly.
She shrugged. “Then no hard feelings. You have nothing to be sorry about.”
She turned away and wandered over to another section of the boardwalk, where kids clamored around their parents.
I tried to ignore the discomfort in my chest as I watched her go, her long hair whipping around her body in the sea breeze. Just beyond her, boats bobbed on the choppy water, and she suddenly felt so far out of reach.
I wondered what I’d said to turn her away like this.
“What’s got you so mopey?” Alex asked, talking around her mouthful of pasta. “Did your favorite toy run out of batteries again?”
I tossed the nearest napkin at her and she chuckled, using it to dab at the corners of her mouth.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” she hummed, digging back into her pasta.
“No, that’s not it.” I sighed. “It’s… it’s Mia.”
Alex’s eyes lit up like a kid’s on Christmas morning and she set her fork down loudly. “Do tell; I’mallears.”
“You would be.” I sneered, but there was no heat in my voice. “It’s just something she said last weekend.”
“Aw, are things not going well with Mama Voss there to turn shit on its head?” she teased, but I spotted the underlying concern in her tone.
“Honestly, no.” I chuckled, the sound void of amusement. “She’s worse than those summer mosquitoes. She’salwaysthere, always hovering around like she’s just waiting for me to fuck up or prove that Mia shouldn’t be with me. It’s exhausting.”
“It wouldn’t be exhausting if you just admitted how you felt,” she offered.
I glared at her. “No, Alex,” I said. “Not this again, please. I’m being serious.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll drop it.” She giggled, sounding like she had no intention of dropping it at all. “But what’s the issue? You and Mia have worked together long enough that faking it should be easy.”
“After my mother ambushed us with Daniella,” I explained. “I had to get out of the house so I drove us to the harbor. When I apologized to Mia for what happened, she told me it was okay because our marriage was one of convenience and not love. And she was smiling when she told me that. I can’t put my finger on it, but something didn’t feel right. It still doesn’t.”
Alex studied me closely, her shrewd eyes calculating. “How was she around your mom and the ex?”
“An absolute beast.” I chuckled for real this time. “She didn’t back down once. But when we left, her whole demeanor kind of shifted and I don’t know what triggered it.”
“Being around Daniella always drained me of all my happiness.” Alex snickered. “Maybe she was just tired. God knows I’d be sapped of all my energy after two minutes with your mom and her favorite little pet.”
“Maybe,” I murmured.
The restaurant around us bustled with activity. It was midday and everyone was either stopping by for lunch or meeting up with coworkers. But it felt discombobulated, detached pieces of audio and visual information coming and going like the tide.
I wanted to talk to Mia about it, but something told me she’d be less than willing to discuss what had happened. Especially when my mother was still camping out in one of the larger guest rooms for God knew how much longer.
