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Except that, I wouldn’t.
I had already met someone special. I couldn’t tell Mia I was falling in love with her best friend.
I am still waiting.
There was a part of me that wanted to be honest with her. I had the chance to tell her, but I couldn’t do that to Georgia. Not right now. She would need to know that I would tell Mia before I said, Mia.
“Are you okay?” Mia asked as she looked at me, concern shining in her eyes.
“I’m fine,” I said, plastering on a smile and smattering the guilt. “It’s just strange to think about finding someone new after all our great years together.”
“I’m sure you’ll find someone else to make many new memories with.”
“You know, you remind me so much of your mother sometimes.”
Looking at her now was bittersweet. Mia looked a lot like her mother. Almost identical, if I was being honest. Being around her for the first year after my wife died was hard.
“I still miss Mom a lot. But now that I’m getting older, I have to start thinking about everything that will be happening in my life, and I have to think about doing all those things without her. It doesn’t seem right that she misses out on so much of my life.”
“She would have been here if she could. She always talked about being there for your runways and watching you get married. I know how much she will miss seeing you in New York. That’s been your dream since you could pick your outfits.”
Mia smiled, but there were tears in her eyes. “I know that it’s been my dream forever. Without her, I don’t know how to make it through the first massive show.”
“Well, you know I’ll be there with you every step of the way.”
She nodded. “You and Georgia. I’m happy that I have both of you in my life. But, honestly, I don’t know how I would have made it through university without her. High school was bad enough.”
“I know. At least your mom was around for that.”
Mia fell silent for a few minutes, lost as we finished lunch. Then, finally, she looked around at the water crashing against the shore and the people strolling with their families.
My heart ached for my daughter. She was still so young but was going through the rest of her life without her mother. She had dreamed of many things with her mother present, and now those dreams weren’t the same.
And then I was dating her best friend.
That would only complicate her life more. So I would keep this secret for as long as I could.
I wasn’t going to hurt my daughter. She had been through enough pain in the last few years to last her a lifetime.
I was going to add to that when I had no other choice.
I only hoped that Georgia would understand.
The next morning, my day with Mia still played through my mind as I walked into my office. Matt was sitting in my chair, leaning back with his feet on my desk. I sighed as I dropped my laptop onto the desk before sitting across from him.
“You’ve been coming into the office a lot lately,” I said as I looked at him. “Is there something going on that I should know about? Maybe something that would bring you into work more?”
Matt put his hands behind his head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I had an interesting conversation with your girlfriend last week, but it doesn’t seem like anything has changed since then.”
“Are you threatening us?” I asked, getting up and shutting my office door.
I didn’t want anyone else to hear us if this was about to become a heated argument.
I stared at my best friend, my arms crossed, and waited for him to say something.
“I’m not threatening you, but I am telling you that you must be smart about this.”
“So far, you are the only one outside the relationship that knows.” I rolled my shoulders back, trying to relieve some of the tension. “And you keep choosing to bring it up at the office. You keep putting us at risk of getting caught.”
