AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thank you.” She pressed her lips together and pushed them out a little, something she often did when considering what to say next. “So...how are we doing this? What happens next?”
Three days ago, Noah never would have guessed he’d be sitting here discussing marriage to his best friend. “What’s your timeline? With the scholarship stuff?”
She scrunched her nose. “Well, that’s the thing. The first full semester won’t start until the fall, but because it’s a program for adults returning to school, there’s a one credit hour course they want me to take this summer. It’s not required, but it sounds cool—it’s about finding your passions and pursuing them. I’d need to enroll pretty soon. But we don’t necessarily have to do our thing, yet. I think I could keep working at Agnew until August—”
Noah interrupted. “I say we just do it now. Get it done, so that way everything is consistent with your paperwork and we’ve worked out any insurance kinks before you start school full-time. You can take the summer to get back into the groove of being a student.” He shuddered internally at the memories of long hours struggling to stay awake in class and staying up all night in the studio working on design projects. “I can’t imagine going back to school. I’m proud of you for doing this.”
“I wouldn’t be doing it if it weren’t for you.”
“I’m proud of us, then,” he offered.
Mia released a long exhale. “So, by ‘now’ you meant...”
He shrugged. “Next week?”
Her eyes widened.
“What?”
“I don’t know...it’s just so soon. Is that even possible?”
“I looked into it a little this afternoon, just in case you...you know. Decided you wanted to go for it. We just have to go together to purchase the marriage license, and there’s no waiting period in the state of Colorado. We could get the license and get married that day, if we wanted.”
“Oh.” Her eyes darted around the room before meeting his again. “Are we, um. Telling anyone? The truth?”
He’d thought about that, too. “Claire’s gonna know something’s up. She’s the only one I think we should be honest with. Graham’s great and all, but...”
“He can’t keep his mouth shut.”
“Exactly.” He paused. “Do you want to tell your parents the truth?”
“No,” she said. “I’m still worried about your dad, though.”
“I said I’d handle him, didn’t I?”
“You did. But I’ve worked for him for a long time, and I know he pays attention to every little detail. I don’t think he’ll believe it.”
“I’ll convince him it’s real,” Noah said. His parents knew him pretty well, and he had a hunch it wouldn’t take much for them to believe he was in love with Mia. “Don’t you trust me?”
“You know I do,” she said, almost grudgingly. “What about the other principals at work? Will they be suspicious? What about Julia? David? Especially him—I never got the impression he liked me much.”
“What? Why do you say that?”
She shrugged and looked down. “I don’t know. I just don’t get a good vibe from him.”
“Mia.” He heard the hard edge in his voice, but couldn’t stop it.
She sighed. “It’s not a big deal.”
Why was this the first he was hearing of this? He attempted to soften his tone. “It is to me.”
“When I was first hired on, I messed up some of his appointments. I felt terrible and apologized—but not before he said your dad hired me out of pity and that I didn’t deserve the job. It’s always stuck with me, and I get nervous around him. Any time I mess something up, it feels like it always involves him. A few years ago, I failed to get an important message to him and he’s never let me forget it. Last week I misplaced a client contract, and naturally it was his client. I get all flustered and just mess stuff up, and he makes sure I know it.”
Noah’s short fingernails dug into the skin of his palms. David had been at the firm a few years before Noah started his internship, and Mia was already a fixture at the front desk. He’d had no idea she’d felt that way. And for so long. “You’re great at your job. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes.”
“According to him it’s more than that.”
Noah had never cared much for David, and now he really didn’t like the guy. “Why haven’t you said something before?”
