“You two didamazing,” Isabella said when she’d made her calls. “The Internet is melting down.”
“Oh, my God. Look!” Giana showed Isabella first before holding her phone up toward me and Mia. “The video already has half-a-million views. I literallyjustput it up, like…what!?”
Mia and I shared a look.
Neither one of us smiled.
And for the rest of the ride, everyone was silent.
• • •
When we made it back to the house Mia had been staying in, she threw her car door open and stormed up the driveway.
Giana and Isabella both jumped when she slammed the door shut behind her, and then they looked at me. I muttered a curse word before hopping out of the SUV and chasing after my grouchy bride-to-be.
“Mia.”
“Leave me alone, Aleks.”
“Would you just fucking stop for a second?”
I caught her by the elbow, not gripping her tight but holding just enough to spin her to look at me.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Nothing. I’m fine. I just want to go home and sleep in my own fucking bed. I want to get away from the noise. I want to focus on my tour and take a break from this… this… charade.”
“You’re mad at me.”
She scoffed. “Why would I be mad at you?”
“That’s the exact question I’ve been asking myself since I showed up here this afternoon. Care to enlighten me?”
Mia tongued her cheek, folding her arms over her chest and shaking her head. Then, she let out a long breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I’m fine. Really. I am not mad at you.”
Lie.
I knew it and she did, too.
“I’m just… tired, okay?”
Her blue eyes found mine with that statement, holding my gaze and silently begging me to let it go.
But when she turned toward the house, I was already moving with her.
I couldn’t let it go.
I couldn’t lethergo — not like this.
“Talk to me,” I begged, pulling her to a stop again.
She let her hands fly up and hit her thighs with a slap. “Jesus Christ, Aleks.”
“What happened? Last night, you were happy and carefree and having a fucking blast. Then today, you act like I personally offended you somehow. Just… tell me. Tell me what I did.”
Her nose flared, eyes watering as she looked anywhere but at me.
It fucking broke me.
