Page 104 of Spark

“Where could he be?” Mia wondered out loud.

“I don’t know, but I set some bait for him. Hopefully, it will draw him out.” Aurelio smiled. “I told him I was doing a job independently. A brand-new Ferrari F8.” His eyes lit up as he thought about the car. “Of course, I’m not really stealing it, but it should draw him out to meet me.”

“And then you can figure out what’s going on,” Mia concluded, nodding.

“Exactly. Get him to let me in and see what’s wrong.”

“Let me help.”

“There isn’t anything for you to do, not yet.” He shrugged. “You can talk to Amy. See what she tells you. I know she knows something.”

Mia nodded; she could go to the diner for dinner after her dress fitting. “Yeah, I can go after my...” She froze; she hadn’t told Aurelio about the dress, not about the money issue or any of it.

“Your?” he asked, eyebrow raised.

“Mmm, my dentist appointment,” she lied. “Yeah, yearly cleaning tomorrow at four.”

“Weird. I thought you had your dress fitting at four tomorrow.”

“What? How?”

“Melvin,” Aurelio laughed. “I asked if we should take you to dinner tomorrow or Saturday before graduation. Your brother said he didn’t know how long your dress fitting was going to be tomorrow.”

Mia breathed deeply, eyes closing. “Of course, he told you. They can’t keep any secrets.” She shook her head.

“Why did it need to be a secret?” Aurelio asked. “I told you about my suit. Hell, I sent you a picture.” He chuckled. “Why didn’t you want me to know about your dress?”

“Well…” Mia said, thinking quickly. “I wanted to surprise you. I still can by not telling you any more about it.” She looked up at him, batting her eyes.

“Fine; subject changed.” He laughed again. “We should get out before you’re a prune.” Mia nodded; he was right. She was getting very wrinkly, and the water was cold. Aurelio got out behind her, reaching for a towel. He wrapped them up together and held her in his arms.

As they dried off, Mia made note of the finished tattoo, slightly red. She traced it, a small wince coming from Aurelio as she did so. Without a word, she kissed each ring, her mouth moving slowly up his arm. She moved towards him, his fingers brushing her chin as he met her in the kiss. Smiling, they got dressed quickly before heading into the living room. Melvin and Mikey were on the couch, controllers in hand.

“Matty leave?” Mia asked, still drying her wet hair.

“Yeah, sometime between round one and round two.” Mikey’s eyes remained on the screen.

“No way you guys have only played two rounds; the races are so short.” Mia furrowed her brows.

“Not our rounds,” he said, looking at Mia, eyebrows waggling.

Melvin and Aurelio hollered gut-bursting laughs.

Mia rolled her eyes, hand on her hip. “Funny, real funny.”

The night passed in a blur of games, food, and laughs. Matty came home around eleven to a round of clapping again; his face turned red. They all went to bed, and the morning came quickly for Mia. With no plans till the afternoon, she went around cleaning up the loft. She gathered the laundry, her brothers’ stuff included, and ducked out to wash it. She drove to the mat, listening to music on her phone; the old girl sounded great as she pushed her along the streets. As she put the laundry into the washer, her phone dinged.

Aurelio:Headed off to confront the little shit. Be back tonight. Love you, beautiful.

Mia sent back a heart before sliding the device back into her pocket. She continued to load the machine; her own clothes were dwarfed by the amount of men’s clothing she had towash. Between her brothers and Aurelio, the laundry seemed to quadruple. When Mia sat down to get lost in her phone, she was reminded of the day she met Aurelio and the deep dive she had fallen into, discovering all the articles and lack of information about the world he was in. Mia shook her head; she still didn’t know anything about that world, not really. But she wanted to. Dialing Aurelio, she waited for the phone to ring, questioning if she should be calling. Before she could hang up, the phone clicked, and Aurelio’s deep voice came over the line.

“Hello, beautiful. What’s up?”

“Oh, sorry, I know you’re busy.”

“Never too busy for you.”

“Ha, smooth,” Mia said, giving him a little laugh. “I was thinking about the whole side of you I still don’t know anything about.”

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