Page 10 of Flirtatious

Almost as if he’s irritated he has to introduce us, Michael grumbles, “Mia, this is Tracey. Tracey, Mia.”

The skeevy girl tilts her head to the side and gives me a crooked smile. “Hey.”

I feel the tears begin to burn the backs of my eyes and hate that this is how my body chooses to react to the news that the one person I thought truly cared for me doesn’t give a damn about losing his job or being removed from my life. Michael wasn’t my soulmate. He wasn’t even someone who missed me enough not to hook up with this nasty girl with bad taste in clothes.

“Mia, it’s not like we were…”

His sentence trails off as I march past him toward the front door. I know what he doesn’t have the balls to say to my face. It’s not like we were together.

He’s right. We weren’t. I never slept with him because after the mess of my life for the past year, I wanted to be sure someone cared for me before I took that step again. After Jonny, I thought I needed that, and I thought Michael understood.

I thought a lot of things that obviously weren’t true.

God, I’m such a fool!

“Goodbye, Michael. Enjoy your life here with her,” I say, choking back the tears.

So much for him being my soulmate. All those nights we spent talking meant nothing to him. All the things I shared with him were simply part of his job, obviously.

With one last look back at Michael, I see Tracey walk up behind him and wrap her arms around his waist like she wants to show me he’s hers. She doesn’t have to worry. I’m a fool, but I’m not stupid. She can have him.

He was never anything to me anyway. At least, he never thought he was. The problem is I did think he was someone special.

My tears make running down the steps away from his apartment next to impossible, and I stumble as I hurry toward the bottom floor of the building. Crashing into the wall next to the stairs, I steady myself and wipe my eyes.

God, I was so stupid! Jonny told me when we broke up that no one was ever going to love me. That I wasn’t enough for anyone to deal with all the bullshit that comes with me.

Now I know he was right.

CHAPTERFOUR

Liam

Andrea setsa mug of coffee down on the table in front of me as I sit back on the sofa, already regretting my choice to take this assignment after that little outburst of Mia’s. Her mother, along with her assistant, wear uncomfortable expressions and talk in hushed tones over near the doorway before Andrea returns alone to sit across from me in what looks like a chair that should be in a museum instead of a living room.

She eases down onto the blood red upholstered seat and instantly appears even more uncomfortable than just a few moments ago. Not surprising, I guess, considering it looks to be some antique from hundreds of years ago. The dark wood ornate legs and arms remind me of something Santa Claus used to sit in at the mall when I’d go see him as a little boy.

Cradling a mug of coffee in her hands, she says, “You know, this life can be very hard, especially for someone like Mia. She’s had a lot to adjust to. The stardom and fame. That kind of thing. She’s actually a wonderful person. I just want you to know that so you don’t think she’s always like she was before. Things have just been difficult recently.”

I have no idea what to say to that since I doubt this woman wants my true opinion of her daughter, so I force a smile and nod. “I’m sure.”

That’s all it takes to get her talking, and I let her tell me how Mia wanted to sing since she was a little girl and how they did the pageant circuit and she was crowned Little Miss Tampa. Andrea practically beams pride as she talks, and I want to believe the person I met a short time ago isn’t the petty tyrant she appears to be.

But it’s going to take more than a stroll down memory lane to convince me of that.

“Everyone who saw her perform as a little girl in those pageants told me she had something rare. I knew it, but hearing them say it made me think we should try to see how far it could go. So she started entering talent contests. You know the local ones you see advertised online and on posters at the mall? They weren’t anything big at first, but then when she was fourteen, she won a contest and the prize was studio time. It was like a dream come true for her…for all of us, and from there, she took off like a comet. By the time she was fifteen, she had a number one hit. But it’s a hard thing to get used to being famous, and she’s so young, so that makes it doubly hard.”

I get the sense that she’s going to continue singing her daughter’s praises, and I’m not in the mood to listen to any more of that. After taking a sip of the weakest coffee I’ve ever tasted in my life, I lean forward to set the mug back down on the table and level my gaze on her.

“I’m sorry if this is out of line, but no one, no matter how big, has a right to speak to people like that.”

Andrea doesn’t miss a beat and immediately defends her daughter once more. Drawing her eyebrows in, she looks truly pained when she says, “She’s my only child. Her father and I couldn’t have any more. When she said she wanted to be a singer, I devoted everything in my power to make that happen. Her father couldn’t handle that, so he walked away five years ago. It’s only been Mia and me ever since.”

As much as I want to sympathize with her, that isn’t my job. I need her to understand that the reason Jonah Bradley thought I was the right man for this position is because I’m not someone who falls apart at a sob story.

Changing the subject, I say, “About her last security chief. She obviously had a relationship with him above and beyond what it was supposed to be.”

I’m surprised when she shakes her head and waves that little bit of truth away. “Oh, that was nothing. She’s had to spend a lot of time on the road in the past couple years. It gets lonely. Michael fell for her like everyone does. I don’t blame him. Mia’s a flirt, like most young girls, so people can’t help but fall in love with her.”

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