Page 58 of Fake It Till You Break It
My head snapped up. I felt like the wordpervwas probably plastered all over my face. “Yeah?”
Thank God she didn’t seem to notice. “Your new song is great. I mean, I’m kind of surprised you wrote it. Since it’s about being in love and stuff. ’Course, you probably just wrote what sounded good.”
“Well, I…” My mind raced to figure out the right answer. One that wouldn’t scare her off. Because the truth was enough to scare me.
But even so, I was dying to tell her the truth. That it was all about her. That each emotion and thought while I wrote the song was all about her. That I was falling in love with her.
Before I could answer, some drunk dude in a leather jacket who was holding a can of beer stumbled toward us. Next thing we knew, the foam shot out and sprayed toward both of us like a sprinkler.
Shit. I grabbed Mia to pull her out of the way, but it was too late. My back and half of her shirt and hair were drenched. She gasped and blinked rapidly in shock.
“Look, man, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. The can just leaped out of my hand or something, I swear…”
With a fierce scowl, I held the guy back when he tried to wipe off Mia. More to protect him than her. Her nose flared up and that usually meant she was going to explode any second. And I sure didn’t want to end this night with a bar fight. “Just go. And next time watch where you’re aiming that thing.”
With widespread hands, he had just faded into the crowd when Mia snapped back to her senses. Her wet hair whipped in my face as she spun around. “That jerk—where did I—I’m going to kick his ass.”
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders so she couldn’t run off, I tugged her toward the corner. “Just forget about it. He probably won’t remember anything you say anyway.”
“Still… God, my hair’s already starting to feel all sticky and gross.” She picked at my wet shirt and grimaced. “You must be dying right now.”
I was. It was as if I could feel every single drop on my neck and back. But I was more concerned about Mia. Particularly how her shirt was now sticking to her chest like glue.
Grabbing a couple of napkins from the bar, I dabbed at her hair and neck. “We’re going to have to get you cleaned up before we go home. If you go home smelling like beer, then your mom will kill me.”
The left corner of her mouth quirked up into a half smile.“If she does, then it sure would have saved us a lot of trouble these past few weeks.”
I rubbed at the spot above her ear and drifted down to her cheek. She cocked her head slightly to the right to give me better access. “I don’t know. Were the past couple of weeks that bad?”
“I guess it could have been worse.” She reached up and swept my hair off of my forehead. Her fingers gently ruffled through my hair, tugging a bit at the ends. Each of her movements sent a wave of awareness through my body. Of how close we were. How I could just dip my head and kiss her within seconds.
It took every ounce of willpower I had to pull away from her before I did something crazy. Tugging the little ring off of my pinkie, I handed it to her. “I should give this back before I lose it. Guess this was pretty lucky after all.”
Mia laughed and slipped it on her finger. It fit perfectly. “Then it’s a good thing I found it. Don’t worry, I’ll let you borrow it from time to time. At a reasonably low price.”
I echoed her laugh, except mine was nervous and overly loud. “I have a confession to make. You know, back then I wasn’t really trying to get the remote-control car. I wanted to get the ring. For you.”
“For me? Why?”
This was it. Now or never. I let out a deep breath. “Because I liked you.”
Silence. The bar was still loud, but I knew Mia heard me by the way her dark eyes blinked rapidly as she gaped at me. “Wait, you what?”
Now that I finally said those three little words that I had been dying to say for ages, it was like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. “I liked you back then. A lot actually. But we were just friends so I didn’t think I should say anything. I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. And then weweren’tfriends anymore so there was no point in saying anything.”
She tugged on her earlobe and laughed. “That’s so weird, because I liked you back then, too.”
Now it was my turn to stare at her. “Uh, what?”
Her cheeks were tinted pink, and she turned toward the bar, away from me. “Yeah, you were, like, my first crush. For a while actually. But like you said, things happened. We grew up. And now we hate each other.”
Dropping the crumpled napkin, I slid between Mia and the bar to cup her face with my hand. Gently. Softly like she would break. Which was silly because she was one of the strongest people I knew. Kryptonite would melt in her presence. “I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely not feeling any hate right now.”
“Then what are you feeling?”
It felt like her question was physically between us, hovering in the air, separating us.
And I pushed it aside and took a step toward her. I didn’t say anything. Mia looked startled at my closeness. Her eyes widened, and she stared at me. Then they flickered down to my mouth. Once. Twice. She pursed her lips. Damn. Now I couldn’t look away from her lips. They were so soft and sweet looking. Almost shiny, but not in that fake glossy way. Just… perfect. It was like she understood exactly what I was thinking. Her face softened and before I knew it, she was in my arms.
