Page 30 of The Making of Mila and Blake
Dad forces one of his polite smiles onto his face. It’s often the worst timing when people recognize him, but he won’t ever dare show it. “Yes. Hi.”
Blake fires Olivia a warning glance with a minute shake of his head, silencing her from saying anything more. Now is not the time for his girlfriend to have a fangirl moment over my dad.
“Mila, I’ll wait for you in the car,” Dad says, removing himself from the situation and locking himself inside the SUV, leaving me to deal with Jason alongside Blake and Olivia. He knows me well enough to figure I’d want to stick around for a minute.
“Wait. . . Is he yourdad?” Olivia gasps, turning to me with delight.
This is the last thing I want to deal with right now, so I simply say, “Yes.”
Jason seems to have had enough of standing around outside. He fishes his keys from his pocket and walks nonchalantly up the path to unlock his front door. At least he heads inside more willingly than he did that first time I helped bring him home, but still, Blake rushes in after him and Olivia and I follow behind like two spare parts, not quite sure where we fit.
“I don’t need to be escorted into my own damn house,” Jason mutters. He snatches his hat back from Blake and dumps it on the dining table. “Take your girlfriends and get out of here. Wait, which oneareyou dating right now?”
“Jason, you’re confused,” Olivia says with an uneasy laugh. “I’m Blake’s girlfriend, remember?”
Jason swings open the refrigerator and grabs a can of soda. “I’m not confused, sweetheart. I was once told that they were meant for each other. Right, Blake?” He kicks the refrigerator door shut with his foot and chuckles as he crosses over to the living room.
Blake presses his hands to his face to shield himself.
“You guys dated?” Olivia hisses in disbelief, then looks at me with distrust.
“If it makes you feel any better,” I say, trying to lighten the situation, “he didn’t tell me about the ex before me either.”
Olivia’s delicate features suddenly turn fierce, struck hard by Jason’s incredibly stupid choice of words. I remember just how it feels. Blake convinced me that he and Lacey had only ever been friends, when in fact they had been more. Olivia obviously believed the same of me.
“Blake. . .” she says. “This is too weird. Why is she even here?”
Blake drops his hands from his face and his expression is torn. “She’s just looking out for my dad, that’s all. We dated, yeah, but that’s been over for a long time. Years.”
Okay, so Olivia gets priority.
“Yeah. Totallyover,” I agree, but I shoot Blake a hard look. He has to know he is lying to himself. There is no way he can deny that we aren’tover, not really. If I can see it, then I know he can too. It’s cowardly of him to dismiss our relationship so easily.
Olivia doesn’t look convinced, but she clearly doesn’t want to press the matter with Blake in front of me, so she takes a deep breath and moves to the living room to help Jason with his search under the couch cushions for the TV remote.
“God, this summer just gets worse and worse,” Blake murmurs, the muscle in his jaw contracting. In Jason’s dirty, hazardous kitchen, he angrily shoves a plate into the already over-stacked sink.
“You need to do something about him, Blake,” I say, but I feel hopeless. I’m not sure what exactly Blakecando to help his father, but if Jason doesn’t get help soon, then things might just get real bad for him. “He can’t show up to work after a whiskey breakfast, not unless he wants to lose his job.”
“You think I’m not trying? I’m trying my damn best, Mila,” Blake snaps. He turns his back on me and grips the edge of the countertop hard, head hanging low, knuckles pale from the pressure. “Not only with my dad, but with my mom, and Olivia, andyou,” he says softly. “I’m trying my best to get things right, but every day. . . Every fucking day I get more confused.”
My shoulders lift with hope. It’s bad timing and it’s selfish, I know, but I can’t help but say, “You’re trying to make things right with me?”
Blake twists his neck to look back at me, his gaze weighed down by mixed emotions. “Isn’t that obvious? I’m trying to figure things out, Mila, but things are. . .” He gestures at Jason and shakes his head in despair.
I stay right where I am, one hand on the back of a kitchen chair to steady myself. “Does your mom know your dad is drinking again?”
Blake scoffs. “Like she’d care.”
“I think maybe she would,” I say. “She can maybe help in ways you can’t, and at least you wouldn’t have to deal with him all on your own.”
“Since when were you an advocate for my mom?” he asks, turning back to me.
My heart throbs with concern when I see just how badly he is drowning in desperation. Nothing makes you feel more helpless in this world than when you can’t fix your parents.
“I’m an advocate for whatever is best foryou,Blake.”
His chest rises and falls with each heavy breath he takes. He looks at Olivia over in the living room, now being snarked at by Jason, and then finds my gaze across the kitchen. “Mila, can you. . . Can you just leave, please?”
