Page 10 of Kiss Me Again

My teeth clench at how he looks at her: like a wild animal looking at his prey. Let him think she's my girlfriend.

"Hi, I'm Mia," she says when he shakes her hand—slowly, not letting her palm go that easily—"But I'm not Ben's girlfriend. I'm a friend of Diana’s."

Marco's eyes enlarge when she says it, and I want to hit him with all these books I’m holding.

"What's with all the books,amico? You’ve decided to quit sports and become a librarian?" Marco asks, and even though he’s talking to me, he looks at Mia again and winks at her. She smiles in response.

She already likes him. What's with all those European accents that women melt when they hear them? It doesn't matter if it's English, French, or Italian: A guy can spout any nonsense he wants, but with the proper accent, a woman immediately falls at his feet. Even women like Mia, with the IQ of an Ivy League professor, can't resist those charms.

I feel the vein on my temple start pulsating as I stand here with a bunch of books, unable to grab Marco by the arm and drag him away from Mia.

"Those are mine," Mia says, still smiling at him. "I'm returning them to the library." Her cheeks flush, and her eyes glitter as she speaks.

Or am I imagining this? I need help thinking when it comes to Mia.

"Beautifulandsmart?" Marco makes a surprised face and places a palm on his chest to emphasize how impressed he is, "I can't believe I finally met you! I wasn't even sure you existed!"

What a cliché. Mia is definitely so much more intelligent than this.

But she's smiling, showing her interest.

I'm going to kill him.

"And I didn't even want to agree to come when Ben asked me yesterday," he adds as if trying to kick me when I'm already down.

He just confessed that I asked him for this favor yesterday, not the day before, as I told Di and Mia.

Kill me now.

Mia looks at me, and as our eyes meet, I can see she knows. She heard it perfectly clearly. I notice hurt and disappointment in her eyes.

It's not what you think, I want to say, but I keep silent.

Actually, that's exactly what she thinks: I called Marco because I didn't want Mia to drive me.

And now she knows.

"We have to go, or we're going to be late," I say nervously, gesturing to both of them to head to the front door.

"We'll wait and chat while you put those books in Mia's car," Marco says easily, waiting for me to leave them alone.

No way am I gonna do that.

"Oh, I don't have a car," she says.

"You were going to leave this girl with a bunch of heavy books without even offering to give her a ride?" Marco looks at me with surprise.

Great. Now I look like a rude guy while Marco is a real gentleman. This is in addition to the fact that Mia thinks of me as of liar who doesn't want to see her.

"Actually, Diana left her car for Mia to use," I say, lying again.

I have no idea if Di said anything about her car to Mia. Still, she won't mind her best friend diving it.

"Or you can have mine if you want," I add, even though they're identical, except that my Tesla had never been scratched or ticketed.

Marco's satisfied smile evaporates with my words.

"No, I can't drive your fancy expensive cars; I’m barely used to Mom's old Honda," Mia protests and faces Marco again. "A ride would be great, thank you."

---