Tonight I needed my friends.
Jase cleared his throat. “That was great, Mrs. Bennet. I can’t wait to see what’s for dessert. Then we need to make tracks. We’re meeting the rest of the team at Bell’s for our annual pre-Christmas thing.”
“You are?” Dad’s expression darkened. “You never mentioned it, Son.”
“Guess it slipped my mind,” I grumbled.
“Well, that’s just lovely,” Mom added. “Team spirit is just so important these days. I’ll get these cleared away and serve dessert so you boys can be on your way. Asher, a little help?”
“Sure thing, Mom.” I stood up and began loading plates into my hands. I knew Jason and Cam didn’t understand the strange atmosphere at dinner, but it was better that way.
For now, it was better they didn’t know the whole story.
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.
“Want to tell us what the fuck that was all about?” Jase kept his eye on the road as we drove away from my house. It wasn’t until the shadow of the building disappeared in the rear-view mirror that I finally felt the weight ease off my chest.
“Just my old man being his usual hard ass self.”
He side-eyed me, his hands tightening around the wheel. “Something’s going on with you. You don’t want to tell us yet, that’s cool. But drop the charade. We’ve all been there. Me with my old man. Cam with his mum. It’s okay to let people in, Ash. You don’t have to carry whatever it is that’s got you so worked up alone.”
“Fee’s good for you, man.” I ignored his grand speech and deflected the spotlight from me to him. “And despite everything that happened, I’m happy for you. You two deserve each other.”
“So that’s how it’s going to be?” he asked.
“For now, yeah. But I’ll let you know when I’m ready to talk.”
“We’ll be here, you know that.” Cam leaned forward from the back seat and squeezed my shoulder.
The familiar streets of our small town rolled by. I couldn’t imagine moving to Pittsburgh, living in a strange place with strange people. But I guess my future was tainted by the fact it wasn’t truly my future.
“Hey,” I said after a little while. “This isn’t the way to Bell’s.”
“You caught that, huh?” He smirked, signaling left and pulling onto the street where Felicity lived.
“Guys, if this is your attempt to cheer me up, I’m really not in the mood to play fifth wheel.” I’d done enough of that lately.
He chuckled, not saying another word as he pulled onto Flick’s driveway and cut the engine. “Trust me,” he said cryptically. “I think you’ll like this surprise.”
Surprise?
What the actual fuck?
We got out and I reluctantly followed Jason and Cam up to the Giles’ house. The last thing I wanted to do was hang out and watch them with their girlfriends. They usually tried to keep PDA’s to a minimum around me.
Tried and failed.
And I got it, I did. They were in love. So deeply gone for their girls that they couldn’t keep their hands off them. But that shit was nauseating on a good day, let alone on a day where everything seemed like such a fucking mess.
Jason didn’t knock. He just walked right in like he owned the place. It didn’t surprise me. He already had Mr. and Mrs. Giles wrapped around his finger, despite their initial concerns about their daughter dating Rixon’s golden boy of football.
We followed the girly laughter into the living room and my eyes almost bugged out of my head. “Mya?” I choked out. “What are you...?”
She stood up, pushing her wild curls out of her face. “Hey.”
I noticed Fee and Hailee grinning at us out of the corner of my eye.
“Can we talk?”
“I... uh... sure,” I said.
Jase clapped me on the back, moving around me as I stood rooted in place, staring at Mya.
“Come on,” she said, taking my hand and leading me away from our friends.
I was so surprised, so fucking confused, I trailed behind her like a lost puppy.
Mya kept going until we reached the back door. “It’s cold,” she said. “But I thought we’d have more privacy outside?” She glanced back at me and waited.
“Sure.”
Releasing a small breath, Mya nodded, before slipping outside. She wasn’t wrong. The frigid air wrapped around us like icy fingers. Or maybe it was just trepidation at whatever it was she wanted to talk about.
“Fuck,” I breathed, jamming my hands deep in my jacket pockets.
Mya chose the swing seat. It was big enough for two, but I was still so stunned at seeing her, I opted to stand.
“So,” she started, “I have something for you.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” A tentative smile tugged at her mouth as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a tiny scrap of paper. “Here.”
I took it from her, my brows pinched in confusion as I read the number written on it. “I’m not—”
“It’s my cell phone number. My new cell phone number.”
“I don’t understand.” I scratched my cheek.
“I’m done, Asher. I went back there and saw Jermaine thinking I needed closure, but I realized something. That part of my life was over the second I packed my bag and left. So I’m done.”
“You’re done?” I sounded like a parrot but I couldn’t process what she was saying.
“I still want to take things slow, but what I’m saying is, if you still want me, I’m yours.”
Yours.
She’d said, ‘I’m yours’.
The words spun around my head until they finally settled into four little letters.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
Mya was saying she was mine... if I still wanted her.
I dropped to my knees in front of her and let the scrap of paper flutter out of my hands as I cupped her face. “You’re done with him?”
“So done.” She grinned, her eyes full of promise.
“You really want to be mine, Hernandez? Because I’m going to be needy. So fucking needy.” I admitted. “Waking up and finding you gone, it hurt. More than I ever thought it would.” Leaning in, I rested my head against hers. “But finding out you’d gone back home, imagining you with him, that almost damn near killed me.”
“I’m sorry. I just... I got scared, Asher. The way I feel about you scares me.”
“Yeah?” Pulling away, I looked into Mya’s eyes, needing to see the truth there. “How do you feel about me?”
“Like I could lose myself.”
“I’ll never let that happen,” I said. “Know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I’ll always find you, Mya.” Burying my fingers in her hair, I leaned in and tasted her lips. Once. Twice. Three times. Just to be sure this was real.
That she was real.
Mya looped her arms around my neck, drawing me closer. I rose up on my knees, leaning into her, pressing her back into the Giles’ swing seat. She said she wanted to go slow, but I couldn’t resist hitching her leg around my hip and grinding against her.