“And I said I couldn’t serve you.”
She slammed her palms against the counter. “I want to talk to your manager.”
“I am the manager.”
“Your boss then.” Her voice was tight and laced with anger.
“Linda, don’t make a fucking scene,” Michael said, anger in his gray eyes.
She turned her head and reached out for him, but he leaned away. “Am I embarrassing you, Michael? Embarrassed ofmeand not how you destroyed my entire life by sleeping with an underage—”
Sal cleared his throat. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” he said before things could get any worse.
I stared between them, my heart pounding in my chest. Sal only intervened when he thought things could get really bad. There were bar fights every now and then, but not much made Sal this … upset.
“I’m not leaving. I came here for a drink.”
“You’re harassing my customers. You’ll leave, or the police will escort you out,” Sal said.
When Linda refused to move, Serena called the police. She shot me ayou did goodlook, wiggling her brows and holding up a thumb behind Michael’s back. I blew out a deep breath and wiped down the bar.
We waited a good five minutes as Linda continued to make a scene, refused to leave, started insulting all the customers, including the two guys who had tried to hit on us earlier. I rolled my eyes and poured everyone free drinks as Sal said it was to make it up to them.
A police car finally rolled up to the bar, and two cops hopped out of the car. After talking briefly with Sal, the policemen escorted Linda out of the bar and stuck her in the backseat of their cruiser because she was too damn drunk to drive.
I grabbed Michael’s hands, squeezing them tightly. All I could read on his face was hate. It wasn’t that kind of playful hate. It was the kind felt deep down in your bones, where you hated someone with everything you had because they had ruined and kept ruining your life.
“I’m getting a restraining order against her,” he said, shaking his head and glancing back at the police car.
Linda sat in the back of it, staring through the windshield at us with a huge smirk on her face. When he turned back to me, he swept his fingers against my knuckles.
“She’s only acting like this because it’s you,” he said. “Melissa probably told her about us, and now, she’s trying to get Melissa back on her side, so she’ll hate me too.”
“Well, I’ll make sure she doesn’t,” I said.
All those screenshots and messages from Mason weren’t for nothing. I’d use them to get her back on his side, so she knew Mason was bad for her.
“Mason?” Michael asked. He stayed quiet for a few moments, then grasped my hands tighter, as if I’d leave him. “Be honest with me, Mia … do you still love him? Is that why you didn’t tell me about him when it happened?”
I shook my head. “No, of course not.”
Michael had proven to me over and over and over again that he wouldn’t leave me when times got tough. But … the past had a stupid fucking way of screwing you up for the future.
No matter how deep I buried it, some part of me thought I wasn’t good enough for Michael. I hadn’t been good enough for Dad. I hadn’t been good enough for Mason. Why did I think I deserved someone as good as Michael?
But before I could think the worst, I pushed away those nasty thoughts. Michael loved me, had told me that he wanted me more than anything, that he wanted to spend his life with me. And I wanted to spend my life with him too.
“I …” I glanced down at the bar and frowned. “Michael, I love you more than anyone. I’m just dealing with my insecurities right now, thinking about shit that I know I shouldn’t. It’s difficult for me to open up about everything.”
He gently seized my chin and forced me to glance up at him. “You know I got you, right?”
I smiled and leaned across the bar. “As long as it’s forever.”
“Forever, Mia.”
CHAPTER12
MIA
