"Mia," I cut her off. "Drop it!"
"Luc, I know that..."
"Jesus!" I erupted. "Why don't you ever just fucking listen?"
Mia dropped her head and I closed my eyes for a second as I tried to find my cool. I hadn’t meant to snap at her. She had come to check on me, had wanted to show she cared, and Stefan got into my head and brought out the worst in me.
"Mia," I started, my tone gentler.
"No, it's fine," Mia said. "I wasn't trying to overstep."
"If I want to talk about it, I will," I told her. "You'll be the person I come to."
That made her look at me and I knew what I’d said was true. Mia would be the person I’d want to talk about this with when I was ready to discuss it.
"I'm going to take you out to dinner tomorrow," I decided.
"I'm sorry?"
"I'm taking you to dinner tomorrow night. We need to talk, and I would like to have you on my own."
"You have me now," Mia pointed out.
"Now who's embarrassed and ashamed?" I teased her.
Mia pulled a face at me and I leaned down to capture her lips. "Dinner. Tomorrow. Don't. Argue," Each word was punctuated with a kiss.
I could feel her smile against my lips as she said, "If you insist."
I insisted that she stayed with me for the night. Although it took some persuading, I once again fell asleep with Mia in my arms, the calmest I’d been in the past 24 hours.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Mia
When I woke up Luc wasn't in bed. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes, groaning at the cold space beside me before seeing a note on his pillow.
Dinner tonight - 7 PM. Have a good day. Luc x
Even in note form, Luc wasn’t a man of many words. I rolled onto my back and smiled at the prospect that Luc and I had finally arranged some time together.
I spent most of the day reading, and when the evening rolled around, with nerves steadily building, I decided to carefully pick out what to wear for the date. It would have been a lot easier with Dom around, but his honeymoon meant that I was flying solo for this one.
"Mia! You look beautiful, darling," Lydia said as I walked into the kitchen.
"Thank you, Lyds." I blushed and gave a quick twirl to show off the skinny jeans and black silk blouse I put together. "Finishing early tonight?"
"You and Luc are out, and Stefan maintains he's able to look after himself so yes. I'll be leaving now." Lydia placed a kiss on my cheek. "Enjoy tonight, sweetheart."
As I watched her leave, I wondered what it would be like if my Mom was alive. It wasn’t often I had these thoughts, but I couldn’t help myself now. Would my Mom approve of Luc? It was a crazy thought because really what parent would approve of Luc? He was up to his eyeballs in shady business and wasn't the calmest person on the planet.
I pushed myself up onto the counter and swung my legs slightly as I waited for him to come home. By the time 8:15 rolled around I had moved my way through the house and was sitting on the couch staring at the wall. I hadn't brought my phone to Luc's because Luc hadn’t wanted me to have any contact with my Dad. Without a phone, I had no way to find out where Luc was and so I sat there, a mixture of angry and worried.
"Why so sad?"
Jumping at the voice, I turned to see Stefan leaning against the door watching me. "I'm not sad," I told him.
"You look a little sad."
