“What do you mean?” My other hand works its way around my jaw, pulling lightly.
“Mia. Are you ever going to just take what you want? Or better yet, give her what she wants?” Liam’s staring at Mia, and all I want to do is block his view of her in that dress. Block everyone’s view, if I’m being honest.
“You both keep ending up single… if you think that’s just a coincidence, you’re dumber than I fucking thought.” He looks at me before sipping his drink, smirking as he does.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I turn slightly to face Liam. “It’s not like that between us. Plus, she’s too good for me.” I say it as if I’m joking, but I’m not. Mia’s too pure, too special, too whole. She deserves someone who can keep their head on straight, and right now, that’s not me.
“Well, you’re right about that.” Liam and I share a laugh.
“She’s my best friend. That’s all we’ll ever be.” It’s the sentence I’ve repeated to myself for a while now. There was a brief time I thought I might’ve had a shot with her, but it was clear that she really only wanted a friend and I wanted to be that for her. I buried my feelings for her and put all of my love and adoration for her into the friendship we’ve built. Mia is beautiful and amazing, but it’s not like that with us. She needs me in her life as a friend and I’ve been that for her. Because I need her in the same way.
“So, Hughes buying her drinks and making her laugh, has no direct correlation to the state of your messy as fuck hair?” Liam questions. Instinctively my hand runs through it again at his mention before I quickly pull it back.
“Purely a coincidence,” I lie. Because no, I don’t exactly love what I’m seeing, but Mia’s dated plenty of guys since we’ve known each other. Granted, I’ve never been friends with them or lived in the same apartment building as them, but either way, it’s not my business who she spends her time with. If she’s happy, I’m happy.
Liam’s head shakes back and forth as he grins deviously. “If you say so, Campbell… but it’s only a matter of time before someone else comes in and sweeps her off of her feet. If you’re one hundred percent okay with that, then fine. I’ll back off.”
A frustrated sigh leaves my mouth and I run a hand through my hair.Fuck, keep your hands at your sides!I internally shout.
Mia Clark is my best friend. It’ll never be anything more than that.
Once the night is winding down, I make my way to the bar and have a seat. Mia finds me after she’s done schmoozing her way through half of the people here.
“Why are you sitting here by yourself?” She nudges my shoulder with her elbow as she takes a seat next to me. Her lavender scent wraps itself around me as she pulls the barstool closer.
“I just sat down, I’ve been walking around all night… you, though, you’ve made quite a name for yourself tonight, Ms. Clark. You’re very popular.” My eyes trail over her body as she shakes her head with a chuckle. She pulls the cup of maraschino cherries up between us and tosses one in her drink. I’m tempted to ask how her conversation went with Hughes, but I remind myself that I don’t need to know that.
“Yeah, well the people need a reason to like you, so… enter the charming best friend. Nice blue suit by the way.” My eyes trail down Mia’s arm, to her perfectly polished fingernails. Light blue, a color she wears often.
“They already like me.” I bark back, but I see her eyes roll and a playful smile lands on her lips.
“I’ve moved on to Shirley Temples,” she proclaims, raising her glass before taking a sip.
“Yes, your drink of choice.” I laugh and then grab one of the cherries myself and take the stem off and twist it between two fingers, leaving the cherry on the bar top.
Mia grabs the stem from my fingers and holds it up to me. “Why don’t we try to tie these in knots with our tongue and see who can do the most? You know, for old times’ sake.”
My tongue instinctively runs over my lips. “Okay… should the winner get to pick the fast food place we stop at when we leave here?” Something tells me no matter who wins, we’re going to Frenchie’s.
She tilts her head and nods up and down with a smirk. Mia moves our drinks out of the way and puts napkins in front of us to wipe any of the mess. She pulls a handful of cherries from the cup on the bar and sets them down.
“This might not be the most adult thing to do right now, but at least it’s fun,” she notes.
“I think we’ve done a fuck ton of adulting tonight, so a brief intermission for some stem tying is fine.” I feel the corner of my lip turn up towards her.
“I’ve been practicing; I feel like I might finally have you this time… Ready?” Her eyes beam up at me and she bites her bottom lip.
“You’ve been practicing… with who?” My eyebrows raise at her comment.
“Last week! When we were all at Louie’s. I grabbed a few when I got bored of hearing Graham’s story about horseback riding.” Her cheeks begin to blush and it causes me to shake my head at her.
Between the two of us, we’ve already cleared a handful of these within five minutes. This is how we kept ourselves occupied some nights in college. We’d be out at the bar with friends, but not drinking… so we passed the time with menial things like this.
Mia only has three stems tied and I can see the frustration on her face as she’s working her tongue to get the fourth one in a knot. Her nostrils are flaring, and I can tell she wants to throw something by the way she’s gripping the napkin in her hand. It causes me to lightly laugh and turn my head slightly away.
“I have five here, Mi. I think we can call it.” Wiping my mouth with a napkin, I pull my glass back to me to take one last sip.
“How? How the hell are you so damn good at this? Is your tongue a machine? That’s the only logical explanation at this point.” She throws herself back against the barstool and crosses her arms over her chest.
