“And then that cool mobile bookstore. I would absolutely die if we had that back home,” the girl adds.
“My girlfriend owns the bookstore actually,” I say, smiling and walking over to them. I’m still on hold, so I don’t mind carrying on the conversation.
“Oh, really?” The girl’s eyes light up. “That is so cool. Your girlfriend must be amazing.”
“She really is,” I say.
Then it suddenly hits me I called Mia my girlfriend and not my best friend, and it didn’t feel weird or unusual. There is a part of me that likes her having that moniker. There is a part of me that wishes that this weren’t a pretense.
“She specializes in romance books, so if you like romance, definitely head down to see her and her best friend, Juniper. They can actually recommend books if you tell them what you like, but I know they also have quite an extensive collection of thrillers and psychological thrillers and murder mysteries, even some sci-fi and horror.”
“Oh, I like sci-fi,” the man behind her says. “Maybe I will go back with you later.”
“Oh, yay. Thank you, Dylan.” She turns around and kisses him and then looks back at me. “Thank you for convincing my husband to take me to the bookstore. I was begging him to come with me last night, and he was like, ‘I don’t want to go to the bookstore.’”
“Well, you were just going on about all the romance stuff,” he says. “I don’t care about romance books.”
She looks at me and rolls her eyes. “What do you say when your girlfriend talks to you about romance books? Do you say you’re not interested?”
“I can honestly say that when Mia mentions romance books to me, I listen with half my brain, and the other half of my brain thinks about work,” I say honestly.
“But she can’t stop loving love, right?”
“No, she can’t.” I nod.
“Well, I think we’re going to head out to the beach now, but it was really nice meeting you.”
“Nice meeting you too. You have a good day.”
I walk back into the hotel lobby and stand there. My phone disconnects, and I want to curse because I waited so long. I’m about to call the office back again when I see Rex walking into the lobby. I quickly step back out of the line of sight so he doesn’t see me. I really don’t want to have a conversation with him.
A couple of minutes later, I see Mia step out of the elevator with her camera. She spies Rex and heads over to him. I frown as I watch them. What is this about?
“So, Mia, Mia, Mia, you are looking absolutely stunning this fine morning,” Rex says to her loudly as he looks her up and down. He lets out a low whistle, and I watch as she blushes. “When we were teenagers, I didn’t really notice you.”
“What do you want, Rex?” Mia says, holding the body of her camera in her hands. She looks uncomfortable, but she also looks like she’s still willing to give him the time of day, which annoys me.
“I just wanted to say that I regret not giving you a chance. If I had known?—”
“I know. You’ve already mentioned this,” she says.
“Well, I want to mention it again.” He reaches out and touches the side of herface. “You’re beautiful, Mia.”
“Thank you,” she says, and she blushes again.
I can feel myself growing angry as I squeeze my phone in my palm.
“I want to tell you something that I don’t think you know,” Rex says.
I frown as I watch Mia tilt her head to the side and look at him with a curious expression and wide eyes.
“What’s that?”
“I want you to know that Luke will never marry you.”
Her jaw drops, and so does mine. What on earth is he talking about?
“Sorry, I don’t know what you mean,” she says, frowning slightly.
