I’m absolutely furious. I can’t believe he just walked away from me. I can’t believe that he didn’t even respond to my concerns about him prioritizing work again. I can’t believe he didn’t even answer when I said this wasn’t real. He could have said last night was real, or our friendship was real, but nothing. Not even an apology, like,I’m sorry that I have to work, but our friendship means a lot to me, and that’s really what matters.
All he could do was walk away. Just like when he’d left for New York and never come back. Luke would rather ignore something than deal with it head-on, and it is annoying as hell.
“Hey, you okay?” I see Juniper peering at me through the door at the top of the bookmobile. “We heard you arguing. No longer swimming?”
“I’m fine. He had to work.”
“That sounded like a hell of an argument,” she says softly. “It sounds like you guys are experiencing the ups and downs of a realrelationship. You went from hot to cold so fast.”
“I guess it means we’re really great actors.” I shrug. “We’re pulling it off well.”
“Maybe you should go to a boutique and find a really great evening dress, Mia, because if that was an act, then maybe you’re going to win an Oscar soon.”
“Funny, Juni. Not. I’m going to go change and swim by myself. I’ll see you later.”
I know I’m being a bitch, and I know I’m taking my anger out on her, but I can’t stop myself. I hurry to the restroom so I can change into the bikini and take a couple of deep breaths. I don’t know why I’m so upset, why I’m so angry. I just know I’m disappointed. I was really looking forward to swimming with Luke. I was really looking forward to seeing how he would like my bikini on me, but yet again, I was second in his life to work.
“I’m fed up with this bullshit,” I whisper to myself. “When I get a real boyfriend, I’m going to be one hundred percent certain I’m with a man who puts me first because if I’m not first, then what’s the point of the relationship?”
This isn’t a relationship though, Mia.
Then why do I feel like I’m on a roller coaster?
Why do I feel like Luke and I are finally having to face issues that neither one of us has brought up before?
This summer romance is fast proving to be an unraveling of a friendship I know so well, and I’m not sure if faking it with Luke to get back at Rex is going to be worth the price we’ll end up paying to come out on top.
chapter seventeen
Luke
It’s times like these when I wish that I also had a male best friend. I need someone to talk to about Mia. I saw the anger in her eyes when I told her I wasn’t able to swim with her right away, and a part of me wondered if it was because she was feeling tense due to our physical intimacy. It wasn’t like I could go to her and ask her if she was upset with me because I knew she wouldn’t tell me the truth, and I had no one to speak to. I had male friends, of course, but none that I was especially close to. None that I could tell about my situation with Mia.
I think about Rex and how different our relationship could have been if we’d been like real brothers and had a bond. What would it have been like if we hadn’t always been competing?
I look down at my phone, and I see that I have missed calls from my mother and my father. They were both annoyed that I hadn’t told them about Mia and the fact that I had not spent any one-on-one time with them. Nor have I asked to visit their home yet, but I just didn’t want to. It had never felt like my home. Not like Mia’s parents’ house or my grandparents’.
Who can I speak to?I think to myself.
There is only one person I can call and ask for advice, but I know I’ll have to be really careful. I can speak to my grandma. Bitsy is a gossip, and she is a busy Bee, but she loves me, and she’s always been there for me throughout the years. She is the only one who knows about just how much I cared about Mia back in the day. I decide to call her because I know I’m going to go crazy if I don’t speak to someone about what’s going on.
“Hi, Luke. What are you doing?” She answers the phone right away. “Grandpa wants to know if you want to play golf later today.”
“Hey, Grandma. I was just calling to see if everything’s going well. I can’t play golf today though.”
“Grandpa will be disappointed, but he will understand. Lucille and I just got back from crochet, and we’re going to go to bingo tonight.”
“Wow, busy.”
“It’s always busy on the beach.”
“I suppose that’s why you’ll never leave.”
“It’s my home, Luke. Of course I’ll never leave. I just hope that, one day, you’ll move back.” Her voice softens. “I do miss seeing you weekly.”
“I know, but I wouldn’t count on it, Gran.”
“But what about Mia?”
