“My mom came by work today and dropped it off. She found some of my old stuff.”
Jackson raised an eyebrow and picked up the yellow diary. “I remember this. You used to spend hours writing in here.”
“That might be a bit of an exaggeration.”
He chuckled. “No, it isn’t.”
He set the diary aside and rummaged through the box. Mia pursed her lips.
“Hey, do you remember that old pact we made as kids?”
He stepped back from the box and leaned against the counter. The movie continued to play on the TV behind him. His eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t think so.”
She tipped her head toward the diary. “I read that at work and came across a part where we had made a pact to get married if neither of us was by the time we were thirty.”
As if a lightbulb went off, he nodded in amusement. “Okay. Yeah, I remember that. Man, crazy kids, huh? Thirty isn’t even that old.”
“No, it isn’t.”
“By that pact, we’d be getting married here in a few months once you turn thirty.” He laughed as if it was inconceivable. “How wild would that be?”
The more he spoke, the more her mood dropped. What would be so terrible about marrying her? They knew each other inside and out. They spent most of their free time together. As far as she could tell, it would be amazing. They already loved each other, trusted each other, spent a lot of free time together.
“Pretty wild,” she said.
“Did you read about anything else crazy in there?”
She shrugged. “Just that.”
He gestured toward the living room. “Let’s finish that movie, yeah?”
Mia watched him walk back to the couch and sit down. “I’m going to run to the bathroom real quick.”
She left the kitchen and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door quietly behind her before locking it. Pressing her palms to the counter, she leaned forward and studied herself. The last thing she expected was to be so disappointed by his response to being with her. She knew he didn’t have feelings for her. That much had always been apparent. Their friends, family, and even the entire town would constantly point out how they should be together, but Jackson would brush it off with a laugh and eye-roll. It killed her a little inside each time it was brought up, but she had never been able to shut her feelings off. She had always hoped he’d eventually fall for her. But after that conversation, she realized it was never going to happen.
She needed to move on.
Unrequited love sucked.
