Lizzy clapped her palms together to wake Mia from her daydream. “Quit stalling. As soon as my mom hears about this she’s going to be mad I didn’t drag you over for dinner with the fam. At least give me something I can offer her to soothe her disappointment.”
Lizzy was right. Her Aunt Sylvia would be disappointed she was in town and didn’t plan a visit. Her mother’s side of the family was scattered around Sacramento and was a large, close-knit group. Growing up in Placerville, and always involved with school and extracurricular activities, meant that, as a kid, Mia always felt a little bit of an outsider with the Diego family. Visits were rare. Now that she thought about it, she wondered if the judge had something to do with this as well. Her father was also on the outside when it came to Diego family gatherings, not one to encourage a trip to Sacramento as he’d rather stay home. At the time, Mia felt protective of him. With present-day insight, it added one more additional strike against the judge. Neither she nor her mother deserved missing out. He should have tried harder to consider them.
Despite this, the family had always been welcoming whenever they did visit. When Mia decided to take the job in Sacramento, the family embraced her, including Lizzy offering her a place to stay. They became two young professionals sharing an apartment, Mia in politics and Lizzy in graphic design. During that year, she got to know her mom’s side of the family. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been great at staying in touch since she left the city.
“I don’t want to disappoint Aunt Sylvia, but I doubt Ross wants to be dragged to an impromptu family reunion only to be peppered with questions like I’m currently getting from my very annoying cousin.”
“We were always nice to Tom and we didn’t pepper him with questions…much. Although, I don’t think any of us wanted to know him any further than we had to. Did he finally land that corporate lawyer job?”
“I have no idea. I don’t make it a habit of keeping up with ex-boyfriends.” She was glad they were no longer together. Probably the only person who wasn’t pleased with the breakup was her dad, who really liked Thomas. She could now see how her ex had always dictated the terms of her relationship, and, like a good people-pleaser, Mia went along with it. Perhaps there was a good reason Lizzy always mispronounced his name as Thom-ass in the privacy of their apartment.
“You don’t make it a habit of keeping up with your family and friends either.” Lizzy propped her chin on a palm. “But what about new boyfriends?”
“I told you, it’s complicated.”
Lizzy dismissed her words with a swift wave of her hand. “Well, you definitely have something. Let me offer this observation. If someone were to take a photo of you now and compare it to one taken during the campaign, night and day. However you’re living life now, it obviously agrees with you. Whatever it is, let’s package it. I’ll design the marketing around it, and we’ll sell it and rake in millions. You and me, fifty/fifty partners. In fact, I’ll be an owner and a customer. After this last client meeting, I’m close to hitchhiking all the way to Ol’ Hangtown myself and starting over.”
“I can’t imagine you doing small-town living.”
“We haven’t confirmed if it’s small-town living or small-town loving yet.” Lizzy’s eyebrows wiggled with humor.
Mia leaned against her hand, letting the reality of the situation somber her. “It doesn’t matter. It’s temporary small-town whatever because I’ve applied for my doctorate and I’m not staying.”
“And I’ve never seen someone look so miserable about it.”
“I’m living with my dad and working in a coffee shop, I should be ecstatic. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“I noticed you’re not grouping yourit’s complicatedfriend, Ross, in there.” Lizzy did lazy bunny ear quotations with one hand around the phraseit’s complicated.
“Ross is…” Mia tried to think of what she wanted to say, but nothing seemed adequate. “I don’t know,” she confessed, dropping her forehead on the table.
“That doesn’t sound like the Mia Russo I know. Do you like him?”
“Yes,” Mia murmured into the hard surface. “He’s talented and smart and puts up with me and kisses like a dream.” She popped her head up, supporting it on her palm. “But at the same time, it’s like what am I even doing, Liz? I’m leaving. Thomas broke up with me because of the whole long-distance thing, and it does make things complicated. But every time I get an email, I’m worried it’ll be the one that’ll take me away. I’m not being fair to him or to me, and we should stop, but I can’t help myself. I get around him, and instead of seeing bright red lights, the lights are all yellow, and I’m jamming my foot on the gas, trying to get through the intersection before it turns red.” Mia dropped her head on the table again with a thump. “I hate me.”
“I mean, have you considered…” Lizzy’s sentence died almost as soon as it began.
Mia returned to her cousin’s brown eyes. “What?”
Lizzy tried again. “Have you considered maybe not jumping back into school and just seeing where things take you? Maybe being back in your hometown has been a good thing, and your future is something else. You can take a breath and reassess what you really want. I can tell you right now, it wasn’t campaigning. Watching you do that job was like being between two parents who stayed together even though you could tell both of them despised each other. Staying for the kids is never a good thing.”
“Do you think I’m stuck?”
Lizzy’s expression became serious. “No. I refuse to believe that. You are good at working with people and selling your ideas. Like me, you just have to find your people, those that have your same ideals. They’re out there.”
Mia gave Lizzy a flat look. “Ugh, when did you become more optimistic than me?”
Lizzy laughed at this. “It’s not optimism, it’s the truth and you know I’m a blatant truth-teller. People always think the truth is what they want it to be, not what it is. Anyway, you deserve to enjoy living your life, Mia, instead of constantly pushing yourself toward something.”
“Or you could be wrong.”
“Possibly, but you act like dream kissers are waiting around every corner. I can tell you, they’re not.”
“Okay, but you’re painting a future with nothing but kisses—”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s a fantasy. And I don’t know what that future actually looks like. I don’t like a mysterious future, it terrifies me.”
