Her face breaks out into a grin. “Hell yeah, I do!”
“Good, because I want that too.”
“Phew, thank goodness.” She leans up and kisses me. “So, you’re my boyfriend now. I like that.”
“Come on then, girlfriend, let’s go to bed.”
“Your bed, here?” Mia actually looks shocked at the suggestion.
“Of course! Sounds good, right?”
She tosses her head back and laughs. “Sounds absolutely incredible.”
I scoop her up into my arms and hold her close to my chest, then I carry her weary, aching body through the house so she can finally relax in my bed. If she wants me to, I intend to massage her all over until it doesn’t hurt quite so much anymore. Then tomorrow, when the sun rises and everything starts all over again, we can both be fresh and ready for it, ready for something new, something brighter, something better.
No more Hayley, no more her ex, no more sadness, just me and her and whatever comes next.
I absolutely cannot wait.
22
Mia
“Where are we going?” I ask with a giggle, trying to tug Noah’s hands off my eyes. “And why am I dressed up like I’m going to prom or something? This is very disconcerting.”
“Will you just let me surprise you already? You’re going to ruin it at this rate.”
I stop trying to tug and nod, agreeing to let him do whatever the hell he wants to me. I step where he asks me to and I don’t even question him when I hear a burst of opera music floating through the air. When he asked his mom to babysit Alex so he could take me for a night out, I thought it would be dinner or something normal. I didn’t realize I’d end up blindfolded without a clue where I was going. But I suppose it’s exciting, and fun.
“Okay, now you need to go up three steps… oops, don’t fall. Quite big steps.”
“I’m not stable enough on my feet for this,” I giggle.
“Aren’t you the woman who ran twenty six miles?”
“Yes, I did, but not in heels. This is pure torture.”
“Well, you’ll be fine once you’ve done these three steps. Then we’re inside.”
Finally, the air con blasts onto me, suggesting we’re inside, and Noah peels his hands away from me. I blink a few times to let the light filter through into my vision, then
everything begins to come to life.
“Oh, this is an art show.” My heart flip flops. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Well, I thought since you’ve got back into painting and you’re doing it more and more, then it might be a good idea to surround you with the work of others. Give you some inspiration. Plus, there are some incredible artists here so you can always have a chat to them and make some contacts.”
He believes in me, he really does. Sometimes overwhelmingly so. I don’t know how to take it sometimes, it’s so much. It brings hot tears to my eyes now, I can hardly cope with it.
“Oh, Noah this is so nice. I’m sure you don’t want to be here, so this is amazing.”
“What do you mean? Of course I want to be here.”
“I didn’t mean… I just meant because it’s something that I’m more interested in than you.”
“I want you to teach me. I want you to tell me everything that you know.”
We walk around the gallery with our hands clasped tightly together. Noah listens intently as I talk about the art pieces and my opinions on them. Sometimes he even offers opinions of his own which is wonderful. He really throws himself into something that I’m passionate about, it makes me fall even deeper for him.