Savior

Six: Wes

When I tell you I was on my best behavior... Lord, I'm not lying. No clubs, no partying, no girls, nada. Well, one girl. I was spending quite a bit of time with Mia, and I wasn't the least bit sad about it. Even on days we didn't have interviews or appearances or anything, I'd swing by the office or even her apartment. Occasionally she'd pop up at mine with dinner, or some craft beer she wanted to try. I was definitely regretting not getting to know her more in college. She was funny and smart and... just everything. Everything any other girl I wasted my time with wasn't. She was incredible and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't developing a strong crush. But that wasn't an option, much to every part of my being's dismay. Yeah, every part. Not just my dick, which is what I usually thought with. I was in deep.

Regardless, I was completely blown away at Marcus's lack of reaction to me being around his woman pretty much constantly. If Mia was mine, I'd definitely be asking some questions or trying to involve myself. But no, this dude just sat on his little chair, playing his games, leaving us on the balcony alone or sitting on the other couch across the room, telling stories and laughing. It was weird. Mia tried to play it off, crack jokes about it, but I could tell it bothered her. Hell, he wouldn't even join us for dinner when we invited him. That was what happened the previous night. Mia and I had decided we wanted Chinese. We invited Jazz and her girlfriend, and Marcus. Marcus, however, couldn't be bothered to leave the office chair that most definitely had a permanent impression of his ass on it. Man, it did not make sense. This man had the woman of my dreams, and treated her like she was invisible. It made me angry. It made me want to knock him around a bit and get him to wake up. She deserved so much better. And off limits or not, I had made it my goal to show her. At least it gave me something to do with the endless amounts of free time.

I sent flowers to the office. I brought her lunch when I knew she was free, I made sure that she knew our relationship, and her presence in my life mattered. Because it did. The one thing that this new lifestyle had made blatantly clear was that a lot of the people I'd been spending my time with, only wanted me around for what I could give them. Ins at the club, drinks, tickets, whatever the case may be. Hell, even Lucy had stopped hitting me up, and I'd been trying to figure out for months how to make that happen. Honestly, it hurt a bit, but... having Mia around, and Jazz for that matter, made me see what real friends and real relationships were supposed to feel like.

The problem? My heart (and my fucking dick) seemed to have decided that Mia was their's, no matter how much my brain insisted she wasn't. The lines had blurred, at least on my end, and each day it got harder to remind myself that she wasn't available, that she wasn't mine for the taking. But God, I wanted her to be. I wanted this woman more than I'd ever wanted anything in my life, ever in the history of time. I just didn't know if there was much I could do about it.

"Where the hell is she?" I grumbled, sitting at Knox, waiting for her arrival. "She's never late."

Jazz chuckled. "Someone's got it bad."

"Shut up," I groaned.

"Come on. The only person who doesn't know is Mia herself at this point," Jazz stated, slicing into a lime. "The rest of us have got you pegged."

"Not like it matters," I grumbled under my breath. "Even if she broke up with the douchebag, Bill would flip shit if we got together."

"Why?"

I shrugged. "Against company policy or some shit? In reality, it probably has more to do with him not wanting me to fuck over his best employee."

"I'm sure if you talked to him..."

I shook my head. "I think you're neglecting to realize how much of a fuck-up I've been." I picked up my vodka-tonic and took a long swallow.

"I think you're neglecting to realize that just because that's past you, doesn't mean it's FUTURE you," Jazz stated. "You deserve to be happy, Wes. MIA deserves to be happy. Can't fight fate."