His secret

Chapter 42

"Nova?" I hear Alexis's voice but I can't seem to comprehend it. All of the other voices around me are muffled and all the faces staring at me are blurred, the only thing my eyes are focused on right now is the face I've been looking at for the past minutes. I know it must have been a while because I've heard my name uttered in worry several times. "Kid, are you okay?" Alexis's hand shakes my soul back to my body making the muffled voices sound normal again. "He's here, Alexis, I swear," I tell him without moving my gaze from Miles, afraid that he'll disappear the minute I look away. Like the last time.

No, this can't be like the last time, I know he is in front of me, he's been staring right back at me for minutes now. "Kid, not again..."

"No, I swear, I'm looking right at him right now," I plead with him to believe me, desperate for him to look at Miles and tell me that he really is sitting there and that I'm not hallucinating. "I'm really sorry but we have to move on, so if you have any last words now might be a good time so I can move on to the last nomination," The host tells us in a low whisper.

Alexis takes the microphone in front of me into his hands and makes a short speech, a speech I didn't care to focus on, being too busy looking at Miles. "Common, Kid," Alexis grabs a hold of my arm and leads me down the stage, making my eye contact with Miles break. I break loose from his grip and try to find Miles again but it's impossible to find him in this big crowd now that we're not on the high stage. "I can't find him,"

"Kid, I think we should get some fresh air, it's getting stuffy in here,"

"No! I really saw him, and you made me lose him and now I can't find him and you just don't believe me, and I..."

"Nova, please, just follow me outside and I promise to listen to you," he interrupts me. I just nod and let him lead me outside from the backdoor. "I promise, I saw him," I tell him with arms crossed on my chest while looking down at the floor. "It's not that I think you're lying, Nova, it's just that you were so sure about seeing him last..."

"It's a terrible mistake you made up there," the familiar gravelly voice comes from behind me. Oh, God, how I've missed his voice. Alexis's face forms the biggest frown of confusion and shock. "You introduced her as Ms. Devis, but it's actually Mrs. Sanders. I recall you were my best man at the wedding so I really hope you haven't forgotten about it," I turn around without thinking about it for another second, eager to see him.

"Sunshine," he nods a polite nod towards me, looking into my eyes as if nothing had changed at all while they in fact had. Many things had changed, he had changed. His dirty-blond curls have grown out and he's securing them in a small man-bun, his once clean-shaved face is now covered with a hair stubble. I feel Alexis approaching me and then I feel one of his arms around my waist as he speaks, "What are you doing here?" Alexis asks, maintaining his calm tone. "You seem to have forgotten that I'm a businessman myself," Miles answered without looking at any of us, but he looked at the arm around my waist.

"Sun..."

"No man, fuck off, don't start again, not after all this time," Alexis interrupts Miles. Miles's eyes narrow for a moment and his yaw clenches before he speaks up again. "Firstly I'm not talking to you I'm talking to my wife, so I suggest you don't interrupt me. And secondly, get your arm off of her if you'd like to keep it," I look at Alexis through the corner of my eye, seeing the smile appearing on his face as he pulls me closer to him.

"Don't test me," Miles warns. "Or what," Alexis challenges him, Miles lunges at him and in a span of a second, making him smash into the wall behind us. "Stop it," I tell them in a low voice but they're still too big bodies howling at each other. "Stop it!" I yell at them making them freeze with each others t-shirt collars in their hands. I approach them and break their grips, dropping Alexis's hands to his side but continuing to hold on to one of Miles's hands, desperate for an excuse to touch him. "Miles, inside, now," I tell him as I look at a laughing  Alexis. "Sunsh..."