When she uncovers his plan to lead an entirely uneventful life, Mia Evian is determined to teach Preston Maddox how to stop living like a ghost, but Mia and Preston have history, tension, and a lot of complicated feelings.
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'I literally gave him a cop out!' Margot exclaims, a cigarette teetering between her fingers. 'I told him he was free to pick an existing couple if he wanted. I didn't hallucinate that, right? Wouldn't surprise me given this place.'
'Not hallucinating,' I confirm.
You two, obviously.
Caleb's voice is ringing through my head, big and loud. It's like a record on repeat, and not even the nautical soundtrack blasting from the bar can drown it out. Obviously. That's what got me. Obviously. What does that even mean?
Margot brushes the air as a puff of smoke escapes her lips. 'Nick seems alright about it, at least from what I can tell.'
He responded with a clipped it's fine when I asked if Caleb's comment had bothered him as he and I grabbed a second round at the bar, so I'm not sure Margot's quite on the mark there. Caleb, who'd evidently been scolded by Aiden moments earlier appeared midway through our drink ordering and kept apologising to us, which somehow made the ordering process equal parts funny and tragic. My life summarised, essentially.
'I'll talk with him and Dana tonight to make sure they're okay,' I comment in a half-hearted attempt to avoid admitting any awkwardness between Nick and me. To avoid that eventuality, I change the topic of conversation with, 'who would you have said? On the soulmates question?'
Margot glances at the concrete below with a coy smile, but doesn't answer.
'Ask me later,' she says, lifting her head before taking one final drag. 'When I'm too drunk to keep my inhibitions.'
On that cryptic note, Margot stubs out her cigarette, then turns back towards the club. Only, as she does so, she momentarily halts, says something into the doorway, then turns to flash me a smile–a sympathetic one, I'm sure of it–and disappears into the bright yellow building. The strange exchange is explained almost immediately because as Margot vanishes, Dana appears.
'Hey!' she beams at me with a wave, and God, why is she so nice?
'Dana, hey!' I reply with what I hope is matching enthusiasm.
I've got no idea what to do with my hands as she stops opposite me. I settle on clasping them in front of me as I stand stiffly upright, as if I'm a doctor about to break some tragic news.
Dana opens her mouth, then blurts, 'I just wanted to make sure you know I'm totally cool about that whole drinking game situation in there.'
Seriously, being this inexplicably nice can't be legal.
'Oh, it's–Yeah, that's good. I was going to pull you aside to make sure you were cool, so that's–Yeah, that's really good.'
She responds with a smile, and God, she's lying. She's so obviously lying to save face, or worst case scenario, to avoid making me feel bad. Caleb's comment–mine and Preston's relationship–makes her uneasy. I know it does.
