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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All things considered, mine and Preston's new arrangement is working well. We've switched from speaking every day to speaking a handful of times a week, and we're seeing each other less–once, maybe twice a week, always in a group context. His second meeting with Rhys was the only exception, and even then, we were only alone together for the journey to Richmond and back. By most people's standards, that's still a significant amount of time to spend in someone's company. For us, it's kind of weird, sure, but that's the point. Our new normal needs to match everyone else's regular normal.
It's been working as hoped too. I've been seeing Nick more often, and I assume the same goes for him and Dana. Our romantic relationships have sort of become an implicit no-go topic when we do catch up. So yeah. The space Preston and I have carved between us is working as we'd hoped.
And it's made me realise I need to break up with Nick. For good, this time.
Without Preston as a distraction, I've realised he was never the problem, not really. Nick's lovely; an absolute sweetheart who I couldn't fault if I tried, and any girl would be beyond blessed to have him. Just not me. There's nothing to really pinpoint, and it's nothing he's done. I'm just... not that into him. I feel like such a shitty person for fucking him about after everything that went down over Christmas, but the cruelest thing for me to do would be to keep pretending.
I need to be the bad guy, one last time.
'Are you sure this is okay?' I ask into my long mirror, locking my eyes with Margot's as she sits cross-legged in front of it. 'I'm worried it's too lazy looking, like I'm giving a message of I'm ending things and I literally couldn't care less.'
'You know,' Margot replies, then pauses as she runs a straightener through her hair. 'I don't think I've ever known someone to get so stressed over what to wear to dump someone.'
'Ugh, I know. I never cared this much about what I wore to our dates, for Christ's sake.'
Margot flashes me a sympathetic look, then shrugs. 'Probably a sign you're doing the right thing.'
True.
'Okay, I'm–Fuck it, I'm going,' I declare as I reach down to grab my pink shoulder bag from my bed. 'In theory, I shouldn't be long, so I'll be back in, like, an hour?'
As I'm moving towards my bedroom door, Margot says, 'keep me updated, and if you need a fake family emergency phone call, I'm your gal.'
'This is why I love you!' I shout back to her, then leave my room with a deep breath.
I meet Nick at Dolly's cafe, which I only realise is our first date location as I'm stepping through its doors. It's somewhere we frequent pretty regularly, so its significance never occurred to me, and now I feel like an even bigger asshole than before. So that's great.
Nick's already sitting at a table when I arrive, so with the bravest face I can muster, I approach the window seat he's left free for me.
'Hi!' I say, probably a little too enthusiastically.
