Teaching Mia

Chapter 16 - The Road Less Traveled

"Oh, for Christ's sake. He'll be back in a week guys, it's not the end of the world," Max blurted out from the passenger window.

"Please, Max? Can we go in? Just for a little bit?" Sofia insisted.

"Hey, there's Mia!" Nico shouted all of a sudden and took off in a sprint in her direction. She was getting out of a taxi behind them.

"Nicolas!" Leo yelled behind him, but it was too late.

Nico called out to Mia once he was closer, and then jumped into her, giving her a huge bear hug.

"Now, this just got interesting," Max said. "You know what, Sofia? I think it's a great idea. Let's all go in together. I'll go park the car," he said with a smirk on his face.

Leo shot him a murderous look, before grabbing Sofia's hand and heading in Mia's direction.

When he reached her, Nico had already somehow convinced Mia to pick him up and he was playing with the medallion she always wore around her neck.

"Hey," Leo said, somewhat embarrassed.

"I believe this belongs to you?" she said, motioning to Nico wrapped around her. "He's getting heavy," she added.

"No, I'm not!" Nico laughed, giving her a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

Mia gasped at first, but then laughed.

Inexplicably, Leo became really irritated at watching Nico being so close and carefree with Mia.

"Okay, that's enough, Romeo," he said, pulling Nico from Mia's arms. He sat him down on top of his suitcase, and then picked up Sofia.

"Hola Mia!" she said cheerily, once she was at eye length with her.

"Hey, sweetie. How are you?" Mia responded, brushing back her hair which was all tangled up in an awful mess at the moment.

"How come you haven't..." she began.

"Well, ain't this just a beautiful scene?" Max said coming up behind them. "Hey, Mia. Long time," he added.

"Hey, Max," she said.

"Seriously, I need to take a picture of this," he said taking out his phone.

"Max," Leo said intently in warning.

"Oh, come on. Don't be such a party pooper," he said getting the camera on his phone ready.

Leo looked over at Mia and she shrugged back at him.

"Don't look so gloomy guys. You're both going to Shanghai for God's sake. Okay, smile people," he instructed.

Both Sofia and Nico yelled out at the top of their lungs, "Cheese!"

Mia laughed and Leo relaxed a little, looking over at her.

"Talk about capturing the moment! Damn, I'm good," Max said pleased with his picture.

"Well, I should probably head on in," Mia said.

"We're all going with you! Max said we could," Sofia said climbing eagerly from Leo's arms into Mia's. Surprisingly, he didn't stop her.

"Oh, I..." Mia began, then stopped, clearly not knowing what to say.

"Here, allow me," Max said, taking her suitcase. "Shall we?"

Mia looked momentarily at Leo, confused, but started walking towards the airport with Sofia in tow.

"Where's Shanghai?" Nico asked as they walked towards the airline counter.