The Minor Complications of Love

Chapter Thirteen: Not That Bad After All

As Mia was busy thinking, Mark pressed the paper cup of the chocolate truffle ice cream that he had bought her to get her attention. Mia jolted a little bit from the cold before looking at him. And as she did, she found him smiling back at her.

Mia bowed a little bit as she thanked him. She then took the ice cream -- which was chocolate truffle flavored -- from him and started to poke on it a little with the spoon.

Mark sat right across from her and watched her doing so. He was a little confused and worried. "Do you... not like the ice cream?" He asked her.

"N-no, it's OK," Mia smiled faintly as she looked at him. She then turned back to her ice cream. "I just like looking at the consistency of the ice cream," she told him through occasional sniffs.

Because Mark didn't respond, Mia started panicking a little.

"Sorry," they both said simultaneously.

"S-sorry? Um, for what?" Mark asked, puzzled.

Mia gulped. "Oh, it's um because... I'm just... so weird," she managed to say even feeling extremely awkward and not to mention, extremely conscious of herself as she wiped her face a little from time to time.

"You mean because of the ice cream thing? It's," Mark shook his head, "not weird."

Mia's eyes widened as she glanced back at him. "It's... not?"

"Yeah," Mark shrugged. "I think it's an awesome thing actually. I mean like... If you think about it, looking at how consistent it is, feels pretty... peaceful."

Mia felt some weird feeling within her. It was like something warm was bursting within her. 

"If anything though, I...," Mark exhaled, before continuing. "My sister told me that you've been feeling really uncomfortable around me lately and..."

That warm feeling within Mia's chest suddenly disappeared. Did Bella really tell him? She felt like she just wanted to disappear. This day wasn't really getting better, was it?

"I just wanted to say that..."

Mia closed her eyes as she bent her head over the table and her ice cream. Here it goes. He's probably going to say something really bad.

"I'm sorry."

Mia opened her eyes. She looked back at him again.

"I'm sorry? Yo-you're sorry..?"

Mark nodded his head as he ate ice cream. "Yeah. I'm really sorry for those incidents and of making you feel uncomfortable all this time. I guess I was just really stupid to notice that you were really scared of me..?" Mark nervously laughed. "Yeah, sorry, I'm probably not making any sense right now," he said as he continued munching on his vanilla ice cream.

Was this really happening right now? Never in her life did Mia think Mark was actually what the internet would dub as some sort of "fluff ball". To her, he always looked like someone who judged her and hated her to the core. Was she just seeing things all this time? Mia suddenly felt even more embarrassed. She ate her ice cream as she thought about it.

"I'm sorry too," she said, continuing to stare down on her ice cream. She then put her spoon down on the paper cup. She looked up at Mark who seemed embarrassed himself.

"I'm sorry for being prejudiced towards you," Mia said with still some awkwardness, but also a whiff of confidence surrounding her atmosphere at the same time. "I didn't mean to categorize you as one of those... really scary people who just judge others. I guess... I just really need to work on that."