Her Sexiest Mistake

just not built like that. I want a tie to a man. I want a diamond, damn it. I wanted that from Mike.'

'Tess-'

'When you meet the right man, you'll understand.'

'And how am I supposed to know when I meet the right guy?'

'Because it will hit you like a one-two punch,' Tess answered softly. 'You'll realize he makes you smile, he makes you laugh, he makes you think.' She sighed. 'And you don't think you can live without him.'

'Jesus, Tess.'

'I know, it sounds so dramatic, but it's the truth. You'll just know.'

Mia supposed the problem wasn't the knowing, but whether or not she even had the gene to love like that. For so long it hadn't mattered. She'd had other things to obsess over, things like surviving, and her job. Meeting her goals.

But she'd done all that, and suddenly the life she'd always pictured herself with-the great job, great house, fat checkbook-all seemed just as Hope had told her…

Lonely. Everything.

And deep down an even scarier truth hit Mia- she no longer was satisfied by any of it.

Which meant she needed that elusive 'more.'

Chapter 22

Mia had her doubts about the day when she got a message that Dick needed to see her. In his office, he looked at her solemnly. 'Have a seat, Mia.'

She shifted on her heels, feeling suddenly extremely vulnerable. 'Okay.' She sat. 'Let me be hopeful. You're going to tell me you're firing Ted for all his erratic behavior.'

'No.' Regret actually tweaked his features, and for a moment he looked almost human. 'It's you I have to let go.'

She stared at him as her world tilted off its axis. 'What?'

'I'm sorry, Mia. We're having cutbacks, you know that. I have to lose three account execs. You're not meant to work in a place like this, as part of a team. You need to run your own ship, and helm it. It's nothing personal.'

'Oh, it's personal,' she bit out. 'It's extremely personal. Ted-'

He was shaking his head. 'Had nothing to do with it. This was a decision based on your inability to play as part of a team. I'm sorry, Mia, but I'm going to have to ask you to pack up your things and leave.'

Mia's heart had been racing, but right then it seemed to screech to a shocking halt. As if in slow motion, she stood up and gathered her pride to shake his hand. 'Don't be sorry. I'm going to be okay.'

'I know it. I'm banking on you being extremely successful on your own. Good luck, Mia.'

Somehow site walked out of there. I'm going to be okay? Had she really said that?

How? Her job was gone. She was her job!

Turning the corner she came face-to-face with Margot, who was smiling. 'Hey, Mia, you should see the guys, they're-' She frowned. 'What's the matter?'

'I-' She couldn't bring herself to say it. She'd lost her job, her identity, and, with it, apparently her bravado. 'I have to go.'

'You look pale. What's happened?' She looked back at the direction Mia had come from, Dick's office, and gasped. 'Ohmigod! He let you go.'

Mia narrowed her eyes at Margot. 'Why would you think that?'

'He did, didn't he?' Margot couldn't quite keep her satisfaction in.

Mia stared at her, thoughts racing as she remembered all those times she'd been sure it had been Ted out for her blood.

But had it really been Ted?

Or Margot? How many times had Margot whined about Mia's accounts, her office, her everything? 'You know what I think, Margot?' Mia asked softly. 'That you've been the one messing with me. That you started that fire in my office. That you messed with my files.'

'Don't be ridiculous.' Margot crossed her arms, stepped back. 'I didn't even know how to access that Runner account. And as for the Anderson-'

'Wait.' Mia shook her head, then let out a laugh. And another. Because if she didn't laugh, she was going to strangle the woman in front of her. 'No one knew about the Runner account except me and-'

'Margot.' This from Dick, who'd opened his door at some point. He was frowning, fiercely. 'I'd like to see you. In my office.'

'Um, I'm due in a meeting-'

'Now,' he said.

'And I bet you poisoned my plant,' Mia whispered as Margot moved past her.

Margot whipped around, all pretense gone, face furious. 'No, that you killed all on your own.'

Dick pointed at Mia. 'Please wait right there.'

Mia watched them vanish into his office, then felt an odd ping between her shoulder blades.

At least ten people had stopped working or walking or talking, and were staring at her.

She stared back and everyone galvanized into action, hustled to become busy again. She herself was nearly overcome with a need to look busy as well, but Dick had asked her to wait. Despite his faults, he was a man with ethics. When he discovered what Margot had done, he'd probably fire her instead and offer Mia back her job.

She went to her office and looked at her gorgeous desk. Damn, she was going to miss the desk. The plant sat on it, leaves all gone, dying, mocking her.

Lifting her chin, she picked up her purse and walked out, prepared to go as she'd arrived, with only the clothes on her back.

And yet at the last minute, she ran back in for her nearly dead plant. It would go well with the freshly fumigated house.

***

Mia's cell phone began ringing before she'd gotten on the freeway. Dick. She let him go visit her voice mail. Pride was a terrible thing but, damn it, at the moment it was all she had.

Traffic sucked, of course, but she looked at it as a silver lining. She wouldn't be dealing with it again, seeing as she no longer worked downtown.

Not a team player.

Maybe she was having a nightmare, and when she woke up she'd be standing in the middle of a single-wide next to a sewer plant, with eight kids and a husband in a wife-beater T-shirt with his beer gut hanging out, screaming for his pork chops.

The thought made her weak in the knees and she pinched herself to make sure she wasn't asleep.

Nope, she was wide awake, and this shocking reality was her life.

***

A little while later Mia picked up a suspiciously quiet Hope at the teen center. The kid hopped into the Audi, slapped on her seat belt, and stared straight ahead.

'How was your day?' Mia asked, as if things were normal.

'Can we just go?'

Mia looked at the teen center, then back at the antsy teen. 'What, you rig the place to blow and you need a