“Mia, we all have them. I remember meeting the two of you at the Gruber mansion. You were so wrapped up in each other, I remember thinking that I wanted a romance like that. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of you, and you couldn’t keep your hands off of him.”
Mia blushed. “We were pretty obnoxious, weren’t we?”
“I wouldn’t say obnoxious. You two were cute together. The differences in your heights and the way you guys spoke to each other… Yes, you were obnoxious,” Alan said, laughing.
“Who’s obnoxious?” Audrey asked, walking over with a heavy duffle bag. She set it down at Mia’s feet. “That’s your bounty.”
“And this is yours,” Alan said, handing Audrey a check.
“What’s this?”
“It’s fifteen percent of this booking,” Alan said. “Mia wanted you to have the whole amount up front.”
Audrey, obviously pleased, insisted, “No, I did this for you, Mia.”
“And I appreciate it. You’re a professional and should be paid for your time.”
“I accept. Whoa, who knew you could make so much money from a few pictures?”
Mia, who was dialing her phone, raised a finger. “Ted, I need to ask your advice,” she said.
Ted, who had just put Brian down for his nap, smiled. “My advice? It must have something to do with a computer or world domination.”
“Regretfully, no. Alan…” Mia proceeded to tell Ted about Alan’s strange offer. “I hadn’t planned on being in the city this long and…”
“Put Alan on the phone, please?” Ted asked.
Mia handed the phone to Alan. She watched as Alan fielded Ted’s questions before handing the phone back to Mia.
“Well?” she asked.
“He says he’s contractually bound not to reveal the client’s name to you but insists that it isn’t Angelo. I’m very curious. If you want to go, then I’d go,” he said. “Alan says it’s an early dinner. Which gives me the idea that the client is older.”
“I still haven’t a clue, but I’d like to go.”
“Then go, and buy yourself something respectable. Go to the dinner, and report back as you’re driving home. Brian and I will have a lads’ night in. I’m determined to beat him at chess this time.”
Mia laughed. Brian’s idea of chess was to see how many pieces he could put in his mouth before Ted had a heart attack. The pieces were too large for the baby to swallow, but they were part of a collectors Star Wars set.
Mia pocketed the phone, turned around and said, “It’s a date. Now all I need is the when and the where.”
~
Cid walked into the kitchen where Ted was working on his laptop while keeping a keen ear on the monitor while Brian slept. “Do you think it’s too hot for Beef Stroganoff?” he asked.
“Mia’s not going to be home for supper, so why don’t we just order a pizza or something?”
“Pizza’s good. Where is Mia going to be?”
Ted explained the mystery dinner date.
“You’re not bothered by that?”
“She asked for my advice. I’m starting to think Mia’s taking our marriage serious.”
“Dude, she’s always taking it seriously. You’re the only thirteen-year-old in the relationship. So the mysterious date with Alan, the stud lawyer, as chaperone doesn’t bother you?”
“It didn’t until now, asshole,” Ted said.
“What are you working on?” Cid asked, sliding in beside his friend.
“I’ve been trying to compose a kiss-off-and-die letter to Beth.”
“Dude, you’re going to dump her again by email.”
“For the record, there wasn’t any she and me. It was all in her mind. The last bit was mostly in her mind. Damn that Roumain! He has a lot to answer for.”
“You know you had a hand in it. You were up to your neck in Bouvier prior to Roumain,” Cid accused.
“I was not! I just felt she was abandoned by her friends, for what?”
Cid stood up and walked around the table. He looked at Ted and shook his head. He opened his mouth a few times, but nothing would come out. He thought a moment and said, “I’d like you to pretend for a moment. This is just pretending, no malice is intended.”
“Okay.”
“Pretend that Mia came home drunk one night, and I waylaid her, made passionate love to her half-comatose body, and then bragged about it the next day.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Ted said angrily.
“Pretend, idiot.”
“Oh, sorry. Go ahead.”
“Then I notify the scientific journals and tell them that all your patents are stolen. That you aren’t a scientist at all, just a hack.”
“No one would believe you.”
“But if they did?”
“Then I would be without a wife, a career and thought of as…”
“You’re starting to get it. If Beth had succeeded the first time, Mia would be in a mental health facility somewhere, her career destroyed and suffering from a broken heart, not just from losing Whit, but from the woman who claimed to be her friend stabbing her in the back. The über-Judas.”
“So, you’re saying that Burt and Mike relieving Beth of her position was not just to placate Mia?”
“No. Who would want to work with someone like that? And I believe Mia never asked them to. She would have forgiven Beth in time, but you and I know that Beth never forgives. She’s a vindictive, selfish bitch. And if you don’t know this by now, then for God’s sake, pack up your stuff, leave this farm and never return. Because it isn’t Beth who is going to destroy Mia. It’s you. For some reason Mia loves you. She could have the world - hell, it seems like Heaven is on hold too. But the silly girl loves you, trusts you. She shouldn’t. I no longer do.”
Ted looked at his lifelong friend and felt the clammy hand of fate move over him. Right this moment, he had to stop being everybody’s friend. He had to choose.
“Who do you want? Beth Bouvier or Mia?”
“Mia. All I want is Mia. I want to protect, love and laugh with her. I want to
