“Mia! Open up it’s me!” I knock and knock some more before it slowly dawns on me that she’s not here.
“Fuck.”
Pulling out my phone I shoot Mia a text since she won’t answer my damn calls. I’m about to shove my phone back into my pocket when a text message from Jayce comes through.
JAYCE: You need to get back here, everybody’s looking for you.
Frustration seeps into my skin as I pocket my phone and head back to my car.
This isn’t over. Not by a long shot.
***
It’s been two days since I’ve seen or heard from Mia.
Two. Fucking. Days.
We haven’t gone this long without talking to each other since I had to go to China a few years back for a photo shoot. The drastic change in time zones and my work schedule screwed up our ability to talk as often as we normally would. We’ve always made it a point to check in with each other at least once a day even if it’s just through text messages. I never realized how dependent I’d become on hearing from her every day until it was stripped away from me.
She’s obviously not at her place, I have a feeling she’s camped out at Imani’s place but that girl is like a steel trap door when she wants to be and I know she’s almost as protective of Mia as I am. When I called to ask if she’d seen Mia and she said no, I knew she was lying through her teeth
I shove a hand through my hair as I slam my car door and make my way into the building that houses Liam and Ava’s place. They just got back to Chicago a few days ago. If anybody can shed light on the situation it’s him. I greet the doorman and then use my keycard to gain access to the elevator. Once the doors slide open on the top floor, I step inside. The first person I see is Ava. She’s dressed in a sweatshirt and cut off black capri’s. Her hair is piled into a bun on top of her head and she’s stirring something in a bowl.
A smile lights up her face when she sees me. “Hey Levi.”
“Hey”, I say giving her a side hug.
A frown pulls at the corners of her mouth and she looks me up and down. I know I look like shit.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, concern brimming in her eyes.
This is one of the reasons I like Ava and think she’s good for my brother. She’s a genuine and kind person. She has a good heart. She reminds me a lot of Mia in that respect.
I shrug leaning against the counter. “I’ve just got a lot of shit going on right now.”
She sets the spoon down inside the bowl “Do you want to talk about it?”
I open my mouth to respond when I hear a voice behind me say “Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in.” I look over my shoulder to see Liam, Gabe and Gavin coming into the kitchen.
Liam immediately goes over to Ava and wraps his arms around her. She leans back into him seemingly soaking in his warmth. He places a kiss on her nose and then her lips. Any other time I would give them shit for being so sappy. But I can’t bring myself to do it right now. Not when I’ve got my own shit going on.
“You look like shit” Gavin says eyeing me over the rim of his water bottle.
“Gee thanks.” I mutter.
“He’s not wrong” Liam says.
Gabe comes to stand beside me, slapping a tattooed hand on my shoulder. “What’s eating you bro?” he asks.
“I’m having an…issue with Mia.”
“What’s wrong?” Ava asks that concern back in her eyes. I know she and Mia have hung out a few times since she started dating Liam. They seemed to be getting close which I like.
“She’s okay, physically at least. I think…I think I screwed up.” I force the words out.
“What did you do?” Gavin asks.
I run another hand through my hair. “It all happened so fucking fast. She came to see me at my photo shoot the other day. She’d just gotten into with her mom. One minute I was comforting her and the next minute she kissed me. I was shocked, she panicked and bolted and hasn’t spoken to me since.”
Silence greets me and I finally look up to find all my brothers watching me with shit eating grins on their faces. It just pisses me off.
“What the fuck is so smile worthy?” I ask.
“I’ll be damned.” Gavin mutters still smiling.
“You’ve finally been gotten,” Liam says.
“What?” I ask confused.
“When you know you know,” Liam says.
Gabe rolls his eyes “Here yall go with that stupid saying again.”
Ava looks between all of us confused. “I’m clearly missing something here?”
“Don’t mind us baby, we’re just trying to help Levi pull his head out of his ass,” Liam says.
“Fuck you,” I mutter with no heat. “How do I fix this?”
“Have you been to her place?” Gavin asks.
“Yeah, she’s not there.”
“Have you called her?” Gabe asks.
“Of course, I’ve fucking called her. She won’t take my calls.”
“I think you all are missing a bigger point here,” Ava says.
“What’s that?” Gabe asks.
Ava pins me with a look. “Did you enjoy the kiss. Feel anything for her?”
I shift uncomfortably “Well, yeah I did. But the truth is I’d already been feeling things I shouldn’t have before then.”
“Okay and when she kissed, what happened you froze up. Did you say anything else?” Liam asks.
“No,” I say crossing my arms over my chest. “She bolted before I could say much of anything.
“Had you figured this
