Chapter 26
Chapter
Twenty-Six
MIRA
“ O h, so the rumors are true.” Cory pushes his shoulders back and arches his eyebrows. “Mother was right.”
I’m a therapist, for fuck’s sake. I know how to handle a narcissists and I remind myself of the JADE technique. Don’t justify, argue, defend, or explain.
“Have the day you deserve, Cory,” I press and step back next to Mason. He doesn’t miss a beat and puts his arm around me.
“Hey babe. Ready to date our pup for a walk?”
“She got her when she was still married to me,” Cory stammers. He’s close to six feet and has been in very good physical shape for the last few years. Still, I’ve never met a smaller man.
“No one cares,” Mason says with little emotion. He also knows how to not engage with someone crazy like Cory. He puts his arm around me and stares at Cory, gaze unwavering.
“Why are you here?” I ask. “You’re not supposed to be.”
“This came in my mail.” He holds up an envelope. It’s junk mail and every once in a while something with my name gets sent to his address.
“You know that you just forward it to me, and do not show up at my residence.”
“It’s a public place. I can be here if I want.”
Mason steps forward, taking the mail from Cory. “Dude, she’s not interested.” He folds the mail and puts it in his back pocket. “Let’s go.” His arm goes back around me and we walk a few paces toward the sideway. “Who is that guy?” he asks loud enough for Cory to hear.
“Just some guy I dated a long time ago.”
“Oof. Pathetic he’s still begging for more.”
“I know, right?” I bite my lip to keep from smiling. This is fun. Once we’re around the block, Mason loosens his grip on me and turns around.
“He really is obsessed with you.”
“I know. He doesn’t love me, he just can’t stand the thought of anyone else having me or that I can be happy without him. What about you? Do you have a crazy ex?”
He laughs. “I don’t and now I’m feeling oddly inadequate because no one is psychotically obsessed with me.”
“It does stroke my ego, not gonna lie,” I joke. “Though like for real, knowing his girlfriend takes time to plot out, plan, and then make TikToks about me does give me a little serotonin boost. I kinda feel like royalty and the meaner she gets, the more I know my very existence just eats away at her, which is wild. We’ve never even talked but yet she hates me that much.”
“I can’t fathom investing my energy into hating someone like that.”
“Right? It takes energy to hate. I’m not giving my energy to someone who doesn’t deserve it.” We walk a few more paces and just having Mason next to me has calmed me in a way I didn’t realize another person could. “I want to know about your last ex.”
“It’s not that interesting,” he chuckles. “I was based down south, dated a woman named Ashley for a couple months and then broke things off when I got relocated. I haven’t had anything you’d consider a relationship since.”
“Because you don’t want one?” I ask, telling myself I’m just curious, not that I’m testing the waters. One of the biggest things I tell my clients is that if a man says he’s not looking for a relationship, believe him.
“No, I do. But it’s difficult when I’m moving around. I can’t expect someone to up and leave if they have a job, ya know? And, uh, no one has really felt right.”
“That’s good not to settle,” I say snd talk myself down. I’m not so special that I’ll believe I’m the right one for him. We talk a little bit more about our lives as we walk and he says that his two brothers, Sam and Jacob, are coming into town next week to take Jacob’s stepdaughter Everly, shopping. I like that they’re close and that they still talk and hang out even though they each live in different states. I try to see my parents and my sister a few times a month, and I love taking my nieces out.
We get lunch at a little cafe that allows dogs on the patio and it’s not until Mason is walking me back to my apartment building that I realize we haven’t even brought up Enzo…and I’m more than okay with that.
Mason: I have something for you
Me: Oh, really? Is it kinky?
Mason: Totally lol. I can bring it by. I’m in the neighborhood.
Me: Okay :-) I’m home.
“Who are you feverishly texting?” Kat asks, adding more sugar to her tea.
“That sexy FBI agent,” Zara tells her, looking over my shoulder. “She has him saved as Sexy Agent instead of Special Agent.”
“Hah. I do not. But yeah, it’s him” I tell the group. We’re at my house just hanging out talking and drinking tea.
“You two have been spending a lot of time together,” Elsie adds, trying too hard to sound casual.
“Yeah. We’re working together,” I say back.
“You said that Enzo guy is out of town,” Kat counters. “And your podcast yesterday was surprisingly upbeat.”
“Ohh, I need to listen to the episode.” Elsie smiles. “I haven’t had a chance yet.”
It’s true, Mason and I have gotten lunch twice in the last week and had a dinner date last night that wasn’t really a dinner date. It was just us getting together to compare my favorite pizza place in the city to his.
“I like him as a friend,” I press. “He’s a good guy but we’re working together on a case. Once it’s over, that’ll be it.”
“Or maybe it won’t be.” Elsie sits up straighter, smile on her face. “Maybe once it’s over he’ll be able to actually make a move because he knows he shouldn’t right now and he’ll tell you that he’s fallen for you and waiting for this case to be over has been so awful.”
“We’ve known each other for like three weeks. You can’t fall in love that fast,” I sigh.
“You know I disagree. People can fall in love really fast and I know you’ll say but you don’t really know a person if you fall fast, which is true, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t fallen for them. And maybe someday we’ll all find someone who makes us fall fast but doesn’t rush things and we can fall deeper in love as we go to know them.”
I want to counter her so bad but I have nothing. Because she’s right. You can fall into love really fast. You can close your eyes and leap off the cliff and plummet into love, though from what I’ve seen, that kind of love isn’t real. You’re falling for a fake version of someone or for the potential of what a relationship could be.
But I really do believe once you know, you know. You know if the person you went out on a first date with is someone you want to pursue things with or not. I’ve seen it be especially true with men and a lot of men I’ve talked to about this have reported that they knew they wanted their girlfriend to be their girlfriend within minutes or hours after meeting her.
It doesn’t mean those kinds of couple should rush off and get engaged the next week because they “just know”, no, but you know enough to make the decision to choose to work toward something together.
We debate how fast you can fall into “real love” but not even ten minutes later, someone knocks on my door. Violet runs over, barking, and I check my Ring camera before opening the door. It’s Mason—already.
“That was fast,” I tell him when I let him inside.
“I told you I was in the neighborhood. I meant it.”
“You did. Come in.”
“Oh, hey, ladies.” He gives a wave to my friends, who are way too obviously gawking at him.
“Hi, again,” Elsie says back with a smile. “Want some tea?”
“Uh, sure. Why not?” Mason takes off his shoes and pets Violet before coming over to the table. “They know everything, don’t they?”
“Whatever you tell one of us, you tell the others,” Kat informs him with a smirk. “We’re kind of a package deal.”
“Okay then.” Mason chuckles and takes an ID out of his wallet. “Here you go, Mya.”
“Wow,” I say, holding up the fake ID. “It looks legit.”
“It should. There’s a chance you’ll end up getting carded and now there’s no chance you’ll be Mira Martin.”
“Too bad,” Zara sighs. “I like Mira Martin.”
Mason’s eyes are on me. “I do too.”
“Okay, if you don’t marry him, I will.” Zara raises her eyebrows. “Purely for the fact that the’s tall, muscular and has tattoos.”
“Guys,” I say, but I’m struggling to keep the smile off my face as well as shove the floaty feelings away. “We’re just coworkers in a sense.”
“Sure you are,” Kat teases. Mason spend the last half an hour here and it was almost unnerving how well he fit in, giving Zara a male’s perspective on the guy she’s been flirting with at work. Being with him feels natural, and it’s just easy.
Relationships shouldn’t be hard.
It’s something I tell my clients. Of course, relationships take work and it’s a choice you have to make every single day to choose to be with your partner, but it shouldn’t be hard. Trust me, I know. I’ve lived through several relationships I had to force, and like that famous internet saying goes, a relationship is like a fart: if you have to force it, it’s probably shit.
After my last relationship crashed and burned and I suffered the most intense heartbreak of my life—even more than filing for divorce—I promised myself I’d never even consider being with someone if it didn’t just flow.
“You know it’s okay to like him,” Kat goes on, nudging me with her elbow.
I know it’s okay to like him. Hell, I know it’s okay for me to hookup, fall in love, and start planning my dream wedding. But if things crash and burn then I won’t be okay.