33. Mia
33
MIA
My friends are chatting around me, but I’m having trouble paying attention to the conversation. Last time I tuned in, Madison was talking about how Samson is such a troublemaker. In two days, he’s chewed up three shoes.
“I’m going to be barefoot by the end of the summer, because I refuse to buy more. The worst part is that he doesn’t just chew up two shoes in a pair, he only chews the left shoe.”
Everyone laughs as Madison explains how fashionable her right foot is going to be. I force a smile onto my face, but I’m thinking about Theo.
The last few interactions we’ve had can only be described one way—awkward.
“So, anyway, I do not recommend getting a puppy, but if you do, at least I have a great dog walker to recommend.”
Zoey nudges me with her elbow. She’s always been the first to notice that things are off, and she isn’t any different now. “Mia, you’ve been awfully quiet today. Everything okay?”
I glance around the table at my friends, all of whom have turned their attention to me. Madison, Zoey, Stella, and Aurora—all eyes are on me, filled with concern.
“Yeah, what’s going on with you and Mr. Sexy?” Aurora asks.
“Theo,” I supply.
Aurora laughs. “Ah, you knew immediately who I meant when I called him Mr. Sexy. That shows us your brain is in the gutter.”
“Shh!” Stella tells Aurora. No one ever shushes Aurora. Her eyes grow wide, and she looks like she’s about to complain, but everyone is staring at me, waiting for some sort of answer.
I take a deep breath, knowing I can’t keep this to myself any longer. “I got this letter,” I start, reaching into my bag and pulling out the folded piece of paper. “It’s anonymous, and it suggests that Theo is planning to double-cross me and the community. I don’t know who wrote it, and I even checked my doorbell camera, but…nothing.”
Madison’s eyes widen. “Double-cross you? How?”
“I don’t know. It’s very vague. It’s…impossible to tell. But it basically makes it seem like I can’t trust anyone.”
I start passing the piece of paper again, and each woman looks at it for a moment before turning it over to make sure nothing is on the back. “See? It doesn’t give me any details. It just makes me feel kind of sick.”
The table falls silent as everyone processes what I’ve just said. Finally, Stella speaks up. “Do you believe it? Do you think Theo would do that? Double-cross you like this note suggests?”
I shrug. I can’t control my uncertainty. I’d like to say that Theo would never do anything to hurt me, but how sure of that can I really be? Can I actually ignore the note and the strange way he was acting around me yesterday?
“Can I get you ladies a refill?” Addison, our waitress, asks. She’s holding a steaming metal pot of coffee, and I have a moment to gather myself as she refills my friends’ cups.
Once she’s gone, they’re back to looking at me, waiting for answers again. “I don’t know. Things have been weird between us lately. He seems distracted and secretive. And now, with this letter... I just don’t know what to think. I had dinner with him last night… Well, I offered him the leftovers from my dinner, and he seemed so falsely cheerful.”
“Do you think it could be because the note is affecting your view of him and not because he’s changed? If he doesn’t know someone has left a note causing you to doubt him, then his cheerfulness could seem false.” Zoey has a good point.
I shrug, then shrug again. It’s the only thing I can do. “It’s so hard to know. I want to trust Theo, but if I do, and I get hurt…”
Stella reaches across the table and squeezes my arm. “If you do, then we’re right here. We’ll always be right here.”
“But he probably won’t. You just have to trust him,” Madison adds.
I wish I could be as flippant and easy-going as Madison is about the whole thing. “Aurora?” I ask. “What’s your opinion about the whole thing?”
“I think that you need to figure out who left the note. Then, you’ll know if it has any merit.”
“But I already told you that I don’t know. My camera just shows it not there one minute then appearing in the next shot. My neighbor didn’t see anything either.”
“There are other ways,” Aurora says.
I haven’t even taken a sip of my coffee, but I grip my cup now as I wait for Aurora to explain herself.
“We just have to do some digging.” Aurora sits back like she’s just unveiled the greatest plan ever, but I’m still confused.
“Explain,” Stella asks, moving her hand in a “continue” motion.
Madison is already jumping to conclusions, though. “Do you mean spy ? Like follow him around and make sure he’s doing what he says he’s doing? Because that sounds fun, but he already knows all of us. I don’t think we could do it without getting caught.”
Aurora holds her hands out on either side and waits until we are all quiet again. “I do mean spying, but not like that. That’s the kind of spying we would have done in high school. Now, we have the internet at our disposal. I’ll assign each of you a person or area to investigate. You need to do your due diligence to get as much information as you can, and we’ll reconvene at Mia’s house tomorrow.”
Aurora doesn’t ask us if we are available tomorrow or if I’m up for hosting my friends, but of course, no one disagrees with her.
Zoey leans in closer. “We need to get to the bottom of this. If Theo is really planning something, we need to know for sure. As long as no one is doing anything illegal, then I think your plan will work, Aurora.” Zoey adjusts her glasses and gives her nod of approval.
“Madison? Are you in?” Aurora prompts.
“I’m in. Anything for Mia. But yeah, like Zoey said, nothing illegal please.”
Stella doesn’t wait to be asked. “I’m in. I’ll do whatever I can.”
Aurora smiles at me. “Let’s investigate. We’ll make some calls, do some digging. We’ll find out the truth. Mia, you don’t need to worry about anything.”
We spend the next few hours coming up with a plan. Each of us takes on a different task: Madison will contact some people in the community who might have heard something, Zoey will talk to a few contractors working on the project, Stella will reach out to some mutual acquaintances of Theo’s, and Aurora will look into the business side of things.
I can’t help but feel hopeful as we finally leave Groovy Grounds and head in separate directions. I stand by the trash cans taking one last sip of my mostly full drink. To be honest, I was too busy listening to Aurora to be able to drink much.
“You’re Mia, right?” a voice behind me says.
I turn and see our waitress behind me.
“Yeah, that’s me.” I drop my cup in the trash can and shove my hands in my pockets. We’ve come here often enough that we all recognize each other.
“Look, I promise I wasn’t trying to listen. I try to let everyone have their privacy when they’re here, but woman to woman, I’ve got your back if you ever need anything.”
I open my mouth to make out like it’s no big deal, but something about what she says hits me hard. This stranger, someone I barely know, is offering to look out for me, and it hits something sensitive inside me. I close my mouth again and swallow, finding a way to shove my feelings down inside me.
“Well, that’s kind of you. You don’t even know me.”
“I know what your favorite drink is,” Addison says.
And I smile. That’s one thing she knows that Theo doesn’t—one point in her favor so to speak. “Well, thanks. Honestly. I… Yeah. Kind of you.”
I turn and hurry out to the parking lot before I burst into tears in front of her. I need to get home and figure out what’s going on with Theo.
The next day, we reconvene at my house, ready to pool our information.
Everyone settles around the living room. I glance at the small box of memorabilia that Theo gave me. It’s sitting prominently on the shelf, and I keep thinking someone is going to open it up and say something about it. But no one does.
Everyone settles on the carpet or on the sofa. I see Aurora is carrying an important-looking manila folder.
“Well, thanks for coming. And I know you guys have jobs and everything, but?—”
“Not me!” Madison speaks up. “I’m still trying to figure out if I can start this surf school or if I’m still young enough to get extra tips as a waitress for being tanned and pretty.”
We all laugh. She managed to break the awkwardness.
Aurora smooths her hands over the front cover of her folder. “Well, let’s begin. Madison, anything from you since, as you stated, you don’t have a job and have nothing but time on your hands?”
“That’s not exactly what I said, but sure! I’ll go first. I talked to a few people who were involved at the community meeting that Theo held, people who asked questions. You know who they are—the leaders of Oak Island. They said Theo has seemed genuine about the revised plan, but they’ve noticed that Steve, his business partner, has been more resistant. I tried to get specific examples from them, but the only one people seemed to say over and over again is that Theo is always the one making announcements and connecting with people here, but many of them don’t even know what his business partner looks like.”
“Steve is a mystery,” Aurora summarizes.
“Basically, yeah. I couldn’t really get any more information than that, but I have to say that the Danishes at that new bakery in town are absolutely amazing.”
“Where’s mine?” Stella asks. “That’s what we’re missing at this meeting. Why didn’t anyone bring food?”
“I still have leftover chicken fajitas if anyone wants,” I offer. “I made way too many.”
My friends laugh but turn away my offer of chicken fajitas.
“We need to stay focused, ladies,” Aurora reminds us. “Zoey? You were supposed to talk to the contractors. They’ve been working more closely with Theo, so they should know more about him, both as a person and as a boss.”
Zoey nods. “I have to agree with the contractors. They haven’t heard anything about adding an additional building from Theo, just his business partner. One of them even said he’s considering taking his team to a different project because the arguing between Theo and his partner is too much. They don’t know what plans to follow or who is really in charge.”
My stomach turns over at that news. I don’t want to see Theo fail, but I do have to look out for myself first.
Stella looks thoughtful. “I reached out to a couple of people who know Theo. It seems like this is the first project he’s working on with his business partner. He was told that Steve has built similar places at different beaches in the Carolinas, and his approach has always been successful. Theo doesn’t agree with some of his business practices, though. Apparently, Steve is all about the money, while Theo... Well, Theo seems to care about the people and the community too.”
My heart swells with pride upon hearing that. It’s not that I’m rooting for one thing or the other. I just want to know the truth, but hearing that Theo may not be the bad guy I’ve been worried about comforts me.
Aurora holds up the folder from her lap. “I did some digging into the business side of things. It looks like Theo filed the revised plans–which don’t include your land, Mia–but Steve re-filed the original plans with the county. It looks like there could be some back and forth between the two of them. I don’t know if Theo even realizes Steve has filed the revised plans or not.”
I let out a breath. “So, Theo might actually be on our side?”
Zoey squeezes my hand. “It looks that way. But we still need to be careful. Steve is clearly a problem, and if he’s pushing Theo to change his mind...”
Madison nods. “We need to find a way to deal with Steve. If we can’t get him on board, this whole thing could fall apart.”
“Do you think Steve could have left the note?” I hate the vulnerable squeak in my voice, but I can’t hide it.
“I think so,” Aurora says. Zoey, Stella, and then Madison all nod.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. Maybe he knows that you two have some sort of relationship, and he wants to ruin it so he can get the land. I mean, if you and Theo break up, then you wouldn’t want to live next to his resort, right?”
“I’m not selling,” I repeat.
Stella smiles. “And we’ll make sure you’re not pressured to, right?”
Everyone agrees with her.
They start talking about a plan for dealing with this, but I’m frustrated. I don’t want to deal with this calmly. Steve would only be coming after me if Theo gave him reason to think I would change my mind. Maybe Steve re-filed the plans with the county because he and Theo talked. Theo agreed to sell me out.
Maybe our whole relationship has been a lie.
I can feel myself getting frustrated and overwhelmed.
Finally, I stand up. “Enough! I’m going to go talk to Theo.”
“We’ll come,” Aurora offers, setting her folder aside.
“No, this is something I have to do on my own.”
I march out of my house, the door slamming behind me and head to Theo’s place.