Chapter 23 #3
“Archer,” he said. The surprised look on his face washed away quickly, anger replacing it for just a moment before he smoothed out his features. “What are you doing here, Mia?” he asked. He seemed to have regained his footing as he walked casually back toward the cabin.
“I’m on vacation with my family,” I said from around where Bower stood in the cabin’s doorway, blocking most of the inside from Archer’s view.
“You’re not with your family, Mia. You’re in a cabin with a hick,” Archer said. He puffed up his chest, trying to make himself look bigger.
Bower stood there stoic, not letting Archer’s insult affect him. He had probably dodged bigger shots overseas during his time in the military.
Archer knew nothing about Bower. He wasn’t a “hick,” as he called him.
Just because he didn’t live in the city or drive a fancy car didn’t mean he was any less educated than Archer.
In fact, Bower had spent more time learning and training than Archer ever had.
Not everyone got lucky on their first venture.
Archer lived in such a privileged bubble, he forgot that.
“We’re on a break, Archer. Why are you here?” I tried to keep my voice level. I didn’t want him to get the upper hand.
Archer laughed, only for a moment, before smiling at me with that cocky grin I hated seeing. “You’re right—you did say we were taking a break, but I didn’t know that meant we could see other people.”
Bower turned to look at me. He searched my face for the truth. I couldn’t hide from him. What Archer said was technically true. I’d called it a break, but with every intention of cutting ties when I’d gotten back. After I’d explored things with Bower.
I looked down at my feet. I was an idiot. Such an idiot. My two different worlds were colliding right in front of me, and I was in the middle of the crash.
“Bower, are you okay, dear?” Betty, forgotten along the side of the house, poked her head in the doorway, clearly having already forgotten what she was doing here.
He immediately softened. It had been a long time since she had recognized him. “Let’s get you back home,” Bower said, linking his arm into his grandmother’s.
“Bower,” I tried to say, “please just wait, let me explain—”
“You can stay here, Mia. I’ll let you have time with your…fiancé.” He didn’t look back as he guided Betty away. He left me in his cabin, wearing his clothes, with my ex—soon-to-be ex—glaring at me like I was the devil reincarnate.
Archer shook his head at me as he stalked over to the doorframe.
I took a couple of steps back as a precaution. I’d never seen Archer mad before. It was scary.
“You told me you needed a break so you could go fuck that guy?” he yelled.
My body scrunched down defensively, folding itself in. “I didn’t… We never…”
“Here I was back at the house you were supposed to move into, all alone, racking my brain trying to figure out why you needed a break after your bachelorette party at your favorite place in the world. Somewhere you never shut up about,” he ranted.
“Only to find out that the reason you wanted to come here at all was because you had some guy squirreled away. It was the perfect cover really—the resort your family always vacationed at.” He sneered.
“I didn’t think anything of it. Not until I found you here.
Looking like…that.” Archer looked me up and down, taking in my appearance.
I opened my mouth to argue, to say something in my defense, but no sounds came out. I didn’t know what to say.
“It’s over, Mia. I saw all I needed to see.
Forget me paying off your student loans.
You can stay here with the hicks. His grandma is clearly on meth or something.
She couldn’t even string a coherent sentence together.
” Archer spit onto the ground next to where he was standing.
“You belong with them. Crazy—you’re all crazy.
Good luck.” He turned around and walked away.
Tears welled in my eyes, slowly spilling down my cheeks. I let them fall, not wiping them away. I deserved to feel the way I did. My tears weren’t for Archer. They were for Bower and the way I had disappointed him. I didn’t deserve him.
Archer was right. I was fucked up. Bower would spend our whole relationship taking care of me, accommodating me in ways that he shouldn’t have to. He had his grandma to worry about and care for. He didn’t need me, an extra responsibility.
I picked up my dripping-wet clothes from the bathroom floor and tucked them under my arm, letting the water from the clothes soak into the shirt I was wearing.
On my way out, I slammed the door to his cabin, feeling the entire structure vibrate.
I was suddenly out of breath. My body slowed for a moment before allowing air to fill my lungs.
I let it out, loudly, into the pile of wet clothes in my arms. The cry burned my throat and shrunk my lungs.
This was all my fault. I needed to explain—not to Archer. Bower. I wanted him. But he was furious with me, and he had every right to be.
I’d ruined everything between us.