Chapter 11
11
T wo nights later, Mia went out with Jeff again. She enjoyed hanging out with him and could see herself falling in love with him in time, but at the moment, the spark wasn’t there. He smiled and she didn’t feel butterflies. She knew her heart only belonged to Jackson.
They were at Antonio’s again, enjoying pasta despite Jackson making her nervous about getting sauce on herself. It hadn’t been an issue the first night. Plus, she wasn’t trying to impress Jeff.
Jeff picked up his glass of wine and swirled it around the glass before taking a sip. “I love this wine. Do you like it?”
She picked up her glass and took a small sip. It was good, but wasn’t her drink of choice. She preferred beer. “It’s good.”
He tilted his head, studying her. “Are you doing okay?”
“Yes. I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”
“Jackson?”
Mia almost answered, but noticed Jeff wasn’t looking at her. He was looking past her. She turned around in her seat to follow his gaze, only to find Jackson staring at her from the front of the restaurant, a woman clutching his hand.
Mia’s heart squeezed painfully. She had seen Jackson dating other women before, but now that her heart was finally on the line, this felt like a blow. She could feel Jeff’s eyes on her, so she turned back around and tried to smile.
Mia didn’t have to turn around again to feel Jackson’s presence behind her. Jeff looked up at him from where they sat.
“Hey, Jackson. Fancy seeing you here,” Jeff said.
“I know. How crazy that we chose the same restaurant,” Jackson said. “But since we’re here, mind if we join you?”
Without waiting for a response, Jackson dragged the nearest table over and butted it up against theirs before taking a seat beside Mia and having his date sit across from him next to Jeff.
Mia widened her eyes at Jackson, hoping to convey the “What the fuck?” message to him. He only smiled brightly in response. Mia cleared her throat, trying to gesture at his date with her eyes, but Jackson clearly wasn’t getting it, so Mia turned toward her.
“Hi, I’m Mia.”
“Natasha,” she said. She was gorgeous with her long blonde hair in a fishtail braid. Her makeup was minimal, bringing out her natural beauty, and she wore a green dress with a denim jacket.
Jeff introduced himself next. “Are you from around here?”
Mia didn’t listen to Natasha’s answer. Instead, she turned toward Jackson and lowered her voice to a whisper. “What are you doing here?”
Jackson tried to look innocent. “I’m on a date.”
“I can see that, but why are you on my date?”
“Oh, come on, Mia. It’s not like I followed you here. This was purely coincidental. But once I saw you, I thought a double date would be fun.”
Mia stared at him, flabbergasted. “Typical couples plan that ahead of time. They don’t crash a date in progress.”
“I’m not crashing. We’re all friends here.”
“You two okay over there?” Jeff asked.
Mia and Jackson turned toward their dates.
“Great,” Mia said, not very enthusiastically, while Jackson said it at the same time with a huge grin on his face.
“Jackson, how about we get our own table, so they can continue their date and we can get to know each other?” Natasha said.
“Nah,” Jackson said. “I think a double date sounds fun.”
Mia looked at Jackson, who seemed to be having the time of his life. Then at Natasha, who was clearly miserable and wondering what she had gotten herself into. And last at Jeff, who had amusement written on his face, outlined by disappointment.
Fan-fucking-tastic , Mia thought.
Jackson spent most of the evening carrying the conversation. Jeff and Mia couldn’t talk to each other without Jackson interrupting. Natasha eventually looked bored and sat back with a glass of wine in hand that she continually had refilled.
Mia had never been so thankful for a date to end. The awkwardness was eating her alive, and she needed to get out of there. Once they got to the parking lot, Mia moved to get into Jeff’s car when Jackson called out.
“Mia, you should ride with us. We’re neighbors, after all. It would make the most sense.”
Mia looked over at Jeff, who smiled.
“It’s up to you. If you want to ride with Jackson, you can.” As if on cue, Jeff’s phone pinged, and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Oh, um, yeah, you should go with Jackson. I need to go deal with something.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yep. I’m good. I had a nice time with you,” he said.
Mia closed the passenger side door and stepped away from the car. “I’m sorry about all this. I didn’t know he was going to show up.”
“I know. Don’t worry about it. Are you good riding with Jackson?”
She nodded, so he waved, got into his car, and drove away.
Mia stared after the tail lights wondering what the hell just happened. She walked over to Jackson’s truck and pulled the door open. Natasha was already seated in the front passenger seat and looked surprised.
“Oh sorry,” Mia said. She awkwardly closed the door and walked around to Jackson’s side. She got in and scooted across the bench to the middle seat.
“Hello, again. Sorry for crashing…” Although she realized how dumb it sounded considering her date was crashed first.
“This is the weirdest date I’ve ever been on,” Natasha muttered.
Jackson slid into the driver’s seat, squishing Mia between him and Natasha. She tried to make herself as small as possible.
“This was fun!” he said.
Mia stared at him incredulously. While she loved her best friend—and loved him more than that—this was not cool.
And being smashed between him and his date was certainly not cool.
Natasha raised her eyebrows but didn’t say anything.
Jackson pulled out of the parking lot and drove down the street to a neighborhood nearby, to where Mia assumed Natasha lived. He pulled into her driveway and put the truck in park.
“Well—” Jackson started, but stopped when the door slammed.
Natasha hopped out of the truck as soon as it quit moving and closed the door without a word. Jackson watched her walk inside, surprise etched across his face. Mia snorted and unbuckled her seatbelt before sliding into Natasha’s vacated seat.
“Um… it was fun,” he said to no one.
“Maybe for you,” Mia said.
He shrugged and backed out of the driveway. “You didn’t enjoy yourself?”
“Are you for real right now? That was so awkward.”
“Why?”
She raised her eyebrows. “Why? Because you crashed my date with Jeff and brought another woman. Essentially torturing her in the process and making things incredibly awkward for everyone.”
“Geez. Tell me how you really feel.”
“What did you expect? That couldn’t have been fun for her.” Mia studied Jackson as he drove. “How’d you meet her, anyway?”
He shrugged. “Just a dating app.”
Jealousy roiled in her stomach. He was on a dating app? She didn’t have a claim on him, but damn if that didn’t feel like a punch to the heart.
“I see.”
They drove the rest of the way in silence. Jackson pulled into his driveway and shut off his truck. He turned toward her. “I’m sorry if I upset you by crashing your date. I just thought it would be fun to hang out as a group.”
“Maybe next time we should plan it that way,” she said, not quite believing the words coming out of her mouth. No, she didn’t want to plan a double date. She never wanted to double date with him. Seeing him with another woman was torture of the worst kind. But what option did she have? Clearly, she needed to move on.