Chapter 14 Mia
MIA
Char’s fingers snap in my line of vision, and she laughs when I blink rapidly.
“Sorry, god, sorry.” I shake my head and take a gulp of my coffee. “I’m completely spaced out today.”
“I noticed.” Char grins at me. “I just asked you if I resembled a tyrannosaurus rex and you said yes.”
“Christ.” I press a hand to my forehead. “I think I’m just tired. And you definitely don’t resemble a tyrannosaurus rex.”
“That’s a relief.” Char rests her chin in her hand and raises her eyebrows. “So, you gonna tell me what’s got you all swoony? Or do I have to guess?”
I roll my eyes. “Oh, I’m swoony now?”
“Of course you are. I know that look.” She points at my face. “Come on, spill. What happened when Dom took you home?”
“It doesn’t have to be Dom, you know?”
“But I know it is,” she says with a grin. “Come on, tell me all your filthy little secrets.”
I glance around the busy cafe. Why did we have to pick Portobello Road on a sodding Sunday afternoon to have this chat? I clear my throat and lean closer across the table.
“There are no filthy little secrets. He just… He…” I squirm in my seat, my cheeks flushing. “He carried me to the front door is all.”
“He carried you?” Char smothers a laugh with her hands. “As in, out of the car?”
“Yes,” I mutter. “He… didn’t want my shoes to get wet.”
“Oh my god.” Char clutches her hands to her chest. “That is so romantic!”
I sink down in my chair, wishing the ground would swallow me up. “Please keep your voice down.”
“No one cares, babes, it’s fine.”
“It’s not… fine, though is it?” I chew on my lip. “I… I might have kissed him.”
Char squeals so loudly, the waitress comes over and asks if everything is alright. Char orders us another round of coffees and assures her we’re fine, but the waitress still looks like she’s about two steps away from kicking us out.
“You kissed him?” Char hisses, leaning across the table. “You kissed him and you didn’t immediately tell me?” She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms over chest with a sniff. “I’m offended.”
“It… It wasn’t a real kiss, I suppose.”
Char lifts an eyebrow. “Where did you kiss him?”
I inhale through my nose, huffing out a breath and avoiding her eyes. “On the mouth.”
Char wriggles in her chair and flaps her hands back and forth. “And you didn’t call me immediately?”
“I didn’t… Oh god.” I cover my face with my hands and laugh helplessly.
“I didn’t want to tell you because I shouldn’t have done it.
” I look at her and shrug. “It were just… so sweet, you know? He was carrying me through the rain, and he was looking at me with his big blue eyes, and… I just gave him a quick peck on the lips. It weren’t, like, tongue and everything. ”
Char sighs. “I bet he’d be great with his tongue though.”
“Charlotte, no.” I point a finger at her. “Stop it.”
“But why?” Char asks, throwing her hands up.
“Because he’s my sodding father-in-law.” I take a deep breath, and Char watches me with a sly smile on her face.
“When I’m not around him, I can tell myself, you know, it’s just a crush.
That he’s being nice to me and he’s looked after me, and that’s all it is.
I can push it away, rationalise it, yeah?
But then, we’re together and…” I trail off, running a hand through my hair, looking down at my hands in my lap as though an answer can be found there.
“You realise you want to tear his clothes off and marry him and buy a house in Surrey somewhere?” Char laughs when I roll my eyes. “Mia, come on. You feel safe with him. He obviously cares about you, and he thinks you’re gorgeous. His eyes nearly dropped out of his head at the gala.”
“I know.” I roll my head on my shoulders and groan. “I asked him to come to the opening tonight, you know Davino’s restaurant?”
“Ooh, and did he say yes?”
“Course he did.”
Char claps her hands together quietly. “Brilliant.”
“Is it though? I mean, here I am, doing all these things with him, and being photographed with him, and I mean… This was all just meant to make Archie jealous. It was just meant to be a fucking PR stunt. And now… Aren’t I asking for trouble?”
Char frowns, her lips twitching as she considers my words. “I don’t think asking to be loved and respected is asking for trouble.”
“But what would people say?”
“They’d say all kinds of things,” Char says with a shrug. “What do you think they’ve said about my family? Faded nobility, worthless, a drain on society. Which, you know, fair. But people are going to say what they’re going to say. Doesn’t mean they’re right.”
The waitress arrives with our second round of coffees, and Char gives her a wide grin, which the waitress does not return.
Char reaches across the table and takes my hand.
“Babes, you’ve been through it. And I mean, you have been through it.
You’ve gotten yourself through days that I cannot even begin to imagine.
You’re the toughest, bravest person I know.
And I mean that, genuinely. And this, all of this?
”Char waves her hand around in the air. “What does it mean? What can they say to hurt you? Those bloody photographers out there? The keyboard warriors on socials? What can they do to you? Nothing. Because you’ve gotten through so much more than shitty headlines calling your private life into question. ”
I swallow hard and squeeze her hand. “Thanks,” I choke out.
Char smiles at me gently. “You deserve the world. And something tells me that Dominic really wants to give it to you.”
I sniffle and nod. “Yeah, maybe.”
“I think definitely.”
“Might just get through this divorce first, ey? Life’s sort of messy enough.”
“That’s fair.” Char takes up her coffee cup and gestures to mine. “Come on, finish up. We’ve got to go and find you a dress for tonight.”
“I think I got plenty of dresses at home,” I say with a laugh.
“No, you need something new! To dazzle your new beau.” She grins at me over her cup.
We finish up and settle the bill with the waitress who still won’t smile at us, and head outside onto the road which is buzzing with Sunday afternoon shoppers. I wish I hadn’t driven now, because the traffic is going to be chaos.
“Bloody hell,” I groan as we’re accosted by photographers on our way down the road. “Bit early for this isn’t it, folks?”
“Don’t you all have a funeral you could be raiding?” Char hides her face behind her handbag. “Honestly, we’re not that interesting.”
“Come on, Mia, just give us a comment!” Paulie Hardcastle’s voice is instantly recognisable, and he falls into step beside me, shoving his camera in my face. “What’s the story about your dad? Are you willing to give us an exclusive?”
I want to tell him the only thing I’m willing to give him is a smack upside the head, but I decide that’s probably not the best thing to be in the press right now. I keep walking towards my car, ignoring him.
“You think you’re so much better than us all, Mia?” His voice has a sneering, slimy tone I’ve never really heard from him before. “Up there in your big house, with your expensive cars and your jewellery?”
“Ignore him,” Char mutters beside me.
We’re almost at my car, most of the photographers realising this is a dud deal and starting to hang back. But Paulie remains staunchly at my side.
“Come on, Mia,” he urges again, his camera going off in my peripheral vision.
“Back off!” I snarl, fishing my car keys out of my car.
“You’re getting older, aren't you scared of being irrelevant?” His voice is thick with anger and annoyance, and I can’t bear to look at him. “You’re going to be old news next year, don’t you know that?”
“Fuck off, Hardcastle.” I swat a hand out at him blindly, missing completely, and hit the button on my car keys. The lights on my Mustang flash, unlocking the doors.
“Mia, come on, just talk to me for five minutes!” Hardcastle exclaims.
I turn my back, tearing open the car door, when suddenly something is under my feet, pulling them out from under me. With a gasp, I fall forward, and pain shoots through my temple as my head connects with the corner of the car door.
Cries go up around us, and Char is screaming something I can’t hear over the rushing in my ears. I’m aware of hard ground under my bum, and Char’s arm around my shoulders.
After a while, red and blue lights flash around us, and I taste blood as it runs into the corner of my mouth.
“You’re alright,” Char murmurs, over and over. “You’re alright, babes. It’s gonna be alright.”