74. Mira
74
MIRA
Daniel drops his phone as soon as he opens the door. It bounces off of his prosthetic foot and I’m not sure he even notices because he’s gaping at me. “Mira.”
I raise a hand in a silent, apologetic wave.
I figured Taylor would’ve texted Daniel to warn him I was heading over, but I’m guessing she didn’t, since Daniel is shirtless and wearing nothing but black boxer briefs.
He hurries to grab his phone. “I gotta go!”
Before waiting for whoever he was talking to to respond, Daniel waves me in and hustles down the hallway. “Come on in! I’ll be right back.”
I make it a point not to look at his nearly-naked form retreating down the hallway and kick my sandals off at the door. Daniel’s apartment is wall-to-wall white carpet, and I don’t want to be held responsible for a stain.
Twenty seconds later, he comes back out wearing sweats and pulling a shirt on over his head. His hair is mussed when he plants his hands on his hips and smiles awkwardly. “Hello.”
“Sorry to interrupt whatever was—” I gesture to him and his phone. Honestly, I don’t even want to know.
“Oh. That?” He laughs nervously. “Nothing. Not important at all. Telemarketer, actually. Probably a scam.” He flattens a hand over his hair. “What’s up? What do you need?”
“I’m sorry, is this a bad time? I should’ve called. I thought Taylor would tell you I was coming.”
“She did. Sort of.” Either I’m seeing things or Daniel Patterson is actually blushing. “She told me to ‘expect a surprise visitor.’ I kind of, sort of, maybe thought she meant… herself.”
Oh. Oh!
I clap my hands over my eyes even though he’s already put on pants. “You thought she was coming here for sex!”
I peek between my fingers. “This feels weird now. I should probably go, but…”
“But you’re desperate to hear how Zane and Aiden are doing and are too much of a scaredy-cat to call and find out yourself?”
I fix him with a glare. “You and Taylor are really getting your rocks off on this information embargo. It’s sick.”
He just grins. “It’s why we make such a good couple.”
The word hits me like a cannon to the chest. He says it so casually. He and Taylor are a couple .
No drama, no emotional baggage, no secrets.
Must be fucking nice.
“So?” I press. “Are you going to tell me anything or not? Taylor is refusing, but only because she wanted me to get off of her couch. She said you could decide for yourself.”
Instead of answering, Daniel points towards his kitchen. It’s all white quartz and stainless steel appliances. It doesn’t look like anyone has ever cooked in here. But I hop into a bar stool as Daniel slides a plate of clearly homemade cookies across the island towards me.
“Yes, I made these. Yes, I like to bake,” he answers before I can even ask. “No, it isn’t weird.”
I grab a cookie and hold up a hand in surrender. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to. I can see it in people’s eyes every time it comes up.” He takes a bite of a cookie and then offers himself a chef’s kiss. “What people need to learn is that humans contain multitudes. We aren’t just one thing. There are layers.”
I finish off the last bite of my first cookie and reach for a second. “Well, Shrek, your layers are chocolatey and delicious.”
“We can look like one thing on the exterior,” he continues. “But the deeper you go, the more there is to peel back. Every decision we make has a lifetime of reasonings and justifications behind it. Nothing is ever quite what it seems.”
I narrow my eyes. “I don’t feel like we’re talking about baking anymore.”
“We’re talking about what you came here to talk about.” He fixes me with a knowing look, waiting for me to be brave enough to admit it.
Too bad for him, I really am a scaredy-cat.
“Aiden,” I blurt. “I’ve been trying to find out how he’s doing for days. Is he home? Is he okay?”
I’ve never seen someone look both so annoyed and so disappointed while eating a chocolate chip cookie as Daniel does right now. “This is why the two of you are in such a mess. You won’t talk to each other.”
“There’s nothing to talk about!”
He arches a brow. “What about the fact that Zane just fired Hanna today?”
I blink at him, my brain too stunned to formulate a response.
“He knows she lied to him. You left a message with Hanna and she purposefully didn’t deliver it to Zane because she wanted you to get fired. He fired her as soon as he realized what she’d done.”
A weight drops off of my chest, but I’m struggling under an entire weight rack of burdens here. One tiny dumbbell doesn’t make much difference.
“That wasn’t the only problem,” I mumble.
Daniel pinches his forehead. “Let me guess: Zane said something horrible to you?”
Was fucking you all over the house I let you live in a bonus or did you plan that out, too? Maybe if the pussy was good enough, I’d let you stay.
You’d think a week without seeing Zane would be long enough that the sharp edges of the memory would start to soften. But you’d think wrong. They cut just as deeply as they did the first time.
“That’s kind of his thing,” Daniel sighs. “But you have to know he didn’t mean it. He was stressed about Aiden and thought you were lying to him.”
“I kind of was. Not about Aiden, but about… other stuff.” I shrug. “It’s why he hasn’t called even though he fired Hanna. It was never about her.”
“So you call him. Taylor says your feminist rants are epic. Go pump yourself up with another one and be the one to call him first.”
I give him a sad smile. “That’s a good pep talk, but it isn’t that simple. You and Taylor make a good couple, but maybe… maybe Zane and I don’t. Maybe we shouldn’t have let the fake relationship turn into anything else.”
Daniel stares at me for a second, considering. Then he gives me a thumbs down and blows a very loud, very wet raspberry. “Nope. I’m not buying it.”
I wipe his spit off of my face. “This isn’t your decision.”
“No, but Zane is my best friend and you’re Taylor’s best friend, which means that me and Taylor will be happier if the two of you are happy. Right now, the two of you are a couple of miserable sad sacks.”
I chew on my lower lip. “He’s miserable?”
He rolls his eyes, charging ahead. “You both keep saying it’s complicated, but it isn’t. When you love someone, you make it work. Do you love him?”
If I hadn’t already crushed three cookies, I’d be spewing the crumbs all over his pearly-white countertop. “Excuse me?”
“Do. You. Love. Him?”
My mouth opens and closes, but Daniel just stares at me, waiting. I blurt out an answer just so he’ll look away. “Yes! Obviously, I do. I love both of them.”
“So there you go. Now, you have to fight for them.”
“But—”
“You’re gonna say you have secrets, but who doesn’t?” he carries on. “I keep a jar of peanut butter in the drawer next to my bed for when I get hungry in the middle of the night. Taylor knows this and, after a minor attempt at an intervention, she accepts it. That’s what love is—you accept people for who they really are.”
I snort. “My secrets go a little deeper than a hidden peanut butter jar.”
“So do mine,” Daniel says in a whisper. “But I’m not going to tell you those because you aren’t the woman I was waiting in my underwear for. The depths of my dark, twisted soul belong to a gorgeous blonde.”
“Zane?” I tease.
Daniel busts out laughing. “I think you’re getting our blondes confused.”
I’m happy for Daniel and Taylor. Really.
But the longer I sit in his happy love-glow, the more I think I should’ve never left my indentation on Taylor's couch.
I slide off the stool. “They’re okay, though, right? Zane and Aiden? They’re healthy?”
“You aren’t going to ask them yourself?”
My silence is answer enough.
Daniel sighs. “Aiden is fine. He’s going to start back at preschool in the next couple days. Owen has been watching him while Zane looks for a new nanny.”
Obviously, Zane is eventually going to need someone else to watch Aiden, but the implications of it still sting.
Aiden will get close with someone else. By this time next year, he might not even remember me.
Tears prick the backs of my eyes, but I blink them away. “Thanks, Daniel.”
“Yeah.” He leads me to the door, leaning against the frame as I step into the hall. “I know what I say doesn’t mean a damn thing to either of you, but for what it’s worth, I think the two of you can make it work. I still have hope.”
I give him a tight smile. “That makes one of us.”