by Mia Faith
Last night, at some ridiculous hour of the morning, I made the decision that I was going to move away to start again, but now I realized that was madness. I couldn’t just run away when things got hard; that was what Mason had done and it’d caused me to lose all respect for him. I needed to weather the storm, to use it to make me a stronger person. I was fed up of allowing everything to weaken me.
I needed to be better. When I stormed out of Mason’s office, I felt strong, and I wanted to recapture that again.
Knock, knock.
At first, I ignored the knocking. It sounded so light that I assumed it was on the door of another apartment entirely. Or maybe it was my thumping head. I didn’t really want to face anyone wearing only a robe and sweat pants anyway. My hair was scraped back and I didn’t have any makeup on, I looked at my worst. Even if it was for me, I didn’t want to deal.
Knock, knock.
Knock, knock.
But then it grew louder and more persistent. I clicked the ‘Mute’ button on the television remote and sat up straighter to listen more intently, panic tearing through my veins.
Knock, knock.
Shit, it was someone for me, and I couldn’t even pretend I wasn’t in because my TV had been blaring only moments before.
“Who’s there?” I called out cautiously, stepping close to the door.
Knock, knock.
No one answered; they just knocked once more. Maybe it was Carly or one of the girls; maybe their date had gone awry and they really needed my help. I couldn’t ignore it, whoever it was, just in case. So with a sinking heart and a terror deep inside of me, I swung the door open widely to see the person I least expected in the world there.
“Mason? What the hell are you doing here?”
Oh fuck, I became acutely aware of my disheveled appearance, of the fact that I looked and felt like hell. This wasn’t a dream scenario where you bumped into your ex-looking incredible, with another man on your arm; this was me, hungover and looking like death. I pulled my robe tighter around me, but nothing could make this any better.
Then he blew me away by handing me a jar of honey with a massive grin on his face. As I took it from him, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and I met his eyes with a jolt. “You’re right,” he told me confidently. “Honey is better.”
“Huh?” I felt like I’d missed something somewhere along the line, and I hated adding another disadvantage to the list.
“Remember? Your phone call last night?” the confidence slid away and an uncertainty overtook him. Good, he needed to feel a little bit like I did. “The one where you told me honey was better than vinegar after all?”
I could remember all kinds of things, mostly: Why do you have to be in my mind all the time? Why do you have to crop up when I’m going on a date? It isn’t fair,” which sent a powerful, hot blush tearing through my body.
“Yeah... I remember; sorry about that.” I couldn’t work out why he was here, and that made me so damn nervous. “Did you want to come in?”
He walked through the hallways of my house as if he owned the place, and I tiptoed behind him as if I was the one who wasn’t at home. I just felt so off-kilter, like I’d messed up my brand-new life by dragging my old one into it, and I had no idea what was going to happen next.
I needed to face it, though if I wanted any kind of closure.
“So, how was your date?” he smirked at me, falling on my couch. “Not too good by the sounds of it.”
“Why are you being this way?” I gasped. It didn’t feel right for him to storm in here with arrogance. “Don’t you have anything else to say? An apology maybe?”
The happiness fell from his face and he leaned forwards onto his knees. “Okay, look, I’ve been wanting to call you ever since the day you walked out on me. I’ve wanted to say sorry for shutting you out, for taking my mood out on you, but I knew I needed to be in a better place first. I had to go to my father’s funeral, to get some closure, to make myself the man you deserved to be with.”
My heart thundered in my throat. How was it possible for him to be here saying all the right things after all this time? And why did I have to feel like I was going crazy throughout?
“But by the time I felt healed and ready, I overheard your friends talking about your wonderful new boyfriend, and I guess I didn’t want to harm your happiness. You deserve it after all I put you through.” I smiled secretly to myself, imagining Carly and the others doing that to help me. “So I tried to make myself move on, but you’ve always been on my mind too. So yeah, I guess I was happy to get your message telling me that you felt the same way. I’m sorry I came in here all arrogant, but I’m just so eager to have you back in my life.”
“What makes you think I’d want you?” I crossed my arms over my chest, wanting to remain somewhat dignified. “After all you did to me?”
“I know,” he stood up and moved closer to me, regret filling his eyes. “I was an ass to you, I don’t deserve you at all. But if you give me a chance, just one more shot, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”
My heart pounded; indecision floated through me. Did I open up again to the man who’d hurt me? To the man, I was trying to move on from? Did I allow myself to be vulnerable when I was just starting to build myself back up again? Then again, could I turn my back on something that could be real?
I stared at him, my heart racing like crazy, my mind twisting and twirling everywhere. I wanted him, dear God I wanted him, but I was afraid, and that must have shown through.
“I’ll do anything,” he promised me. “You’ll see, I’ve changed. You came into my life and changed everything, and nothing has been the same since you left. I need you. I want you so badly, you have to believe me. I will never, ever hurt you again.”
I leaned in and pressed my lips against his, butterflies floating around inside of me. This was scary, the most terrifying thing I would ever do, but Mason was worth it. I’d always known that we could have been something special, and now we had the chance to try. Yes, I might end up with a broken heart, but I’d regret it forever if I didn’t give him a shot.
Then I pulled back from him and I grabbed the pot of honey with a wicked smile. “So, you’re catching people with honey now, huh?” He nodded, smiling. “Maybe you should use some of it to catch me?” I wiggled my eyebrows, totally forgetting that I looked like hell. With Mason giving me those eyes, it was easy to feel like a goddess, even at my worst state.
“Oh yeah? I thought I’d already caught you?” he teased. “I didn’t realize that I still had to try!”
“Oh, you never stop trying with me.” I kissed him once more, that sensation of pure happiness exploding inside of me. This was right, scary, but incredible all at the same time. I didn’t feel like an idiot for giving him another chance; I felt good about it.
I felt like he was the one. At least for now, I was trying my best not to get too wrapped up in long term, just in case. I wanted to protect myself a little bit.
“I love you, you know?” he announced, clearly thinking along the same lines as me. “I know that might be a little wild, but I do.”
“I love you too.” My heart exploded with joy as I let my true feelings free at last. I’d been secretly feeling love for him, pushing it down, refusing to acknowledge it, but now it was real, tangible, now it could become something. “Much more now that you aren’t my boss of course!”
He ignored my joke and lifted me up in the air as if I weighed less than a feather. “I can still be the boss in the bedroom, you know,” he practically growled. “Don’t you worry about that!”
The red-hot desire burst into flames as he took me into the other room to make our union more official. We’d been through our ups and downs, but more importantly, we’d made it to the other side; we’d come out of it so much better. We’d seen each other at our worst and we still wanted to try. That gave us a good chance at surviving, didn’t it?
Maybe Mason wouldn’t be my happy ever after, m
aybe we wouldn’t end up happily married spending the rest of our lives together, but right now he was all I ever wanted. I couldn’t even imagine myself looking at anyone else. We were in love, we were going to try, and that was good enough. Whether he was Mr. Right or Mr. Right Now was irrelevant; we made each other happy, and that was better than anything else.
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