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It stung.
Badly.
Almost knocked me off my feet. I expected the worst from most people, but not him. Never Miles.
The things keeping me afloat? Booking four more Grazing jobs for late summer and early fall with several more inquiries on top of those, cursing men with Bea, Miles continuing to text with Reed even after he went radio silent with me, family dinners, and spite.
Spite was a powerful thing. It kept me from returning to my bed to rot and working hard on my marketing for Grazing.
“I heard Reed laughin’ the other day,” Mama said quietly as she shuffled papers.
“You did?” Reed’s laughter was such a rarity these days, it was like a special occasion when he did. “What was so funny?”
“He had the door cracked. I shouldn’t have eavesdropped, but I was so shocked his door wasn’t sealed shut, I couldn’t help myself and stood outside it.” Her mouth curved, and her eyes shone. “He was on a video call with Miles, playing his music for him. They were makin’ fun of some DJ. No one I’ve ever heard of. My beautiful boy was grinning ear to ear, and he looked so much like Quinny, I had to walk away.”
My heart lodged in my throat. Quinny. We didn’t talk about her a lot. Not when we had one more Dunham kid to get past the hurdles she hadn’t been able to surmount. She would have been twenty now, and probably reminding us she was Quinn, not Quinny anymore, but she was forever frozen at sixteen.
“They always looked so much alike,” I squeezed out.
She nodded. “Lately, he’s been sad like she was.”
“I know. I see it too. I’ve been keeping a close eye on him.” I pressed my lips together, waiting out the stinging in my nose. “He won’t be the same.”
Mama dabbed under her eyes with a tissue. “He came out of his room and told me he wants to go to this summer class for making music on the computer. I think Miles found it for him, but he didn’t tell me.”
“Did you sign him up?”
She laughed. “Before he even finished explaining what it was. Anything’s better than him being holed up in his room.”
I couldn’t quite gather my thoughts about Miles staying involved with Reed when he’d ditched me like a bad habit.
“I’ll thank Miles when I see him.”
When I sat down at my desk, I decided to send Miles an email. Things needed to be said before we were headed to an event where we had to pretend to be a happy couple. As we stood now, if he tried to put his arm around me, I’d bite it off.
From: [email protected]
Miles,
It has become apparent, from your two-week withdrawal from my life, you are putting in place boundaries after everything that happened in Breckenridge. While it is understandable and completely fine with me to cut off our physical interactions, I’m not okay with the sudden end of our friendship.
If you no longer wanted to have any sort of relationship with me outside of our professional agreement, I wished you’d have respected me enough to say that instead of ghosting me. I never would have treated you this way, especially after all we’ve shared.
This is all I have to say on the matter. When we see each other on Saturday, we can go back to professional acquaintances.
Not So Truly Yours,
Daisy
Miles arrived to pick me up right on time. After my unanswered email, I’d half expected him to cancel, but I was ready to go when he knocked on my door just in case. This time, I stepped onto the landing and locked the door, not allowing him in.
“You’re ready,” he remarked.
“Yep. Let’s go.”
I had my heels in my hand so I could go down the steps without breaking my neck. At the bottom, I bent to slip on my platform pumps and buckled the strap that looped my ankle.
