Roses & Ruin

Chapter 69 (Anthony)

I didn't know Lexi, my aunt, and Mia were at Enzo's doing wedding bullshit. He's a dick for not telling me when he invited me over for a couple brews after we'd finished some work. To keep my sanity I decided to focus my attention on Mia, and not Lexi picking out bridesmaid dresses.

What a sham this all is. It's ridiculous to even put forth such effort.

Mia was more than willing to chat with me at the table while I downed my beer. She's friendly and she'd always said she wanted to be my friend after her and I parted ways. It was me at the time that told her I didn't wanna be friends with her, just after her telling me to fuck off so she could be with another guy.

But that was now 7 or 8 months ago. It's water under the bridge. I'm over it. It was just nice talking with Mia again, because if nothing else, she and I had always gotten along well. So while Lexi was talking about color schemes and venues I was looking away from all that asking Mia questions about what else she's been up to lately.

I thought I felt Lexi's eyes on me at one point or another, but every time I glanced her way she wasn't paying attention at all, so clearly that was my own imagination. "You know what bag came up on my rental app the other day. The same one you bought for me that time. Do you remember the bag?" Mia asked me.

An image of a panicked Mia after someone had stolen her rental purse came to mind. Of course I remember. I said so out loud and she smiled.

"You still use that app, huh?" I know when she was broke she always rented the bags she wanted to own. But she makes enough money now to own them for herself. Mia smiled and it lit her pretty green eyes right up. I didn't mean to linger on them, but I did.

"Yes! Because I switch bags so often I wouldn't have room for anything else if I bought every bag I ever used" she laughed. I like that Mia's kept down to earth even with her rising success.

When Mia's phone rang she excused herself from the table and went into the next room. That gave me a second to glance at Lexi. Only this time she was looking back. I don't know why that made me stiffen my spine, but I just wasn't expecting those pretty blue eyes on me. I desperately wanted to know what she was thinking.

My aunt was looking down at the wedding magazine flipping each page slowly as her eyes scanned each one. Enzo had left the room. Mia had left the room. So our eyes lingered. When I couldn't help myself from glancing down at Lexi's ring finger she followed my eyes and quickly slid her hand off the table. Like she didn't want me looking at it.

For one more split second our eyes came back to each other, and then Enzo's voice cut through the room, almost making me jolt like I'd been caught eyeing his girl or something.

"Got 'em. I forgot I stored the other beers in the garage fridge to make room for Daisy's snack packs" he handed me an iced cold bottle. I twisted the cap and took a long sip. Lexi eyed my Adam's apple bobbing with the gulp.

Then it was Mia who entered the room. She came back to her seat beside mine and tucked away her phone. "Everything good?" I asked her. I don't even know why. I wasn't being nosy, I just felt awkward as hell right now with this group of people.

Enzo pulled a chair loudly around the table to sit by Lexi and look at the book his mother kept bitching at him to take a glance at.

"Yeah, fine. That was just Dom saying something came up with work. Riccardo's gonna be the one picking me up for my therapy appointment" she told me so easily. She talked openly about being in therapy. I thought that was cool.  

"And how's that going for you? I'm glad you went. I really am" I told her. She smiled and it does still slay me. She's a beautiful girl. That's just a fact. "I'm trying a new form of therapy, actually. It's more trauma based. It's called EMDR, it stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing," she told me.