Life without You...

Part 12 - Mia Needs This

Letty's POV

Problems arose in July. Mia's girlfriends wanted to go for a weekend spa break. The grand total of said break accumulated nicely at one hundred and eight dollars per person plus spending money for dinners both nights. Roughly I worked it out in my head to be about two fifty for the whole weekend.

"Umm Let, I was wondering," Mia began gently.

I knew what she was going to ask me, I'd heard the excited chatter on the ogives the last few nights and I'd been waiting on her asking me for it. My anticipation of this had led to me scraping money together. Working an extra hour the last few days to try and gather it up for her. She'd worked real hard at school this year and if this made her happy then this would be the best thing in the whole world for her.

"Yeh?" I asked as I sat doing bookwork for the garage.

Tearing my eyes from my messy page of sums I looked up at her. Her eyes were dancing with excitement which she was trying to conceal, with no success.

"Would there be any chance I'd be able to go away for a two nights with the girls just for a spa break to relax, please," Mia requested. "If not it's okay."

With a smile I nodded. "Yeh it's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"We're thinking on going next weekend," Mia prompted gently.

"Have yous booked yet?" I asked.

"Tomorrow."

"I'll get you the money. What do you need?"

"One eighty for tomorrow."

"I'll have it for you by lunchtime if you drop by to pick it up."

Mia squealed and hugged me tightly. I hugged her tight delighted she was happy then turned back to my work. My eyes stung from working so long every day and my fingers cramped around the pen sore from gripping onto tools and pens every day. In short I was wearing myself down. Only six months til Dom got home and that was a good thing. I signed off on the paperwork and the bills. L.Ortiz.

By nine that night I was fit for nothing. The days were long so I grabbed a bottle of Coronas from the fridge and took it outside to laze in one of the old deckchairs we'd found tucked away in the garage a couple of weeks back. A lick of paint was all they had needed. I lay with my eyes half closed in the backyard despite hating lazing around doing nothing. My restlessness kicked in ten minutes in but I forced myself to enjoy the beer.

"How's thing at the garage?" Mia asked.

I wrenched my eyes open and glanced to my right to see Mia sat on the edge of the other deck chair. "Yeh it's good, busy but I like it.'

"No real nice cars?"

I could sense she felt guilty for asking for the money. "Not at the moment. I've them all cleared up. Just a couple of imports, no muscle cars."

Mia nodded and I idly sipped at my fast emptying bottle. In that second I was grateful for having nothing to do but laze on the deckchair and drink a beer. Despite being seventeen I found it far too easy to get served in the off-licence. I didn't drink a lot, it wasn't my sort of thing, but I admit to having a few when I was trying to relax.

Mia sighed as she stretched out fully, sprawling herself across the chair. I could tell by her quickly relaxed position in the chair she was finally enjoying being on summer. She raised one hand as if to shield her eyes despite there being only a pale remains of the daylight there had been during the day.

"Let, you'd tell me if me going away was going to leave us short?" Mia's voice rose slightly as anxiety coloured her tone.

"Of course," I lied. I'd never tell myself we were going to be short. I never did tell her nor would I ever. There's just some things you gotta keep to yourself to protect those you love.

Mia nodded seemingly content.

"What'd you do all day?" I asked her intrigued as to how she was spending her days without her books to occupy her.

"I cleaned the house. Went for a walk round the shops with Michaela and then came home and made dinner."

I nodded, simple little day for her. Uncomplicated just how Dom would have wanted it.