Nothing to lose

Chapter 36: Mia

Before the official start of our girl's day, I had to run back home to shower and grab a few things.

Grey hadn't responded to my messages, so I crossed my fingers that he would be home.

You couldn't imagine how bummed I was when I found out that he wasn't.

Was he that mad? I thought to myself, and my heart filled with dread and worry.

What if he wouldn't forgive me for this? What was going to happen with our relationship?

My head was spinning from thinking of all the worst-case scenarios.

When I reached Mom's house, she took one good look at my face and instantly knew something was wrong.

She mentioned that I liked to jut my bottom lip out a lot when I was upset. I also tended to murmur and avoid contact. Supposedly, that was something I've been doing since I was a kid.

Mom and Ella offered to listen if I needed to vent, but I told them not to worry about it. Right now, I needed to relax and clear my head before I drove myself crazy.

By mid-afternoon, I had rainbow-colored nails, thanks to Ella. My wavy strawberry locks had been washed, blown out, and then curled to perfection for a more dramatic effect. I forgot how awesome mom was with styling hair.

Unfortunately, she didn't pass down any of that talent. Hence, my hairstyles usually consisted of basic styles.

During all of that, we had watched Captain America parts one and two. I made fun of mom when she became all googley eyed as Steve took off his shirt. Not going to lie, I was gawking at him too, and when I tried to cover Ella's eyes as a joke, she wasn't having it. She hit me with one of the cushions. It was safe to say Steve Rogers was eye candy for women everywhere.

Every hour or so, I couldn't help but check my phone to see if Grey replied. I tried to be understanding, but it hurt like hell.

Mom and Ella cheered me up a lot, though. I was grateful to have this time with them.

"Dad, are you all done now?" Ella asked when her father walked into the room.

He nodded with a smile.

"I was thinking, we should have a BBQ, and then we can take this movie night outside to the inflatable projector." Mom suggested, looking back and forth from Ella to me.

I gasped. "I totally forgot you have one of those!"

"Yeah, it's so cool," Ella said with a huge grin.

"Yup. I'm totally on board with this plan. I'll get the stuff ready," Matt said, walking towards the kitchen.

"We'll need to set up outside." Ella eagerly launched to her feet. "Mia, you should see the string lights and tiki torches at night. They're so pretty."

"I bet." I winked. "What do you guys need me to do?" I asked mom.

"Depends... Are you still good at baking?" She smirked

I answered her with a smile.

"I like chocolate, peanut butter chips cookies!" Ella informed me.

"I'll see what I can do," I promised.

Ella opened her mouth to say something, but then her phone went off. She grinned, looking down at it. "This one of my friends back in Seoul, she just got back from a modeling gig in Japan, and I told her to call me when she got back home." Ella bit her bottom lip like she was having a hard deciding if she should answer right now or not.