Page 21 of Never and Always
Mia, who had always been the rich friend that bought everyone everything, was now completelybroke.
Broke-broke, with no one to turn to. When she got back from the police she decided to call herparents.
The hollow in her soul had overwhelmed her the minute she heard that the paintings had been taken, and she just couldn’t keep the situation away from them any longer. So she told them everything, but withheld that Glenn didn’t know about thepaintings.
It was like tangling herself up in a deadly spider’s web, but she did it for her sanity. She’d tell Glenn when she felt strong enough. Maybe by then Nick would have come up withsomething.
As predicted, her parents were furious and thought she showed lack of care by not carrying out the necessary checks she should have on Alan. When she saw how mad they were she conveniently left out the part where she’d actually been involved with Alan. Mia knew she’d made a massive mess and didn’t need to be reminded from them, too, that she’d shown completeincompetence.
Her dad had ripped into her, making her feel worse than Glenn had. Her mother was slightly more sympathetic, but still just as firm. Instead of offering to help they told her to get a job and try to find her feetagain.
As if it was that simple. As much as she’d been hell bent on not taking any money from them and taking care of herself, she was actually hoping that they would offer her some money, at least enough to surviveon.
But,no.
“This is oh so good,” Claire smiled, placing a decent-sized helping of ice cream into hermouth.
They both had a tub each. While Claire got through hers with little effort, Mia struggled. She hadn’t eaten properly in days and hoped the ice cream would offer some sort of comfort. Itdidn’t.
In fact, it was making her feel sick. She set it down and rested her head back against thebed.
“Mia, you have to eat. How about we go out? We could grabdinner.”
“Claire, I’m broke, I have to get by on whatever food is downstairs and hope that Glenn doesn’t stop me.” She rolled hereyes.
“I would pay. And relax, genius, I’m going to give you some money to help you out.” Clairenodded.
Mia straightened up and looked at her friend in awe. “You’d dothat?”
“Of course I would. I’m offended that you’d ask me that. If it were me, you’d help me in a jiffy. I have a hundred in my purse and I’ll transfer some more in a few days when I getpaid.”
“You’re going to Spain,though.”
Claire was leaving for Spain tomorrow. She was going to her sister’s wedding and wouldn’t be back for twoweeks.
“Won’t you need it?” Mia gave her a little smile when Claire shook herhead.
“No. I’m going to stay with family. Don’t worry about me. Let’s focus onyou.”
“I really appreciate it. I can’t believe I don’t have anything, or that my brother is being somean.”
Claire offered a sympathetic smile. “Give him time. He loves you and will calmdown.”
“He’s going to flip when he finds out about the paintings,” Mia said in a low voice. Glenn was downstairs somewhere, well out of earshot, but she was still being careful just in case he ventured near her room. When she came back here with Nick earlier, Glenn was in the kitchen. He wasn’t talking to her and looked angry at Nick for being withher.
“Yes, he’ll probably go ape shit.” Claire widened her already huge brown eyes and shook her head. “Thank God you have your knight in shining muscles to take care of you.” A cunning smile lifted the corners of hermouth.
“Who’s that?” she asked, pretending not to know Claire was talking aboutNick.
“Oh please, I know you aren’t suffering from the kind of trauma to give you amnesia. I’m talking about Nick,” Clairegiggled.
“Well he thinks I’m stupid,too.”
“Doeshe?”
“He asked me if I didn’t do my research before I got with Alan.” Mia was still hurt by that, as reasonable a question as itwas.
“Mia, I’ll ask you the same, but that doesn’t mean I think you’re stupid. I swear to God he likes you. And could he be anyhotter?”
