Page 64 of The Cuffing Game
When Mia didn’t say anything in response, Noah turnedback to see that she was staring up at him again, quietly biting her lip. In this present moment, she looked so adorable that Noah didn’t know what to do.
“What?” he asked softly.
“Sorry if I’m totally out of line for suggesting this,” she said, “but have you considered therapy?”
Noah let out a sharp laugh. There was the Mia he knew. As blunt as ever. A grin slipped onto his lips.
“It’s been suggested to me, yes. But I never thought things were bad enough for me to need it. Today made me realize I might, though.”
Mia made a face, as if she was wondering why he wassmilingwhile talking about therapy. He got his face back under control as she replied, “Therapy isn’t something you can only go to when things are terrible. It can help you in other times, too. Seeing someone helped my younger sister, Cara, when she was having a hard time adjusting to high school.”
Noah nodded as he sat back down on one of the turquoise lounge chairs.
At the beginning of every year, Noah liked to pick up one new activity, whether it was longboarding or learning to use a particular editing software. Perhaps next year’s new venture should be therapy. The idea both excited and intimidated him at the same time. It seemed pretty timely, especially with all the changes he’d soon face with graduation.
Mia, who’d gone over to sit at the dining-room table, suddenly asked, “Wait. What about when you helped me up at Ground Smoothie? Or when you refused to shake my hand?”
Noah frowned. “What about it?”
“You lookedreallyuncomfortable then. And it wasn’t like you weren’t expecting to make physical contact with me.”
Just thinking about what it was like to hold Mia’s hand for the first time, the unexpectedly pleasant warmth of her skin against his, made Noah’s face burn. Desperately, he hoped Mia wouldn’t notice. “Oh. That’s not why...” He hesitated, and then quietly said, “I don’t dislike touching you, Mia. Not at all.”
“What...” She paused, as if putting two and two together. And then Noah wasn’t the only one who was blushing.
Before he could dwell on the rosy pink of Mia’s cheeks for long, though, she quickly turned her back toward him. She started typing on her phone, so Noah sat back in his chair, relaxing his muscles against the upholstery.
He must have dozed off, because when he next opened his eyes, Mia was sitting across from him on the other lounge chair. Her expression was unlike how he’d ever seen it before, her dark-brown eyes and cherry-red lips soft instead of being tense and rigid.
Her face immediately hardened when she noticed he was awake.
“You can go into the bedroom and sleep, if you want,”she said flatly, getting up from her seat. “You’ve had a long day.”
Noah stiffened. “No, it’s okay. You can sit back down. And thanks, but I’ll go to bed when I want to. Unless you want to sleep now.”
“Nah.” She settled back into her chair, and they stayed there for a long moment, face-to-face in the warm glow of the fire like that night at the firepit. Noah’s heart raced at the familiarity.
“By the way, did you want to talk about what happened with you and Celine?” Mia asked. “Like, what caused the confrontation in the first place. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but... I got Celine’s side earlier today. So I can also listen if you want to tell me your side, too, to make things fair. Feel free to vent.”
“Vent?” Some of Noah’s old walls came back up at the foreignness of the word. In theory, Noah knew what the word “vent” meant. He’d encountered it on American TV shows and had heard girls say the word around campus. But this was the first time anyone had offered to listen tohim“vent” before. Back home and at the fraternity house,hewas the one who usually listened.
Noah stared into the fire. “There’s not much to talk about,” he finally said. “Celine and I aren’t compatible. And I’m a jackass.”
He braced himself, expecting Mia to agree with him. But she just leaned forward. “And why is that?”
Noah let out a slow breath. The familiar pressure was starting to build up inside him again, making it hard for him to shape his thoughts into concrete words. But he managed to say, “Before the show, I accidentally led Celine on by replying to her messages and comments. To me, I was just doing my job. Responding to people boosts engagement. But she thought I was being genuine.”
Mia groaned. “Youdodo that a lot. Flirt with people, I mean. Which is why I never read the comments of your videos.”
Noah raised his eyebrows at Mia. She wasn’t looking at him, instead staring into the fire like he was a few seconds ago. Her cheeks were red, but he couldn’t tell if that was because of the heat or something else.
“Wait. How many of my videos have you watched?” he asked. “Do you follow me? I thought you just watched my stuff to do research on me.”
“Let’s go back to the original topic,” she said, blatantly avoiding his questions. “You apologized to Celine, though, right? Or at least, it seemed like you did.”
“Yes.”
“Good. And how about on the show? Were you leading her on here in Big Bear like she said you were? Andwhydid you think it was a good idea to run after her and Kyle?”
