Ready for You (Ready #3)(5)

She gave me a sympathetic gaze. “I don’t know. After you…after that night, he hounded me for days that turned into weeks, trying to get a clue as to where you went. When I finally convinced him I was in the dark like he was, I didn’t hear from him again. He went off to college, and that was it.”

We were supposed to go to college together—the beginning to our crazy life, as he’d called it. We’d picked out all of our classes together. He was going to be my brainy architect, and I was going to be his sexy teacher. But I’d left, and he had gone alone.

Now, I was here. I wondered where life had taken him.

I only hoped he was happy.

Chapter Two

~Mia~

It had been a week since I came home, back to the place I’d sworn I would never return. When I’d fled down that dark, deserted road on that night so long ago, I’d promised myself I would do him the favor of never returning. After I’d caused so much pain, he deserved that at least.

So, why now? After all this time, why had I come back?

Once again, I was running.

It seemed to be something I was highly skilled in. When the walls of my carefully built life in Atlanta had started to cave in on me, I’d needed out, and I had bailed. I’d packed up everything I owned, and I’d found myself on the interstate, headed for home. It always felt safe and secure here, and I liked the person I had been here—before the end.

In the week since I’d returned, I temporarily moved in with Liv. Living with Liv was great. After so much time and how different we had both become, I had been afraid that things would be awkward and that the friendship we had once shared would be gone. But it wasn’t, and we naturally fell into that sweet spot—somewhere between best friends and sisters. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her until I had her back, and I didn’t think I would ever forgive myself for pushing her away for so long. The fact that she’d opened up her home and life to me after eight long years and one email just showed the type of person she was. I didn’t deserve such compassion.

She wanted me to move in permanently, but I’d spent years living with others, and for once, I wanted to live on my own. I needed to live on my own. I was twenty-five years old, and I didn’t think I even knew myself. Who was I without someone else? I’d come here in search of something. That had to be it, right? I needed to find out.

I picked out a great house not too far from Liv. It was old and needed work, and it was pricey because of the neighborhood, but I took it on the spot. With my preapproved loan and sizable down payment—thanks to years of saving money—it would be mine in a week.

After throwing together breakfast this morning from the last of the groceries, we decided a trip to the farmers’ market might be fun. Liv said she would go every week to get local produce, rather than buying from the grocery store. According to Liv, big-business grocery stores that choked out small farmers were going to be the death of our society.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked as we roamed around the streets filled with vendors selling everything from kale to nuts to strawberries.

“I’m the same girl. I’m just an upgraded, more worldly version,” she said.

Her sassy smirk reminded me of a younger Liv.

“But how did this upgrade happen? I mean you didn’t just wake up one day and decide that trust funds sucked and hemp bracelets were way cooler.”

She gave me a pointed looked and snickered. Then, she continued her search for the perfect tomato, squeezing one and then another, as I watched.

“It was college actually.” She picked up a juicy red tomato and turned it over in her hand before placing it on the scale with the others she’d picked out.

The man on the other side of the stand told her the amount she owed. They finished their business, and we moved on.

“I was sitting in a sociology class. It wasn’t my major at the time. It was just something I was taking to fill a general ed requirement. The professor was lecturing about the African society and how they had been basically crippled by the AIDS epidemic. I remember sitting there, staring at these pictures in my textbook. I was bored out of my mind. I looked down at my nails to see a chip in my Very Berry nail polish, and I was just beside myself. I was so annoyed because I’d had a manicure only three days earlier. My professor was in front of the class, speaking about people dying, and I was pissed because my nail was chipped. I mean, how bitchy is that? I don’t know. I guess I just had a light bulb moment.”

“You were not a bitch,” I said, trying to defend the friend I once knew.

“No, I know that now, I guess. I’ve done alright, despite my parents trying to turn me into the most pretentious being on the planet. But I still came from wealth, and I knew it. I always had someone to take care of me. My father was there to pay my tuition and rent, and a huge trust fund was waiting for me when I turned twenty-one. I was set for life.”

“So, you became a hippie?”

“No, bitch!” She laughed. “I told my parents that I didn’t want my trust fund anymore and that I didn’t see the point of going to college to prepare for a career if I wouldn’t need to work. I wanted to make my own way. So, I switched majors. I dropped business for sociology.”

“Oh, man. Your dad must have been so pissed.”

“Yeah, he didn’t take it too well,” she said.