Mine Would Be You (17)

There is a sense of finality that washes over me, even though my chest cracks in half, as the two look at each other with sickly but somehow charming love in their eyes.

I shut the last open door that is Myles and I, and I feel nothing.

It’s done. It’s over.

The wedding party descends the aisle after the kiss, and my heart is pounding. Myles gives me a fleeting, soft smile, and I return it, despite everything I’m feeling.

But it’s the flash of the dimples and a wink of a deep blue eye Jackson gives me that sends my emotions into a different type of overdrive.

I am in no way prepared for the rest of this day.

Welcome back to another episode of Valentina’s Missteps, Mishaps and Misfortunes. Featuring Harper, Sloan, and guest appearances from her ex Myles and his best man and her weird one-night stand Jackson.





All the missing pieces came together easily when I saw her sitting in the crowd.

She looked different than the two times I’d seen her before. Once in a crowded bar—and in my bedroom—and once in an old, grainy photograph that Myles used to carry around.

My head turns as I follow the newlyweds into the reception area to take pictures. Myles and Emma look ridiculously happy as they hold hands, listening to the instructions of the photographer as the wedding party watches from the sidelines. The windows behind them showcase the buildings of New York lighting up as darkness falls. I smile, my hands tucked in my pockets, standing next to Emma’s best friend, but my head is somewhere else.

Nina.

All I can seem to focus on is Nina.

The girl from the bar in February. The same girl sitting in the crowd at Myles’s wedding. Every time I turned my head over and over trying to figure out why she seemed so familiar the past few months comes to a head. She’s Myles’s ex-girlfriend, who he dated all through high school, off and on through the beginning of college, and had known practically his entire life.

All talk of her stopped his junior year when he started to seriously be interested in Emma. I wasn’t around, I had graduated by then since I was three years ahead of him, but something doesn’t sit right.

The look on her face during the ceremony replays again and again. It was during their vows, and I could tell she thought she hid it well. But I saw it. How her shoulders tensed and her eyes had widened briefly, a sharp pain flashing in them. Her cheeks had turned pinked as she listened, but I had no idea what could’ve set her off.

Turning my eyes back to Myles and Emma, I see the girls are walking up to take their pictures with the bride. Myles lands by my side with a huge grin.

“How you feeling, man?” I pat him on the back with a big smile.

He shrugs, glancing at the ground with a headshake before looking back up. “Married.” His eyes move to Emma, who smiles warmly back at him. “Thankful as well.”

“You guys are great. I’m happy for you. We all are.”

“Thanks for standing up there by my side.”

I pat him again on the back. Despite me being older and graduating before he did, we just hit it off. We worked well together on the field and ended up in the same circle. Before I knew it, we were extremely close, two peas in a pod despite the years between us. Another person I added to my ever-growing family. I was happy to stand by him up there.

But I can’t deny the questions I have about the timeline of his relationships. I want to ask him about Nina being here, but I doubt his wedding is the appropriate time.

Luckily for me, one of his old buddies from high school enters the conversation. “Did you see Nina out there?”

Myles raises a brow. “We invited her.”

“No, I know that, dumbass.” Drew rolls his eyes, and we chuckle. “You never told us she was coming.”

“Yeah.” Myles nods. “We’re good. I wanted to.”

The conversation falls off after that as we’re pulled in to take pictures. The camera flashes a million times with the city in the background. We follow the careful instructions of the photographer, lifting our pant legs to show off the brightly colored socks underneath, and standing around Myles, and eventually posing for a full wedding party photo surrounding and celebrating the couple. Time passes, and we’re getting ready to enter the reception area. As the other groomsman enter ahead of me, cheers from the guests ensue over the music, and it repeats.

When I enter, my eyes search the room for Nina without a second thought. It takes a moment before I find her, but I do. There’s a barely-there smile on her lips, her now shorter hair is tucked behind her ear on one side, and her eyes widen slightly when she meets my gaze.

I grin because I genuinely never thought I would see her again. The guarded exterior, pink cheeks, and pretty brown eyes. That’s all she was for the past few months. Just a girl in a bar that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

Her smile doesn’t widen when she sees me, not that I expect it to, but for some reason it just makes my own smile grow. I know I probably shouldn’t be as enamored by her as I am. Considering she used to date my best friend for years and we’ve only met one time. But I’m not sure if I give a shit enough to not pursue her.

He’s married now, moved on. It shouldn’t matter what I do or who I date.

And knowing I shouldn’t, the whole reception, my eyes keep finding her in the room. How her hands move when she talks while dinner is served. The way she watches with a tight smile and studies the table during the first dance. How she actually smiles when Myles dances with his mom. The way she casually sways to the songs overhead when the dancing has fully begun. Or how animated, happy she is when she’s talking to her friends, showing me glimpses of the girl I met months ago.