Mine Would Be You (67)

My phone vibrates on the table, and I don’t have to look to know it’s Nina. It’s Thursday, and the past few, we’ve been getting pizza after work. Looking at the Rolex on my wrist, it’s close to when she gets off, and I need to leave soon so I can meet her outside.

“I know it’s not what you expected, but if you were really my brother, my friend, you’d find it in there somewhere to be happy for me. I made a mistake, Myles. You’ve made your fair share of them. We all do. But this isn’t how you treat someone you care about.”

I stand, tucking my laptop away into its case.

“Wait.” Myles stands too. “I am happy with Emma. I love her. We’re trying, and I’ve been honest with her. I wish I had an answer or an excuse for how I acted, how I’ve been acting.”

I nod. “You two are great together, Myles, everyone knows it. And you don’t need an excuse. If you were hurt by my actions, fine. But you just can’t keep treating people like they’ve mistreated you when all they’ve done is live their lives.”

I wish I had more to say, but I don’t. I hope that he means it when he says he’s trying with Emma. Talking to someone, talking things out, and working through whatever he needs to work through. Maybe it’s guilt at treating Nina how he did, maybe it’s something else, but I’m not the one to dig it out and try to fix him. No one can fix Myles but Myles.

So, I just give him a parting nod and begin to turn away.

He stares at me, a mix of emotions swimming over his face. “So that’s it? You have nothing else to say?”

“What else do you want me to say? I’m not going to stop dating Nina because you can’t figure out your own shit when you have a great girl at home. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I am. You’re still my friend, but this—this isn’t you. Feel free to call me when you come back.”

Myles tucks his hands into his pockets as I begin to walk away. The tension pulls tighter the further away I get until it snaps. I won’t be the one to mend this friendship. I can extend as many hands and chances as I want, and it still has to be Myles’s decision. He’ll have to decide whether a girl that hasn’t been a part of his life for years is worth losing more than just a friend over.

But fuck this, I’m not going to let this taint or ruin everything between Nina and me. This weekend is Labor Day, and I get to spend it with her and her family, who has taken me in with open arms. I couldn’t be more excited that she’s fully started to let me in, to be a part of her life, of her routines, of her traditions.

Myles isn’t a factor in my life that I can control. He has to figure out what he wants and how to handle it. I’ve done my part. Because Nina brings me a sense of peace I didn’t know I was looking for. There’s nothing he could say or do that’s going to make me give her up so easily.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and dial Nina.

“Hi,” she breathes over the phone, and the knot in my chest loosens at her voice. “I’m on my way down now. I’m just packing up.”

I turn left down the street and back towards her office. The bar was only a block or two away, and knowing her, I’ll still be there before she’s downstairs. “Take your time.”

“How was it?”

I sigh, cracking my neck again and rubbing the back of it with my free hand. “As well as expected. I miss my friend, but that’s not him. At least not the friend that I knew.

“Yeah,” Nina says softly. “I don’t know who Myles was or is or—I don’t know. He’s hard to read. You never really get what you expect.” She pauses, but I can tell by the pause she’s got something else to say. “Jackson, I’m the reason this is happening, that you’re losing him. I don’t want to be.”

“No.” I don’t hesitate. “You are the reason for a lot of things, good things. But you are not responsible for him. Or for what’s happening. Don’t ever think that way.”

I would give her a whole goddamn list of the good things she’s responsible for if she wanted it. Even after that conversation, I’m more focused on seeing her face, knowing just the sight of her will ease the tension tightening my body.

“Okay, if you’re sure,” she says, and I hear the sounds of the elevator through the phone just as I reach her building. I lean on the concrete half wall nearby, where I always wait.

I chuckle at her words. Because I have never been so sure of anything in my entire life.

“Valentina, if there is one thing I’m sure of right now, it’s you.”

It’s silent for a second, and I bet she’s rolling her eyes. And then she appears at the doorway of her building, pushing it open and stepping outside. Every time I see her, it’s like the first time, and she looks goddamn beautiful in the evening sun.

The phone is still pressed to her ear, and as she approaches, I see her teeth pulling at her bottom lip. “Speechless?” I ask through the phone, grinning now.

“Te odio,” she says, and the smooth sound of Spanish on her lips never fails to send chills down my spine.

“No, you don’t.” I hang up the phone just as she approaches, the sound of her heels clicking on the pavement.

With an eyeroll, she tucks her phone away into her bag, which I grab before she can swing it back onto her shoulder. She still tries to fight me when I do, and it’s not that she’s not capable, I just like doing it.