Mia the Melodramatic (21 page)

At 7:00 that night, Tim arrived at my front door looking hot and smelling delicious.

Trying to prevent the scent of his cologne from reaching the part of my brain that produced desire, I said, “What are you doing here?”

“Aren’t you going to hear your friend Zoë’s band tonight?”

“Yeah,” I said, blocking his entrance to the house. “So?”

“So,” Tim leaned against the door frame, “Chris invited me to come with you.”

“He
what?
” I whirled around. “Chris, get in here!”

Chris strolled into the living room and casually said, “Hey, Tim.”

“Did you invite Tim to come with us tonight?” I demanded as Chris plopped down onto the couch.

“Yeah.” Chris flipped open a comic book lying on the coffee table. “What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is...” I stared at Chris’s blank expression and gave up. It was useless to waste my energy arguing with someone who couldn’t see the big picture because he had such a small screen. Sighing, I moved aside and let Tim in. “Eric should be here in a
minute.”

“What’s with the black clothes, dude?” Tim asked as he sat on the couch next to Chris. “Are you supposed to be the son of Dracula or something?”

“Zoë’s into black,” Chris explained. “I thought she’d notice me more if I blended in with her crowd.”

“Zoë’s crowd pierces their body parts with rusty nails. I hardly think you’re going to blend in,” I said as the doorbell rang. “But maybe you should try. In fact, I think we may have a rusty stake in the garage. Maybe I can pierce your heart with it—oh, that’s right. You don’t have one.”

Chris turned toward Tim and said, “So, tell me, was it Mia’s sweetness or charm that you first fell for?”

Tim laughed, so I shot them both a dirty look as I opened the door.

Eric walked in and held out a red rose to me. “This is for you.”

“Um, uh, thanks,” I stammered as I took the rose from his hand. “I, I, I don’t know what to say...”

“I thought since this was our first—” Eric stopped when he saw Tim and Chris sitting on the couch.

“Um,” I cringed. “I left you a couple of messages on your cell phone, but you never returned my calls. My parents asked if we’d give Chris a ride to the Flying Squirrel tonight. Is that all right?”

“Uh, sure,” Eric said hesitantly as he looked at Tim. “And this is?”

“This is Tim. Chris kind of invited him.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “Would it be all right if we also gave him a ride?”

“Tim as in
the
Tim?” Eric asked, his eyes widening in surprise.

“Wow, I got a title over the summer,” Tim said, grinning widely. “
The
Tim—I like it.”

I shot Tim another dirty look before saying to Eric, “So, is it all right if we take them with us?”

“I guess,” Eric replied, giving Chris a look that could instantly
freeze a pot of boiling water. “No problem.”

“Thanks, man. I appreciate it,” Tim said.

Dying to escape the awkwardness, I headed to the kitchen. “I think I’ll put this flower in water before we go.”

“Just make sure you don’t breathe on it,” Chris said, getting up from the couch. “You wouldn’t want it to wilt.”

I went to the kitchen to get a vase and eyed the back door. It wasn’t too late to escape. I could just slip out and never return. But I couldn’t do that to Eric. I mean, he brought me a rose. No guy had ever bought me a flower before. And since this technically
was
our first date, it would probably be kind of rude to duck out, leaving Eric with my brother and ex-boyfriend. I guess I was going to have to suck it up and stick it out for Eric’s sake.

I headed back to the living room and Chris said, “Let’s go. I don’t want to miss any of Zoë’s first set.” He ran for the door. “I call shotgun.”

“I guess that means you’re in the backseat with me, Mia,” Tim said, winking devilishly.

Eric gave me a look of helplessness. “OK, then, let’s go.”

I meekly followed behind. This was undoubtedly going to be the worst night of my life.

A
s we pushed our way through the packed coffee house, Eric shouted above the din, “Zoë said she saved some tables for us up front! I think I see Henry sitting at one of them!” He grabbed my hand and pulled me through the crowd.

As we approached the table, Henry stood up and exclaimed, “There you are! Zoë made me promise to save these two tables for us, but I swear, five more minutes and I was going to give one of them away. You have no idea what I’ve been through, fighting off everyone who wanted this spot.” He picked up his cup of espresso with shaking hands. “Just look at me. I’m a nervous wreck.”

Eric looked at the three empty coffee cups on the table. “Did you ever think your hands were shaking due to caffeine overload?”

“I had to keep ordering or the waitress was going to make me give up one of the tables. But I made sure everything I bought was put on your tab,” Henry said. “It’s the least you could do for me.”

“Thanks.” Eric looked at the empty chair next to Henry. “So, where’s your date?”

Henry sighed. “There was a little miscommunication. I guess it wasn’t a date after all.”

“I know exactly how you feel,” Eric muttered.

“Hey,” Henry said as he looked at Tim. “Who’s the java chip frappuccino light blended coffee? I thought you told me you and Mia were coming alone—you know, like a—”

“It’s about time!” Zoë said as she pushed her way to our table.
“My set’s going to start in like five minutes.” She cocked her head at Chris. “Hey, Junior, you aren’t going to chuck out another body organ tonight, are you?”

“I’m feeling great,” Chris replied. He lowered his voice an octave. “I just came because I thought you might want a man around to protect you in case the crowd gets out of control.”

“Then why are
you
here?” I said.

Chris elbowed me hard in the ribs.

“You must be Zoë,” Tim said. “Mia told me a lot about you.”

“Of course she did,” Zoë said. “Now, who are you?”

“I’m Tim Radford.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Zoë looked at me and I shrugged sheepishly. “You brought your ex and little brother with you?”

Cripes!
Did Eric tell everyone but me that this was an actual date?

“You
are
a trip, Princess.” Zoë laughed. “Remind me to explain the birds and bees to you later. But for now, I need to get up on stage. Did you remember to bring me that shirt I asked you about?”

I pulled my pale pink polo shirt with the alligator emblem out of my purse and handed it to her. “Is this the one?”

“Yeah.” She showed it to Henry. “Isn’t it hilarious?”

Since Zoë was wearing a black leather bodice with a skull and crossbones painted on it, I didn’t see the point of arguing with her about fashion sense.

She tucked my shirt under her arm and said, “Well, I better get up there—Nolan’s almost done with his crossword puzzle. Catch you fools later.”

As Chris watched her go, he said, “Isn’t she the greatest?”

He looked so lovelorn. I might’ve felt sorry for him if I didn’t hate him so much right now.

We sat down and stared at each other in awkward silence until Henry finally broke the lull by saying, “So, Tim, I hear there are a lot of good-looking women in Maine.”

Tim looked at me. “Not like there are here.”

“Too bad you couldn’t remember that once you got up north,” Eric said under his breath.

“What do you mean by that?” Tim asked.

“I mean that if I had to leave Mia for the summer,” Eric said, meeting Tim’s glare, “I wouldn’t have done what you did to her.”

“Uh-oh,” Henry whispered in my ear. “It looks like somebody has two guys fighting over her.”

I scowled at Henry, even though my insides were flipping around like an acrobat on steroids.
Wow!
A whole summer of nothing, and now I had two guys wanting me? Life was good.

Tim stood up and got in Eric’s face. “You don’t know anything about me.”

“Yeah?” Eric stood up, pressed his face close to Tim, and snarled, “I know you’re not good enough to date Mia.”

“Oh yeah?” Tim’s lips curled and his hands turned into fists.

“Yeah,” Eric replied, making a fist.

“OK,” said Henry, who stood up and placed his hands on Eric’s and Tim’s chests, separating them. “As interesting as this discussion is, I think it’s time for you guys to cool off. Who’d like an iced frappuccino? Eric’s buying.”

“Henry!” a voice screeched from across the room.

“Stephanie?” Henry turned toward the Brillo pad of red hair swooping through the crowd. “I thought you were busy tonight.”

“My friend and I decided to come here after all,” Stephanie said, emerging through the crowd.

Friend
? No. It couldn’t be. Was it?

“Tim!” Cassie exclaimed, rushing into Tim’s arms. “A little bird told me you were going to be here tonight.”

“Oh, yeah?” Tim stared helplessly at me as Cassie clawed into his back.

“You naughty boy. You were supposed to call me when you got back.”

“Oh, uh, well,” Tim stammered. “I was going to. It’s just—”

“I forgive you,” Cassie smiled, releasing him. As she turned around, she saw me and said, “What’s
she
doing here?”

“Don’t worry about the Meek Freak.” Stephanie made a face. “She’s here with Eric. I can’t believe I never told you about how they were all over each other last time I was here. Mia was all like, ‘What Tim doesn’t know won’t hurt him.’”

“What?” Tim said, his head swiveling toward me so fast I thought he’d give himself a concussion.

A guitar squeal blasted through the air and Zoë screamed, “Who wants to be sedated?”

The crowd went wild and an instant mosh pit formed as the audience banged into each other while Zoë wailed out a song.

I screamed to Tim over the noise, “I’ll explain everything later.”

“You better,” Tim said.

“The Barf Bags will be back in 15 minutes,” Zoë shouted into the microphone. Then she jumped off the stage, ran over to our table, and quickly said, “Eric, does Uncle Bill still store his hunting stuff in the trunk of your car? Jeremy needs to change the strings on his bass guitar, and we need a sharp knife to cut them.”

“Sure.” Eric handed her the keys to his car. “Just make sure you put everything back.”

Zoë pocketed the keys and Stephanie asked, “Is Jeremy the cute guy playing the guitar for your band?”

“Yeah. He plays bass. Why?” Zoë said.

“Why?” Stephanie replied. “Because he’s like totally hot. Do you think he’d mind if we watched him change his guitar strings?”

“As long as you shut up and quit slowing me down,” Zoë snarled, “I don’t care what you do.”

“Come on, Cassie,” Stephanie said, dragging Cassie out of her
chair, which was glued next to Tim’s. “Let’s go watch.”

Cassie looked at Tim. “Keep my seat warm for me. I’ll be back in a second.”

They took off after Zoë and Henry mimicked, “Ooh, he’s so cute.” Then he sighed. “Now I see why you guys hate her so much. Well, I’m not going to waste the rest of the night on that freckled freak,” Henry said, standing up. “There’s a cute little blonde chai tea latté sitting over there, just waiting for me to make her dreams come true. So, catch you guys later.”