Loving The Temperamental Adonis
Chapter 168: Pretend date

Chapter 168: Pretend date

Ten minutes later after they left the living room, Mia was seated on the kitchen counter with Neil standing in front of her, between her parted legs, completely relaxed, laughing because they couldn’t decide what to do with their evening even after thinking about numerous fun things to pass time but the cold outside was starting to look and seem like a snowstorm, causing them to remain indoors.

"I’ll make out a list," Mia teased, pulling the note pad and pencil closer to her and placing it against Neil’s chest for support. For some reason, being in a place where there were no phones and internet was more fun and beautiful than she’d thought. It was beautiful because she was here with the man she loved, it was beautiful because the sight of him standing in between her legs with his strong arms wrapped around her waist was the most intimate and wonderful thing that had ever happened in all of her life.

She smiled silently to herself as she prepared to write on the notepad, "So far, you’ve suggested making love." She wrote that down while he leaned over her and tried to watch what she was writing with a grin, but because she’d placed the note against his chest, he could only look at her face.

"And making love. And making love. And making love. Is that the only fun thing on your mind?" She chuckled shaking her head.

"Did I only bring that up four times?" Neil joked when she finished writing down his earlier suggestions for a fun thing to pass time.

"Yes, and I agreed all four times,

but we were supposed to be thinking of ideas for the early part of the evening, look, it’s just 5: 30 P.M."

Neil smiled, taking the note from her hand, he looked down at it to see what she’d been writing and It hit him then what he’d noticed earlier when she was writing the names of the suspects he’d listed for her in the living room, and he looked up at her from the note.

"Your handwriting is so precise, it looks as if the words have been typeset."

"Well," she replied with a smile, "when I was a little girl, I didn’t know how to read and write until we moved to Whispering way and I got enrolled in special classes at the local schools. When I started attending the school, I stayed in my room all day after school to perfect my handwriting."

Neil was dumbstruck for a moment at that revelation because the girl he’d befriended as a child knew how to read and write, and he’d witnessed her write and read the song lyrics he’d once written for her. Nonetheless, he couldn’t help but ask, "Why?"

Turning slowly on the counter, Mia looked up at him. "Because," she said, "My mom told me she didn’t have the money to send me to school then, so when we moved to Whispering way, she did everything in her best to send me to school. I couldn’t read more than a few words and I couldn’t write anything more than my name and that not legibly."

"How was that possible?" He asked, still trying to process her words, but then recalling how she didn’t even remember her childhood, he concluded that she must have forgotten how to read and write as well and had to relearn everything.

"Lack of schooling made that possible. When I told you about my childhood, I left that part out."

"Purposely?" Neil asked, as she got down from the counter and walked around it to get a glass of water.

"It might have been deliberate, although I didn’t consciously decide to hide it from you. Funny, isn’t it?"

"I don’t understand how that could happen, not to someone as bright as you. I learned you always came at the top of your classes in highschool."

She gave him a look that made him long to snatch her into his arms and kiss it off her soft lips as she said loftily, "For your information, it can happen to anyone, Mr. Wayner, and being bright doesn’t have a thing to do with it. I worked hard to make up for my lost time in school as a teenager."

Mia recalled all those times being in school for the first time, though the memories were faint, she recalled always keeping to herself and hanging around Owen like a tail because she feared her peers would mock her for being an illiterate.

"Were you ashamed, as young as you were?" Neil asked, reeling from this new insight into her childhood which he was unaware of. When they were in Mirage Mesa, she’d been a very bright little girl which had made him assume that she’d grown up being intelligent.

She nodded, swallowing some water, then she put the glass aside. "I used to try to sit in the front row when I did go to school, so I wouldn’t have to see the other kids’ faces when they laughed at me."

Neil hardly knew how to cope with the emotions raging inside him at the thought of her as a little child, trying to work her way through life in a sprawling, dirty city where no one cared. Clearing his throat, he said, "I’m sorry you went through that as a child."

"Don’t be. Everything I went through as a child made me who I am today." She flashed him that same dimpled smile of hers that always made him go crazy.

Helpless to keep from touching her, Neil put his hand on her shoulder and playfully nipped her ear. She laughed, then she tipped her head sideways and lightly rubbed her soft cheek against the top of his hand. The simple, loving gesture made Neil’s spirits plummet abruptly, because it forcibly reminded him that after tonight there’d be no more gestures of any kind.

He had already made the decision to let her go tomorrow. He should have let her go this morning, but he couldn’t, not when she would have hated him forever, and the longer he kept her with him, the harder it was going to be to let her go at all. Sending her away tomorrow, when there was a chance she’d fall under interrogation in the hands of the military, meant that he would have to leave as well, but it was worth the added risk to know she’d be safe from any further helicopter invasions that would come to attack next.

Trying to banish the bleak mood settling over him, Neil said, "Whatever we do tonight, let’s make it special. Festive." It took every ounce of the little acting ability he possessed to keep the smile on his face so she wouldn’t realize nor suspect he was sending her away in the morning.

Mia thought for a moment on what kind of thing they could do to make the night special, and after a while she smiled suddenly. "How about a pretend date? I mean we’ve never been on one and we could have it here. I will dress up and we will have a candlelight dinner and a couple dance. But we can do something else if you don’t like that," she threw in for precaution before she realized that she didn’t need any precaution at all: He was nodding with a relieved pleasure that Mia thought was surprisingly excessive for her modest idea.

"Great, I like that idea," he agreed at once. He glanced at his watch. "I’ll use the bathroom in your room and ’pick you up’ in an hour and a half. Will that give you enough time to dress up?" He inquired, aware of the time it usually took women to prepare, especially for a date. He wanted the occasion to be special for both of them, ensuring she had a lot of time to dress up.

Mia chuckled. "I think even an hour is more than enough of time for whatever transformation I can make."

He grinned, leaning in to give her a quick kiss on the lips, saying, "Alright then. I’ll come get you in an hour. Bye."

Watching him dash up the stairs and disappear from her sight, Mia set down her glass of water on the counter and headed to his room. A strange, indescribable feeling swelled in her heart at his parting word ’Bye’. However, she pushed aside the sentiment and beamed with excitement at the prospect of their date.