Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 61657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61657 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Watching the screen in disgust, I demanded, “Penny, what the fuck is this?”
Penny sneered. “Mia isn’t the only one that can break into your surveillance videos.”
“Penny, you’re my assistant. You have all my passwords. It’s hardly breaking in,” I countered.
“Whatever!” Penny said. “The point is, Theo, I took old footage of you and another woman and paid someone to put my face in the video.” She smiled proud of herself.
How had I never suspected Penny was a complete nut job all these years?
She continued, “Doesn’t the video look good? I get so horny watching it.”
This was completely crazy. Penny needed mental help. At this point, I didn’t want to provoke her. Who knew what she was capable of?
“It’s too bad Mia didn’t like it when I showed it to her,” Penny pouted.
Gritting my teeth, I held in my anger and slowly backed out of the bedroom.
Penny called after me, “Theo! Where are you going?” Her voice sounded right on the edge of freaking out.
“I’m going downstairs to grab champagne to celebrate. Sit right there! Don’t move!” I lied.
Penny purred, “Oh, Theo! I knew you’d come around!”
I ran downstairs and out the front door, calling 911. “I’d like to report a break in,” I said calmly to the dispatcher.
The dispatcher took my information and reported that the police were on the way. In the meantime, I sat in my car waiting for them and thinking about how much Penny had cost me.
Mia. My Mia. She was going to be my wife. I had been so close to the dream life I never thought I wanted, but it was gone now. Just like that.
When the police came and took Penny away, she looked crazed refusing to cooperate with the police officers. “Theo! Theo! I love you!” she screamed as they put her in back of the squad car.
I couldn’t bear to look at her. As much as I wanted to hate her, I couldn’t. She was clearly sick.
Once they were gone, I jumped in my car, racing to get to Mia’s dorm. If she wouldn’t take any of my calls or answer any of my messages, my only choice was to try to talk to her in person.
If only Mia would just let me talk to her and explain, then everything would be cleared up. She’d see that it was all a misunderstanding, but when I got there, Mia didn’t answer the door.
“What do you want?” her roommate, Jill spat at me.
“Please just let me talk to Mia,” I pleaded trying to look around her to see if Mia was there.
“Mia isn’t here.” Jill tried to slam the door shut, but I put my hand on it.
“Please. Tell me where she is. If she’s here, tell her I’m here.” My voice began to unravel. “I love her. Please.”
Jill glowered at me with fury in her eyes. “I’m not going to tell you anything about Mia. What you did to her is unforgivable!”
“None of it is true!” I pleaded, but Jill slammed the door shutting me out.
How was I going to get Mia back if I couldn’t even see her, and she refused to take my calls?
22
Mia
After reading the minutes from the Board meeting, I was inconsolable. Depression descended on me like thick gray clouds and wouldn’t let me go. Three days went by and I hardly got out of bed, only to use the bathroom and drink sips of water.
Jill sat on the edge of my bed, pleading for me to eat. None of the food she had snuck out of the cafeteria looked enticing enough. Sweet Jill even picked out all the marshmallows in a Lucky Charms box into a bowl hoping I’d nibble on the crunchy morsels. When that didn’t work, she piled Danish pastries on my desk.
But I just couldn’t eat. My appetite had dried up just like the love between Theo and me. There was just nothing left.
She told me that Theo had come by a few times begging to see me, but I never wanted to see him again. Jill was a good friend like that, blocking him from getting to me and supporting my decision.
Most of my time in bed, I let myself tumble into the bliss of sleep. Asleep, I couldn’t feel the ache in my chest and the uselessness of my grief. Asleep, my mind didn’t wander to the video of Theo with Penny. It was burned into my memory.
After the third day of seclusion, Jill pressed me to go back home. She even bought me the ticket and drove me to airport. By then, I was too weak to refuse, too mired in my sadness to object to my best friend’s requests.
Back home in Carpinteria, my mood slowly improved. Simply being out of Berkeley helped. There was nothing in my hometown to remind me of Theo. The ache in my body still throbbed with sadness, but the acute pain had waned. My mother saw how sallow and pale I looked upon my arrival. It was easy to stay in bed and tell her that I was just sick with a cold.