"He showed up at your work?" Ruth exclaimed, her eyes flared wide.
Mia nodded. She rearranged the blanket along her legs, the tattered quilt one of Ruth's botched crochet attempts. "Right after my date with Harlan." Mia shrugged. The whole thing had felt surreal.
Just too ridiculous to be reality.
She knew Lake had a hard time letting things go. But this was too much. Even for Lake.
"He just stepped out of the shadows like he was waiting," Mia continued.
Ruth shivered. "Fucking perv," she mumbled while reaching over Mia's lap for another handful of popcorn. "I never liked that guy," she admitted with a mouthful of butter and salt.
Mia snorted. "No way," she exclaimed dryly. "I never would have guessed." It wasn't a secret Ruth hated Lake. Ever since Mia introduced the two to one another it had been an instant feud.
It's like she had a sixth sense for sniffing out losers.
"Get rid of him," had been Ruth's first words after she'd first met Lake. Now if only Mia had actually listened to that sage advice.
No. The only one that seemed to actually genuinely like Lake was Gigi. Again, another red flag that Mia should have been more primed to notice.
"Enough about Lake," Jan, Ruth's girlfriend, chimed in while strolling into the living room. She plopped herself onto the couch beside Ruth. "I want to know how the date with Mr. Dream Boat went," she teased with a wink.
Ruth clapped her hands together with a giggle. "Yeah! How was the date?"
Mia sat back, a soft smile pulling at her lips. One thought of Harlan had every Lake related topic melting away like snow under the winter sun.
"It was..." Mia signed. She'd never been at a loss for words before. Especially when it came to a guy. "Amazing," she said at last.
Jan snuggled under Ruth's arm with a lazy grin. "Where'd you two crazy kids go?" she asked. Mia liked Jan. She was smart, she didn't party, and she'd made Ruth a better person over the past few years.
How Ruth managed to snag a girl like Jan was beyond Mia. She loved her sister, but Ruth's typical type was ditzy blondes who thought JFK was the chicken guy, Colonel Sanders, from KFC.
Jan was different. She was light and happy and everything Ruth tended to forget was important. It took her sister too long to realize that stone cold facts and logic couldn't formulate happiness.
Mia was just glad that Ruth had finally found her Juliette.
The only one that had a problem with Jan was their Dad. But as far as that man's opinion went, Mia couldn't care less what the guy thought.
He was a homophobic SOB. And that was only one of the reasons she hadn't talked to him in almost over a year.
Mia shook her head. No reason to spoil a good night. Well, what would have been a good night if Lake hadn't shown up.
"We went to this place called Twyla's," Mia said with a dreamy smile. "It was magical."
Jan and Ruth both burst out with barks of laughter.
Mia frowned. "What's so funny?"
Jan shook her head with a wave of her hand. "Nothing, nothing."
"We're just really happy for you!" Ruth chimed in.
"Yeah," Jan urged. "It's been a while since you've seemed so...happy."
Ruth nodded. "Too long, sis."
Mia smiled softly. "Yeah," she agreed. "I know."
That night the unexpected happened. Like more bizzare than Lake pulling a phantom of the opera and showing up at her work.
Mia jolted up from the couch as the muffled buzzing of her phone woke her up. She frowned, her lashes woven together with crusted sleep.
The kitchen light was still on, as was the TV. She must have fallen asleep to the muted reruns of The Office. She remembered wanting to make popcorn.
Mia looked over at the kitchen, the dim stove light still on. She never did get around to making that popcorn.
The caller ID displayed across the shatterd screen of her phone came up as unknown. Probably some tellamarketer.
Mia had half a mind to ignore the call and flop right back into snooze mode. But something made her drag her thumb across the answer button. Her gut churned as she held the phone up to her ear.
Something told her this wasn't a random caller wanting to know about her current cellphone plan.
"Hello?" Her voice was still groggy with sleep. The corner seams of her lips stuck together, unwilling to admit it was time to get up.
"Um, Mia?" The voice was an unfamiliar one. It was deep, the rich Texan accent spilling through the phone like molasses.
Mia sat up. She scratched her head. The hair depressingly matted from sleep. "Yeah? Who is this?" she asked. She tried to not sound too demanding. But come on, it was 3 in the morning. She felt she was entitled to some degree of bitchiness.
"My name's Tegan, I'm a friend of Harlan's," the man explained.
Mia shot up. Her heart instantly kicked into overload, the muscle beating like an 808 an acid. "Is he okay?" Mia jumped to her feet. She had already begun searching for her clothes.
Keys. Where were her damn keys?!
"He's okay!" Tegan assured quickly.
Mia stumbled back onto the couch, her hand hovering over her chest. She sighed. "Thank God," she murmured. Mia was far from religious. But the words tumbled from her mouth involuntarily.
"So, uh." Mia cleared her throat as she straightened. "What's the problem then?"
"It's Harlan..." There was muffled shouting in the background. Like someone was yelling through glass. "He...well, I don't actually know what happend. But I think you should come over," Tegan suggested with a nervous laugh.
Mia jumped back as the sound of something shattering echoed over the phone. She could hear shards of whatever had been smashed fall to the floor in a chorus of ear-bleeding vibrations.
"Not the TV!" She heard Tegan yell. The words were muffled slightly, as if the guy was holding his hand over the speaker. It was followed by another crash.
Mia stood up again, her adrenaline returning tenfold. "What happened?" she asked. Mia strained to hear the yelling in the background. Was that Harlan?
"Again, I don't know," Tegan said. "But you should get here. Soon. Preferably before he sets the house on fire."
"Um." Mia shifted her weight from foot to foot. A nervous tick she thought she'd out grown since elementary. "Are you sure I should come over? Maybe there's someone else that could help?"
She cared about Harlan. A lot more than she'd ever cared for any guy before. But she didn't know what she would be walking into, or what lines she'd be crossing.
"All I know is he said your name a couple of times," Tegan confessed. "I don't have anyone else to call, okay? You'll only be helping him."
Mia gripped the phone tight. "He said my name?" she asked. More to herself than the stranger.
"Yeah. He wouldn't give me his phone so I had to look you up on the company directory."
Mia nodded sluggishly. More of her brain was still asleep than it was awake. But she was alert enough to know she had to get to Harlan.
Even if that meant crossing a few lines.
Hell, she didn'teven know what to call him. Her boss? Friend? Boyfriend? They'd been on one date that did little to distinguish the nature of their relationship.
"Okay, yeah," she decided finally. "I'll be there."
Tegan gave her the address. Harlan's muffled yelling trickled through the phone line, occasionally causing Tegan to restate the address.
He repeated the string of numbers again.
It was a familiar one. Harlan's mansion, the one she'd visited the other day.
Finished writing down the address on a discarded piece of paper, Mia thanked Tegan before hanging up.
The last words she'd heard before hitting the end call button was Tegan's muffled hollar. "Put the matches down, you dummy!" he yelled.
Followed by Harlan's dark drawl. "Piss off," he slurred as the call ended. He sounded wasted. Beyond wasted. Like he'd gone into a bar and ordered the entire menu.
Mia quickly scrambled for her clothes. A pair of sweats she'd managed to put on inside out and backwards, and her Disneyland T-shirt. Also inside out. But she wouldn't realize that for another thirty minutes until she was pulling up the almost emptied driveway of Harlan's mansion.
The towering steeples and stone walkway looked different without all the cars and drunken party guests.
With no time to dissect the house, Mia jumped out of her car. She didn't even lock it before barreling up the front steps.
"Harlan?" she yelled. She reached up to knock only to find the door not only unlocked but slightly ajar.
Frowning, Mia swung open the door. Her lips parted as the entrance groaned in protest.
Her eyes bulged and her jaw grew slack. "Holy shit," she breathed while taking in the carnage of the mansion.
And that's when she heard Harlan.