“Let’s go rejoin the party,” he suggested, leading her to the stairs.
Everyone was in the family room and their collective attention turned to Mia and Ethan as they entered the room. Ethan walked ahead to the kitchen. She hung back, still a bit embarrassed by what was shown on the video. But overpowering the embarrassment was anger. That surprised her. They’d known about what she had done and that it was on tape. At some point over the past eleven years, one would have thought it’d have come up. Why now?
Eyeing each man that had been there that night, she spoke curtly, her accusing voice hanging in the air. “I can’t believe none of you ever told me about this.”
“Why does it matter now?” Marty asked.
Lizzie stepped forward, standing in front of Mia, her green eyes locking on hers, and they were so full of understanding that Mia wanted to cry. “Because she remembers. She remembers what he said. Right?” she asked, looking at Mia.
Mia nodded, tears in her eyes. If she would have known, things would have been much different. She would have been with Tom. She was sure they would have had a relationship back then. But she never had that chance. If only the guys had told her … then she realized that they hadn’t known it was Tom.
So …
“Why didn’t he talk to me about it then?” she asked, needing to know. Mia followed Lizzie’s gaze and her breath stopped when Lizzie’s eyes landed on Luke. He sat on the piano bench with Allie, watching this entire exchange.
“But he and I were over,” Mia stated, staring at Luke.
“But he came back into the picture. A few weeks later, he was there,” Lizzie said.
“You were all over Luke the night he returned, Mia,” Marc offered. That didn’t help. She felt gained up on and got defensive.
She scoffed at that. “I was not all over him.”
Marty and Clark laughed and raised their eyebrows. She turned to them and gave them her best pissed off mom look. “Don’t you two say a word.” She then turned back to Lizzie, her voice quieter. “Tom saw that?”
“Yeah,” she said simply, and with that she knew all the pain seeing that had caused him.
“Aw, fuck,” she groaned, rubbing her forehead. God, what did he think of me? I sleep with him one night and then move right on to Luke, yet again. She’d wondered why Tom had been so reserved around her after the kiss they’d shared. Now she knew.
“Mia …” Lizzie spoke quietly.
God, she’d hurt him and hadn’t even known it.
Her head was spinning. She needed a moment—alone. This was all too much. Her emotions were all over the place. She needed to process this. When she turned to walk away, her eyes landed on a sullen Ethan. He was learning a lot about her past tonight, especially what a mess she’d been back then, in front of all their friends.
He had been leaning against the counter, but as she tried to leave the room, he pushed off of it to prevent that, his hand gripping her arm. “There’s still so little I know about your past. So much you keep to yourself. I need to know what’s going on in here,” he said, pointing at her head. “Why, Mia? Why do you find it so hard to talk to me?”
This wasn’t the place for this talk. What he was asking was bigger than her and Tom. That plus being on edge had her feeling anger quickly boiling inside of her. She looked up at him.
“Now’s not the time for this, Ethan.”
“When is there ever a time?” he asked, clearly exasperated.
“Don’t push this, Ethan,” she warned again.
“Why the hell not?” he countered, aggravation replacing his hurt tone. “Finally open up to me, Mia. Take the fucking step. Tell me about Tom. Tell me about Luke. Just please stop holding it in.”
“You don’t want to hear what I have to say!” she shouted. This would hurt him to know. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw everyone gather in the family room, watching her and Ethan.
“No! That’s where you’re wrong, Mia. I want to hear it. I’m so goddamn tired of you hiding everything from me,” he fired back.
“Fine!” she yelled. “I loved him. Is that what you wanted to hear? I loved him and the night on that video was not the only time I slept with him. We had a relationship.”