Chapter 119: Are you married?
The waitress at the restaurant needed to brew another pot of coffee, and by the ti Mia returned to her car with the steaming to-go coffee cup, the man had nearly finished changing the tire.
Snow was already two inches deep on the ground and the biting wind was gathering force, whipping the sides of her coat open and making her eyes water. She saw him rub his bare hands together and thought of the new job he said was waiting for him tomorrow. She knew jobs these days were scarce, and based on his lack of a car, he was probably badly in need of money.
His trousers were new, she realized, noticing for the first ti the telltale vertical crease down the front of the legs when he stood up. He had probably bought new expensive clothes in order to make a good impression on his future employer, she mused, and the thought of him doing that sent sympathy pouring through her.
When she first graduated from the University, Mia rembered doing sothing like that. She had bought new expensive clothes in order to make a good impression in the agency, and it had cost her all the money in her bank account then. She knew the feeling of being desperate for a job.
Mia had never before offered a hitchhiker a ride, the risks were far too high, but she decided to do it this ti, not only because he had changed her tire or because he seed nice, but also because she had the strong urge in her heart to help him and see that he got his job.
He must have spent a fortune on those clothes alone. The poor thing wanted to give a good impression.
New thick coat, stiff and spotless, obviously purchased by a jobless man who was pinning all his hopes on a brighter future that wasn’t going to materialize unless soone gave him a ride at least partway to his destination so he could start to work. And she would be that soone. Mia decided with a small smile as she approached him.
"Wow, you finished it sooner than I expected," Mia said, walking up to him. She held the cup of coffee out to him and he took it with both hands that were red from the cold.
There was an aloofness about him that made her hesitate to offer him money, but on the second chance he would seem to prefer the ride, thus she offered anyway. "I’d like to pay you for changing the tire," she began, and when he curtly shook his head, she added, "In that case, can I give you a ride?"
"The ride would be fine," Neil said, accepting her offer with a brief smile as he quickly reached down and pulled his backpack out from under the car.
"I’m heading south, too." He lied again. It seed he would have to keep lying to her all the way until he had reached his destination. Even though he wanted to scold her of how easy it was to make her trust a stranger she knew nothing about, Neil held himself back as to not give himself away.
When they got into the car, he introduced himself to her as Roman Fernandez. And Mia introduced herself as Mia Harrison, but to make certain he realized she was just offering him a ride and nothing more, she carefully addressed him the next ti she spoke as Mr. Fernandez. He picked up her cue and thereafter called her Miss Harrison.
Mia relaxed completely after that. The formality of Miss Harrison was completely reassuring, and so was his imdiate acceptance of their situation. She didn’t want him to get the wrong impression that she had any other reasons for offering him a ride. After what happened to her five years ago, she had grown wary of n she didn’t know anything about but today she had found herself unable to leave this one behind after helping her with her tire.
Though his height and aura reminded her of the man she wanted so badly to forget, she knew he couldn’t be the one. And because she had hated a certain gray eyed man for killing her mother, it didn’t an she would hate every man who was as tall as he was...
The silence in the car suddenly beco awkward and the man beside her remained absolutely silent and distant. Mia began to wish she hadn’t insisted on formality. She knew she wasn’t good at hiding her thoughts, therefore he had probably realized at once that she was putting him in his place, a needless insult, considering that he had shown her only gallant kindness by changing her tire without even knowing who she was.
However, Mia didn’t start a conversation deciding it to be the best decision.
anwhile, Neil on the other hand was too busy with his thoughts to think of the awkwardness in the car. They had been on the road for full twenty minutes before he felt the strangling tension in his chest begin to dissolve, and he drew a long, full breath__his first easy breath in hours. No, months. Years.
Helplessness had raged in him for so long that he felt almost lightheaded without the feeling. He was finally able to relax and focus on the woman beside him, but just as he was about to turn to her, a black car roared past them, it cut across their lane to exit the highway, but it lost traction and spun around, missing Mia’s car by inches.
But only because the young woman beside him handled her vehicle with a surprising skill, causing him to look on in shock amusent.
Unfortunately, she also drove too damned fast, with the daredevil aggressiveness and fearless disregard of danger that was completely unlike the girl he knew before. In the past, whenever he drove fast with her in his car, she would look like a frightened rabbit, but now, she even had a smile on her face like a little maniac.
Neil suddenly wished there was so way he could suggest she let him drive instead, but she said in a quietly amused voice, "You can relax now, Mr. Fernandez, I’ve slowed down. I didn’t an to scare you like that."
"I wasn’t scared," he said with unintentional coldness.
Mia glanced sideways at him and smiled, a slow, knowing smile. "You’re holding onto the sides of your seat with both hands. That’s usually a dead giveaway. I’m good with the wheels, worry not." She assured confidently. Once upon a ti she used to be scared of speeding cars, now it was the only thing that took her mind of her worries and burden.
Two things struck Neil at once: This woman beside him wasn’t the Mia Harrison he used to know. And being around the opposite sex had beco completely awkward and alien to him. He also realized, the mont he turned to gaze at her, that she still had her breathtaking smile. The dent on her cheeks was so prominent he felt the urge to dip a finger into it.
Her smile glowed in her eyes and lit up her entire face, transforming what was rely a pretty face into one that was captivating. She had changed her hairstyle from how it used to look in the past, she now had a well cut fringe that covered her forehead.
Since wondering about her was infinitely preferable to worrying about things he couldn’t yet control, Neil concentrated on her with all of his attention. She wore no makeup except for a little lipstick, and there was a freshness about her, a simplicity in the way she changed her thick, shiny brown hair, all of which had made her look more younger like soone in her early twenties.
As he continued to gaze at her, Neil suddenly rembered sothing Kai had ntioned about her getting married. He looked down at her ring finger and noticed a beautiful diamond ring sitting perfectly on it.
"Are you married?" he asked bluntly, then winced at the brusque tactlessness of the question.
Obviously if they didn’t catch him and send him back to prison, he was going to have to relearn so things in his old characteristics. Neil thought as he waited for her reaction to his blunt question.
But Instead of being irritated by the question, she flashed him another one of those srizing smiles of hers and said in a voice laced with amusent, "Well, not yet, but almost. I an I’m engaged." She raised her hand to show him her engagent ring.
"To who!" Neil heard himself blurt, then he closed his eyes in disbelief at his sudden anger. He was soon going to give himself away if he wasn’t careful. Thus he quickly anded his words when he saw her glanced at him with a frown.
"I was surprised to hear that you are engaged," he explained , "you don’t look old enough to get married." He said with an indifferent tone but because of his concealed face, she couldn’t see through his mask.
She seed to sense his change in deanor, because she laughed awkwardly and said, "I’m 26, I’m old enough for that."
For so reason, Neil suddenly felt like a blow had been sent to his gut. A sense of betrayal suddenly consud him, it surged through him until he could barely breathe and clenched his fist to control himself. Why was he angry at the fact that she was marrying another man? She wasn’t his then, and she would never be now.
Fate had already decided their paths since they were still little. They had been separated then, and they had been now. She had never been his to keep even though she had been the girl he loved as a boy. Life change, people change. But why was he finding it hard to accept the fact that she was getting married to soone else?
Neil was puzzling over that when she suddenly asked what he did for a living, and he answered with the first occupation that seed to suit what he’d already told her about himself.
"I’m applying for a job as an assistant director of Real Estate Developnt firm."
"Really? My fiancee is also into that field. He is the CEO of a real estate company in Mirage sa. You must have heard about him in the news. He’s one of the top one businessn in the country. Owen Sullivan. If you want I can put in so words for you to get an opportunity_"
"No!" He cut her off coldly at the re ntion of the man she was getting married to. So she was finally marrying her childhood sweetheart? Owen Sullivan, Neil thought with a deep resentnt towards the man. How did he even climb to the top of the business chain when he had been just a nobody five years ago?
Ironically, he was now the wanted criminal while the other was now one of the richest n in the world. Neil thought bitterly. But then when he noticed his earlier rejection had affected the young woman beside him, he cleared his throat and anded. "I an, I don’t want to work in Mirage sa as I have no place to stay. You have helped
enough with the ride."
Mia took her eyes from the road, which alard him because he didn’t trust her daredevil driving, and she regarded him intently, which also alard him even more.
"If you are qualified for the job, you will get a place to stay. Think about it." She probbed. Mia didn’t know why she was insisting on helping him. But Owen had also started from a very small position before he reached the position he was now, he had explained to her how a kind man had helped him years ago and gave him a job, she knew if she were to introduce this man to him, he would help him with a position in his company.
"I’m not interested in working in Mirage sa," Neil stated flatly, making it clear he wasn’t interested in continuing that conversation with her. He would rather be dead than work under that bastard, which he wasn’t even in need of the job.
"Alright." Mia replied and concentrated on the road. He was a very unusual man. She couldn’t decide whether she liked his company in her car or not. And she couldn’t get over the uneasy feeling that he reminded her of soone. She wished she could see his face without those sunglasses and face mask...
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