Mia was worried she was going to get some smart remark from Craig when she said something about now judging her. She had been preparing herself for it and beginning to think of all the things he could say and the many comebacks that she could throw back at him. When he started to speak the first time she braced herself for his words, but he seemed decided to correct himself. She listened to him closely, but he didn’t say much. Still, when he said she was right she smiled over at him, a hand falling towards his knee. “Thanks Craig,” she said, with a very soft, almost airy, voice. She didn’t want to talk about her and Jess’ sex life, at least not now. Yeah, she knew Craig was going to want to know a little more about it later but hopefully that would be after he stopped being hurt by the subject, because she could tell he was, and when she was a little more comfortable talking about it and be able to believe that he wasn’t thinking any less of her because she had slept with another man when they had been broken up. She also liked being told she was right, even though she knew she was right from the start.

Mia had to admit that she was a little nervous about their relationship the second time around. Though she had been fine with how the relationship had been before there were a few things that she would really like to change. Yeah, she did like the sex they had, but she was hoping he could show that he wanted her for other reasons a little more than he had before. She was hoping that he may be able to be more romantic and spontaneous but she couldn’t make him something that he wasn’t and she really like him just the way he was. She wasn’t sure if she would ever get the romance without initiating it herself, but she did think she would be able to get him to go along with her if she decided to try that and now she thought she would have the courage to initiating a few more things then she did before. Her only hope was that he matured a little and understood why they had broken up so he could fix that. She was going to try and fix all of her past mistakes and she needed him to do the same if this was going to work.

Mia smiled when Craig said he would bring Kerr along. Mia loved it when Kerr went t the beach. She and Craig would take him there every once in a while to just spend some time together and watch the dog’s playful antics. She was excited to do that again. She was also looking forward to being with Craig and not worrying what Jess would be thinking. Well, honestly she probably will worry. She didn’t want Jess to think anything bad about her and she knew he was going to, which was hard to think about. Jess was a great man, he really was, but it was Craig that she felt for romantically, or at least who she felt more lovingly for. Craig was the one she wanted to be close to and it was his arms she wanted to be wrapped in after sex. She didn’t know why it had taken her so long to decide what she wanted because now that she knew it seemed to obvious and the time she spent with Jess felt like a waste, even though he had been great and she had been happy.

Both of Mia’s hazel eyes closed when he kissed her forehead. She knew this shouldn’t feel right, but it did. She loved feeling his lips against her skin and wished that she could kiss him too, but knew she had already gone too far that night. She was going to have to go home and pretend she wanted to be with Jess for another night. He worked early in the morning too, so she would have to tell him probably after her shift, which was another reason she asked for the meeting time to be pushed back a half hour. She wanted to have an excuse to leave the conversation with Jess and let him calm down before they tried talking about it again, because she knew they were going to have a long conversation about it later. She was disappointed when he spoke, but she just nodded, knowing she had to leave. “Okay, meet you in the parking lot?” she asked, making sure she didn’t have to go through the whole beach to find him, but giving him the ok to meet wherever he wanted instead. “Have a good night,” she said, finally standing up to leave.

After saying goodbye to Craig multiple times she finally managed to get herself to leave without giving him any physical contact. She still wasn’t comfortable walking in the dark like this, but she didn’t want to ask Craig for a ride back. She knew it would be hard for Craig and she also was worried Jess would have gotten up and would be waiting for her. He knew Tanya’s car, and he also knew Craig drove a BMW. She walked very quickly, eyes towards the ground and the only noise was the sound of her tennis shoes hitting the pavement. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do when she got back to Jess’ house, but she would cross that bridge when she got there. Right now she wanted to be safely inside, she certainly wasn’t comfortable out in the dark at this time of night alone.

She got back to Jess’ house and unlocked the door and let herself back inside. As she turned around to lock the door behind her she heard Jess’ voice from the room they usually shared. “Mia, that you?” he asked. “Yeah babe, give me a second, I’ll be right there,” she slid of her shoes and hoodie before going into the kitchen. She got a long drink of water as she thought it over. She didn’t have a choice now; she had to sleep with Jess that night to allow things to end as gracefully as possible. She didn’t really want to, but Jess deserved to be respected, even though life would have been easier if he would have just given her the note. In fact, she may have decided to stay with Jess in that case, because Craig showing his feelings really tipped her towards wanting to be with him again. With a deep sigh she set her glass in the sink and walked towards the bedroom, turning off the lights as she moved.

Mia let herself into the room. Jess asked her how everything had gone, if Tanya had given her a ride home, if everything was okay and all that stuff. Mia obviously just nodded and said everything was alright as she pulled off her pants and bra before crawling into bed with Jess. When he wrapped an arm around her and started to kiss her neck she pushed him away gently. “Not now, I’m so tired,” she lied once again. Jess pulled away but kept his arm around her waist, trying to pull her close but she brushed his arm back as well. “Please, I just wanna sleep,” as she said this she could hear Jess sigh. He reached over one last time and kissed her temple once before settling back into bed. “G’night babe, I won’t wake you up before I leave,” he said and Mia nodded through the darkness, but couldn’t speak. Resting here just made her remember how much she longed to be with Craig instead and it was painful for her to know that he wanted that too.