Wait

"I need to talk to you as soon as possible." Although I spoke firmly into the phone, I still felt a little nervous. This was our first conversation since the night I broke up with Zac.

"Are you sure?" I couldn't blame the tentative response. If I were in that person's shoes, I'd be afraid of me right now too.

"Yeah." I spoke briefly, what I wanted to say needed to be done in person.

"All right.. You want me to come over?"

"Yeah. When can you get here?"

"Ten minutes, if I leave right now."

"Fine."

"Wait.. Promise you won't yell at me?" The voice I heard trembled slightly.

"Ok. See you then." I hung up the phone before the inevitable confrontation could be avoided. After more days of me quarantined in my room, I knew avoiding everyone wasn't the way to solve the situation.

Today is as good as any for me to start being confrontational. Taking a deep breath, I knew this wouldn't be easy. But it had been avoided for far too long.

"Hey." Mia shifted her weight nervously, her dark eyes examining the brick tiles lining our front porch.

"Hey," I replied quietly. Walking away from the open door, I called over my shoulder.

"Come on in."

"Thanks." She tentatively stepped over the door's threshold and trailed behind me into the living room. After sitting on the couch a few feet away from me, she finally raised her eyes to mine. She blinked in surprise, probably at the smile that formed on my lips. As she relaxed her rigid sitting position, her eyes filled with curiosity.

"I bet you're wondering why I called you over here." I started, folding my legs up into an Indian-style position.

"Yeah.. I figured I was the last person you wanted to see right now." She admitted with guilt in her voice.

"Well, up until today, you were." I grinned to let her know I was only kidding.

"Gee, thanks." She cracked a tiny smile. "But I noticed you haven't been at work recently."

"Nope, I've been avoiding two certain people for awhile. You're one of them." Noticing her face fall, I quickly added,

"But I actually wanted to thank you."

"Wait a minute.. Thank me?" That she certainly didn't see coming: her eyes widened and her eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Yeah.. If it weren't for you messing around with him, I wouldn't have broken up with Zac. I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about that."

"Same here." She spoke quietly.

"I just want you to know I'm terribly sorry. It-it was all a huge mistake. We were just sitting there, talking about love, being neglected, I don't-" She raised her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes.

"Mia, wait a minute yourself. Don't worry about it." I smiled.

"I forgive you. I can understand how something might've gotten out of hand." Seeing her looking even more confused, my smile faded as I explained further:

"Truth is, I had been neglecting Zac. And that's why breaking up was fair to the both of us, him more than me."

"You mean, you aren't angry at me?" She asked incredulously.

"Well, I wouldn't wish for something like that to happen out of the blue, especially with a close friend of mine, but it certainly helped open my eyes to my true feelings." I confessed, remembering my talk a few days ago with Nana.

That probably wouldn't have happened either without me finding Zac with Mia.

"You're.. so weird, Maggie." She laughed, shaking her head slightly.

"What?" I smiled innocently, folding my hands into my lap.

"You're really not mad?" She looked at me, her eyes wide with suspicion now, as if she thought I was going to snap any second.

This entire situation is too hilarious, I tried not to burst out laughing to avoid hurting her feelings.

The girl's probably been beating herself up enough about it, I noticed the dark circles under her slightly puffy eyes and guessed she'd had as many recent sleepless nights as I'd experienced.

"Like I said, I wished I could've broken up with Zac on my own terms, but you gave me an excuse to do so."

"I.. I don't think I'll ever understand you." She smiled nonetheless.

"That makes two of us. There is something good about things happening like they did, though." I grinned.

"I'm afraid to ask, but what?" She leaned back against the couch, feeling incredibly relieved about the whole situation.

At least she'll feel that way until I state my next opinion.. Although it would be a long time before our friendship returned to the level it was at before, I knew eventually it'd get back up there. I'm not a heartless person, just extremely sarcastic.

"This way, you're the 'bad guy,' not me."

"That was cruel," she frowned at me, but held her smile on her face.

"I never promised I'd be nice about it." Laughing, I stood up. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a nerve-racking evening to prepare for."

"What do you mean?" She asked curiously.

"Taylor's coming over."

"Ok, ok, ok, ok.." I muttered distractedly, wiping my hands dry on my jeans.

With a critical look in my eyes, I scanned this afternoon's project: the transformation of our living room. The first thing I'd done was whip out the vacuum cleaner, a task I utterly despise. It had taken me about twenty minutes to haul our large, and extremely heavy I'll add, oak table from the dining room to its current place in the middle of the living room. After several grunts, groans and swear words uttered under breathe, I'd managed to set it up in front of the fireplace, a nice, romantic touch in my mind. Mom's best white tablecloth had been placed under our sole china set, complete with matching silk napkins.

Origami finally came in handy, I grinned, adjusting the wings on the swan I'd made out of one of the napkins. Surprisingly enough, the nurse from the hospital had taught me.

So he was actually good for something afterall. I pushed two stubby, white candles near the white rose centerpiece Mom and Dad usually reserved for dinners with clients. As well as agreeing to get lost for the evening, Karen had relented to my whining about wanting to use it. I'd almost felt like an older child paying off the younger ones to leave the house for the night while shooing them out the door.

"God, I had no idea he was worth all this," I smiled, taking in the whole scene. As I walked into the kitchen to check on my second miracle of the day, preparing dinner, I caught a glance of myself reflected in the microwave door.

"Eeep!" My fingers immediately flew to my tousled hair. Running them across my left cheek, I caught a bit of the spaghetti sauce I'd spilled there earlier, now dried to a crumbly texture. Though not the most impressive display of cooking, I could only hope that Taylor would remember the first meal we'd eaten together, the night after..

"After Ike almost ran me over with his damn car," I cried out loud with a laugh.

Of all the ways to meet people. Only with my luck did I swing that moment.

Shaking my head, I removed the lid off the spaghetti sauce. Seeing it was settling nicely, I reached over for my stirring spoon and absently swirled it around the edges of the pan so the sauce would cook evenly. After a few seconds, I placed the lid back on and removed the dishtowel that hung at my hips, the best substitute for an apron, and tossed it on the kitchen counter.

"Time for miracle number three.. Me." I turned around and raced upstairs to my bedroom, determined to make myself a little more presentable despite the nervous butterflies flapping around my stomach. Catching the time, I figured I could take a quick shower before my company arrived.. or hopefully arrived I should say. I should add that I technically didn't talk to Taylor about coming over here, just left a message on his cell phone. For now, I could only pray that he'd gotten it.

"So much better." I sighed with relief after stepping out of the steamy shower. There's nothing like using all the hot water in the house to calm your nerves. Wrapped in my fuzzy green towel, I started the clothes rummaging process. Starting in my closet, I searched for the nicest dress I could find, only to come up short with nothing.

"This isn't workin--Ack!" I caught sight of the time on my alarm clock.

Fifteen minutes to go and still I'm stark naked. Frantically, I grabbed the nearest article of clothing my fingers brushed against; I recognized the plain, black dress as the one I'd worn on my first date with Zac after I'd slipped it over my head.

Oops.

"Oh, good enough." Scrambling over to my dresser, I spotted the pile of makeup I'd discarded weeks ago. My face had been plain ever since starting my "new look," which lasted about two days I tell you. This time I applied lighter amounts to my face, but still covered up my freckles with the best of my limited ability.

Whoever said freckles are cute probably never had 'em themself. Not that my cheeks were completely covered with the light brown blemishes, just smattered around enough to annoy me.

"Once again, good enough." With a wink at my reflection, I tried to calm myself down.

Don't give yourself a nervous breakdown. That would just add to the drama of your life. Talk about soap operas; almost every day of my life felt like I was just acting my part through some severely twisted plot, written by someone who had way too much time on their hands. Not like an actually creditable author. (Author's note: Maggie, shut up or I'll kill you off in the sequel. :o)

Ding dong. The ring of the doorbell startled me so much I nearly fell over. Slipping my feet into a pair of black flats, I bounded downstairs. With one final nod of approval at the living room setup, I jogged to the front door and flung it open quickly, greeting him instantly before I lifted my eyes to his gorgeous face.

"Hi." I found myself without breath either from running or the excitement of seeing HIM. This was it, he was actually here, right in front of me, face-to-face-

"Good afternoon, Miss. Please sign here." Ok, so it wasn't Taylor. My face flushing pink, I accepted the UPS man's clipboard and scratched away at it with my signature.

"Thanks." He took it back, handed a small box to me, tipped his hat slightly, and left.

"Great," I turned the small box in my hands, noticing it was addressed to Karen. After shaking it slightly in my hands and not hearing anything that sounded breakable, feeling disgruntled, I tossed it aside and watched it slide across the wood floor. Sighing, I took a seat at the base of the stairs. I had nothing else to do but wait.