Chapter 91 Mh

Chapter 91 Mh
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN — PUBLIC DATE

Chloe shows up Monday morning glowing, practically floating down the hallway.

"Eli took me to the diner. Then we walked the reservoir for two hours."

"That's amazing."

"Someone posted a photo of us. Different, being seen together on purpose instead of by accident."

I force a smile, mostly real, though the phrase on purpose lands strange, given how many weeks Caleb and I have spent being seen doing exactly the opposite.

That evening, Caleb picks me up for dinner. Quiet this time. No press outside. No Richard at a nearby table. No performance required.

He holds the restaurant door. "No cameras tonight. Just us."

"That's new."

"Figured we could use one night that isn't a photo op."

Over dinner, he mentions a sponsor event scheduled right after the sixty days end, casual, like it's just another date on a calendar. I set my fork down before I realize I've stopped eating.

I admit, the words out before I can stop them. "I'm scared. Of what happens when the contract actually ends. No more official reason for you to keep showing up."

"Don't need a contract to keep showing up. Haven't needed one in weeks."

"You say that now."

He reaches across the counter. "I mean it now. And after. Can't promise you the future, Mia. Nobody can promise that. But I can promise I'm not measuring this in sixty-day increments anymore."

I hold onto his hand instead of answering, the restaurant quiet around us.

Later, at a red light, he glances over. "You went quiet."

"Good quiet. Just thinking."

"About?"

"About how the realest conversation we've had all week happened over a plate of pasta with no cameras anywhere near us."

He pulls back onto the road. "Maybe that's the whole point. Everything real happens when nobody's watching."

Chloe texts before I'm even inside.

How was the no-cameras date?

Really good.

Details. Now.

Tomorrow. Tonight I just want to sit with it a while longer.

Fair. Glad you had a good night, Mia.

I climb the stairs slow. I want to keep tonight a little longer before anyone, even Chloe, picks it apart with me.

My mom's still up. "You look happy."

"I am happy."

"Good night with Caleb?"

"Best one yet. No cameras. No press. Just pasta."

She pats the couch. "Sounds like what you two needed. Sit. Tell me."

I tell her the whole thing. The sponsor event, the fear I admitted out loud, his promise about the sixty days.

"He sounds like he's really in this. Not just for show."

"I think he is."

Something old and tired crosses her face. "Good. You deserve someone who shows up when nobody's watching. Your father only ever showed up when there was an audience. This boy seems different."

"Me too."

She heads to bed. I sit there a while longer, Caleb's promise still warm in my chest, and sleep finds me faster than it has all month.

By morning, someone's spotted him waiting by my locker with two coffees.

"Figured you could use one before first period."

"Didn't have to do that."

He hands it over, warm against my cold fingers. "Wanted to. Also wanted to see you before the day got busy."

"We're getting more moments like this lately, though."

He leans against the lockers. "Yeah. I like that trend. Meant everything I said last night. In case you were worried it was just restaurant talk."

"I wasn't."

"Good." He heads off toward class, coffee still warm in my hands as I linger by the lockers a moment longer.

Chloe catches up, practically vibrating. "Coffee delivery? That's new."

"He wanted to see me before the day got busy."

She slings an arm around my shoulders. "Disgustingly sweet. I need dinner details at lunch, though. You can't just say it went well and disappear."

"I'll tell you. Promise."

We head to first period together, my coffee still warm, the day stretching out ahead of us with nothing more complicated than classes and lunch waiting on the other side.

At lunch, Chloe practically tackles me the second I sit down.

"Okay. Full details. Now. You promised."

"He drove me to a diner. Quiet one, not the one Eli took you to. No cameras. No press. We just talked."

"About what?"

"About what happens when the contract ends. I told him I was scared. He said he's not measuring this in sixty-day increments anymore."

Chloe sets down her fork entirely. "Mia. That's basically a declaration."

"That's what I said."

"How are you feeling about all this?"

I pick at my food. "Terrified. Hopeful. Both at once, somehow. Feels different than it did a month ago."

"Good different?"

"Good different."

She bumps my shoulder. "Then that's all that matters. You deserve good different, after everything."

The rest of lunch passes easy, the whole cafeteria buzzing around us same as always, but for once none of the noise touches the quiet certainty sitting steady in my chest since last night.

After school, Caleb catches me by my car before I can pull out of the lot.

"You survive lunch with Chloe's interrogation?"

"Barely. She wanted every detail twice."

He leans against my door, unhurried. "Sounds about right. For what it's worth, I'm glad the dinner meant as much to you as it did to me."

"It meant a lot."

He steps back to let me pull out. "Good. Text me when you get home?"

"I will."

I drive off with him still standing there in my rearview mirror, and by the time I pull into my own driveway, my phone's already buzzing with a message asking if I made it safe, same small habit he's picked up over the past few weeks that somehow means more than it should.

My mom's in the kitchen when I get inside, humming while she chops vegetables for dinner.

"You look happy."

"I am happy."

"Two good nights in a row. Must be something in the water lately."

I grab a carrot off her cutting board, earning a swat on the hand. "Must be. Caleb's really trying, Mom. In ways I didn't expect."

She hands me a knife and a cutting board of my own. "I can tell. You've been different since that dinner, whichever one you mean. Make yourself useful if you're going to stand there smiling at nothing."

I help her finish dinner, ordinary and good in a way I've stopped questioning quite so much lately.

After dinner, I text Caleb one more time before bed.

Thanks for tonight. All of it.

Thank you for trusting me with the scared part. Not everyone gets that from you.

You're earning it. Slowly.

I'll take slowly. Better than never.

I set the phone down. No cameras, no contracts, just two people who apparently keep choosing each other even when nobody's watching to see it happen.

I fall asleep easier than usual, the sponsor event and the sixty-day countdown both feeling like distant, manageable things instead of looming deadlines, his promise from the restaurant counter still sitting warm somewhere in my chest.