415 Bump into me
Chapter 415 Bump into me
Mia’s POV
“Better?” Kyle asked.
His voice was low. Rough.
His hands were still on my waist. Warm through the thin fabric of my dress. I could feel each individual finger. And the pressure.
Just for a second, they lingered. His thumbs pressed gently against my ribcage. Not pulling me closer. Not pushing me away. Just–holding.
Then they dropped.
“Much better,” I said.
My voice came out quieter than I meant it to. Softer. Like something had shifted in my throat without permission.
Kyle bent down and picked up both shoes. My ridiculous heels that cost too much and hurt too much.
He held them in one hand, the straps tangled together, dangling from his fingers.
“I’ll carry these,” he said.
We kept walking.
The path curved ahead of us, white marble glowing pale in the dark. On either side, the gardens stretched out. More manicured perfection. More expensive landscaping. Hedges shaped into geometric patterns. Flowers that probably had long Latin names.
The sounds of the party drifted across the space between us and them. Laughter that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Music with bass so deep I could feel it in my chest even from here. Splashing from the pool. Voices rising and falling like waves.
All of it distant now. Muted. Like it was happening to someone else. Like Kyle and I had stepped through some invisible barrier into a different world where sound worked differently.
My bare feet made small sounds on the marble. Soft padding. The stone was cool but not cold. Smooth. Someone probably power–washed this path every morning. Probably had a whole team dedicated to maintaining these gardens. To making sure every pebble was in place. Every leaf uncrumpled.
I could hear Kyle’s breathing beside me. That rough sound his lungs made now. Not terrible. Not the wheezing that came when he overexerted. Just a reminder that every breath took effort.
My own breathing felt tight. But not from exertion. From something else. Something that sat in my chest and pressed against my ribs.
“I’m tired,” I said.
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The words came out before I could stop them. Before I could think about what they meant. What I was admitting.
“I know.” His voice was gentle.
“No. I mean “I stopped walking. Turned to face him.
I stopped again.
“I know,” he said again.
Kyle’s hand found my elbow. His fingers wrapped around it.
“Sit,” he said.
It wasn’t a suggestion. It was an instruction. Gentle but firm.
There was a bench. White stone–marble, probably, because everything here was marble. Curved back. Wide seat. Positioned perfectly to look out over the gardens toward the distant glow of the party.
I sat. The stone was cool under my thighs even through my dress.
Kyle sat beside me. He set my shoes down on the ground beside the bench. Careful. Like they mattered more than they did.
I leaned back against the stone. Let my spine curve into it. Let my head tilt up toward the sky.
The stars.
God, the stars.
The sky was clear. Completely clear. Not a cloud anywhere. Stars visible despite all the lights from the venue. Thousands of them.
These stars were bright. Sharp. Like someone had punched holes in black velvet and light was pouring through from the other side.
I’d forgotten. Somehow I’d forgotten what stars looked like when you could actually see them.
“I forgot stars looked like this,” I said. My voice sounded far away. Dreamy.
“Like what?”
“Like something that matters.”
Kyle was quiet. Just sat there beside me. His face tilted up too.
Both of us looking at the same sky. Seeing the same impossible distance.
My eyes felt heavy. That particular heaviness that came from too much work and too little sleep and whiskey hitting an empty stomach and making everything feel soft around the edges. My eyelids wanted to close. Kept trying to close. I forced them open.
Blinked. Hard.
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Once. Trying to clear the blur.
Twice. Trying to stay present.
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My whole body felt like it was made of sand. Heavy. Loose. Ready to collapse.
My head tilted and suddenly my head was resting against something solid.
It’s Kyle’s shoulder. The fabric of his jacket was soft against my cheek. I could smell him. That particular scent that was just Kyle. Soap. Something woodsy.
I was so tired.
So impossibly tired.
“Just for a minute,” I mumbled into his jacket.
The words slurred slightly. Sleep pulling at them.
Kyle’s hand came up. Slowly. Carefully. Like he was afraid sudden movement would startle me.
His fingers touched my hair. Just the lightest brush. His palm cupped the side of my head. Gentle. Cradling.
Not pulling me closer. Not pushing me away. Just–holding. Like my head was something precious. Something that needed protecting.
“Okay,” he said quietly. His voice rumbled through his chest. I could feel it against my cheek. “Just for a minute.
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His thumb moved. Just once. A small stroke against my temple. There and gone so fast I might have imagined it.
The stars blurred above us.
Not disappearing. Just softening around the edges. Bleeding into each other. Like everything was turning into watercolors. Like reality was becoming something gentler.
I closed my eyes.
Just for a minute.
The music from the party faded. The voices. The splashing. All of it dissolving into white noise. Into nothing.
There was just Kyle’s breathing. Kyle’s heartbeat. Kyle’s hand in my hair.
Just for a minute.
Music pulled me back.
Not the DJ’s electronic beats. Something else. Live music. String instruments. A band playing somewhere in the gardens. Classical music drifting across the night air.
My eyes opened slowly. Heavy. Like they’d been closed for much longer than a minute.
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Chapter 415 Bump into me
The stars were still there. Still bright. Still punched through velvet.
But something had changed. The angle of my head. The weight of my body against Kyle’s side.
I’d fallen asleep on him.
Actually fallen asleep.
I lifted my head. Slow. Everything felt thick. Like moving through honey. Through fog.
“How long was I out?” My voice came out rough. Scratchy. The way it did in the morning after sleeping hard.
“Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen.”
Kyle’s voice was steady. Like he’d been sitting perfectly still that whole time. Not moving. Not wanting to wake
- me.
I sat up straight. Too fast. The world tilted sideways. Colors swimming. The stars doing a slow spin.
Kyle’s hand was on my shoulder immediately. Warm. Firm. Steadying me before I could fall.
“Easy,” he said.
“I fell asleep on you.”
His hand was still on my shoulder. I could feel each finger. The pressure. The heat bleeding through my dress.
I rubbed my face with both hands. Hard. Trying to scrub away the sleep. The confusion. The vulnerability of having let my guard down like that.
My hands came away with smudged makeup. I could feel it. The tackiness of foundation. The smear of mascara probably making me look like a raccoon.
Great.
“We should go back,” I said.
I stood. My legs felt wrong. Like they belonged to someone else. Like my knees didn’t quite remember how to lock. How to hold weight.
The whiskey was still working. Making everything feel distant. Making my body feel like it was floating half an inch above the ground.
I looked down at my bare feet. At the shoes still sitting beside the bench where Kyle had set them.
Right. I needed to put those back on.
I picked them up. Tried to step into the first one. The right one. Or maybe the left. I couldn’t remember which was which anymore.
The strap wouldn’t cooperate. I couldn’t get my fingers to work properly. They felt thick. Clumsy. The tiny buckle too small. The leather too slippery.
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I tried again. Failed again.
“Let me.”
Kyle was kneeling. Already kneeling. In front of me. On the white marble path.
His hands found my ankle. Left foot first this time. His fingers were careful. Gentle. Like my ankle was something fragile.
He lifted my foot slightly. Slipped the shoe on. His thumb pressed against my heel. Making sure it seated properly. Then his fingers found the tiny buckle. The one I’d been fighting with. He fastened it in seconds.
Then he moved to the right foot. Same way.
We walked back toward the pavilion. Slower this time. My feet screaming in the heels again.
The music got louder as we got closer. The bass vibrating up through the ground. Through the marble. Through the bones of my feet.
The party had gotten louder. More chaotic. More people in the pool now. The water churning. Bodies everywhere. Laughing. Splashing. Some couple making out in the shallow end.
The music had shifted to something with more bass. Something primal. Something that made your chest vibrate. That made your pulse try to match the beat.
I spotted the kids immediately. At a table near the pool but far enough back that they weren’t in danger of getting splashed. Sophie on one side. Nate on the other.
All three children had ice cream. Swan–shaped. Pink and white. Elaborate confections that probably required a culinary degree to create.
Alexander’s face was covered in pink. His whole mouth. His cheeks. Somehow his forehead. Madison was eating hers carefully. Using a spoon. Taking tiny bites. Ethan had already finished his and was now explaining something to Nate with elaborate hand gestures. Probably about how ice cream was made. Or the molecular structure of sugar. Or something equally Ethan.
“See?” Kyle said beside me. “Fine.”
He was right.
They were fine. They were more than fine. They were happy.
A waiter materialized beside me. Silent. Efficient. Holding a tray of drinks.
I grabbed one, Didn’t look at what it was. Just took it. Brought it to my lips.
Not whiskey this time. Something clear, Cold. Vodka probably. With lime. The taste sharp. Clean.
I took a sip. Then another. Bigger this time.
The music was so loud it was hard to think. Hard to do anything except feel it moving through your body.
People everywhere. Dancing on the glass floor that pulsed with colored lights. Laughing in the cabanas. Some
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still in the pool. Others clustered around the ice bar. Around the dessert station. Around the fire pits.
The pool stretched out in front of me. Blue–green light. Moving water. Shadows and brightness shifting. The slide still going. Adults using it now. Grown men and women shrieking like children as they shot down into the
water.
I stood there. Glass in hand. Watching without really seeing.
My mind felt fuzzy. The vodka mixing with the whiskey from before. With the exhaustion. With everything.
Then-
Someone moving fast. Too fast.
A body. Solid. Heavy.
They bumped into me.
My balance shifted. My body tilting forward.
I tried to catch myself. Threw my weight back. But my feet in these stupid heels couldn’t grip the marble properly. The smooth stone offering no friction. No purchase.
My arms windmilled. Trying to find equilibrium. Trying to find anything.
Couldn’t.
