Page 81 of Not So Fast
She tapped her folded sunglasses against her temple. “Do you think that’s a good idea? Are you taking security? You could get mobbed.”
Xander hadn’t thought about any of those things. “I have to show my support for what she does. And I have one of my disguises with me.” He pulled his trusty fake mustache out of his pocket.
“You’re Xander Bishop. No Formula One fan is going to be fooled by that.”
“I don’t know. It’s worked before. It might slow them down.”
Isabel sucked in a breath. “There’s really something between you two, isn’t there?”
It was Xander’s turn to take a cleansing breath, if only to steel himself. “I love her, Isabel.”
“Wow. That was fast.”
“Hey. Going fast is my specialty.”
Isabel clapped him on the shoulder. “Congratulations. Can I give you a little advice?”
“Always.”
“Don’t mess up or it’ll become a whole thing and make my life way harder.”
Between Freya and Isabel, the women in his life were certainly putting him on notice. “Well, we wouldn’t want that, would we?”
“No. We would not.” Isabel’s phone beeped several times. “I have to go. The PR department has a briefing in a half hour.”
“Thank you, Isabel. For everything.” He hoped she knew he meant it.
“Of course.”
With that, Isabel made her departure. Xander took a beat, then strode out to the parking lot, hopped back in his car and put the destination—Arena Ale—into his phone. And as he pulled out of the hotel parking lot, he could do nothing but hope for the best.
Reflect on a past mistake. What did it teach you?
Well, past Mia, this prompt in the mental health journal might have been a mistake, but here goes. My biggest past mistake was not a one-time thing. It was something I did over and over and over again. I doubted myself. I second-guessed every little thing. All it taught me is that doing that is exhausting. It wasn’t until I was backed into a corner and got truly pissed off by other people’s expectations that I questioned why I kept doing that. (Questioning my own questioning…there’sa circular argument for you.) Anyway, today is the day I rip off the bandage and say my piece. If people hate me for it, they hate me for it. Of course, I say that now. I never do well when people don’t like me. But that might be what happens.
* * *
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Mia’s mom asked, looking around the room at Arena Ale. She was showing next-level mom skills by attending this event in which her daughter might end up humiliating herself. “Do you need me to greet your guests? I’m sure you’ll probably want some privacy before you do your recording. And I don’t know if you’re worried about someone saying something rude to you. That could be a concern.”
Yeah, Mia had thought about that, but today was about making apologies, setting her forward path and looking ahead.
“You know, it would be great if you could stand here and help me greet people, but I can’t promise you everyone will be nice. In fact, I think we can count on somebody not being nice.” Mia had no idea what to expect. She’d had so much hate and vitriol aimed at her online in the past few days, it was astounding.
“When you were little, I almost got permanently banned from your elementary school parking lot for confronting another parent about her son being mean to you.”
“I remember.”
“So we’ll do this together.”
Just then, the first people came through the door. They spotted Mia and moved toward her so quickly and decisively that Mia nearly dropped into a defensive pose.
“Hi, I’m Mia.”
The first person, a woman wearing a Xander T-shirt, held her arms wide. “Can I give you a hug? I’m so sorry for everything people have been saying about you. It’s all a bunch of bullshit.”
“Yeah,” the guy behind her said. “We weren’t planning to come to this, but after that tabloid story broke and Heather from the fan club made that statement, we knew we had to come and support you.”
Mia stood there in utter shock as more people funneled through the door. Many of them were familiar faces from the Monaco watch party, but many were not. None of that mattered when most notably everyone had a smile on their face. They were waiting patiently. Mia had expected torches, pitchforks and calls for her head. But no. That wasn’t what was happening. And having a solid start lifted Mia’s spirits in a way she hadn’t expected today.
