Page 90 of Mistaken Prejudice

Diesel had my back pretty much since the day we met, yet I wasted no time judging him and treating him the same way everyone else did. It’s a matter of choice. Could I be more pretentious than that? No. I couldn’t. After doing the dirty work for me all those years and keeping people like Shay-Lee away, no wonder he hated me now.

I was grateful I was going to sleep at Miles’s tonight. I needed to talk to someone and unload all those heavy feelings.

One of their housekeepers, Laurien, opened the door for me, and since I’d been here enough times, I made the way to Miles’s room by myself. I could already hear some pop music playing in his room from the hallway, so I allowed myself in, only to walk into a mess of shopping bags spread all over the place.

Boxes and shopping bags were thrown on the floor, his bed, and his desk, with half-dressed Miles stumbling between them.

“Holy shit.” My voice caught Miles’s attention because he turned around with a smile on his face and ran to jump on me.

“Babe!” He hung around me like a monkey before he collided our mouths together and kissed me until I was out of breath.

“Hey, Zaychik.”

“Hey,” he murmured again, a goofy smile glued to his face.

“I see you did some shopping.” I tilted my head to the side and looked around the room. Still wrapped around me, Miles did the same.

“Yeah. And it’s all for you.”

“What?” I dropped him to the floor, and he landed on his feet. “What do you mean for me?”

He turned away and picked up one of the bags. “I told you we need to find you something to wear for the wedding.” He pulled out a sports jacket, shoved it back into the bag, and tossed it aside before picking up another one. “Ugh. I can’t remember where I left it.”

“Left what?” I questioned, still bothered by the idea that he bought all of this for me.

“My phone. For fuck’s sake. Where the hell did I leave it?” He bent down to check another bag, when I noticed his phone in his back pocket.

“Here you go,” I said as I walked toward him and pulled the device out of his jeans.

“Oh. My. God. Thank you.” He started typing right away.

“Miles?”

“Mhmm?” He hummed, his eyes glued to his phone. I still needed him to answer my question, so I covered his screen with my hand and forced him to look at me.

“What did you mean when you said you bought all this for me?”

“As I said, you needed something to wear for my sister’s wedding.”

“The wedding is one afternoon, baby. And what you bought is a whole wardrobe. For an entire football team.”

He shrugged while looking around the mountains of bags scattered around his room.

“I may have gotten a little carried away.” He threw his phone on the bed and grabbed a Ranieri’s gift bag. “But look how hot these pants are. They were made for you.” He waved the pair of white trousers at my face. “Try them on. C’mon.”

I took the pants in my hands and moved my fingers over the expensive fabric. “Can we do that later? I actually wanted to talk.”

“To talk? About what?” he asked, already on the other side of the room, doing something with the Bluetooth speaker.

“Nothing really…” I mumbled. It was hard for me to just blurt it out, and his jumping around from place to place didn’t make it easier. “I mean, not nothing. It’s just some things.”

“Try this on next.” He handed me another gift bag.

“Are you even listening to me?”

“Yeah, of course I am. You wanted to talk about something, so?” He finally flopped down on his bed, and I came to sit beside him.

“I just feel shitty about everything that happened with Diesel.” I put the clothes he gave me beside us and rubbed my thighs with my palms.