Read Online Mia Like Crazy by Nina Cordoba - Free Book Online Page A

smiled at him.
    It was as though my smile reminded him of something. His expression became more serious. He stood up and went back into the kitchen without a word. I patted my lips lightly with my napkin, placed it on the table, and scooted my chair back a few inches. I wondered if I should take my plate to the kitchen or wait until he finished whatever he was doing in there.
    Seconds later, he reappeared and looked as though he was about to do something else, but noticed my dishes still sitting on the table. “Oh.” He grabbed my plate and utensils and hustled them back through the door.
    He came back once more, and I steeled myself for what was coming. He was going to offer me the three million dollars again, and I was going to say…?
    Suddenly, he was down on one knee directly in front of me. My heart stopped as he began what sounded like a prepared speech.
    “Medina, I know we haven’t known each other long, but I feel like we’ve got a connection…or something.” He faltered, but recovered quickly. “I can’t imagine that a more beautiful, brilliant, or unusual woman exists on this planet, and I’m afraid of space travel. So, will you marry me?”
    As he said the last few words, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little black box. He opened it to reveal the most perfect marquis-shaped diamond ring I’d ever seen. He stared down at it for several seconds, then his eyelids lifted slowly until his deep brown eyes were locked with mine. They were dragging me into him again. I stopped breathing. Tears welled up in my eyes so fast I thought there was no way I could blink them back.
    This was what other women always dreamed of. I never knew until that moment that somewhere, deep inside, I must have dreamed of it too. A real proposal. Just like on TV.
    I felt like I should reach out and touch him. My hand jerked forward but stopped in mid-air. I still sensed that invisible force field between us, so I concentrated on trying to blink the moisture from my eyes.
    Apparently unable to keep quiet through a mere three seconds of silence after his big proposal, he added. “See, this way, when we have to convince them the marriage is real, you can describe the proposal and everything.”
    The tears of happiness I was about to shed turned into liquid humiliation. It was too late to exercise my iron will. The drops began streaming down my face, which I quickly covered with my hands. Drew seemed bewildered by what was happening, but managed to produce a box of tissues.
    I tried to dry my eyes, but the dam had broken and there was no stopping the ensuing flood. When I glanced up, even through the blur of waterworks, I could see the boyish confusion on his face. It squeezed my heart even as the anger of the fake proposal stabbed through it.
    “Drew,” I choked out. “You can’t do that to someone. It’s not right. Surely you know…” I couldn’t seem to form a sentence that would sum up what he’d done and how I was feeling. The look on his face brought to mind the fact that he’d grown up without a mother. Maybe he didn’t have a clue he’d committed such a heinous act. I decided to put it into words he might relate to. “Look, you can’t mess around with the proposal thing, and the one knee, and the ring and everything. It might be a great scam to you, but—”
    His eyebrows pushed together. “So, I screwed it up?”
    “No, that’s the problem. You didn’t screw it up. It was beautiful and heart-warming and special. Any woman would have wanted a proposal like that. Who’d you pay to write the speech for you, Meri’s social secretary?”
    “No. I wrote it… for you .” He sounded crushed by my accusation.
    I felt another onslaught coming, and couldn’t bear to do any more crying in front of this cynical, child-like convicted felon who had no clue when it came to basic human emotions. In the most cowardly act of my life, I fled up the stairs.
    When I finally pulled myself together, a half-hour