A Day at the Beach 1/4

"I don't feel anything toward him. He is my friend but that is all." Mia said bluntly. Dominic frowned thinking about the picture of Mia kissing Nick. Was it only physical? He didn't want to think that possible. All Dominic wanted was to keep his sister away from Barrett and the damage he would do to her.

Eva placed a hand on Mia's shoulder to comfort her. "This will blow over in a couple of days. Nobody will remember the article in a week. It is not like anyone is going to force you to marry Nicholas. Right, Dominic?" Eva shot a dark look at her husband.

"No one will force you to do anything you don't want to." Dominic confirmed looking at Mia. He sighed inwardly, aggressively encouraging was ok though right? When Mia got home from her date she had only been gone for two hours and that included an hour of traveling. Mia had checked her lipstick and hair in the car just to make sure nothing was out of place. She walked into the house then the family room to looks of surprise all around. Her children weren't even in bed yet. Ginger started to smile then scowled and crossed her arms.

"Mia why are you home already?" Eva asked.

"I need to get changed. I'll be back." Mia said quietly, heading to her room where she changed into some soft yoga pants and a sweater. She felt frustrated and in need of a glass of wine. Mia walked to the kitchen and opened a bottle of Chardonnay and filled a glass bringing the bottle with her to the family room where she flopped on the couch between Eva and Sage.

"Hi, mom." Sage said distractedly. He was busy playing on his computer. Mia checked on Ginger who was pointedly ignoring her mother and playing with her dolls.

"Did your date go badly, sis?" Conner asked worried that something had happened.

"It went exactly like I thought it would go. When I agreed to a date with a work-aholic doctor, I knew I would just end up annoyed. I won't be doing that again." Mia said acerbically.

Dominic scowled, "Maybe it was just a bad night. I'm not sure you should give up so soon."

"Dom, after more than twenty checking of messages and leaving for an emergency in under an hour I am quite sure I can call it a life I don't want to live. If the man can't set aside an hour of his time for a first date, then I am not interested. If I had to live like that for a lifetime, I would kill myself. Tonight wasn't even worth the time it took to get dressed." Mia spoke heatedly before draining her glass and refilling it.

"What has gotten into you?" Claude asked his little sister.

"Nothing, I am just done with men." Having said this Mia got up and went over to where Ginger was playing and pretending not to hear the adults.

"Baby girl, can you please stop being mad at mommy now?" Mia asked Ginger.

"Are you going to go on more dates?" Ginger asked anger clear in her tone.

"I don't think so honey." Mia said sadly. Ginger looked at her mother sideways and then seeing the sadness Mia was trying to hide, hugged her mother's legs.

"Don't worry mommy, you have me and Sage to keep you company." The tiny girl exclaimed. Mia hugged her sweet girl and tried to tell herself it would be enough. After a few moments Mia convinced the twins that it was time for bed. She let the nanny get them both into bed before going into their rooms to tuck them in. Mia went to Ginger's room first.

After a hug and a kiss Mia said, "Goodnight, Bug."

"That's what daddy calls me," her daughter told her very sleepily.

"I know and I like it so I'm going to use it too." Mia smiled softly, shut the door most of the way and went to her son's room. Mia sat down on the edge of his bed and ran a hand over his soft new hair.

"Mommy, did Uncle Nick do something wrong?" Sage asked worry clear in his tone.

"No honey. It's just that sometimes the way one person lives can affect another person in a negative way which can make everyone unhappy. You know how Nick is always working?" Sage nodded his head quickly. "I want the person that is in our life to spend time with us and make us a priority, that's all. Nothing is going to change, don't worry. Now get some sleep." Mia finished tucking in her son and returned to the family room.

Mia noticed that Eva had moved to the loveseat including moving their wine. The space was separate enough from the rest of the room that it felt okay to talk there. Sometimes finding a spot to talk without her brother's hearing could be a bit difficult. Mia sat down next to Eva with a sigh and refilled her wine glass.

Eva watched her sister contemplatively; something more had happened than Mia simply being ignored. Mia sipped her wine slowly staring at nothing.

Mia sighed, "Timothy was at the restaurant. He had some kind of meeting with Mayor Shelbert."

"Oh no, did he say something mean?" Eva asked worriedly.

"Nothing like that. He was polite and complimentary. Tim said Ginger asked him to bring me a sweater. He said I looked beautiful. I didn't see him again until I was leaving." Mia replied pensively. There was the issue that weighed heavily on her heart. The devastation on Tim's face when she saw him as she was leaving the restaurant cut her. There could be no doubt that he had seen every bit of her kiss with Nicholas. Why had she let Nick get so carried away? Mia knew she was starved for romantic attention but still.

"Nick kissed me. To be honest, the kiss got a little heated. It has been so long since I've had any human contact, I just went with it. That was so dumb." Mia chastised herself bluntly. "Of course, I didn't know that Timothy was standing right behind us until right before I left. Eva, the look on his face was..." Mia shook her head and swallowed a lump in her throat.

Eva blew out a hard breath. "So did you want to kiss Nicholas, or did you force yourself to do it because you thought you should?" Eva asked carefully.

"I didn't want to, but I thought that if I didn't then I wouldn't know if I really like him that way. It wasn't until after we started that I realized how badly I wanted someone to be with like that. Now, I've managed to lead Nicholas on and hurt Timothy at the same time. Eva, my life is a train wreck." Mia cried before pouring herself a fourth glass of wine.

"No, it isn't," Eva soothed her sister.

"Mia, do you want to be with Nicholas?" Eva asked bluntly.

"Absolutely not, we are just friends. Our lifestyle needs are not compatible." Mia scoffed.

Eva nodded in understanding, "do you want to be with Timothy?" The question drew Mia up short; she hadn't expected Eva to ask her that. Mia pondered the question for a while swirling the wine in her glass then taking a sip. Could she want that?

Finally, Mia gave the only answer she could. "Sometimes it feels like I do. I just don't know." Mia said quietly. Neither woman saw where Dominic was standing or knew that he had heard their conversation.

*******

Timothy woke with a start realizing that it was his phone ringing that had woken him. The display read quarter after three in the morning. The caller proved to be Caleb. Tim ran a hand over his face roughly and answered the phone.

"Is the world on fire? It better be on fire Caleb." Timothy's voice was gruff from sleep and alcohol.

"It actually is Tim. I just sent you a file. Check it but be warned. It's bad... Our insider sent this over and I need you to tell me how to proceed" Caleb spoke agitation clear in his voice.

That woke Timothy up and he found the file Caleb referred to in his email. It was a front-page news edition for the Norde City Society Gazette. Right in the middle of the front page was a large photo of Mia and Nicholas locked in a tight embrace. The headline read 'Sources confirm: Our Darling Ms. Lane was with Long-time Beau Dr. Nicholas Merches, sources say that the couple were hot and heavy, we can expect an Engagement announcement in the next few days.'

The article went into the history of the Lane and Merches family and the close friendship that had blossomed between the pair. The article even went as far as to imply Mia and Nick were in love.

Timothy cursed violently jumping from his bed and beginning to pace. "I want this squashed now. I don't care what it costs or who we must kill. This needs to disappear forever. This could ruin everything." Tim was officially frantic. There had to be a way to kill this story.

Across town, Dominic was awake and pacing as well. He was staring at an identical file. Normally, he would have immediately squashed such a private story about one of his family members. However, in this case he knew that this story going public could help propel his sister into a marriage with the man he had chosen for her. More importantly it could help keep her away from Timothy Barrett.

Sometimes young women simply didn't know what was good for them. His mind was made up; Dominic told the insider to run the story. Dominic hoped his sister wouldn't find out and if she did wouldn't hate him forever.

Dominic called Nicholas to figure out if the man intended to propose and when he replied that he would within days, Dominic told Nick to confirm the upcoming engagement announcement with the paper. Nicholas had in fact brought a jeweler to the Research Center so he with his sister Rachel could pick a ring for Mia after he had taken care of his emergency delivery that evening. Rachel was ecstatic and Nicholas was pleased.

In the end the article ran. Timothy didn't know for sure who was pushing the story, but he had faced strong opposition against having it removed. He had managed to negotiate a deal to change the picture to one of the pair simply standing together at the restaurant. The words 'hot and heavy' were removed from the headline making the article more informative and less provocative. It was better than nothing.

When Peyton called Mia the next morning and told her to check her trending feed, Mia got nervous. Seeing the article about herself and Nick, Mia was dismayed. She was sitting at the breakfast table with Eva, Dominic, Connor and the twins.

"Oh no," Mia cried, "I'm all over the front page. I thought we had people for this."

Dominic tried to act surprised, but he didn't fool Eva. Eva looked through the article before lancing her husband with a ferocious glare. What did you do, she wondered? There is no way this story ran without his support.

Dominic had done damage control early this morning with Nicholas explaining to the doctor that Mia felt their first date had been a disaster. Dominic told Nick that Mia

said she had no intention of seeking a relationship with him due in large part to his inattentiveness towards her.

To keep Dominic's support for his effort to win Mia's hand, Nicholas agreed to some lifestyle changes. He agreed to reduce his workload by a third for the immediate future and work to show Mia that he had time to be with her and the twins. Nick knew this change would be worth it if he ended up with Mia. Dominic promised to invite the doctor to the Lane residence soon to encourage the friends to spend time together.

Dominic finally answered his sister, "I am sorry, the story did not seem unreasonable when I heard about it." Truthfully, it would have been far worse in its original form. Dominic had a feeling he knew exactly who had managed to water down the story before it went live.

Dominic was a little happier with the current version. He knew the original version would have embarrassed Mia greatly. But surely if she was kissing Nick as he'd seen in the photo there were strong feelings between the two. They simply needed to work through a few issues.

"Not that bad? This has me practically married off. I don't even like him romantically." Mia cried throwing her hands in the air.

"What do you mean by that?" Dominic asked worriedly.