Vanished: A Bad Boy Second Chance Romance by Autumn Avery

Cassidy says.
                  “Uh, did you forget about last night?” I say as we sit, almost swallowed up by her worn leather couch. I’ve just told her the news; Ian and I are taking a break.
                  It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but it’s the right decision. Too much is going on right now, and I need time to reevaluate. If I’m going to marry Ian, I need to do it after I’ve resolved things with Joey. Right now my mind is a whirl, and I don’t want to make any brash decisions. He’s a good man, I just don’t know if he’s right for me. If I marry him on a whim without resolving things with Joey, and it ends up ruining our marriage, I will feel horrible. Everyone will.
                  “You should just marry him,” Cassidy says.
                  “Who?”
              “Ian! Who did you think I’m talking about?” she exclaims, as though I’m being utterly absurd. “Who did you think I meant? Joey?”
                  I shrug and give her a non-committal look with a sheepish grin, but she’s not having it.
                  “You need to think, Mia. I mean really think about what you’re doing.”
                  Uh oh, here comes a classic Cassidy speech. She has a tendency to take over being my mother sometimes. I love her for it, but sometimes it’s a little much, and right now I’m not sure if I want to hear it. Cassidy isn’t exactly what you’d call a romantic, and prefers the single life to the relationship life, and is a bit more cynical when it comes to matters of the opposite sex.
                  “I mean, what is this? Joey used to basically stalk you until he finally had the balls to ask you out. You guys were official for what…one day? And then he was gone? I mean, he completely bailed on you after that fight with Brad. What is this weird fantasy you’re holding on to? It’s going to ruin your life.”
                  She doesn’t understand, and I don’t expect her to. I barely understand it myself, and I don’t know how I could possibly explain it to anyone else. I run my fingers across my neck, trying to de-stress. Cassidy’s house is stuffy, and I’m feeling cramped. I get up and lift the window, taking a deep breath of the cool, fresh air.
                  Cassidy’s house abuts an enormous field set aside as conservation land, and far off in the distance is Stonehill High School. As I gaze out across the scene, I try to pretend I’m sixteen again, going to school with my friends, gossiping about nonsense, heading to a place where Joey is just a face in the crowd that I haven’t met yet, that I haven’t fallen in love with, who hasn’t betrayed and broken me.
                  How different would my life be now if I hadn’t met him? I’d probably be married to Ian. Or would I? Maybe the course of my entire life would have been altered if not for that one day. The butterfly effect. I know it’s no use looking back, but anything is better than the choice I was forced to make earlier today. The choice of marrying a man I don’t love, or breaking his heart.
                  “I can’t explain it, Cass,” I finally say with a sigh, wishing that I could.
                  “I never understood what you saw in him back then,” she replies.
                  “I know.”
                  “But now I do.”
                  I look back at her, wondering what she’s talking about. She has a sly grin on her face and raises one eyebrow.
                  “He sure grew into his own, didn’t he?”
                  I burst into laughter, the first time in days. Cassidy does have a way of lightening the mood.
                  “So you noticed,” I say.
                  “I got a quick peek before I