My day was a wash. My productivity had been conquered by thoughts of Mia, and the colossal fuck-up with Licia. I couldn’t focus in any of my classes. The only way I was going to get through the evening was either working out my frustration, finding a girl to fuck, or crawling into the bottom of a bottle of Captain.

None of those appealed. My nuts pulled into my body at the thought of touching someone else in the wake of the pain I’d seen in Mia’s eyes. I wasn’t a booze hound, and with the low-grade hangover I’d had all day, I didn’t want a repeat. Which left exercising myself into a coma.

After classes finished for the day, I changed clothes. I always kept a spare in my car. Though I preferred going to the gym Kevin worked at, today I didn’t want the gym bunnies in my way. So, I went way off the reservation and hit the indoor University track.

A few other athletes were running the circuit, but they were zoned out. I joined them, stuffing my ear-buds in and cranking a loud, angry beat.

Then I ran.

I ran as if I could shake the memories which plagued me.

I ran as if a thousand laps around the track would exhaust Mia from my mind.

I ran until my body screamed, my heart throbbed, and adrenaline filled me with peace.

I lost track of how many circuits I’d run when I noticed a familiar form waiting on one of the turns. She sat on the bleachers, her pink jacket off and spread across her legs, watching me with her chin propped in her hands.

What was Jo doing here?

A sick pit opened in my stomach. After the events of the evening, I knew whatever she had to say I surely deserved. I asked her out on a date, and then gotten head from another girl.

I slowed my pace as I reached the loop, and swung over towards her. Lifting my shirt, I rubbed my face dry of the sweat which dripped down off my head and hair, and then pulled out my earbuds, quelling the music.

“Hey.”

Jo’s eyes skipped down my body and then back up. The quick glance was a reminder she’d once found me attractive. One dark brow winged towards her two-toned hair. “Hi, Regi.”

She didn’t appear angry. Only curious. I wasn’t going to let my guard down, though.

“Why are you here?”

“We need to talk. Take a seat.” She nodded at the bleacher beside her.

I hesitated and then heaved a sigh and sat. “I’m sorry about last night. It was pretty fucked up for you to walk in on me getting head when we were supposed to be hanging out.”

Jo shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah it was, but that’s not why I’m here.”

I wrinkled my brow. “If you don’t want an apology, then?”

“I had a really long talk with Mia. About you and her.”

My heart rolled over in my chest. “Me and her? There’s no me and her.”

Jo’s sigh was as sharp as her words. “Cut the crap. I know about you two and high school.”

Fuck. I almost forgot to breathe. “She admitted it. To you?”

“Mmhmm. Why do you look so shocked?”

I was having a difficult time absorbing the fact that Mia had admitted there had once been an "us”. “She’s denied it to anyone and everyone who even caught a whiff of something going on between us. Ever since high school. Shit, Jo, she wouldn’t even go to prom with me. I fucking had to beg and she still said no.”

“Well, I gave her some advice. And I’m going to give you some advice.”

“Why are you meddling, especially after…everything.” My question hung in the air, hearkening back to the whole year where she’d chased me. Back to both Mia and I lying by omission to Jo.

Jo twisted towards me. Her big brown eyes searched my face. “Because I love Mia. Even though she really fucked up, I can see why she did it. I don’t know why she is such a commitment-phobe, but I understand that there is some dark fucked up thing in her past that is making her run like a lunatic. I just went through this with Kevin. Until you two get shit right, think of me as your fairy godmother or a meddling matchmaker.”

My brain whirred trying to process that. What sort of thing was Kevin hiding? Was that what the lynchpin was between Jo and Kevin earlier in the week? It wasn’t my place to pry, but human nature made me curious. Though the idea of her playing matchmaker scared the fuck out of me. From what I knew of Jo in the classes we shared and the occasional hangouts at the Alehouse, she was tenacious. She wouldn’t quit until one of us were married off.

I gently teased her, trying to ease the tension snaking down my shoulders. “You’re a professional now, huh? Are you going to charge me for this matchmaking service?”

Her gaze bored into mine. Obviously, she wasn’t in a joking mood. “This is what I’m going to college for. I might not be a doctor, yet, but helping people like you with their sexual hang-ups is a big motivator in my life. Back in the day, they called it matchmaking and meddling, now I’m going to get a doctorate to fix people’s relationships. And you two are my first clients. Aren’t you just thrilled?”

I flinched. Damn, she was going for my balls with this conversation. “I don’t have any sexual issues.”

“Oh, bull. That’s why you’ve been a legit man-whore since you moved here?” Her arched eyebrow dared me to deny it.

I looked away. It wasn’t really a sexual issue, perse, but a matter of the love of my life leading me on a merry chase.

Jo’s voice gentled. “Yeah. That’s what I thought. I told Mia to either love you or leave you. I know you are completely crazy about her. You hide it well, but now that I know where to look, I see it. But you’re not helping your position by fucking around and leaving a string of broken hearts behind you. It’s cruel. You can’t visit the hurt Mia caused you onto other people.”

Fuck. Jo was right. I squirmed as if I’d been caught with my hand in a fucking cookie jar. “What do you suggest I do then, Doctor Miller?”

Jo snorted and wrinkled her nose at me. “You need to stop sticking your dick into anything that moves, and make amends to the girls you’ve hurt.”

Fuck. That was a long list. I scrubbed at my nape. “What else?”

“Then, you’re going to woo Mia and show her how much you really love her.”

My shoulders sagged. Jo sounded so sure, showing up as if she had the answer. “Don’t you think I have?”

“You begged her to go to prom with you and she said no, right?”

“Yeah.”

Jo tilted her head. “Did you ever think maybe she didn’t want to do the whole cliché prom thing, and if you’d suggested an alternative she might have gone with you?”

Shit, I’d never considered that. I shook my head.

“You’re thinking of only what you want. Start thinking of what she wants to. Show her how good you can be together.”

“Is that what Kevin did with you,” I asked quietly.

Her smile was bright enough to blind. “Yeah. That’s exactly what he did.”

Jo yanked on her coat and fluffed her hair out over the collar. “I want Mia to be happy. You deserve it too. If you two aren’t happy together, then let her go.”

My stomach knotted. “I’ve loved her for five years, Jo. It’s just been her. Do you think…” I swallowed trying to dislodge the question sticking in my throat. Finally, I shoved it free. “Do you think she’ll forgive me for Licia?”

Jo stepped down onto the track. The pebbled rubber surface muted her footfalls. I stood up, looming over her and trying not to. I hunched my shoulders.

She laid her hand on my bicep and gave it a squeeze. “I don’t think she really blames you for it. Other girls might. They may want to see you grovel, and beg, and still kick you to the curb. Maybe talk to Licia too. Clear the air that you wouldn’t do that to Mia. Especially if you’d known. That’s a long time to love someone, Regi. All I can say is…Good luck.”

Jo left me to my thoughts. The weight of her words settled over me; gravity crashing in on my ears. Despite the heaviness of the conversation, a flame of hope lightened my heart.

Could we really make this work? Was she willing to listen to Jo and let me in?

God, hope could be so motherfucking cruel.