Head Games

Two months later, Dave still hadn’t moved out. Things had calmed down between everyone now, and Mia and Dave had fell into a sort of…groove.

They were friendly, shared polite conversation, and occasionally ate together. Mia had stopped catering to Dave, and that was fine with both of them. Sure, she still cooked and did his laundry and stuff, but that was only because Mia was afraid if he tried either he would burn the apartment down or flood it.

They just acted as roommates, nothing more. Mia had become a little bitter toward Dave, still feeling kind of jilted. She knew he was a commitment-phobe, but he had dropped her like she didn’t even matter. And he was still here.

Why was he still here?

It wasn’t as if money to buy a new place was an issue.

Brent was getting a bit frustrated as well, since technically he and Mia were still fake dating. He wanted to help Mia, but he also wanted to be able to start a real relationship if he met the right girl.

He couldn’t exactly pick up chicks with his teammates while he was “dating” Mia. She probably wouldn’t care, but he had a feeling Dave would.

Mia actually felt bad for Brent, and told him they could “break up,” but Brent was determined to get a bigger reaction out of Dave first. He wanted his teammate to really realize how stupid he was to let Mia go, and he wanted Dave to beg her to take him back.

The problem with Mia, Brent noticed, was that she never rubbed her “relationship” with him in Dave’s face.

She felt too bad to do it.

Brent also noticed that Dave never went into detail about his dates either, like he himself was doing Mia a favor by not talking about it. The odd thing was, he didn’t really talk to the guys on the team about his dates either. Not in detail, anyhow.

Something weird was going on, but Brent knew that he was the last person that Dave would go to, especially now.

He was actually surprised that Dave talked to him as much as he did. Though, it would make things pretty tense in the locker room if Dave came straight out with his feelings.

But the truth was Dave didn’t hate Brent or have any ill feelings toward him. He may have felt a bit jealous at times when he thought about how close he had gotten with Mia, but Dave also knew that was his own fault.

He couldn’t blame Brent for snatching up a good thing.

He couldn’t blame Brent for making Mia happy.

One afternoon, Dave got the call he had been waiting for. It was his real estate agent, telling him that he had got the condo he had put out an offer on. Dave knew he had gotten kind of lazy the past few months in terms of finding a new place to live, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with the fact that Mia took care of him.

She made sure he ate, had clean clothes, survived, etc. But her care had dwindled in the past few months also, due to her being with Brent. Dave finally realized it was inappropriate and unfair for him to still live there, and when Mia started to distance herself a lot more from him he understood that he really needed to leave.

He started packing while Mia was at work, even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to do it without her help. She was far more organized than he could ever hope to be, and if he was lucky she’d pity him enough to lend him a hand.

A few hours later, Mia came home and walked past Dave’s open door. She backtracked and peeked inside, trying to confirm what she saw.

“What are you doing?” She asked Dave, who was sitting in the middle of his room with clothes all around him.

“Um, packing?” He replied uncertainly. “Or, I’m trying to. You know I’m not very good at this kind of-”

“Packing?” Mia interrupted.

“Yeah. I finally got a new place,” Dave told her. Mia's heart lurched, but she tried not to let Dave notice anything was the matter. “I just found out today. I can’t move in until Saturday, but I figured I’d get a head start and pack the things I won’t need until then.”

Mia nodded absentmindedly, letting her eyes roam across the mess that was his room.

“I can help,” she offered softly. She secretly didn't want him to move, but now that it was happening she knew he needed her.

“I’d like that,” Dave smiled. Mia smiled back, almost sadly, and told him she was going to put her stuff away and would be right back.

Neither of them knew that they’d be up for practically the rest of the night, pouring over old pictures and memories, but that’s exactly what happened.

After they had cleaned out his closet in the guest bedroom, they went back to Mia’s room that they had once shared and went through that closet. That’s where they found boxes of pictures and albums, which they spread across the floor and looked through.

They had paused briefly to eat some burgers Mia cooked for dinner, but now they were back in the room and sitting on the floor with cups of hot chocolate.

Dave glanced up at Mia, who was smiling down at a photo with the biggest smile on her face.

“What is it?” He asked.

“Remember when we were seventeen and took that road trip to Montreal?”

“Yeah…”

“And we stopped off in Kingston when they had that Busker’s Rendezvous?”

Dave nodded again, remembering the town’s annual street performer festival.

“And that magician made you help with that one trick and you had to wear that ridiculous hat?” Mia giggled.

“Oh God. You have a picture of that?” Dave groaned, scooting closer to her and leaning over to see.

“Mhm,” she replied, holding the photo out to him.

“Burn it,” he said, handing it back to her. She just shook her head amusedly and picked up another picture. It was a picture of the two of them when they were twenty one. Mia was sitting on a bench outside, the sun shining brightly through the trees in the background. Dave was right behind her, bending forward with his arms on the back of the bench. The front of his face was nuzzled against the side of hers, like he was whispering to her. Neither of them remembered what he said, but by the smiles on their faces in the picture it must have been sweet.

The silence that overcame the room was deafening, and Dave turned to look at Mia. Their position on the floor was similar to that of the photo. Dave was next to her but slightly behind her, leaning forward. His shoulder was lightly grazing her back, and his face was looking at her cheek.

She could feel him looking at her, but she didn’t know what to do.

Should she look back?

Could she look back?

Sure, she had all these bitter feelings toward him, but she knew she’d take him back in an instant. She loved him so much. Too much.

The two of them sat a little longer, motionless, until Dave lightly kissed Mia’s bare shoulder before standing up.

“You should get some rest,” he told her, pulling her up. “You have to work tomorrow, don’t you?”

Mia nodded, looking at the pictures still on the ground.

“We can finish up tomorrow,” he said, grabbing their empty cocoa cups. They both walked out of the room and into the kitchen, where Dave quickly washed the cups as Mia cleaned up a little. Once they were both done, they walked back out and toward their bedrooms. “Goodnight,” Dave called out awkwardly.

“Goodnight,” Mia replied, walking into her room and shutting the door. She walked back over to where she dropped the picture, and picked it up once more.

She knew wishing that she and Dave could go back to that was useless, but it didn’t stop her from doing it.