It was smaller than she remembered. It had been years since she had even stepped foot onto its echoing concrete floor, yes, but she hadn't grown in size since then.

And she was mostly sure empty barren warehouses didn't possess the ability to shrink. She was going to have to chalk up the size discrepancy of her current surroundings to the number of people that were inhibiting it at that very moment.

The rusted walls were the same and she could see that another panel had fallen down and now lay with some of its brothers in the overgrown meadow beyond the perimeter. It didn't smell the same and she had a longing to catch a whiff of that clean dirt scent she had been so fond of.

Now all she caught were sniffs of several different perfumes, colognes and body sprays, mixed heavily with the beginning signs of that sickly sweet sweat smell. It was a heat wave in Boston in the middle of July. That was to be expected.

The hard concrete floor underfoot didn't echo back her steps as she stepped up onto the main floor. It might have but the air was thick with chatter before she had even reached the main entrance that she didn't get the chance to know if that too had changed or stubbornly remained the same.

It seemed there were people everywhere she looked. Even showing up half an hour early, she was met with a small hoard of people already scurrying in every direction, staking their claim on the decrepit warehouse and working hard and fast to mold it for their purposes for the day.

Mia took claim over an empty folding table set up against the wall and declared it her own by dumping out her various bags of equipment. To avoid the strange feeling of a place being so very familiar and yet unfamiliar, she focused instead on setting up her part of the job and getting ready for when the rest of the needed participants were to arrive.

The project was not her idea.

She would have never suggested such a thing. Nor such a location. She was only grateful the cover subjects didn't resent the situation or place any blame of their discomfort on her. That would have been worse than the situation she now found herself forced into.

And to think, it was only because she was thinking about pizza instead of paying attention.

The whole mess started on a Tuesday. And if it was Tuesday, that meant it was game night at Tommy's.

It was Mia's week to pick up the pizzas and she could already see the large stack of cardboard boxes Dante would have waiting for her as soon as she got the chance to make her way to the north end of the city and slip into that tiny pizzeria, set into a hole in the wall.

She could already see herself hurrying through the city streets as she stood leaning against the back wall, surrounded by the rest of her co-workers.

The nice leather chairs situated around the long wooden table that took up the center of the conference room were reserved for editors and the magazine's top reporters only. It was clear to everyone working at Rock It Fuel magazine that a spot at the table had to be earned.

Being only a few months on the job, Mia was fine standing with the rest of the staff; interns, assistants, and copy-writers alike.

She didn't mind the chance to stand. There was enough complaining from her colleagues that she didn't feel the need to add her voice to the mix.

She was seated at her desk, staring at a computer editing, more than she had expected when she had accepted the job offer. And from her spot at the back of the room, she could easily see the elevator and the doors that led to the stairwell.

Their sight acted as the lightest of catalysts to send Mia's mind away from the conference room and out into the warm early summer's day she had already been daydreaming of all day.

She was sure she was aware enough to pick up whatever it was she needed to know from the last few minutes of the day's final conference meeting. She could hear her boss make his last remarks and could see out of the corner of her eyes that he was already loosening his tie and placing his hands on his hips. Mia wasn't the only one egging to be done for the day.

"Alright. That's about it for the day. Just one last thing I wanted to bring to the team. Nothing we have to decide today but something we do need to start thinking about. The September issue. Who do we want on the cover? Shout out suggestions and we'll see if you guys can't come up with something that's not terrible. No wrong answers, here people. Just maybe a few dumb ones."

The replies were light at first and it took another word of encouragement from Mr. Davis to finally get people to shout out their ideas. Once they started going, everyone had a name to offer.

"Reeve Keller. She just came out of hiding with a killer album. It's a bit more mainstream but she is a hometown name."

This suggestion was too mainstream but the hometown thought was acknowledged as solid.

"How about The Wild Wallflowers? They're always great for circulation."

Mia found herself answering that one. It was out of instinct and she was only half aware that she was even doing so.

"On tour in Australia. They won't be back on this side of the world until Christmas."'

There were several others thrown about, all of them well known in the music world with only a few that ranged out of the magazine's scope of underground and indie.

It was when the name "Late Nights Back Home", followed by the quick explanation that, for a boy-band, their music wasn't half bad and that they would be releasing their last album ever, produced by George Briggs of all people, that people started laughing and Mr. Davis started to gather his papers together.

Mia was sure the words "We'll keep thinking" were right there on his lips, hanging off the tip of his tongue when they were postponed by a hand that shot up in the air.

It seemed Kenny's characteristic shyness had finally melted away and he was going to speak for the first time in front of the whole staff.

Mia saw a shine in his eye that she only half registered as familiar but knew in an instant that she didn't like where he could be headed. And it was with four words that all thoughts of pizza and game night flew from her mind and forced Mia's eyes wide as a cloud came to hang over her head.

It was sure to stay there until she had seen this thing all the way through.

"What about 7 Ships?"

His voice came out as a squeak when the assistant usually talked like an adult. It was merely his wide glasses and boyish features, coupled with his short stature and swooping haircut that fooled people into thinking he could still be a preteen.

Mia had to tear her eyes from Kenny where he stood only a few feet away. She knew she had to look to Davis to try and gauge his reaction but her first instinct had been to glare at Kenny until he made time travel possible and figured out how to erase the last five seconds and create a new timeline where he would have never opened his mouth in the first place.

Davis was nodding and it was apparently infectious as several others in the room were nodding too.

"That's not a bad idea. But aren't they on a break or something? No one's heard from them in months."

Mia's glares had not worked because Kenny was now answering, having received the perfect amount of encouragement to spew forth everything he was keeping inside.

"They are but they're coming back! They've been dropping cryptic hints lately and they'll most likely be dropping an album this fall. Either way, they'd be a great cover story and I'm sure they won't mind helping out a local music magazine. Especially considering...."

He spoke fast. Mia was sure she was the only person who had been able to catch every word but that was only because she knew exactly what he was going to say before he even opened his mouth.

His words slowed towards the end and he let his speech fade itself out. It was with a quick and jerky nod in Mia's direction that Mia could see he tried very hard to pull off as subtle that Mia's worst nightmare was confirmed and she started to find a way to try and wake up.

She could feel eyes turn her way and it was not in a way she used to.

She could feel her features remain fixed and blank, even her eyes forcing themselves to reduce in size. It took work and a lot of effort but she forced herself to look towards Davis.

He was still nodding. And now he was packing up his things for the day and preparing to leave. That was the worst sign so far. It was quickly eclipsed by his following words and his shift in focus.

"I like it. We can make that happen, can't we, Miss Roberts?"

His eyes were the last and now she had everyone's locked on her. She was doomed.

She had heard the car pull up. Even among the sounds of half of the vans parked outside being loaded up and driving out of the dirt lot, her ears still picked up the sound.

They had been searching for it since the second she arrived. She didn't let herself turn towards the entrance until she heard footsteps make their way onto the concrete floor.

She was double checking the lights spread out throughout the room, illuminating a single drum set sitting as the focal point on the dirty floor, when she finally let herself turn around.

A sight that usually brought a sigh of relief and a smile to her face only tightened the line on her lips and kept her shoulders rigid and her back straight. He was walking towards her and carrying a cup of coffee. She focused on that instead and hoped the caffeine might help her make it through the rest of the day.

Jay was looking at her, waiting to catch her eye, even before his hand moved toward her, an iced coffee clutched tightly in its grasp. She only met his after a long sip and a deep exhalation of pent up tension.

He wasn't smiling and she knew that his face looked just as serious as hers did. He didn't try to move any closer and once he returned her eye contact with a quick nod he moved away to rejoin the rest of the troupe that had entered in with him.

There were only a select few people left over from the crew had that arrived earlier to set up.

Tommy's voice was heard loud and clear throughout that room as it would have been even if their arrival on the scene hadn't stopped any additional chattering. Mia knew he was aware of the situation and she knew he could feel the tension that hung in the room, the thick cloud that remained only a few feet overhead and hung around the metal crossbeams that stretched across the width of the old building.

Mia was sure he had been cracking jokes before he had even gotten out of the car as Mac was still laughing about something and he had even managed to get Nate to crack a smile.

And he didn't stop now that he was surrounded by strangers who had transformed his old rehearsal space from so many years ago and forced it into a photo shoot backdrop.

He soon had everyone chuckling and was doing more than was required of him in that moment as Mia stepped forward and started to direct them where she needed them to stand, her camera poised in one hand, ready to shoot.

It was strange, feeling nervous in a place so familiar. The warehouse didn't seem like the warehouse she had spent so many afternoons, hanging out while Jay and Tommy rehearsed. But that uneasy feeling was becoming all too familiar.

She had gotten the same feeling of a deep pit forming inside her stomach when she had entered the elevator in Jay's building so many weeks before and pressed the button for his floor.

She had never gotten the chance to feel uncomfortable in his building. The first time she had ever stepped foot in it, it was only with excitement as her arms were full with moving boxes and she was dying to see his new place.

It was now well over a year later and here she found herself stuck, with a deep pain in her stomach that forced her to focus only on the light-up numbers as they illuminated their progress, standing next to the last person on earth she would have ever hoped to be riding in an elevator with.

Kenny had been respectful on the way over and Mia was grateful it was such a short drive from the office to Jay's apartment. She had always been grateful for this fact before, but never so much now.

She could tell Kenny was bursting with questions and comments the minute he took the front seat but she was surprised he had been able to hold them in during the car ride over. It seemed like his eyes were going to burst out of his head and the thick frames of his glasses weren't helping but his lips had remained shut.

Mia now missed those fleeting moments of silence when, as the second the metal elevator doors shut, Kenny lost all self-control and every thought he had ever had seemed to come tumbling out all at once.

"Thisiscrazy. Thisisinsane. Ican'tbelievethisisactuallyhappeningtoME! Ohmygosh! I'mgoingtoactuallymeet7Ships! IthinkI'mgoingtodie! I'msoexcitedareyouexcited?"

There was a very small part of Mia that was entertained at his ability to talk at such speeds and find the time to breathe. But it was a very, very small part.

She refused to respond or even look his way and her stonewalled silence seemed to help Kenny calm down a bit. At least one of them had to keep it together. When he spoke again, he seemed more in control of his speech but that didn't keep his words from sounding like nails on a chalkboard.

"I am so excited! I was hoping this would happen. One day! When I found out YOU were working for the magazine, I let myself hope just a little! But I still can't believe this is actually happening! This is incredible. You are so lucky! You're dating Jay Williams AND working at Rock It Fuel Magazine? And now you get to interview your boyfriend for Rock It Fuel Magazine. That must be the ultimate dream!"

"Not really," Mia mumbled, shooting out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened even an inch.

Kenny hurried to catch up with her accelerated pace down the hallway of doors, the thick carpet underneath muffling their steps and the low lighting forcing a lowered volume, even from Kenny.

It seemed the bags of equipment slung over his shoulders weren't weighing him down as Mia had hoped they might.

"But you have to admit! This is pretty cool! You're interviewing and shooting the September cover story and it's your boyfriend! Davis must really like you. Imagine. Someone only at the magazine less than a year and taking on such an important story? I'm sure it's unheard of. Actually, I'd love to see whether or not a junior photographer HAS ever shot and interviewed a September cover story before."

Mia stopped dead and Kenny kept moving on a few feet before he realized that they were no longer in stride.

Mia could see their target only a few doors down, the entrance standing at the very end of the hallway.

Her hands were clutched tight and she could feel her keys start to cut into her palm. She kept her voice low as she spoke.

She spoke to the voice of insinuation in Kenny's voice, not his actual words. She spoke to the multitude of glances and sly remarks she had received ever since she had been called into Davis's office and officially assigned the project.

"Do you know wanna know why I got the job?"

"Because you're Jay's girlfriend." There was an unspoken 'obviously' tacked on to the end of his reply.

"No. See, that's where you're wrong. I didn't get the job because I'm Jay's girlfriend. I got the job because Nate trusts my discretion. I got the job because I have spent years honing my craft and becoming a professional photographer. I got the job because I have spent a large portion of my career shooting this exact type of model and situation. I got the job because I was the right person for the job. I did not get the job because of my relationship with the drummer of the band."

Mia's words were a half attempt to convince herself. It worked as well on her as it did on Kenny.

"You know their manager? Is Nate as cool as he seems?"

His questions didn't stop there and he kept rambling on, following right behind Mia as she took those final steps towards the waiting door.

She found a smirk on her lips but that was only because she realized that Kenny's deluge of questions exposed him as a very recent fan, despite his excess of knowledge and extreme enthusiasm for the band.

Mia's hand instinctively reached out with her keys, the right one poised and ready to enter the lock. She caught herself early in the act and tightened her hand around them once more, using the fist to knock against the dark wood.

When Jay opened the door, exposing Tommy standing right behind him, Mia flashed them her most sincere apology in her wide eyes as she opened her mouth to speak.

"Hey, guys. Thanks for meeting with me. This is Kenny. He'll be assisting me during our interview."

Casey ended up assisting Mia more than her designated assistants did. There seemed an unspoken agreement between the rest of the staff that was left behind to help out during the shoot that they were going to do the exact opposite.

It was with one sidelong glance from one of the magazine's longest standing photographers when Mia asked for her wide lens from her bag that Mia became immensely grateful that Casey traveled with the boys everywhere.

Mia didn't even get the chance to look to the rest of her supposed support team to try and find someone who would help her before Casey stepped through the half ring of lights and placed the correct lens in Mia's awaiting palm.

As far as a legitimate photo shoot, with models and a location and everything that went into such a production, it wasn't the worst Mia had ever worked. It was nice photographing models that stayed in one place longer than thirty seconds, who moved where she told them to, with ample lighting that guaranteed that the subjects would actually be seen.

It was the models themselves that made the photo shoot easier than Mia had been expecting. It helped that the two of them had spent time in front of Mia's lens before, several hours at that point. It helped that the three of them knew each other well, were comfortable with each other, were legitimate friends.

If it hadn't been for that, Mia was sure the photo shoot wouldn't have been anything, even remotely, resembling a success.

Tommy turned serious the second Mia turned her camera on him and he followed her directions without a second thought. He only spoke when asking for clarifications and when he cracked jokes with Jay while Mia took an occasional break.

Jay was even better. Confident, natural and comfortable. And he looked great on top of everything. They both looked great. Casey took over as stylist too as she hoovered right behind Mia and took the initiative to halt the shoot for just a second to fix a loose hair or correct some minor detail she knew Mia was not seeing.

Somehow Mia soon found herself the last person still standing in the warehouse. She had made it through.

The lights had been packed up. Mac had loaded the loaned drum set into the back of their car. Mia could hear the remaining vans roar into life and start pouring out of the dirt lot and back onto real roads as she took her time packing up the last of her equipment.

She found she could breathe again. It had been too long since she had first felt her lungs constrict and her chest tighten. The stress of the past six weeks felt like they were sliding down her shoulders as they relaxed for the first time since Kenny had raised his hand.

The article was written and submitted. The photo shoot was now complete. There were whispers that Davis was getting someone else to edit and Mia didn't even have the anger or the energy to fight that decision.

The resulting photos wouldn't look like she knew they needed to but she didn't care at that moment. Instead, she let her lips form a small smile as she gave the old warehouse one last look before she headed for her car and home.

She was met with a pleasant surprise as she stepped out into the fading light of the late evening. This time, the sight did bring a sigh of relief and a smile to her face. She walked slow as exhaustion was weighing down her body but Jay seemed content to wait for her.

Once she had crossed the dirt lot and made it to where he had been waiting, leaning against her car, she dropped her head against his shoulder and nearly collapsed into his embrace. She let her camera bag follow gently to the floor and she returned the embrace after feeling his arms wrap around her.

"What am I doing here? Why did I think this job was going to be a good idea?"

Her words fell mumbled into his shoulder.

"You're working at a music magazine as a photographer because you love music and you're an incredible photographer and it's a great opportunity. You love your job."

"Do I?" She sighed.

"Don't you?"

She looked up at the surprised intonations in his voice and found a questioning look waiting for her.

"I honestly don't know. I thought I did but I was always afraid they only hired me because I'm your girlfriend. This kind of proved it, didn't it?"

He only nodded, his eyes glazing over as they shifted from looking down at her to looking blankly out into the distance.

Mia stood up and grabbed her bag, retrieving her keys and going to open her front door. Jay caught hold of her wrist and didn't let her go far with his gentle grip.

"Do you love your job?"

"No," Mia answered, not at all surprised by her gut-instinct answer. "Not anymore. Not if it's going to be like this. I hoped this was going to work out. I was excited for such an opportunity. But I want to work somewhere where I'm appreciated for my work, not because of who I'm in love with."

He was already smiling, a slow one creeping onto his face as his eyes came back into focus and landed right on hers. He was beaming by the time she finished talking.

"Come on tour with us."

Those five words ignited a ready-made argument in Mia's brain that she didn't have the energy to rattle off. It was a worn-out subject, sore from use, threadbare at this point as it had been the only true point of contrition between them.

But Jay didn't give her the chance to even tell him she couldn't fight about this right now. His words came out hurried when she sighed with exhaustion.

"No! No no no no. That's not what I'm saying. That's not it at all. I understand. You have your work and I have mine. I respect what you do and I love how good you are at it. But that's not what I'm saying."

"Then what are you saying?"

"Come with us on tour this fall. Be our photographer. Work for us."

Mia let the idea sit for a moment. It seemed too good to be true.

It was the ideal job. The chance to travel with the band and return to her first love of concert photography. She spoke the one obstacle she could see in the way.

"What about Brent? You guys can't just fire him."

The thought of the band without their photographer seemed foreign and somehow impossible to imagine. He had been with them from the beginning. Mia had met him the night she met Jay.

"Alfie snagged him for their European and Asian leg. He flies out to Tokyo at the end of the month. He's won't be back until Christmas. We don't even have a promotional photographer."

The deal was now sounding too good to be true. The chance to work for the band? There had never been a possibility of such a position before, not with Brent doing his job and doing it so well.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

It was the only question she could think to ask. She wanted to say yes but she was afraid it would scare the offer away or make it disappear into thin air.

"I thought you loved your job. I thought it was where you wanted to stay for a while. I always want you with us but I didn't want to be selfish and just ask you to drop your life and follow me around the globe for six months straight."

They stood a few feet apart, just staring at each other, looking for any kind of reaction in each other.

His eyes were searching her expression just as much as she was searching his. Her answer had come to her just as soon as he had finished offering her the job. Her smile met his as she couldn't hold it back any longer.

"When do I start?"

A/N:

I've said it before and I'm gonna say it again.

I freaking love this one.

I love all of them. I do. I really do. I should just accept that fact and move on.

What I can't believe is that I only have one more Mia and Jay story to post! What?? How did that happen?

I'm lowkey sad now. An era is ending.

I mean, not really. I have like ten more Mia and Jay stories I still wanna write. I just, you know, kind of sort of have to actually write them.

When I do, it'll take the traditional six weeks of editing and self-doubt and then I'll eventually post it on here. Don't worry, I at least have the intention of writing more Mia and Jay stories at some point in the future.

To celebrate the last story, next week I will be posting the full chronological list of every Mia and Jay story. I sat down a few weeks ago and actually figured it out so you guys have that to look forward to next week.

Until then, stay classy, Wattpad.