When Miles said he wanted to meet at the Cantina, Lola was more than a little bit worried. A familiar environment... One where she would be surrounded by family friends and employees that she had known for years... He had strategically chosen somewhere where she couldn't make a scene. Whatever he wanted to talk about couldn't be good if he was trying to make sure she couldn't yell or scream.

Lola pulled her hair up into a tight bun. She'd cut her hair into a pixie cut during her freshman year of high school, and it had taken forever to finally get long enough to fit in a bun without a bunch of bobby pins holding it together like patchwork. But now that it had grown to her shoulders, she continued to have the urge to cut it shorter and shorter. Again and again. Sometimes it felt like the only control Lola had was over stupid things like her hair and her clothes.

She put on an outfit that was cute, but not date cute, since she had completely convinced herself that wasn't what was going down here. She wanted to look pretty enough to make Miles second-guess the heartbreak journey he was about to force Lola to embark on. The road to the Cantina was basically muscle memory at this point. She'd been going there daily since it opened a few years earlier - right after her mother left. She just kept running it through her head, trying to predict what Miles was going to say. Trying to make it easier on herself. Because at least if she knew what she was expecting... it wouldn't be as hard. She wished that everything in life was as easy and predictable as the road to the Cantina.

"Lola." Miles said as she approached him. "I'm so glad you came."

The fact that he was so nice, so cute... The fact that he always had good intentions... it all made it worse. Because he wasn't arriving to be an asshole and break her heart. He wasn't showing up because he had malice in his heart or anything like that. The way his eyes lit up, his forehead wrinkled, his eyebrows raised... His intentions were good.

Lola took her authority as owner's daughter and sat herself and Miles at a secluded booth in the Cantina. She pointed at a seat for Miles and then disappeared into the kitchen and grabbed some food. A bowl of salsa and a basket of chips, along with a plate of chicken enchiladas. Miles's favorite. She placed the chips and salsa in the middle of the table for the two to share, and set the enchiladas in front of Miles as a peace offering or something.

"Why did you want to see me?" Lola questioned. "I mean... You just disappeared. For three days. That's like, a lifetime." She found herself feeling a little self conscious at how dramatic those words sounded coming out of her mouth. The old Lola wouldn't have been so introspective, but she had grown. At least, she thought she had observed some growth. "I mean, a lifetime after...what happened."

"I'm sorry for the radio silence." Miles said. "Something happened, and I couldn't... I couldn't talk to you. I couldn't talk to anybody."

Lola tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean..." She trailed off as Miles opened his mouth to speak once again. She needed whatever explanation was coming, because confusion was rushing over her.

"It has been a real shit storm these past few days. When my dad noticed this fancy bottle of champagne from his office was missing... He flew off the handle." Miles started, and Lola's eyes darted to her shoes. The bottle of champagne. The one she'd shared with Yael the night of the party. But she'd never confess to that. She couldn't. Miles opened his mouth to continue. "He blamed me. Beat the crap out of me. We thought he'd changed, but... We were wrong. My mom tried to deescalate things, but... then he hit her. It was an accident, but Frankie called the police. And after the police came, they took him away. He's in jail now. Domestic assault or something like that."

Not even taking boundaries into consideration, Lola reached across the table and placed her hand on Miles's cheek. He looked so sad. "I'm sorry." She said, stroking his skin.

"That's not what I came here to talk to you about, though." Miles said, and Lola wondered what else could be so big. She stared at his face, just now realizing that there was a split in his lip and a bruise in his jaw that hadn't quite been covered with makeup in the right way. Frankie's handiwork, Lola assumed. She tried, but she was no maestro with the makeup brushes, hard as she may try. "I mean... That's not the only thing. That's just the reason I wasn't around. One of them, anyway. The other thing... Well, it's even harder to talk about than my stupid daddy issues."

Lola's hand left Miles's cheek. She could tell something big was coming. "Tristan is back in town." He said. "I'm not seeing him, I'm not interested. I'm over him. But he's been calling me. A lot. Telling me there's something important he wants to talk about. Begging me. He even showed up at my house yesterday. I told Hunter to tell him I wasn't home, but we're going to cross paths if I'm staying in Toronto for the summer."

"If...?" Lola questioned. All of a sudden, because of his ex, he was just going to leave Toronto behind? Go back to London? Lola knew that he'd be going back to London at the end of the summer, but if he was leaving now... That'd crush her.

Miles pulled a chip out of the basket that sat in front of him and broke it to pieces slowly in his hand. He hadn't even touched the food Lola had brought. Then again, neither had Lola. Apparently extremely serious conversations didn't stimulate the appetite. "Do you want me to stay?" He asked.

Before Lola had a chance to think, he mouth had already opened and her mind had prompted her to say "Yes."

"Then I'll stay." Miles said.