Chances Are

by Abramson, Traci Hunter

“What’s the problem?”

  “Look, I don’t want to get into your personal business, and I have no idea what the deal is with you and Maya, but she’s staying at our place now.” Accusation laced his tone as he continued. “Jessica and I are moving to Philadelphia next Friday. I can let her stay in our empty apartment until the new manager moves in the following weekend, but I don’t know what to do after that. I don’t want to throw her out on the street, but I have no idea where she can go.”

  Ben’s eyebrows narrowed in confusion. He still hadn’t heard from his sister, but he was quite certain this shouldn’t be his problem. And he really didn’t know what he had done for Ian to think it was. Still, he couldn’t help but remember the vulnerable look on Maya’s face when she had found him at home, nor could he deny that he felt guilty that his arrival had forced her to change her plans. “I thought she was staying with a friend.”

  “She is. She’s staying with us, but like I said, we’re moving, and she has to stay here in DC.”

  “Why doesn’t she have anywhere to go?”

  “I don’t think she can afford a place of her own.”

  Uneasy with where this conversation was going and the unexpected and unwanted feeling of responsibility, Ben asked, “Isn’t there another friend she can stay with?”

  “As far as I know, we’re the only friends she’s got here. Besides, she needs to stay within walking distance of the hospital.”

  His confusion hiked up another notch. “If she’s working at the hospital, why can’t she afford a place of her own?”

  Ian’s eyes narrowed. “She isn’t working at the hospital. She’s undergoing treatments there.”

  “Treatments for what?”

  “Cancer.” Ian looked at him, bewildered. “I thought you knew.”

  Ben remembered the call from the doctor and thought of the expression on Maya’s face when he had told her she had to move out: a flash of sick panic followed by a mask of acceptance. Slowly, Ben shook his head. “I didn’t know anything about it. My sister never told me she was sick.”

  “I don’t know a whole lot about what’s going on, but from what little Kari and Maya have told me, it’s pretty bad. She has to stay here in DC because she’s in one of those clinical trials.” Ian shrugged. “Of course, all of that might not matter anyway if she can’t come up with the money for the surgery after the trial is over.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Ian looked at Ben awkwardly. He dismissed the topic with a wave of his hand. “That’s not important right now. The real question is, what do we do about Maya now that we’re leaving?”

  Ben dragged a hand over his face. “Why didn’t she tell me what was going on?”

  Ian cocked an eyebrow but remained silent. He didn’t have to voice the answer to his question when it was obvious. Ben had wanted Maya out of his apartment and out of his life, and Maya had obliged.

  Ben let out a heavy sigh. “Let me give my sister a call to see if she has any ideas.”

  “Thanks, Ben. I appreciate it.”

  “Yeah.” Ben stood, feeling about two inches tall. He crossed to the end table and opened the drawer where he had stashed Maya’s cell phone. “By the way, can you give this back to Maya? She left it here.”

  “Sure. No problem.” Ian headed for the door. “I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Yeah,” Ben said. “Later.”

  Chapter 12

  Kari climbed into her car and immediately pulled her new cell phone out of the box. She still couldn’t believe her old phone had been stolen—and in her ethics class of all places. Someone definitely deserved a failing grade. She just wished she knew who it was so she could get all of her phone numbers out of her old phone.

  Her phone rang, and she glanced down to see her brother’s number on the screen.

  “Hello?”

  “Where have you been?” Ben sounded irritated.

  “My phone got stolen,” she told him defensively. “What’s your problem?”

  “My problem is that I showed up at my apartment and found your friend living there.”

  “Oh.” She winced. “That.”

  “Yes, that,” Ben said sharply. “Kari, how could you do that without even talking to me about it?”

  “Ben, I’m sorry. I just didn’t know what else to do.”

  “You could have asked.”

  “I was afraid you’d say no.”

  “Of course I would have said no,” Ben shot back. “You know how ruthless the press can be. Can you imagine what would happen if some reporter started saying that I had a girl living with me? Not to mention I don’t appreciate being taken advantage of. I thought I could at least trust my own family.”

  Kari glossed over the insult. “Ben, you said you weren’t going to be in DC until after spring training. Your apartment was just sitting there empty.”

  “That didn’t mean you could just hand my house key over to some stranger!”

  Kari’s voice softened. “I love Maya like a sister. I couldn’t just sit back and wait for her to die. Not when there was a chance she could get better.”

  Some of the anger faded from Ben’s voice. “Look, I know you were just trying to help your friend, but you’ve put me in one heck of a bind. I can’t let her stay here, but now she doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “I’ve got a few hundred dollars saved. Maybe I can pay for a hotel or something for her.”

  “Kari, a few hundred dollars will only pay for one night around here.”

  “I’ve got to do something,” she said in frustration. She thought for a moment, and slowly, logic caught up with her. “Wait a minute. Why are you in DC? I thought you were going to spend the off-season in LA so you could be closer to Heather.”

  “Things weren’t working out with Heather.”

  “Oh. Sorry to hear that.”

  “I’m sure you are,” he said sarcastically. “You’re sorry that I got in the way of your plans.”

  “Yeah, I am sorry about that,” Kari admitted, “but I know you really liked Heather.”

  “That doesn’t matter. What matters now is what I’m supposed to do about Maya. She’s got a place to stay for the next week or so, but after that, she’ll literally be out on the street.”

  “I’ll try calling her. Maybe we can find one of those programs like the Ronald McDonald House where she can stay while going through treatments,” Kari suggested. “There is one favor I need though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Can you go get her phone number for me? I lost all of my contact numbers when my phone was stolen.”

  “Maya’s your best friend. Don’t you already know her number?”

  “Not by heart. I always just hit her name on my favorites list.”

  “You’re going to owe me for this,” Ben said, his voice resigned. “I already feel lousy for kicking her out of my place.”

  “I’m sure Maya understands. I’m the one she’s going to be furious with.”

  “With good reason,” Ben muttered. “All right. I’ll go track down her number for you, but you have got to figure something out for Maya that doesn’t include using my apartment.”

  Kari stiffened at his tone. “You know, it’s not like Maya asked for this. All she wants is to make this cancer go away so she won’t feel like a burden anymore and so she’ll actually have a chance at life.”

  Ben fell silent for a moment. “Kari, I’m sorry your friend has to deal with this. Really, I am. But it isn’t fair for you to dump all of this on me. I hardly know her.”

  “Don’t worry, Ben,” Kari said edgily. “I’ll take care of it.”

  * * *

  Maya hated feeling like a burden. Absolutely hated it. She still couldn’t believe she had broken down and told Ian and Jessica so much about what was going on. At least she hadn’t told them about her family or the conditions her father had put on the help she needed.

  As Americans, she doubted they could begin to understand the cul
ture she’d come from. Of course, she knew some believed Indian children didn’t have a choice when parents arranged a marriage, but now that she was older, she knew her situation was an unusual one. Normally, if one of the parties involved didn’t want to go through with the marriage, the families would honor the child’s wishes. Her father was an exception to the norm.

  For the past two nights, she had slept on the Harrises’ couch, and on Thursday, she had lingered at the hospital after her treatment to try to stay out of their way for as long as possible. Their apartment had turned into a frenzy of packing and cleaning. Maya wished she had the energy to help more. Other than sitting on the couch and folding laundry, she’d hardly had the strength to do anything.

  Jessica still gave her rides in the morning, and Henry continued to insist on taking her home each day, even though Maya really thought she would be able to walk the short distance on her own now.

  She looked around the living room at the packing boxes and scattered belongings, a new sense of determination working through her. If Ian and Jessica could uproot and change their lives so quickly, there had to be a way for her to do the same.

  She dreaded talking to Ben, but she knew she was going to have to in order to check on the credit card application. She had to imagine he wasn’t going to be thrilled with her name being associated with his address, but she had already thought of a solution to that. Kari would let her use her address for another round of credit card applications, and she could change the new one to Kari’s address as well.

  She shuddered to think of the amount of interest she would end up paying before this was all over, not to mention the late fees that would start piling up within the next month or two.

  A knock sounded at the door, and it took Maya a minute to remember that the Harrises had gone out to buy more boxes and she was alone in the apartment.

  She pushed off the couch to answer the door. Her face immediately paled when she saw Ben standing in the hall.

  “Hi. Do you have a minute?”

  “Sure.” Maya stepped back and let him inside.

  Ben looked around the apartment. “Where are Ian and Jessica?”

  “Out looking for more boxes.” Maya moved back to the couch and sat down, hoping Ben wouldn’t notice how weak she was. “Did you want to sit down?”

  “Yeah. Sure.” Ben looked around at the chairs piled high with boxes and opted to sit on the other end of the couch. “I talked to my sister a little while ago.”

  “Is she okay? I’ve been trying to call her for days, but she hasn’t been answering.”

  “I had the same problem. Apparently, her phone was stolen.”

  “Oh. That’s too bad.”

  “Look, I wanted to apologize about everything that’s happened. I had no idea you were staying at my place or why you came to DC.”

  “I don’t need your pity,” Maya blurted. Then she forced herself to relax her shoulders. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t want you to feel responsible for me. None of this is your fault.”

  “Still, I feel lousy knowing I made a bad situation worse.”

  “Again, it’s not your fault.” She noticed the way he tensed, but she didn’t understand why. She drew a deep breath and forced herself to press on. “I actually did want to talk to you though. I applied for a credit card, and I used your address. If you could let me know when it arrives, I’d really appreciate it.” She rushed on before he could protest. “I promise I’ll change the address on it as soon as it arrives.”

  Ben sat in silence for a moment. “Do you have any idea when it’s supposed to get here?”

  “It should be any day. I’m kind of surprised it hasn’t shown up yet.”

  “I’ll let you know. Which reminds me, Kari asked me to get your phone number from you so she could call you. She lost all of her contact information when her phone was stolen.”

  “Sure.” Maya took his phone when he offered it to her, and she plugged her name and number into his directory.

  “Ian said you’re going to stay here through next week. What are you going to do then?”

  “As soon as I get my new credit card, I’ll use it to get a place nearby. Once I finish the first round of treatments, I should be able to get a job so I can support myself.”

  “I might be able to ask around for you when you start looking for jobs,” Ben offered, even though he wanted nothing more than to walk away from the situation and not look back. Sick people made him uncomfortable.

  “I appreciate that.”

  Ben stood. “Well, I’d better get going. I’ll give you a call when that mail shows up for you.”

  “Thanks.” Maya stayed seated. She was pretty sure she could stand but decided not to risk it. She waited until he was gone before she retrieved her own cell phone and called Kari’s number once more.

  Kari answered in an uncharacteristically timid voice. “Hello?”

  Maya’s voice was weary when she said, “Kari, how could you?”

  Kari shifted from timid to resigned. “Here we go again.”

  * * *

  Ben sat beside his teammate Liam Bailey and listened to the conversation swirling around him. For the first time since leaving California, he found himself thinking that maybe Heather had been right—not about her expectations that he stay in a relationship with her but about going to a wedding dateless.

  As one of the youngest players on his team, he was quickly realizing he didn’t have a lot to talk about with his teammates when baseball wasn’t the main topic of conversation.

  With this being the first of three weddings this off-season, he was starting to wonder if perhaps he should try to bow out of the others.

  As though reading his thoughts, Liam said, “I can’t believe we have two more weddings in the next couple of months.”

  Rachelle, Liam’s fiancée, spoke up. “I just hope I’m not limping down the aisle. I swear, if I twist my knee one more time, I’m going to scream.”

  “I thought you were going to have surgery on your knee last month,” Ben said.

  “I was, but my insurance company was being such a pain about everything that Liam and I decided it would be easier to wait until after we’re married so I can use his insurance.”

  “Will it make that big of a difference?”

  She nodded. “My insurance company didn’t approve the surgeon I want.”

  Ben thought of his earlier conversation with Maya. She was struggling to find a way to put a roof over her head, and not once had he heard her complain about her lack of insurance. From what Ian had said though, it sounded like she was either trying to fight this cancer without it or with a policy that wasn’t giving her what she needed.

  When Rachelle and one of the other women at the table started talking about wedding colors, Ben picked up his water glass and wondered how soon he could say his good-byes without offending the bride and groom.

  Chapter 13

  Maya walked into Ian and Jessica’s apartment on Friday afternoon, amazed at the work they had done during the four hours she had been at the hospital for her latest round of scans. For more than a week, they had cleaned, packed, and organized in preparation for this day.

  She’d known the movers were due anytime when she left that morning, and Jessica had made sure to give Maya the key to the apartment just in case they were gone before she returned home, but Maya hadn’t really thought that would happen. She had been wrong. The furniture and boxes were all gone except for a box in the corner that held the air mattress Jessica had offered to lend Maya. Maya’s suitcases were stacked neatly beside it, and the floors appeared to have just been vacuumed.

  She set her purse down by the door and crossed into the kitchen, a small smile lighting her face when she saw a box of plastic spoons and a stack of half a dozen plastic cups on the counter. Beside them was a folded note. She opened it, surprised to see two ten dollar bills folded inside.

  Maya,

  Sorry this couldn’t be more, but hopefully this will he
lp tide you over for now. Keep the faith.

  Jessica

  Maya blinked back tears that threatened, touched by the thoughtful gesture. Too tired to cross the room to her purse, she put the folded bills in her pocket. Then she opened the refrigerator to see a dozen cartons of yogurt, a package of string cheese, and some apple juice.

  She retrieved a yogurt and a spoon, looking longingly at the dinette area where the kitchen table had been. What she wouldn’t give for a chair right now. She tried to boost herself onto the counter but wasn’t quite tall enough or strong enough to achieve that feat. Even though she didn’t look forward to getting up again, she let herself slide down against the kitchen cabinet until she was sitting on the floor.

  She had only eaten two bites when her phone rang from the other side of the room. “Great.”

  She set the yogurt down on the floor and struggled to stand. By the time she made her way across the room, the phone had stopped ringing.

  Pulling it free from her purse, she checked the log for missed calls. Whoever had called her wasn’t in her directory, nor was the prefix from the DC area. She was debating calling the number back when her phone rang again, the same number illuminating her screen.

  “Hello?”

  “Maya? It’s Ben Evans.”

  “Oh, hi.”

  “Hey, I wanted to let you know you have some mail here.”

  Relief flowed through her. A full week had passed since she had asked Ben to keep an eye out for her new credit card, and she was starting to wonder if it would ever arrive. “Great. Is it okay if I come up to get it right now?”

  “Sure. I’ll be here.”

  “Thanks. I’ll be right up.” Maya went back into the kitchen and picked up her yogurt off the floor. Not wanting to waste it, she took the time to finish eating, though she was anxious to see how high her new credit card limit would be. If she could get one that was fifteen thousand, she might be able to swing all of these expenses she was about to face.

  She took the time to rinse off the plastic spoon, not willing to throw away anything she might need again in the future. Realizing she didn’t have a garbage can, she rinsed out the yogurt container as well and set it on the counter.