by Kay Harris
She said that last word on a sob and Maya felt a tear touch her own eye. “Wow.”
Alice gave her a watery smile. “Yeah. Now he goes to everything with me, meetings, get-togethers, whatever. He marched in the pride parade with me last year. He wore this giant rainbow hat. It was hilarious.”
Maya smiled. “And that’s where you were yesterday? At a LGBTQ event?”
Alice nodded. “It was a family and friends picnic.” Alice reached out her hand and touched Maya this time. “There’s nothing between us, Maya. He’s like a brother to me. In fact, he may be the only real family I have. Everett is incredibly important to me. But the idea of being romantic with him. That’s just…yuck.”
Maya wiped at her eyes and reached to embrace Alice. “Thank you so much,” she whispered into Alice’s neck.
****
Everett didn’t hear from Maya again for over an hour after she’d walked out of his office. The text message she sent said to pick her up at her place for dinner.
He wrapped up his emails to his senior staff and made a beeline for his car. It took him fifteen minutes to weave through the thick Friday evening traffic to Maya’s apartment complex.
He hit the buzzer for her unit and heard the click as she let him in. Too wired to take the elevator, he climbed the five flights of stairs up to her apartment. It wasn’t until he was outside the light blue door with the black plastic numbers 526 hanging above the peephole that he slowed down.
Everett hadn’t been in Maya’s place yet. He knew she’d lived here alone for the last year. She’d told him it was her first place without a roommate. And she was proud of it. He also knew that being in her space was a new level of intimacy for them. One they hadn’t had in seven years.
Before he actually worked up the nerve to knock on the door, it swung open and Maya smiled up at him. “Hi.”
“Hi.” Everett shifted from one foot to the other. “You ready to go?”
“Not just yet.” Maya swung the door fully open and stepped out of the way. “Come in for a minute.”
The stiff and patchy carpet of the hallway gave way to scuffed hardwood flooring as Everett moved into the narrow entryway to the apartment. He followed Maya, her long dark hair swaying slightly as she bounced down the hall and into the open space. A large rectangle featured a brown and green galley kitchen at one end, a light-filled living room with a mismatched small chair and loveseat in the center, and a practical-looking queen-sized bed against the far wall.
“It’s small,” Maya said simply.
“It’s cute. Like you. Where’s your art stuff?”
Maya’s face went from reserved to lit up. “You want to see my studio?”
“Of course, I do.”
She tucked her hand in his and pulled him through the apartment back to the front door. Instead of heading to the stairway, she turned the opposite direction, rounded a corner, and took him down to the very end of another long hallway. There she used a key in the lock before opening a non-descript door and revealing a window-less square room. The floors were covered in plastic, the walls, dull white, were chipped and faded. But the beauty in the room was all around.
Everett took in the various paintings perched on the floor or on shelves throughout the room and the mess of paints and brushes on a small wooden desk beside a chair and easel. The easel was covered with cloth, and he was drawn to it. He took a step toward it, but Maya tugged on his hand and pulled him back.
“You can’t see it yet.”
He turned to look at her. She smiled up at him. “This was a storage unit. The complex owner lets me rent it as an art studio. I’d prefer natural light. But I can afford this and its right down the hall from my apartment…”
Everett stared into those big, leaf-colored eyes and wondered why she’d stopped talking. He was hanging on every word she said, and suddenly there were none.
Maya slid onto her tiptoes and reached a hand around Everett’s neck. She tugged and he leaned down, letting her smash her lips with his. Maya’s kiss was aggressive. She licked at his mouth until he opened for up for her. Gripping his head hard with her fingers she plunged her tongue into his mouth.
Everett pulled her closer and met her enthusiasm with his own. As his hands began to wander and their breaths turned to pants, Maya pulled back. “We need to go back to my apartment.” She looked down. “This floor is too hard.”
Before he could offer up a statement that would properly express his surprise, Maya pulled Everett from the room and down the hall. Once they were back in her apartment she shoved him up against the door and picked up right where she’d left off, sucking frantically at his neck as she tugged the tails of his shirt out of his pants.
“What did I do to deserve this?” Everett was bewildered, grateful, and dizzy with lust all at once, and somehow in the melee that was the question that came out.
Maya pulled back to look at him. Her hands continued to move, unbuttoning his shirt. “You are such a good man, Ev.”
As she slipped his shirt off his shoulders and sent it tumbling to the floor, he asked, “I am?”
Maya’s hands ran over his chest. “God, yes.” She began to kiss his torso, crouching lower with each little nibble.
“I don’t want to seem like I’m belaboring this. But what exactly did I do?”
Maya shot back up and looked him in the eye. “Belaboring? Who says that?” Her hands delved into his pants, the back of her knuckles sweeping across the most sensitive of places. Everett moaned. Maya smiled and set to work freeing him from the restrictive fabric.
“Fuck.” His head fell back against the door. “I have a large vocabulary to go with my potty mouth. Now tell me.”
“You’ve done a million little things to show me who you are. The way you treat your mother. The way you treat your employees and friends. The way you protected Rebecca and took all the blame about what happened between us on yourself. The way you are with my brother and Roger. So many things. A million little things. But I chose to ignore them all. Until I talked to Alice. And I can’t ignore it anymore. You are a good man.” She found her prize and shoved down his pants to wrap her hand around him. “And I want you.”
“Fuck.” Another thump accompanied Everett’s head hitting the wood door again as Maya fell to her knees in one quick, smooth movement. He’d barely been able to take a breath when she wrapped her mouth around him and pushed him to the back of her throat. “Oh fuck!”
Everett managed to get his hands wound into Maya’s thick curls. He concentrated on breathing as she pulled him into her mouth over and over. He knew he needed to find his voice, but it took a few tries. “Maya…Maya…um…shit…um…”
She pulled off him and looked up into his eyes.
“Come here.” His voice was so rough and soft he wasn’t sure she’d heard him until she shot to her feet and pulled his mouth back to hers again. He wrapped his arms around her and hoisted her up, her legs looping around his waist. He headed in the direction he thought the bed was in.
His shins slammed into something. His foot slipped on something else. But he managed to get to the bed. He felt his thighs hit the edge and gently lowered Maya onto it. Paying little attention to her position, which was sort of diagonal on the mattress, he hovered over her and pulled at the hem of her cotton shirt. He managed to get it over her head and off her in a single swift movement.
Maya pushed herself up and reached behind her, unhooking her bra and discarding it. Everett kissed a trail from her collarbone to her left nipple then pulled it into his mouth, making her back arch as a small moan flew from her throat. He continued to travel his mouth over her silky skin, down over her ribs to her belly button. He paused there, lapping at her with his tongue as he unsnapped and unzipped her jeans.
Maya helped him, wiggling her hips to get the jeans off. As they slid down they took her underwear and socks with them. With Maya completely naked and spread out in front of him, he bent over her and put his tongue on her. Maya cried out. Sp
urred on, Everett placed his hands on her thighs, pulled them farther apart and put all his effort into making her scream out in ecstasy.
It wasn’t long before Maya hit her climax. Everett stayed there and worked for a second orgasm. When she was calling out his name and pulling on his chin, he finally hoisted himself back up the bed and kissed her as if his life depended on it.
“Bedside table,” Maya panted between kisses.
Everett reached over her head without breaking the kiss and knew he’d found the table when the back of his hand hit an angled metal handle. Pushing aside the pain, he grabbed the handle and cranked open the drawer. He lifted his head long enough to peer into the drawer and locate one of a handful of condoms scattered among the pens and receipts. He ripped open the packet and sat up on the bed, kneeling between Maya’s legs. Maya pinched her bottom lip between her teeth, distracting Everett long enough for her to collect the condom from him and roll it down over him with her skilled fingers.
Once everything was in place, Everett propped himself above Maya, his palms flat on the bed. “Are sure this is what you—”
Maya cut him off by pulling herself up with a hand behind his neck and kissing him. Then she pushed on his chest, and giving into what she obviously wanted, he rolled over onto his back. The diagonal had his legs hanging awkwardly off the bed. So with Maya straddling his hips, he shuffled them both on the bed so they were on it properly.
Maya smiled sweetly at him, and her gaze remained locked on his as she lowered herself onto him. Everett sucked in his breath as she seated herself, surrounding him, enveloping him.
“Ev,” Maya whispered as she leaned down to kiss him.
Everett gripped her hips but otherwise stayed still. “You drive.”
And she did. Maya’s lips never left his. Her hips moved in a rhythm that made Everett soar with sensation. He whispered his utter joy into her mouth between kisses. And he called her name over and over until his climax took him and he was no longer intelligible.
Maya cried out and collapsed on his chest. Everett’s hands roamed over her back slowly until she rolled off him and removed, then discarded, the condom. Everett pulled her into his side and kissed the top of her head. “Don’t go.”
Maya laughed. “I live here.”
“Then don’t make me leave.”
Maya reached up and kissed his cheek. “I’m not going to. In fact, I think we should spend the weekend together.”
“Yeah?”
“Absolutely. Are you free?”
“No. I’m not free. I’m yours.”
APRIL
Chapter 13
“You still holding the big party at your house for your birthday?” Elias asked, referring to Everett’s traditional celebration.
Everett had always invited all his friends along with all of his employees. This year he’d added the McDonald family to the guest list. Bert and Henny had declined, choosing to take his mother to a play that night instead. They were going to make a special dinner over the weekend so he could have some ‘family time.’ But Mica and Roger were coming.
“Yeah. And it’s going to be interesting this year.” Everett turned the speaker on the car up so he could hear Elias better.
“Oh yeah. Why’s that?”
Everett got onto the freeway and headed back toward Richmond. This conversation with Elias was keeping him company as he made his way back from a meeting in San Jose. He leaned back and rubbed lightly at the steering wheel. “Well, for starters, Carlos is bringing his new girlfriend to the party.”
“Oh. And I suppose his ex will be there, too.”
“The lovely and diabolical Kimberly. Oh, yes. She’ll be there.”
“Carlos can handle her.”
“I think so. She’s chilled out since the divorce anyway.”
“Really?”
Everett shrugged. “I think so. Carlos doesn’t. But, you know. He’s the ex. Anyway, in addition to that drama, Maya’s brother is bringing his boyfriend.”
“So. When was the last time you had a party that didn’t have multiple LGBTQ couples?” Elias’ tone held censure as he misunderstood Everett’s concern.
“That’s not the point. His boyfriend is…shit, I can’t tell you.”
“What do you mean, you can’t tell me?”
“He’s famous. Kind of. Well, pretty much. Certainly in the Bay Area.”
“Oh. And in the closet?”
“Yeah.”
“So, how’s that gonna work?”
“We’re presenting him as my friend, I guess. I don’t know. I feel bad for them. But at the same time I’m doing the same thing with Maya. She doesn’t want anyone to know we’re dating. I had to talk her into telling her parents. Which she did. And, of course, my mom already knew. But she’s crazy about not telling anyone else. It’s…”
“Makes you feel like shit.” Elias understood. While Everett knew that Elias and Rebecca were together when they took off three years ago, it wasn’t public knowledge at first. Even though they were in Florida, all three kept up the ruse that everything was as it had been and they were just on vacations. That had all come apart when the lawsuit hit though.
“I don’t want to push it. I don’t want to push anything with Maya.”
“Dude. You’re a mess.”
Everett’s head kicked back and he forced his gaze to stay on the road, rather than gaping at the radio Elias’s voice was being carried through as he’d wanted to do. “What?”
“You are scared shitless of that woman.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“You’re so afraid she’ll walk away from you that you’re walking around on eggshells. I bet you’ve never once asserted yourself. I bet you’ve never asked her to do something you wanted to do.”
Everett thought back on the two weeks since he and Maya had first slept together. He’d asked for a lot. He’d asked that they tell people. She’d refused and he didn’t push the issue. Even telling her parents was more a matter of logic than her giving into his request. He’d also asked her to come to his house one night, but she’d refused, insisting that they only spend time together at her place. She wouldn’t go out anywhere with him either—dinner, movie, a show, none of it.
But the thing that bothered him the most was his request to be exclusive. He’d thought it was a simple one. He knew that’s what she preferred. It had been a major issue in the past. And he immediately wanted to give that to her this time. But she wouldn’t commit to it. It nearly broke his heart. He’d told all this to Elias on their last call, desperately needing an ear.
“I don’t want to fuck this up.” It was the same argument he’d been making. He’d already let a few things slip to Carlos, which was something Maya could easily discover. So he had to be tight-lipped to his best friend. Elias was his lifeline now, he realized, the only one he could talk openly to.
“Don’t be mad. But after our discussion the other day, I talked to Rebecca.”
“I’m not mad.” Everett no longer held the animosity he’d once had for Rebecca. And he understood that she and Elias were a team now.
“She had some interesting insights. Wanna hear?”
Everett shifted into the slow lane and leaned back, both hands resting loosely on the steering wheel. “Yes. I do.”
“She says she fell in love with you because of your charisma. And I get that. I remember your dad always used to call you ‘the great communicator.’ And I remember watching you convince Carlos, over the course of one lunch, to leave one of the biggest tech companies in San Francisco to come work at our little candle company in Richmond. That’s when I truly understood that title. And I have no doubt you killed it at whatever meeting you just had in San Jose. But…”
It was true. He’d just sealed a deal to get their product into a large regional chain. “But?”
“The exception to that is when you’re scared. Rebecca points to two examples. The first was when you’d taken out all those loans, put your tr
ust fund on the line, and sunk everything you had into the company. You had to be scared shitless. Hell, I was and it wasn’t my money on the line. And that’s when we pressured you into giving the company that stupid name. You wanted to just call it Tranquility, but we asked you to put the initials on it. And you went with it.”
“So. I didn’t want to muscle over you two. What does that have to do with anything?”
“You didn’t even try to reason with us, E. And it would have been easy to do. But you just went along with it. And then when your dad died.” Elias took a shaky breath. “Rebecca has admitted to me that she knew you were vulnerable. You were scared to death. And she took advantage of that to get what she wanted, a proposal.”
Everett pinched his nose between his fingers and took a deep breath. “So you’re saying I’m letting Maya get her way because I’m scared?”
“Yes.”
“So, what am I supposed to do, just be a douche and try to roll right over her without taking what she wants into account?”
“No, asshole. I’m saying you should talk to her. She’s probably just as scared as you are, and now you’re both making stupid decisions because you’re not communicating.”
“I hear you. I’ll think about it.”
“No. No more thinking. Act. Let me tell you something. And maybe after I tell you this, you won’t talk to me anymore. I don’t know. But it’s about time this was said. I’ve been in love with Rebecca since before I introduced you to her.”
Everett had to concentrate on driving to keep from running off the road. “What?... I don’t…Then why the hell did you set me up with her?”
“I was a lanky, dorky dude whose two hobbies were fencing and making candles with my best friend. Girls used to tell me on the regular what a great friend I was. My own mother thought I was gay. I was not in Rebecca’s league and I knew it. But you were, and…I don’t know. Maybe it was a ‘live vicariously’ thing. The bottom line is, I was scared.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”