by Kay Harris
“Sorry, dude. I made a mistake. And once I’d written the page I couldn’t take it back. So I had to live with it for six long years. Then things were going bad with you two. Rebecca came to me and told me she knew things were over between you. And that’s when I told her. And about twelve hours later your life went to shit. And I’m truly sorry about that.”
Everett took three deep breaths. “Things might have been so different. I might have been with Maya. You and Rebecca could have had each other from the beginning. Everything…”
“No.” Elias’ voice was forceful. “It wouldn’t have worked. I’m sure of that. Maybe you and Maya would have gotten together, but you might not have been in the right place. And maybe Rebecca and I would have gotten together, but we would have failed. She was in her restless phase, insisting on an open relationship. I couldn’t have done that, man. I’m not built for that. It wouldn’t have worked. None of it. Us. The business. It might suck. But it had to be this way.”
Everett swallowed hard and pushed Elias’ revelations to the back of his brain for rumination later. “Thanks for telling me.”
“I’m glad I finally did. Now you should learn something from my story and talk to your girl. Tell her how you feel. Freaking communicate!”
“Okay. Okay. I hear you. Damn. You are a lot bossier than you used to be.”
“I am. I’m also more confident and happier.” Everett could hear the smile in Elias’ voice and it made him smile as well.
Everett spent the rest of the ride to Richmond talking to Elias about less intense things. They discussed fencing and Carlos’ love life and Everett’s work out routine. They said their goodbyes as Everett was pulling into the parking lot outside Maya’s apartment building.
Everett ran up the stairs to Maya’s place with a million thoughts whirling through his head. But they seemed to all leave him when Maya opened the door and smiled at him.
“I missed you,” she admitted as she pulled him into the living room.
They fell onto her small couch and into a slow, passionate make-out session. One of the greatest things about him and Maya was that sometimes they were into the fast and furious, up against a wall pairings filled with desperation and other times, like this, they could be slow and draw things out like a couple of newbie teenagers just enjoying the ride.
“I just spent the entire drive from San Jose talking to Elias,” he admitted when the kissing slowed and the cuddling started.
Maya lifted her head from his chest and rubbed her palm over his cheek. “How did that go?”
“Really good, actually. We got a lot of our laundry aired.”
She smiled. “I think that’s a good thing. Do you?”
He nodded. “Yeah. And I’m invited to the wedding.”
“Oh. Wow. That could be…”
“Awkward. Yeah. But I might go anyway. Would you go with me?”
Maya cocked her head. “I might.”
Everett tried not to let the knot forming in his stomach from yet another non-committal comment show on his face. As much as he knew Elias was right in his assessment, he hadn’t figured out exactly what to do about it yet. Instead, he decided to see if Maya wanted to order Chinese food and stay on the couch for the rest of the night.
Turned out she was completely on board for that plan.
****
Maya’s feet were frozen on the sidewalk outside Everett’s house. She knew where he lived. Everyone did. And she’d been invited to his birthday before. Everyone was. But she hadn’t gone in. Last year she’d pulled up, stared at the house through the car window, and driven away.
Now she was going to enter the opulent home. And she wasn’t just an employee anymore. She was the woman who was sleeping with the owner of this palace.
Palace was a bit of an overstatement. The house wasn’t any bigger than Trudy’s place. The yard held a pool instead of a garden, or so she’d heard. It was two stories and took up about the same amount of space in the world. But it just looked so much fancier from the outside. Maybe it was the valet parking cars up and down the streets of the neighborhood, or the way people were streaming into it wearing party clothes.
Suddenly, Maya’s soft yellow dress and cute but cheap-as-hell sandals seemed completely inadequate. She watched the VP of sales and her husband climb out of their upscale sedan, toss the keys to a kid in a red vest and walk toward the front door.
Maya glanced down at her phone. Mica’s last text said they were at least twenty minutes out. She could stand here for twenty minutes and wait for them before going in or she could stop being a coward and walk in on her own.
Courage failed and her heel spun. She turned her body back toward the street. Her car was parked—by her, not a valet—about a block away. She could get to it, drive home and call Everett with a fake cough or something. She could tell him how sorry she was she couldn’t make it.
Guilt swamped her. Everett had spent at least three nights a week at her apartment over the past month. He’d held her and kissed her and whispered into her ear. He’d made her feel on top of the world. And she was planning to skip his birthday party.
Shit.
“Maya.”
She whirled around at the sound of her name. He was on the sidewalk a few feet away. His hand held out toward her as if he were in the middle of trying to stop her from running.
“Hi.” Her voice sounded soft and weak. And that’s kind of how she felt with Everett standing in the waning evening light a few feet away from her.
He dropped his hand to his side. “You looked like you were about to leave. You’re not leaving, are you?” His brow furrowed. That insecure, vulnerable side of him that she seemed to bring out was right there in front of her.
She couldn’t deny the vulnerable Everett anything. “No. I’m not leaving.”
Everett let out a breath. His tone changed. “Good. I was hoping you’d come this year.” The statement was meant for anyone overhearing, not her. She’d promised she’d come to the party while lying across his naked chest a few nights ago.
The new tone of voice signaled Mr. Vulnerable was gone. It was exactly what she’d asked for. She wanted to keep them a secret. She wanted to act at the party as though nothing was between them. And he was giving her that. “Of course.”
He didn’t touch her. Instead, he gestured for her to go in front of him. She moved unsteadily up the walk to the front door. As she approached it, she realized it wasn’t any bigger than any other front door. It was wooden and painted dark blue, just like the front door of Mica’s small house in Berkeley.
She followed a woman she didn’t really know, but recognized from the marketing department, into the house, Everett at her heels. They were barely inside the foyer when people started to engage Everett. She could hear the people greeting him, asking where he’d gone, or wishing him a happy birthday.
The sounds grew more muffled as she moved farther into the house, leaving Everett and his public behind. The foyer opened into a great room, not unlike the one at Trudy’s house, except here the sliding glass door leading to the backyard was not behind the staircase, but took up one end of the room. The kitchen sat through a set of swinging bar doors to one side. They were cute and quaint and reminded her of the ones that had adorned her grandparents’ house.
Two regular doors stood at one end of the great room, both open. One was clearly a bathroom and the other appeared to be a den. The staircase stood just beyond that, not a spiral, but an angled set with a square landing. The entire place was covered in beautifully polished hardwood floors and scattered with soft, colorful rugs. The walls were peppered with framed art and painted in subtle tones of beige, light blue, and yellow.
Despite her confident assertions that she would hate the place, Maya liked it.
“Maya. You came!” Julia nearly ran into her and folded her into an enthusiastic hug.
“I told you I would.” Maya pulled back and smiled at her friend.
“Yeah. But you said that la
st year, too.”
Julia pulled Maya over to a corner by the staircase. From here they could see the room filling up with people but were out of the chaos enough to hold a conversation. “Are our other birthday buddies here yet?”
Julia shook her head and long braids flew around her shoulders. “Nope. And I think we’ll know it when they both get here. Amy’s coming with Carlos.”
“The big reveal!” Amy had told the girls about her and Carlos already, but most of the people at Tranquility, including Carlos’ ex-wife, whom Maya spotted lingering by the patio door, did not know that the two were a couple.
“And Alice is bringing Darius Fleck as her date.”
Maya’s jaw dropped. “What? The hot football player turned model?”
Julia’s smile was coy. “Apparently they knew each other growing up.” Before she could ask Julia more about Alice and the hard body, Julia turned the tables on Maya. “You ready to tell me what’s going on with you and Everett?”
Chapter 14
At Julia’s question, Maya did two instinctual things at once. She looked around the room frantically to be sure no one had overheard, and she feigned ignorance. “What? Why would you say that?”
Julia put her hand on Maya’s shoulder. “It’s okay. I know.”
Maya tried to keep any expression off her face. This secret was not something she was ready to reveal. “Know what?”
“You and Everett. I don’t know what’s up. But something’s up. The way you two float around each other. You seem to disappear from the office at the same time. The other night I tried to call you and it went to voicemail and I tried to call him a couple minutes later and it went to voicemail.”
Maya shrugged casually. “This is your evidence that something’s going on?”
“So far, yeah. Everett won’t tell me anything. So I’m asking you now.”
Lying sucked. But Maya was having irrational doubts about letting everyone in on her relationship. For some reason, she felt so much more secure in her cozy little world, just her and Everett. “Julia, you’re letting your imagination get the better of you.”
Julia pressed her lips together. “Don’t play games, Maya. You are both too fragile for that.”
Maya looked around the room, purposely avoiding her friend’s gaze. “Tell me about the baby daddy hunt.”
“Maya.” Even though she wasn’t looking at her, she could hear the censure in Julia’s tone. “I care about you both and—”
“Look. It’s Amy. She’s here!” Maya began waving to the lithe blonde who made her way through the ever-increasing crowd to join them by the stairs.
It didn’t take long for their little spot to fill with people. Alice and her hot date showed up as well as Carlos and Everett. Maya kept her gaze away from Everett. In her peripheral vision she could see him glancing at her frequently, but she pretended he simply wasn’t there.
Everett didn’t say anything directly to Maya. He kept up his friendly banter with the group. Eventually, he took off with Carlos to head to the front of the house and talk with some old friends of theirs from Stanford.
Exhausted from the party and from avoiding the dark, liquid eyes of her lover, Maya climbed the stairs, a plastic cup filled with some sort of sweet alcoholic concoction dangling from her right hand. Mica still hadn’t shown up. All the usual people she liked to talk to had scattered through the crowd. And Julia, who she was desperate to not be caught by again, had disappeared. Maya hoped she wouldn’t run into her upstairs. Right now she needed to be alone for a minute.
Peeking into the first room on the right, Maya found a lacey guest room with a large bed and light purple curtains. She blinked as she stared at its blatant femininity until the black and white photo of Everett’s father on the bedside table kicked her brain into gear and she realized that this room was set aside for his mother.
The next room was a bathroom and beside that another guest room, this one much more neutral and colored in beige and blue. At the end of the hall was what she was sure was the master suite. The door was cracked open and Maya approached it cautiously. Shutting out the din of the party below, she concentrated on the silence enfolding that room.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door with a sharp jab and stood back. It swung open smoothly. Blanketing the hardwood floor in the center was a fluffy light gray rug upon which sat a king-sized, four-poster bed. It was covered with an unexpected patchwork quilt in a wild array of colors.
The dresser and bedside tables matched but were not modern, antiques of some sort, she guessed. To the side of the bed there was an object obscured by the door. Maya moved into the room, craning her neck to see it. Her breath hitched as she realized it was an easel.
Nothing sat on the easel. It was empty and alone. But behind it was a sliding glass door. Maya moved closer, stepped around the easel, and peered through the door. A large enclosed balcony stood off the room. Unable to stop herself, Maya slid the door open and stepped out onto tile. She looked at the deep red squares and gray grout for a mere second before turning her attention to the rest of the space.
The large windows on all three sides looked out over the backyard. The pool glimmered from underwater lights and the shadows of people moving through the dark could be picked out easily from up here.
But the room itself was the center of her attention, not the view. It was big, nearly half the size of the bedroom, and open. The only thing in the space was a firm, but comfy-looking chair sitting to one side. Spinning around, Maya found a small wooden door tucked against the wall beside the sliding glass door. She pulled it open and nearly fell to her knees.
The little closet held a set of perfect shelves, new by the looks of them. Most were empty, but a few held blank canvasses. A pile of new brushes sat in a little cubby. And at the top of the closet hung a big, red bow.
This was a gift. One she’d never accepted because she’d refused to come here. Everett must have asked at least a dozen times. He’d practically pleaded with her to come to his house. But she always refused, insisting they stay at her place.
Maya’s pocket buzzed and she reached in to pull out her phone. The text from Mica said that he and Roger had been there for a few minutes and still hadn’t seen her.
Maya closed the closet and the porch up tight and bolted back down the stairs, leaving the gift and all its implications behind for the time being. She searched through the throngs of people until she spotted Mica’s unruly brown hair at the edge of a tight circle of people.
As she approached, she realized Roger was in the center of the circle. Mica stood, his gaze away from the chaos and focused on some spot on the wall, a drink in his hand. He jumped a little when Maya touched his elbow.
“Hey. You are here. I was beginning to think you’d run away.” He grinned at her, but the smile didn’t touch his eyes.
“Let’s walk.” Her hand still on his arm, Maya moved Mica to the staircase. They stepped up to the landing and sat down on it. This was something they used to do at family parties as kids. From there they could see all the action without being a part of it. Maya leaned into Mica. “Let me guess. The minute you walked in he got swamped with his fans.”
Mica shrugged. “I think so. But it goes with the territory, you know.”
“What do you mean, you think so?”
“I waited in the car for about ten minutes. He came in first.”
Maya’s stomach clenched. “You didn’t even come in together?”
Mica shrugged again and took a long sip of his drink.
“Mica…”
“It’s fine, sis. Don’t get all up in arms. This is my life right now.” Mica turned to look at her and held her gaze, his expression filled with sincerity. “He’s worth it. Every minute of it. I’m in love with him.”
“But how long can you live in the closet like this?”
Mica’s gaze skittered away from her and back to the throngs of people in a circle around his boyfriend. Maya’s eyes followed his. Everett and C
arlos had returned from wherever they’d been and were dispersing the crowd, giving Roger some space. Roger talked to them both briefly, shaking hands and smiling. Then his head started to swivel as he scanned the room.
Maya turned her attention back to Mica just as his lips exploded into a smile. This time his eyes were right there too, bright and happy. “He’s looking for me.” Mica gestured with his head.
“So…how long Mica?” she pressed.
Mica stood and waved his hand at the man below. “As long as I need to.”
****
Everett surveyed the destruction around him. His house was a righteous mess. But it was like this every year. It was after two in the morning. He’d kicked out the last of the guests and the cleaning crew would be here in five hours, getting to work before he even woke up.
He climbed the stairs with the knowledge that Maya was in his bed waiting for him. At least he hoped she was. She’d gone upstairs an hour before and texted him that she’d see him in his room when everyone was gone.
Anticipation clawed at him, overruling his exhaustion. Maya was in his bed. He’d wanted nothing more than this for so long. He swung open his bedroom door and nearly cried when he found the bed neatly made and empty.
His gaze swung wildly around the room until it landed on the open sliding glass door. He moved across the room to the balcony and found Maya sitting at the chair, easel set up, canvas in front of her and a pencil in her hand.
She turned her head and smiled at him. “There weren’t any paints in the closet. So I’m sketching something out. I do that sometimes. Sometimes I just start painting.”
Everett leaned against the doorframe and ran a hand over his head. “You like it?”
Maya didn’t answer his question. Instead, she set the pencil on a shelf in the open closet behind her and slid the canvas in beside it. She shut the closet door and circled around the easel. She stood in front of him and cupped his cheeks with both of her hands.
Maya kissed him gently. “I love it. I can’t believe you did this for me.”
“I had to find a way to get you to spend the night.”