Maya by Shayne Ford

11

MAYA

Our tripup the coast in Tara’s silver Porsche relaxes me somewhat.

We chat and laugh and arrive at the meeting place earlier than we have planned to.

It’s a brand new business center made of glass, smooth concrete, and steel beams.

A sunlit sky spreads out all the way to the ocean.

The host takes us to the floor where we’re supposed to meet the people interested in investing in our company.

We stroll down a large corridor with conference rooms, and she shows us to a large chamber facing the ocean.

We couldn’t be more thrilled. Convinced, we are the first ones to arrive, we leisurely saunter in.

Tara walks in first, the view arresting her attention.

I gasp in awe behind her back, entering the room as well, walking unaware that her eyes are no longer trained on the view.

Frozen in the middle of the room, she looks to the side.

I realize she’s stopped only when I bump into her and jolt out of my reverie, startled, laughing.

My eyes go to her face, and my smile fades quickly, my mind scrambling to understand what has made her stop and stand awkwardly in the middle of the room.

I have a hard time grasping what has brought the horrified expression to her face too.

Slowly I move my gaze to the side, and I turn to stone.

My heart races, a shiver sweeping my body, explaining to an extent the nerves I’ve grappled with the entire morning.

I notice the two men at once.

The blonde man standing in front of the wall of windows and the dark-haired man sitting at the table.

My heart wants to carve its way out of my chest wall, break free and run to him.

To him… After all this time?

I can’t pull air into my lungs, shock, and surprise locking me into a catatonic state.

Who are we supposed to meet again?

Two foreign investors? What are they doing here?

I thought we’d be greeted by… I don’t know. Some other people. Men, women, kids who’ve made money online.

But them?

Have any of our assistants checked who these people were?

Apparently not… Not only that.

I’m sure they didn’t know who they’d be meeting either. I can see it in their eyes.

This was supposed to be a business meeting, not a trip down memory lane. Not a session of clearing things up.

Shade locks eyes with Tara while Chad McKenna looks at me.

Just looks at me, and all the doors of the universe get slammed closed around me as if it’s only him and me in the room, our eyes and minds talking more than our lips do.

What have I done to deserve this?

My knees start shaking, and my lips tremble. In desperation, I look for Tara’s touch.

I grab her hand and hold onto her. Her skin is cold and clammy, just like mine.

He looks slightly different. Different good. He is more man. He has even more power. And that added to his depth.

I wish time could stop. And I wish I could linger in this moment a little more to understand what’s happening to me.

Out of nowhere, I experience a revival, my emotions scaling up, trampling over the walls I put in place a while ago.

He’s already pushed his chair back before rising to his feet, and I need a rescue operation. My heart bounces erratically.

The only person in the room unaware of the old stories flowing around is our host.

Oblivious to the moment of collective panic, she makes the introductions while Tara and I have lost our voices.

The men’s faces are unreadable as they stride to us.

It takes a second… And even before she says it, I know what’s crossing Tara’s mind.

She squeezes my hand until I feel pain and has a look of sheer determination on her face when she glances at me.

She’s going to bolt, and nothing can stop her.

She wants me to do the same thing.

I don’t have time to express a thought, a feeling, and besides, this is not the place or time to do it anyway when she breaks away from me, spins around, and storms out of the conference room.

The men turn to stone while I break out of my paralysis and run after her, calling her name.

She’s already down the stairs when Shade and Chad catch up to me.

Shade’s hand comes to my elbow, stopping me from going after Tara.

“Let her go…” he says, his eyes trained on me before my gaze shifts to the man who stands next to him.

He seems bigger, more muscular, his features set deeper in his face. He looks stunning, and I hardly breathe.

I’m not sure I should be here with them. Tara’s last look was self-explanatory.

We’re not going to discuss business with them. And other than that, there is nothing to be discussed.

But somehow, I can’t follow her. My heart asks me to stay.

Shade wants me to talk to them, and Chad takes my hand without a word.

He does it naturally, determined as if nothing has happened since we’ve seen each other last.

“Chad…”

His name flows from my lips without me giving it too much thought. My lips even crease into a small smile.

It brings light to his eyes.

“Maya…” he says affectionately, with reverence, emotion, and sheer admiration.

He floods my heart with warmth.

I would want to see the admiration in anyone’s eyes––it’s a sign I’ve done something right––but even more so in the eyes of the only man who’s genuinely meant something to me.

I have to say… I feel the same about him.

Magnetic power oozes from his silence and his touch, from his eyes and the soft curving of his lips.

He wears a buttoned-down blue dress shirt and dark suit pants. His skin is slightly darker, as if he’s spent the summer in the sun. He narrows his eyes at me, his thick lashes holding a tender smile.

Whatever happened to him this last year, nothing has put a dent in how he feels about me––all the missteps we’ve both taken seem to be now brushed to the side.

Shade seems to be aware of what is going on, too, witnessing it in silence.

Emotions flood my voice.

“I don’t think she wants me to be here with you,” I murmur.

“She’ll be okay,” Shade says confidently.

I hope he’s right.

We go back to the room and spend a few minutes talking.

It’s mostly Shade and me.

We chat about the business and our lives as much as we can share. Our brief meeting ends when Chad offers to take me home.

He has no idea I have no ride. I’m sure Tara has left the building, and I feel good that he has offered to help me. Even more so since he doesn’t know I’m kind of stranded.

Minutes later, Chad and I ride the elevator down in silence.

We saunter across the lobby and head outside.

He holds the door for me, his hand never tearing away from mine before he walks me to his ride, a shiny red Ferrari.

He remotely starts up the engine and opens the doors before we slip inside.

“Predictable, I know…” he says as we get settled into our seats.

“I didn’t say anything. I love your ride,” I say, checking the dashboard and the seats, the steering wheel, and the windows.

He glances at me before swiftly running his gaze down.

“AC?

“You can roll the windows down. The meeting is over,” I say, smiling faintly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice his chiseled forearms and catch him lift his gaze from my body.

I quickly feel the heat and wish I wore a top. I could’ve taken my jacket off.

Our eyes meet briefly before he looks away and steers the car to the main road.

“Where are we going?” he asks.

I give him the address.

He looks at me, the wind blowing in my hair. Everything feels better, suddenly.

“Do you want to grab lunch first? I know a place.” he says.

“Sure.”

I tip my head back against the headrest, the wind rolling over my face, the sun warming my skin.

Closing my eyes, I soak in the sun, welcoming the breeze.

“Who did you think you were going to meet?” I ask.

He doesn’t answer, so I snap my eyes open and look at him.

“I can ask you the same thing.”

“We had no idea.”

“Same here.”

“Is this what you are doing now?”

He glances at me, but his eyes slide again to my lips and below my chin.

“Meaning?” he says in a clipped voice, pinning his eyes on the road.

“Investing?”

“Yeah… Among other things.”

“I gather your life has changed.”

He smiles, not looking at me, my eyes trained on his profile.

“A little.”

“Money?”

“Money too.”

I straighten in my seat, a bit tense.

It’s like I suddenly remembered a year has passed. A year can bring a lot of things into one’s life.

Look what it has brought to Tara and me.

I look at him suspiciously, checking his fingers for a ring, my heart backpedaling fast, my mind trying to talk me out of him.

My accusatory silence makes him shift his eyes to me just as we roll over a cobblestone road and enter an area with restaurants. He pulls his car to a stop in the shadow of a few old trees topped with large crowns.

He turns the engine off, and I brace myself, expecting him to deliver the news. A woman in his life. Someone he is engaged to, maybe a kid on the way.

Frozen in my seat, I look at him.

His eyes finally come to mine, a soft smile lighting them up.

“How else has your life changed?” I ask.

He lowers his eyelids, his gaze holding a smile as if he knows what kind of thoughts my mind spins.

He likes that I’m still interested, and I like his reaction.

“I live in a different place…” he says, grinning. “That’s it. I moved to Monaco.”

My cheeks burn with a blush.

I look away to conceal my expression.

“Is this the place?” I ask, a beautiful terrace sprawling out in front of a Mexican restaurant.

He grips my hand.

His touch is warm and firm. I move my eyes to him.

“What happened to you this past year?” he asks, no longer smiling. “Other than the business?”

He’s not questioning me and doesn’t suspect something bad has happened to me. He wants to know where I’ve been. What I’ve done. Who I’ve done it with.

Maybe.

I find his interest in my life reassuring.

We still think alike, but I’m a bit fearful of the things that happened. As big or small as they were, they have the power to pull us apart for good.

He shifts in his seat, and my gaze goes from his eyes to his lips and the few buttons open across his chest.

His slim-fit shirt runs smoothly over his flat stomach, his sexy pants teasing me immensely with how they fall over his groin.

I can’t believe I’m checking him out.

Also, I can’t believe after all this time, he is here with me, my hand asleep in his touch.

Squeezing my hand gently, he summons my eyes back up to him.

“I didn’t think we’d ever have this conversation,” I say in response to his question.

A shadow darkens his gaze, his grip slackening.

He straightens without a word, looking away.

My stomach is tied in knots.

“I can’t say I haven’s seen anyone,” I murmur.

“That’s not what I asked,” he says, reading something on his phone.

He moves his eyes to me.

“What do you want me to say?” I ask.

“Nothing. Let’s go and eat.”

I feel that dull pain in the pit of my stomach again.

Has this just put some distance between us?

And isn’t the distance what I have mostly hated this past twelve months?

“You didn’t expect me to wait for you, did you?” I toss at him, seeking a crumb of closure if reconciliation is out of the question.

Slowly running his teeth across his bottom lip, he pivots to face me and props his shoulder against his seat.

“And you can’t say you haven’t been with anyone else either,” I point out.

He looks down for a moment which is a silent yes.

Yes, he did see other people.

This is more difficult than I thought it would be.

Frosted inside, I wait for this moment to come to an end, cut my losses, and move on.

After all, my life was good up until today, even though I was so nervous this morning, and now I know why, but I don’t need to learn about his private life.

Surprisingly, he takes my hand and starts stroking it softly.

“I tried to be with other people,” he confesses before lifting his gaze to me.

I melt in my seat with panic, surprise, and just a little bit of joy.

“It didn’t work out,” he continues.

He looks at me again.

“I didn’t want it to work out. And honestly, it couldn’t.”

My shoulders shrink.

“I was busy with my business. With Shade and my family… But that was not it.”

A soft grin tilts his lips.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you,” he says mellowly, his touch melting my hand. “No matter how many times I thought about calling you, explaining to you why I couldn’t stay in touch with you, a voice in my head kept telling me it was not the time. And then today, when you and Tara walked into that conference room, I knew why. Strangely, the four of us have similar stories. We all needed some time apart. Shade and I to build our business, and Tara and you to build yours. It’s funny how little credit life gets for writing these stories. Most of the time, life sucks at writing them, but once in a while, it gets it right, and this one was a stroke of genius. With that being said, time is time, and there’s always a price to pay for pulling away from someone. I couldn’t forget you. And Shade couldn’t forget Tara either, yet he and I both feared the moment we’d cross paths with you two again. As if we knew it would happen again… All I want to say is, I’m a free man, and the question is, are you a free woman?”

My eyes soften not because he’s asked me that or confessed to me how he felt about everything.

What he said mirrors what had happened to me. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, but apparently, that’s not enough for two people to have a story together.

I promised myself to always be truthful with everyone who matters to me. And he does.

“I’ve been seeing someone, but we are not together,” I push the words out, gauging his reaction.

His jaw clenches, a slight wince flashing across his face.

“I’m not emotionally involved with anyone,” I add.

He tips his gaze down and studies our locked hands.

“When are you leaving?” I ask, my voice steadier this time.

I know better than to go through the same thing with him and end up broken like last time.

“In a few days,” he says quietly, smiling and looking at me. “Would you like to spend some time with me?” he adds smoothly as if we have no history together.

My lips part open.

“Time? Sure…We can spend some time together.”

I didn’t want to sound sarcastic, but I’m afraid it came across that way.

My guard is up, and he notices it immediately, letting out a soft chuckle in response.

“I’m starting everything from scratch, it seems…” he murmurs.

“If you want to,” I toss at him.

“Fair,” he says, his grin fading. “I’ve missed you, Maya,” he murmurs in a serious voice.

Biting my lip, I push back my words.

He observes me for a few more moments before he leans closer to me, slides his hand under my hair, and brings his lips to mine.

I hold my breath, turned to stone under his touch as he softly brushes his lips against mine and speaks.

“I’m happy I found you again,” he murmurs before I can finally breathe again.