Chapter 16 Maya
Maya
She just could not stop smiling.
Maya was trying to stay cool, but it kept blooming across her face. A soft, stunned little smirk that returned every few seconds. Her skin still tingled. Her thighs still ached. And her brain? Still full of his voice.
Even while she wandered an overpriced home goods boutique with her sister-in-law, she couldn’t stop thinking about the filthy things he whispered in her ears.
She touched the edge of a ceramic dish and murmured, “Do you think my parents would actually use something like this?”
Sammy snorted. “They’d put it in the entryway, never touch it again, and act offended when someone moved it.”
Maya laughed, lifting the dish. It said Welcome-ish in gold script. “So… perfect, then?”
“Perfect. They’ll throw their keys in it, or something.” Sammy took it from her hands and dropped it into the empty shopping tote. “We’re going to brunch next, right?”
“Of course, girl. My treat,” Maya said, too quickly.
Her sister-in-law’s head snapped up.
“Whoever this guy is…” Sammy’s brows lifted. “He’s that good, huh?”
Maya didn’t answer right away. She leaned into a display shelf instead, chin lifted toward the ceiling, trying not to squeal in public.
Sammy grinned. “Oh, you’re floating.”
Maya bit back her smile. Failed. “It was… different.”
“Different as in hot? Or different as in ‘hey girl, we need to talk about your choices’?”
Maya gave her a side-eye. “Definitely the first one.”
“Thank God,” Sammy said. “We don’t need your characters getting more action than you.”
“Girl, you ain’t never lied,” Maya murmured.
Honestly? She didn’t know if she could even write a character like Theo.
The way he didn’t lay a hand on her but still made her fall apart. Who even was that man?
“You want to talk about it?” Sammy asked gently.
Maya glanced at her. “Not in detail. Just that he’s growing on me.”
“How long have y'all known each other for him to grow on you?”
Shit.
“I mean, not too long…” Maya said. “He’s from back in the day.”
“Mmh.”
They strolled a few steps in companionable silence. Maya reached for a candle and took a deep breath of cinnamon and fig. Her grin softened into something warmer, deeper.
Sammy noticed. “Oh my god, now I need to know who’s got you smiling like this.”
“I can’t say.”
“Okay, but if it’s just sex, please tell me. The only gossip I get it is from the other moms at Quenton’s school, and that shit is so boring.”
Maya shook her head, laughing. “It’s slightly more than sex.”
She loved Samantha, but she knew how married couples talked. And she knew her brother even better. Nate loved being on the receiving end of messy gossip, and Maya wasn’t going to let Theo’s name slip as easy as her smiles.
Sammy looped her arm through hers. “Fine. But we definitely need more of this. You. Me. Wandering around. Buying overpriced candles. Talking about orgasms.”
“You’re right… I’m sorry that I’m usually writing.”
“And editing, and selling, and interviewing,” Sammy said, tugging her toward the line to the checkout, “But today, you’re glowing. And I like this version of you.”
Maya squeezed her hand. “I like her, too.”
There was a beat, then—
“Nate said you were working on the audiobook. How’s that going?”
Maya nearly tripped over her own feet. “It’s—uh. It’s going.”
Sammy glanced at her. “Well, I hope?”
“Yeah. Totally. Great, actually.”
A pause.
“That’s a lot of enthusiasm for someone who used to hate the sound of her own dialogue out loud.”
Maya fumbled for a candle. “Well, I found a narrator I trust.”
“Ohhh,” Sammy said, eyes narrowing. “And is mystery guy helping you with that?”
Maya barked out a laugh, turning away like the label on the candle was the most fascinating thing she’d ever seen. “Girl, stop it.”
“You’re being hella coy right now,” Sammy said with a grin. “But I’m going to get the rest of this story eventually.”
Maya was still giggling as they reached the counter, Sammy unloading their haul of candles, trinkets, and the wildly passive-aggressive “Welcome-ish” dish.
“She’s got secrets,” Sammy told the cashier like it was a scandal. “Glowing skin, suspiciously high spirits, and an audiobook she suddenly loves.”
“Sounds like she’s having a good day,” the cashier said, tearing a bit of wrapping paper with flourish.
“Oh, she’s having something,” Sammy muttered under her breath.
Maya just handed over her card and refused to make eye contact with anyone.
They exited the shop into the bright afternoon sun, still laughing, still linked arm-in-arm until Maya stopped short.
Coming down the sidewalk, hand-in-hand with a bright-eyed, baby-faced companion, was Julian Hampton.
Oh, my God…
Same pressed slacks. Same perfectly moisturized bald head. Same I’m-smarter-than-Skip-Gates glint in his eye.
The woman on his arm looked like she maybe taught yoga in the mornings and went to grad seminars in the afternoon. Cute, polished, and so, so young.
Julian saw Maya, and of course he smiled.
“Maya. Wow. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
Her spine straightened like it had a mind of its own. “Julian.”
Sammy blinked at the tone. Then blinked at Julian. And then at the girl. “Oh my God,” she whispered, low enough for only Maya to hear. “She looks like she’s still learning MLA format.”
Julian either didn’t hear or didn’t care. He gestured between them. “This is Shayna. She’s in the MFA program at Northwestern.”
Of course she was.
Shayna gave Maya a perfectly polite smile, like she was two seconds from asking for extra credit.
“And you?” Julian asked, still studying Maya. “Still writing… romance?”
Sammy bristled beside her.
Maya didn’t. She’d had enough time and distance to understand what he was trying to do.
She smiled, sweet and slow. “I am. Actually, my latest book is coming out next month—Sweat?”
Sammy choked on a laugh and turned it into a cough.
Julian’s face did something faint and sour.
Shayna’s eyes widened. “Oh wow, who are you published with?”
Before she could reply, her ex-boyfriend jumped in: “Maya self-publishes her stories.”
He said it like a correction. A warning.
The young woman blinked. “Oh.”
Maya let the silence stretch before smiling again, even softer this time. “That’s right. I’m my own publisher. My own editor. My own marketing department. And as of this year, my own audiobook narrator.”
Julian’s mouth pressed into a line.
Sammy, sensing blood in the water, leaned closer to Julian. “She’s also got four bestsellers, two foreign rights deals, and a BookTok fanbase that would throw hands in a parking lot for her.”
Maya gave her a look. Sammy shrugged. “What? He brought it up.”
Julian cleared his throat. “Well, I’m glad it’s working out for you.”
But Shayna leaned in, suddenly intrigued. “Are you on Insta?”
Maya buried her amusement. “Of course! Right now, my page is currently crowded with the Sweat release, but just follow the link to find the rest of my titles.”
The girl nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll definitely check you out.”
“Please do,” Maya said, not missing a beat. “DM me and my assistant will send you a signed copy of something you’d like to try.”
Julian’s brows twitched, and Maya watched the exact moment he realized he’d lost whatever power he thought he still had.
“Anyway,” she said, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. “It was good to see you, Julian. I should let you get back to your… mentorship.”
Sammy snorted as they walked away. “Why is that bald-headed bastard still a dick?”
“Guys like him don’t change.” Maya sighed. “Not when they keep being rewarded for being dicks.”
“Did you see how young that girl was?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Her laughter came out a little too tight.
She had seen. She’d clocked it the second she looked at Shayna. Her fresh face, the way she held Julian’s hand like she didn’t know better yet. She’d probably just discovered Audre Lorde and thought it was life-altering.
And it was… just not in the way Professor Hampton probably taught it.
But now, as they walked away, Maya felt her pulse stutter erratically.
Because Shayna was young.
Just like Theo.
Not exactly—Theo had a career and life experience, but the ache in her chest didn’t care about nuance.
It just whispered things she didn’t want to hear.
That she’d been glowing a little too hard.
Floating a little too high. That whatever was happening between them, he might eventually want someone shinier. Simpler.
“Maya?” Sammy asked, glancing over.
“I’m good,” she said, too fast. “Let’s just find brunch.”
Sammy gave her a look but didn’t push. “You want bottomless mimosas or a bloody mary bar?”
“Both.”
They turned the corner and kept walking, but Maya’s hand tightened around the strap of her bag like it could anchor her. Her heels clicked louder than they needed to on the sidewalk. She didn’t want to spiral, not after that night, but the flicker was there.
Just beneath her skin.