12. Maya
Sydney blotted her lips with a napkin and sighed contentedly as she looked down at her plate which was empty save for a puddle of fatty drippings from the burger she’d just devoured, the burnt, crispy ends of a few fries, and a red streak of ketchup. “I really needed this. Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me.” Maya glanced down at her own empty plate. The pleasure was really all hers. She wiped her mouth and hands, laid her napkin across the plate, then lifted her glass of water from the bar and took a sip.
“I can put up with a fair amount of shit, but today was my breaking point,” Syd said.
Turns out she was dealing with her own true boys’ club. Of the group of six summer associates, all were men and had been assigned cases already, except for her and the guy who had the balls to show up late everyday citing Atlanta traffic as if he was the only person dealing with it. He got a high-profile murder case today because they were afraid it would be “too much” for her, the lone woman in the group. As if.
“Well maybe the next case that comes up will be better than the one you lost out on.”
Sydney gave her a look. “Like a double homicide?”
“Okay, hopefully not, but you know what I mean. Something interesting. Something that allows you to dig deep and use your talent and passion for good.”
Syd nearly spit out her beer as she began to laugh. “My passion? Who even are you? You have been so chill the past few days.”
“Things turned around at work,” Maya explained. “I’m happy with the case.”
“It has nothing to do with your Saturday night visitor?”
Maya rolled her eyes. It was only a matter of time before Syd brought that up, and the fact that she had gone a couple of days without doing so showed considerable restraint on her part that she usually lacked when it came to such matters.
“It has everything to do with the work,” Maya stressed, thinking that was the final word on the topic.
“Because I could think of a few other reasons you might seem so…” She paused to inhale and released a blissful, breathy sigh. “Relaxed.”
“Just finish your drink,” Maya snapped, shaking her head at her friend.
Syd reveled in Maya’s stern response and took a sip of her beer as instructed. “So this Evan guy?” she asked, turning her thumb up then down.
Maya gave a thumbs up. “I have a feeling we’ll be planning a bachelor party sometime in the next year.”
“Damn,” Syd said breathlessly. “That moved fast.”
“Tell me about it.” If she hadn’t been there to witness it all, she would have a hard time believing it herself. Maya picked up her glass to take another sip of water. A sudden pressure on her shoulder startled her. Her muscles tensed under what she now realized was a hand.
“Guess it was meant to be,” an unexpected male voice whispered in her ear. Deep, unapologetically twangy, and creepy as hell. “I knew we’d run into each other,” he said.
She clenched her eyes shut and cursed under her breath before exhaling. No. Please not Freddy fucking Prescott. She cursed a few more times in her head before putting on her game face and turning to see…Reed Stanton standing behind her looking so amused.
“What the hell?” She threw her fist into his right bicep which only made him laugh harder. “That’s not funny.”
“At it again, huh?” he asked, nodding toward the bar she was sitting at.
“We were just having dinner,” she informed him, still smarting over his little joke. “Why are you following me everywhere?”
“I didn’t realize this was your private bar, Hendricks. We just came from the ball game.” He tilted his head to include his friend quietly standing beside him. “Stopped in for a quick bite before we head home.”
Syd cleared her throat, and Maya found her peering curiously over her shoulder at the two men she’d never met before.
“Sorry. This is Reed.” Maya gestured toward him. “We work together.”
The pointy toe of Sydney’s heels stabbed her calf. Maya paid her no mind because she knew exactly what she was thinking. Yes, this is that Reed, and yes, I know, I didn’t tell you he was so hot.
“Sydney,” she said, extending her hand around Maya to shake his like a normal human being. Thank God. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Reed returned politely while shaking her hand. “And this is my friend, Dev.”
“Maya,” she said as she reached out to shake his hand.
“Nice to meet you, as well,” Dev said.
“You mind if we grab these seats?” Reed asked, pointing to the two empty seats to Maya’s left.
“Go for it.”
“How was the game?” Syd asked as she leaned over the bar to see them.
“Not so great,” Dev said. “We got crushed by the Tigers.”
“They’ve got to get their shit together.” Syd was a diehard Braves fan herself, so much so that she had a Chipper Jones poster hanging up next to a Justin Bieber poster in her bedroom growing up. “I know it’s only June, but come on, guys.”
Syd had a tendency to go on once she got started, so while she and Dev talked Braves over her head, Maya shifted her attention to Reed. He was still wearing his slacks and dress shirt, now with the top button undone and sleeves rolled up, and his Braves cap to top it off. She found it amusing that he had a clear disdain for suits and dress clothes, yet they seemed to love him so much the way they draped perfectly over his lean frame. And when he started deconstructing the button-up look like he had tonight, well, that was just hot. Effortlessly, recklessly hot. Was he even aware of what he was doing?
“Why do you even bother with a jacket and tie when you always end up like this?”
Reed looked down at his outfit. “Trying to fit in as a city boy, I guess.” He shrugged then picked up a menu and started skimming it. He really had no idea what he was doing to her. It was so wrong of him.
“So what’s good here?”
“The burger.” She plucked the menu out of his hands and put it down on the bar. “Don’t bother with anything else.”
“Oh yeah?”
There was a playfulness about him tonight, like he wanted to start something with her, and she just so happened to be in a good mood, too, thanks to a great day of making progress on their case.
“Oh yeah,” she said certainly. “When have I ever been wrong?”
His smile deepened, like he was rearing up to come back with something that would knock her off her stool, but a tap on his shoulder broke his momentum.
“Sorry, what did you say was good here?” Dev asked as he leaned forward, trying to see around Reed.
“Sorry.” Maya chided herself for her poor manners and allowing herself to get distracted. “The burger,” she said loudly. “So how do you two know each other?” she asked, making a point to be more inclusive.
“That’s hard to say. Everyone just kind of knows each other where we’re from,” Dev answered. “I think it was kindergarten, though?”
Reed turned to Maya and shared, “Dev and his wife own the bar I mentioned the other day.”
“Oh, right,” she said quietly.
“You own a bar?” Syd asked, trying to rejoin the conversation. “That makes me feel like an underachiever.”
“It’s not that big of a deal. It was more of a family investment,” he explained humbly. “How do you two know each other?” he asked, nodding at Maya and Sydney.
“Junior high. We rode the same bus, and we were on student council together. She was president and I was V.P.,” she said proudly as she squeezed Maya’s shoulder.
“Well, that makes perfect sense,” Reed mused quietly out of the corner of his smirking mouth.
“Like you even know,” she shot back.
“You really wanna go there?” he asked.
Syd sighed loudly behind her, causing Maya to spin around to see her picking up her drink and sliding off the stool. She reached out and grabbed her arm. “Where are you going?” “Gonna go sit with Dev,” she said with a tight, knowing smile. “Talk baseball.”
Shit.Maya released her arm and tried to be cool. “Okay.” Shit, shit, shit.
In the vacuum that was their work life, they could be themselves, whatever that was, and she could tell herself whatever she wanted to about their relationship. Now that they had been exposed, it would be harder to maintain her delusions about what was or wasn’t going on between them. She came here to work, not make friends. That was the plan, at least, but in less than two weeks, she had failed miserably. So were they co-workers? Yes. Friends? She took a deep breath and glanced at him, smiling as he chatted with Dev and Syd. Sure, but maybe more friendly than actual friends.
Friendly co-workers and not a thing more. That was the new plan.