30. Maya
Another frame, another spare. Maya pumped her fist and turned on her heel to see Reed standing at the ball return giving her a slow clap.
“If I didn’t like you so much, I’d probably hate you for being so good at everything, Hendricks.”
She sidled up next to him and bumped her hip against his. “Yeah, well you have skills, too, Stanton.” Crazy skills. Like toe-curling, goosebump-inducing, make you lose your mind kind of skills.
“Yeah?”
“Oh my God, yeah,” she whispered back.
“Oh, come on!” Syd yelled from behind. Maya turned to see her slumped in the seat behind the monitor and clearly so over this. When Darby had suggested they go bowling, Syd was adamantly against it, but outnumbered now that everyone but her had a plus one on their side.
Maya bumped Reed’s hip again and whispered a quick good luck then joined Syd. Darby and her new lady friend, Kate, were busy canoodling on one side of the lane while Adam and Evan were doing the same on the other side. She sat down next to her bestie, but her eyes were drawn back to Reed as he readied himself to bowl, looking so cute standing there in the two-tone leather rental shoes.
“Okay, I know I called it too early over the summer, but now I’m certain. You either just slept together or you’re about to.”
She whipped her head around. “Syd,” Maya barked in a hushed whisper.
“It’s one or the other because this is next level. You two are way too giggly and handsy with each other.”
“Well, I’m not answering that.” Maya glanced back at Reed to see he’d knocked seven pins down in his first attempt. He looked at her just before his second go and she gave him a thumbs up.
“It’s okay.” Sydney grinned as she watched the exchange. “You don’t have to.”
“Drop it,” Maya warned since he was heading back their way now. “Nice work!”
Reed squinted. “I just rolled a gutter ball.”
She shrugged while he picked up the pitcher and poured the last of the beer into her and Syd’s cups.
“I’ll go grab another pitcher,” he offered.
“Thank you!” Syd’s tone and smile were sickly sweet and clearly meant to tease her.
He gave Maya’s shoulder a quick squeeze, a small good-bye before heading off to the bar.
“So are you two together now?”
Maya rubbed her temples. In all honesty, she wasn’t sure what to call it. “Yes? For now.”
“How about when you go back to school?”
Maya shook her head no.
“What about after graduation?” Syd continued.
Maya shook her head again and shrugged in response to Sydney’s widening eyes.
“This is just a vacation thing?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Maya.” Syd’s face softened. “That’s something you do with exes or randoms, not with someone you actually care about.”
“Yeah, well.” She knew this now. An ache had formed deep in the pit of her stomach and was steadily growing now that she was two days away from leaving.
“What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking…” Maya trailed off as she glanced back at Reed, standing at the bar carrying on with the bartender about who knows what. He was good like that. You could bring him anywhere, and he could talk to anyone which always melted her heart a little bit. “This is the last time we’re in the same place for a while and I just wanted to be with him,” she answered honestly.
“Oh babes, you’re gonna need Dr. Darby.” Syd turned to find her still in a world of her own with Kate. “Darby.”
She looked up, startled by the sound of her name, and pushed her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “Yeah?”
“It’s your turn,” Maya cut in, pointing toward the empty lane in front of them.
Kate gave her a high-five for good luck before she got up to bowl her frame, none the wiser about what was going on around her. Once she was out of earshot, Maya turned back to Sydney.
“Yes, I will probably need her,” she admitted, “but now’s not the time.”
“Can’t you just try long distance or find jobs close to each other?”
That was the question. What was once non-negotiable for her was now being questioned more and more as she realized just how deep her feelings for Reed ran over these past two weeks. It was a silent debate she had kept to herself, but here with her best friend who knew her and her aspirations, she could finally ask it out loud.
“Would you give up everything you’ve been working towards for years for a guy you’ve only known for six months?”
“No,” she answered without hesitation. But then she rolled her head and looked upward as she thought it over. “Maybe?” she allowed with a slightly guilty look. “It depends on the guy.”
“I’m twenty-four, so it’s too soon to be doing that,” Maya stated definitively before the doubt crept in again. “Right?”
“You’ll be twenty-five in a month,” Syd pointed out, making them both laugh.
“Well, that changes everything. Case closed. Thanks for your counsel.”
Sydney laughed and reached over to squeeze Maya’s hand. “He’s back,” she whispered.
“You see that big winter storm headed for the northeast?” Reed walked around the small table in front of them and set the pitcher down.
“No,” Maya said. She’d been too distracted with him to know what was going on outside of their little love bubble.
“I caught it on the news while I was up at the bar. It’s due to hit in two or three days.”
“When I’m supposed to fly back up,” Maya filled in, her head already beginning to throb from the travel troubles awaiting her.
“Oh damn, Maya. Sounds like you’ll have to stay with us a little longer.” Syd gave her a pert smile. “I never understood why you always leave town so soon after Christmas anyway.”
“I like to go back and get settled in so I can start the semester off on the right foot,” she defended.
“It’s your final semester,” Syd reminded her. “I’m pretty sure you have it down by now.”
Darby joined them with her hands in her pockets and head hung low. They looked at each other, then at her, thrown off by her unusually sullen appearance until Sydney noticed the scoreboard and their eyes followed. Another frame, and two more gutter balls. Maya offered some words of encouragement while Sydney turned to the other two men who were allegedly there to hang out with them.
“Hey,” she called out flatly. “Lovebirds.”
“Hey!” Adam answered, looking a little confused upon being plucked out of his own love bubble. “What’s up?”
“Reed got us another pitcher, a blizzard is going to hit the northeast so Maya is going to be staying longer, I’m thinking we need to get those bumpers because Darby just had her third straight frame of gutter balls, and you’re up,” Syd said in the span of one breath.
“That’s great you’re staying, Maya!” Evan said. “We can do this again.”
“Uh no. No, we will not.” Sydney shot that idea down so fast, Evan looked like his head was spinning. “Just drinks next time. Keep my seat warm,” she said to Reed as she stood up. “I’m going to see about the bumpers. I’m counting on you two to keep this game moving.”
“You got it,” he answered, saluting their captain. He settled into the spot next to Maya with a sigh, noticing her slight frown as he rested his arm along the back of their seat.
“Nothing you can do about it.”
“I know.”
“We might even have a good time.”
“I know that, too,” she said with a slow grin.
He leaned in to give her a kiss, short and light by their evolving standards since they were in front of others. She began to laugh softly as she pulled away.
“What?” he whispered.
Their faces were still so close she could feel his breath when he laughed. She began to shake her head. “Your shoes are killing me.”
He looked down at their feet, both clad in the same red and blue leather shoes. “You’re wearing them, too.”
“Yeah, but it’s different.”
“So they aren’t doing anything for you at all?” He ran the toe of his very unsexy shoe up the side of her calf, making her twist and squeal at the ticklish sensation.
“I didn’t say that,” she protested as she leaned in to kiss him again, this time pushing the boundaries just a little more.