“Maya, you’re spacing out again,” Tom said, breaking through her thoughts. “You look exhausted. Go home. Take tomorrow off. Do you want me to find someone to take you home?”
She shook her head. “I can make it home on my own,” she assured him. “I don’t need tomorrow off.” She couldn’t have an entire day to herself. Her mind wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“Maya, I’m not going to argue with you. You are taking the day off. Get some sleep. Have some fun. I don’t care what you do as long as you don’t come in here tomorrow.”
Before she could reply, Stacie walked over to them. “Sorry to interrupt, but Maya, there is a guy out by the bar asking about you.”
“Cody?”
Stacie shook her head. “Cody is cute, but this guy is seriously gorgeous.” Maya immediately know who she was talking about, but why would the tourist come back looking for her after the way he had taken off the previous night? There was only one way to find out, but she was nervous.
“Go home Maya. Get some sleep,” Tom repeated before he got up and left the area.
~***~
Troy had found vacancy in a small hotel about an hour from Deadwood. It was about seven in the morning by the time he found it and checked in. As much as he wanted a shower, the bed was calling his name.
He slept until mid-afternoon and woke up feeling stiff. His hands and knees hurt, but then he remembered dumping his bike. Upon further inspection, he had a small amount of road rash on his hands and left knee and a dark bruise forming under his right eye, but nothing major. The motorcycle had a small dent and a few scratches, but nothing that would have to get fixed before he set off.
After showering, he checked out of the hotel and jumped on the bike with no plan of where to go except far away from Deadwood.
Of course, Deadwood was exactly where he ended up. He was already walking in the restaurant and asking if Maya was there before he realized it.
The waitress that had gone to get her was nice enough, but while he stood there waiting for Maya, Troy was beginning to panic. The tightening in his chest grew with each passing minute. He was debating on leaving the restaurant when she appeared.
As soon as he saw her, he could tell something was wrong. She was still beautiful, and she smiled as she approached, but her eyes didn’t sparkle like before. She wore no makeup. Her hair was in a messy bun on top of her head and there were dark circles under her eyes. Clearly her night had been as restless as his.
“I wasn’t sure if I would see you again after you ran off last night,” The sadness in her voice pulled at his heart.
“I wasn’t sure either,” he said quietly. “Can you take a break? We can talk.”
“I’m actually done for the day,” she said. “We can go somewhere else.”
Troy’s apprehension of seeing her again disappeared at her suggestion. He nodded and followed her from the restaurant.
“Are there always so many people here?” he asked as he watched Maya expertly make her way through the crowded sidewalk.
She shrugged. “I’ve lived here my whole life. I guess I’m just used to it. We’re only really busy in the summer. In the winter, it’s like a ghost town.”
“Where are we going?”
Maya stopped in her tracks, almost causing him to run into her. “I’m not exactly sure,” she admitted.
“Where do you usually go after work?”
She was quiet. “Mt. Moriah,” she said finally. “With Cody.”
“Where is the boyfriend today? He won’t get mad at you for hanging out with me, will he?”
She turned to look at him. Her eyes glistened. “Why does everyone assume we were dating?”
“You’re not?” Troy tried not to sound too excited but his heart skipped.
Maya shook her head. “Cody is—was—my best friend. That’s it. Just friends.”
Troy reached his hand up to wipe the tear that was threatening to fall. “Was?”
Maya bit her lip and shook her head. “Not here. I can’t break down in front of all these people.”
“Then let’s get out of here.”
They were silent as Maya grabbed his hand and practically dragged him through the streets. He had no idea where she was taking him, and in that moment he realized he didn’t care; he would follow her anywhere.
By the time they climbed the hill and were out of sight from downtown, Maya collapsed on the ground and buried her face in her hands as she let go of the tears she had been holding back all day. Unsure of what he should do, Troy knelt next to her and put his hand on her shoulder.
“What happened?” he asked her quietly.
“That’s the problem,” she cried. “I have no idea what happened. Yesterday everything was fine. Then all of a sudden, last night he said he couldn’t handle being friends anymore.”
“I’m sorry Maya.”
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything.”
Troy took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure how Maya couldn’t see it. “Maya, it was because he saw you at the performance with me.”
She lifted her head and looked up at him. Her red, bloodshot eyes pulled at his heart. “But why? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“You really don’t see it, do you?” He couldn’t help but smile. “Maya, that boy is completely in love with you.”
Her jaw dropped as she started up at him. “We’re just friends,” she insisted. “Best friends since we were eleven.”
“Sometimes that friendship turns into more.”
“I didn’t know. I never saw him that way. Why didn’t he say something?”
“I can’t believe you didn’t know,” he told her as he reached out to brush some stray strands of hair from her face. “I couldn’t have been the only one to notice.”
“Chloe at work kept calling him my boyfriend, but I didn’t think anything of it. Why wouldn’t he say something?”
“It’s not an easy situation to be in,” Troy said. “What if he said something and you felt the same way? Or even worse, if you didn’t? Either way, it would change everything about your friendship. If you dated and broke up, would you be able to remain friends? He wanted to stay as close to you as he could for as long as possible in hopes that you would be the one to pursue a relationship, but as soon as he saw you with me, just sitting next to me, he realized he wouldn’t be able to see you with other guys.”
“You seem to know a lot about this,” Maya pointed out, suddenly embarrassed at the way she was opening up to a complete stranger.
Troy nodded. “I dated my best friend,” he said quietly. “It didn’t end well.”
“What happened?”
“Long story short, I caught her cheating on me, beat the hell out of the guy, and spent six months in jail,” he confessed. “It’s not something I really like to talk about.”
Maya’s eyes went wide. “You were in jail?” Troy nodded. “How old are you?”
“Nineteen. You?”
“I’ll be eighteen next month. Where are you from?”
“Wisconsin,” he told her.
“When are you going to go back?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure if I even want to,” he admitted.
“Don’t you have a family to get back to? A job? School? Something?”
Troy shook his head. “The only family I have left is my brother, and honestly I couldn’t care less if I never saw him again.” He had never said those words before, but he knew he meant them. “What about you? Family? College?”
“Still in high school,” she replied. “One more year.”
“And then what?”
Maya looked down and began to pick at the grass. “The original plan was to go off to school with Cody. It didn’t matter where as long as it was away from here.”
“It could still happen.”
Maya shook her head. “I can’t leave here,” she said quietly. “My mom left us not too long ago. Then my dad was in a horrible accident in the mines.” She was crying again a
nd refused to look at him. “Dad can’t even take care of himself. We always have a nurse at the house for him, but I’m all my brother has. I can’t leave him.”
“How old is he?”
“Gavin is eight.”
“I was eleven when my brother became my only family.”
“What happened?”
“Bike accident,” Troy explained. “Official story is Dad swerved to avoid an animal. The bike went over a bridge.”
“You sound like you’re not so sure.”
Troy shook his head as he stared off into space. He explained that his father had been the head of the MC. “He was raised on bikes. He knew how to avoid animals. There was no sign of swerving at the bridge. No animal tracks. He either drove off it on his own or someone forced the bike off the road.”
Maya wasn’t sure what to say. As she looked at him, she noticed the bruise on his face for the first time. She gestured to it. “What happened?”
Troy shook his head. “I’m a klutz,” he replied, not wanting to make it a big deal.
Maya and Troy sat talking until the sun began to set. They talked about a little bit of everything. Even the things they hated to talk about—Cody, family, and Trinity—were easier to talk about with each other.
They didn’t realize how long they had been there until the sky began to darken.
“I should get going,” Maya said when she noticed how late it was. “Gavin will be waiting for me.”
“Are you working tomorrow?” She shook her head. “Can I see you again?” he asked.
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” she said softly, her voice barely over a whisper.
Troy reached out and took her hand. “Maya, I like you,” he admitted. “I tried to leave town, but for some reason I seem to end up right back here. It’s like I can’t stay away from you.”
Maya shook her head and turned away from him. “I can’t date a tourist,” she whispered. “I just can’t.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her. He had no doubt he wouldn’t be able to leave town while she was around, even if nothing ever happened between them. Something about her constantly pulled him to her.
“Do you honestly think you are the first person to say that?”
Troy didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t blame her lack of trust. Hell, a few days ago he very well could have been one of those guys promising to stick around to get what he wanted. Now he knew he couldn’t do that to her. He couldn’t imagine life without Maya in it.
“What about just being friends with a tourist?” he asked. He honestly wasn’t sure if he could handle being just friends with Maya, but he knew he needed her in his life.
“I-I don’t know,” she stammered after what seemed like forever.
“I could definitely use a tour guide around here,” he added, trying to come up with any excuse to be around her. “I know there is a lot to see, but I don’t even know where to start.”
“What have you seen already?”
Troy shook his head. “Not much,” he admitted. “We hit the Badlands on the way in, but Deadwood was the first town we stopped in.”
Maya chewed on her lip as she appeared to be lost in thought. He couldn’t help but appreciate how cute she looked when she did that.
“I can take you sightseeing tomorrow,” she said finally. “It will have to be early though. Gavin gets home from camp at six.”
“Just tell me when and where to meet you,” he said eagerly. He didn’t even care where they went as long as it meant time to spend with her.
It was decided that Troy would walk Maya home so he knew where to pick her up at eight the next morning. Troy tried to contain his excitement, but he was sure he was going a bad job.
It was difficult to not kiss her goodnight when they reached her house, but he knew he needed to prove that he was okay with being just friends.
“I will see you tomorrow,” he promised as they reached her house. “Goodnight Maya,” he said as he turned to leave.
As Troy made his way back to his bike and headed out of town, he didn’t even bother attempting to hide his smile. He hoped the hotel he had found that morning still had room.
When he finally fell into bed for the night, he couldn’t wait to see her again. He couldn’t get her out of his head.
After Trinity, he swore he was done with relationships. A broken heart was the worse feeling in the world and he definitely never wanted to feel like that again.
He tried to keep his heard guarded around Maya, yet she somehow wedged her way in without even trying.
Maya was different than Trinity. Thoughts of Maya seemed to patch the hole in his heart. It made her memory not quite so painful. For the first time, he could think of Trinity’s name and not go into a panic attack.
Maya was definitely different than Trinity. Trinity had only broken him. Losing someone like Maya would be much more painful. Troy knew he wouldn’t survive it, but he was willing to take the fall.
~5~
M aya woke up Monday morning feeling almost giddy. As afraid as she was at the thought of dating a tourist that could just pick up and leave at any time, she couldn’t get Troy out of her head. Maybe a friendship with him would be enough to keep him around for a while. She didn’t want to think about how she would feel when he decided to move on and leave town.
She must have changed her clothes five or six times before she settled on a purple tank dress with a pair of black capri length leggings. She considered wearing her hair down, but it was supposed to be over ninety degrees so she pulled it into a simple ponytail.
Sadly, she wasn’t as good with makeup as Stacie was, so she settled for simple eyeliner and mascara. She paced back and forth in the kitchen, impatiently waiting for Gavin to eat his breakfast so they could get outside and wait for his bus.
“Why are you so dressed up?” Gavin asked as she ushered him out the front door.
“I’m not dressed up,” she insisted as she ruffled his shaggy blonde hair.
“Yes you are. That’s at least the third outfit I’ve seen you in today. And you’re wearing makeup,” he pointed out. “Did Cody finally ask you out?”
Maya’s heart plummeted at the mention of Cody’s name. Apparently even her own brother had noticed Cody’s interest, while she remained blind to it.
“No, I’m not dating Cody,” she sighed. “Maybe I just want to look nice.”
“You always look nice Maya.”
She smiled but didn’t have time to reply to his compliment because his bus pulled up. “I don’t work today,” she told him, “so I’ll be home when you get here.”
Gavin smiled and waved from his seat on the bus. Maya checked her watch. She had about twenty minutes until Troy was expected, and her dad’s nurse would be arriving any minute.
“You look really nice today Maya,” her father told her as she paced through the living room. His speech was slow and slurred, but even a few months ago he hadn’t been able to form words.
His accident had been barely a year ago, just days after her mother had left. Sometimes, she wondered if it wasn’t really an accident and he just didn't want to live without her.
At first they thought they were going to lose him. He had spent eight weeks in a coma and when he finally woke up, he was paralyzed from the waist down.
Child Protective Services had wanted to take Maya and Gavin away, but Cody and his mom had helped them fight it. She had helped them apply for nursing care and helped with Gavin while Maya worked. They had to deal with monthly visits from CPS, but as long as Maya could prove she could handle to household, they were able to remain together. It wasn’t easy. Money was always tight. It was more responsibility then any teenager should have to deal with, but they made it work.
“Thanks Dad,” she told him.
“Are you working today?”
Maya shook her head. “Tom gave me the day off. I’m going to go sightseeing with a friend.”
“Good. You deserve a day off from
everything you do. Have fun. Be a teenager. Tell Cody hi for us.”
It took her dad a lot of time and effort to spit out his little speech, so she didn’t have the heart to tell him it wasn’t with Cody.
Maya waited in the living room with him until his nurse Tracy arrived. Then she headed outside to wait for Troy. She glanced at her watch. 8:05. Maybe he wasn’t going to show up.
She pulled out her phone and began to scroll through Facebook, something she rarely did. Maya had never been big on social media. Neither had Cody, although his actor profile was insanely popular. At least it helped kill some time.
At quarter after eight, she put her phone away. Troy clearly wasn’t going to show up. She had just turned to go back into the house when she heard the roar of a motorcycle approaching.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” he shouted over the hum of the engine. He held out a helmet to her. “Hop on.”
Maya stared at the bike. She could tell at one point it had been beautiful, but clearly it had seen some crashes. She wondered if it could possibly be the cause of his black eye, which was starting to fade.
“There is no way I’m getting on that death trap,” Maya told him. She fished her keys from her purse. “We can take mine.”
Troy didn’t argue. He hadn’t expected Maya to be the type of girl to jump on the back of a bike, but it was the only mode of transportation he had. He turned off the engine and parked the bike. “Scared of them?”
“If you lived around here and knew about all the motorcycle fatalities we have, you would be scared too” she told him as she walked toward her Jeep.
“Ever been on one?”
She shook her head, “And I don’t intend to either.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing,” he said with a smile. “Where are we off to?”
Maya had spent a long time trying to figure out where to take Troy before settling on the monuments. “Mount Rushmore,” she said, eager to change the subject from the motorcycle. “There isn’t much to do there, so we can hit Keystone or something for lunch. Then we will have a couple hours at Crazy Horse before I have to be back.”
Facing Fear Page 4
