by Nicole Casey
Call it ego or denial but I didn’t want to imagine whomever it was who had given her the flowers.
I didn’t want to question the elation I was feeling.
“Hello?” I called playfully. “Maya?”
But my heart was sinking and when she came back on the phone, I expected her to brush me off.
“Come over around 7,” she told me. “We’re going to stay here. But I have to go now.”
She disconnected the call before I had a chance to respond and I stared at the cell in my hand trying to reconcile what had just happened.
Swallowing, I decided not to pursue the matter.
I had the date I wanted. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?
Because it’s a Trojan horse.
I couldn’t help but notice that Maya was on edge when I arrived at the farmhouse on the outskirts of town.
Is she so jumpy because of me or is there something else bothering her?
I wondered if she had invited me over to call off whatever it was we were doing. I hadn’t planned for that and I wondered how I would handle it if she told me she never wanted to see me again.
I couldn’t see me handling it well.
She seemed to be watching the road as if she was expecting someone else but when I asked her about it, she shook her auburn head and smiled, albeit tightly.
“Come in,” she urged and shut the door, again training her eyes past my shoulders to look into the lawn.
I walked inside the vast foyer and looked around, eyebrows arched.
It was something out of the turn of the twentieth century, old wood trim and gold flecked chandeliers.
Wallpaper lined one shadowy hallway and there was even a room under the stairs.
I bet that house held more secrets than most graveyards.
Almost as soon as I entered the foyer, a couple walked down the stairs, chattering as they stared into each other’s eyes.
The amount of love exuding from them was almost nauseating, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from them, even when they almost plowed me over.
“Whoops!” the girl laughed. “Sorry!”
She looked started to see me there as if I was an apparition and then she glanced over at Maya.
“Another friend, Maya?” she asked slyly, and I watched as Maya shifted her eyes downward, seeming embarrassed.
“This is Slade, Sterling. Slade, these are Sterling and Luke, my housemates.”
“Hi,” I said offering my hand to them, but they were already lost in each other’s gazes again and heading out the door.
“You have lots of visitors?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant but my heart was pounding.
My competition was much fiercer than I had expected.
“Ignore them. They have no social filters,” Maya explained, grimacing slightly. “Since they found one another, they forget anyone else in the world exists. Sterling thinks she’s being cute and she sounds like a six-year-old.”
“How long have they been together?” I asked, following Maya’s lead back into the house, trying to shake off my worries.
It certainly didn’t feel like Maya was about to dump me.
Can someone even be dumped after one date? Although I did fall asleep on her…but I made up for it this morning, didn’t I?
I was playing a sickening game of back and forth in my own mind.
As we travelled through the corridor, the smell of something delicious and spicy filled my nostrils.
“Six years,” she replied, and I choked.
“Six years?” I echoed, and she laughed.
“Hard to believe, I know but they love each other. I suppose they are mated for one another. Even when they fight, they stare into each other’s eyes as if they are transfixed.”
She paused and glanced shyly at me, her freckled cheeks growing pink.
“Do you believe in fate?” she asked quietly, and I swallowed deeply.
“I think I do,” I murmured. “Now.”
I couldn’t help but step forward and pull her into my arms, kissing her soft lips. It was the one thing which had kept me going all day and the embrace made the excruciating wait worthwhile.
She peered up at me with shadowed green eyes and it was clear something was amiss. I could also sense it had nothing to do with me.
“What happened?” I murmured, stroking her dark hair aside. “You can tell me. Maybe I can help.”
She opened her mouth to respond but a male voice cut off her answer before she could utter another word.
“Ah! You must be Slade,” he boomed, and I turned to look at the man I presumed to be Malcolm.
He was huge and bear-like, almost like a UFC fighter with better hair.
I accepted his hand and he shook mine with gusto, grinning at me like I was a long-lost friend.
But beneath the surface of the smile, I could feel a sense of wistfulness.
Or maybe I was just imagining it.
It seemed that the entire house was a bizarre compilation of mismatched auras and it only got more confusing as I walked with them into the kitchen.
A man was chopping vegetables at the counter in a pair of boxer shorts and a tank top, apron covering his wiry frame.
He glanced up and did a double take when he saw me.
“Well hello handsome!” he called, wiping his hands on his apron and rushing around to introduce himself, his eyes wide with interest. “I am Chase. You must be Slade!”
“I am,” I agreed, taking his hand. “Nice to meet you, man.”
I glanced furtively at Maya.
“Chase is another housemate,” she volunteered. “It’s his night to cook supper.”
A peculiar sensation tickled the back of my neck as I tried to make sense of the living situation.
A couple, a gay man, Maya and Malcolm. They take turns cooking. This is like no housemate situation I have ever been in. Am I missing something here?
“How many housemates do you have?” I asked aloud, stifling the urge to ask anything more pressing.
I wasn’t entirely sure I could handle the answer.
“That depends on the day,” Malcolm explained, and I laughed, thinking he was joking but I could see he was serious.
“Oh.”
I didn’t know what else to say.
I peered at Maya unsure of where else to look but she seemed unfazed by the conversation as if everything said was completely normal.
“Sit down,” Mal encouraged, gesturing at a worn wooden chair. “Drink?”
I nodded.
“A beer would be great – if you have.”
“Rough day?” Maya asked gently, and I watched as her eyes flittered toward the kitchen island.
It was then I saw the two dozen red roses sitting on the surface.
“Every day is a rough day when you’re in finance,” I joked and Mal’s eyebrows shot up.
“You work in finance?” he asked, casting Maya a look. “I had no idea.”
“Yes, he does,” Maya answered before I can speak. “Not everyone works odd hours and unstable jobs.”
Both Mal and I were startled by the ice in her tone.
I knew she was defending me, but I didn’t feel like Malcolm had been attacking.
She’s acting weird, I thought, and I eyed Malcolm who smiled apologetically.
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said quickly. “Sorry if it came across as rude.”
I shook my blonde curls.
“Not at all,” I replied. “In fact, I have been thinking about a career change lately. The stress is becoming a little bit much.”
“You have?” Maya laughed. “Since when?”
I smiled enigmatically.
“I would say the idea has been very recent,” I replied, staring at her meaningfully.
It’s too fast. You’re going to scare her off.
I could hear the warnings in my head, but I couldn’t stop myself from saying what I wanted to say. I meant the words too.
Abruptly I changed t
he subject and gestured at the bouquet.
“Someone is trying to show me up,” I said casually, gauging Maya’s face for a reaction. “They are lovely.”
The air in the room seemed to still and grow heavy as the men looked at each other and then at Maya.
“No one is showing you up,” she muttered as she began to chew on her lower lip. “They shouldn’t have come here.”
A flutter of unease swept by me and I looked imploringly at her.
“Jilted lover?” I half-joked but to my dismay, her face only grew darker.
“Oh for heaven’s sake. Just tell him before he dehydrates playing twenty questions,” Chase snapped. “Maya has a stalker.”
“What?” I laughed, expecting it to be a joke but again my affect was misplaced, and no one cracked a smile.
I really do not know my audience here at all, I mused grimly.
It was becoming more apparent by the second.
“I don’t have a stalker,” Maya corrected as Chase rolled his eyes. “I have an infatuated client. I’m sure it is nothing.”
But there was no reassurance in her voice.
“Who is this guy? Do you know?” I demanded, my tone sharper than I intended but the feeling of protectiveness was clouding me.
“He’s harmless,” Maya insisted. “A bunch of flowers doesn’t constitute a stalker.”
“Yeah but inviting himself over to your house with his girlfriend, that’s a little stalkerish, My,” Chase argued.
I was having a difficult time keeping up with the conversation.
“Wait what? He came here uninvited? Maya, that’s serious. You should contact the police.”
“I am not calling the cops on my client who has no social graces. He is harmless. Now drop it.” Maya was annoyed, but I could still detect the worry in her eyes.
“You don’t have to file a complaint –” I started to say but Malcolm held up his hand.
“She doesn’t need the police,” Mal interjected. “We’ve got her back here. We take care of each other, don’t we?”
Maya nodded as Mal slipped his arm around her waist and kissed her cheek. Her head fell back against his shoulder, her eyes half-closed.
A weird sensation of jealousy and suspicion coursed through me as I studied the body language between Mal and Maya.
It hit me then like a ton of bricks.
They were lovers.
Dizzy, I stood as the dynamic of the house began to sink in.
I was about to have supper in a commune.
Maya had invited me to have dinner with her and her lovers.
I felt like I was in the plot of a bad movie suddenly.
“Where are you going?” Maya asked but I was finding in difficult to breathe.
“You are – you’re…” I couldn’t finish my sentence. Instead, I whirled to run from the house.
What kind of freak show had I walked into? How could I have thought I had feelings for a woman like that?
I rushed toward the front door, pulling it open and hurrying out to my car.
As the door swung inward, I froze in my tracks.
Someone had busted out every window on my BMW.
8
Maya
“What the hell?” Chase asked as Slade ran from the kitchen, but I knew what had caused him to flee. I didn’t even have to think about it.
I had been right to invite him to the house.
He needed to see what he was getting into before we went a step further.
There could not be a step further, I thought woefully. But deep down I had always known that.
A sinking sensation threatened to erupt from my stomach as I stepped away from Malcolm.
“Are you going after him?” Mal demanded and I nodded but before I could even leave the room, I heard Slade swearing from the front of the house.
We ran toward him and saw him still in the doorway.
“Slade,” I started to say but as he turned to look at me, I could see that his face was ghastly pale. Without a word, he pointed toward the lawn and we scurried closer, each of us gasping in shock as our eyes rested on what had happened.
“Oh my God,” I mumbled, stumbling from the house toward the malicious disaster on the lawn. “Why would he do this?”
“Maya, come back in the house,” Mal growled, rushing out to meet me. He grabbed me by the arm, but I brushed him off angrily.
Tears filled my eyes as I saw that the headlights had been smashed out and the sideview mirrors too.
“He’s right, Maya. Come inside,” Slade said quietly, seizing me by the shoulders and turned me around. My initial reaction was to shake him off too until he spoke again, and I could hear the concern in his tone.
“He could still be out here,” Slade said. “If he’s unhinged enough to do this…”
Cold shivers slipped through me and I allowed him to guide the way, but we stopped again when we read the garish red words on the house.
“WHORE” screamed out at us from the face of the house and this time I couldn’t stop the tears from slipping down my cheeks.
“Oh Mal,” I murmured, horrified that I had brought such vandalism to his house. “I am so sorry.”
“Stop it!” Mal commanded as we ventured back into the house. “You had nothing to do with this.”
“I’m calling the cops,” Chase said, hurrying away for the phone in the kitchen.
Numbly, I fell onto the sofa in the living room, unsure of what to do next.
I looked from Mal to Slade, hoping they could read the sadness in my eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled again, burying my face in my hands. “I should have called the cops before. I didn’t think he was this bad.”
But I had my suspicions, of course I had.
The night he had shown up in the house, I could read his naked longing even though his date was right there.
How could I have been so naïve?
I stole a look at Slade in my peripheral vision and I wondered the same thing about him.
“We’ll figure out your car,” I babbled. “And find you a way home. Mal, can you take him home?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Slade said flatly, and I gazed at him in surprise. He met my look and shook his head.
“You think I’m going to leave you here when there’s a psychopath running around with a bat? How long was I in here before he did anything? Twenty minutes? He’s watching and waiting. I’m not leaving you alone to deal with that.”
My heart swelled with affection and I lowered my eyes as guilt seized me.
“It’s okay,” I breathed. “Mal is here. The police are coming. You don’t have to stay.”
Slade grabbed me by the shoulders, his eyes flashing with something I didn’t understand.
“Do you think I want to leave you?” he demanded, confusion flooding his expression. “I don’t! I just can’t bear the thought of sharing you with anyone.”
I gulped back the lump in my throat and nodded, hastily wiping the damp corners of my eyes.
“I tried to be as honest as I could with you,” I told him, my heart unsettled as I said the words. “I warned you that I didn’t date, that there could never be anything serious between us.”
Slade nodded, shooting Malcolm a look I couldn’t decipher before turning his attention back to me.
“You did warn me,” he agreed. “I just didn’t want to hear it. It’s not your fault. It’s mine for not hearing you when you tried so hard to explain.”
There was such melancholy in his tone and I wondered why my heart was cracking.
Maybe because I knew that while I had tried to be honest with Slade, I had not been honest with myself.
I was falling in love with the man, despite everything I had ever known about myself.
Could I be the woman who falls for one man? Could this Type A, investment banker be my soulmate?
The idea seemed so far fetched but it was the only explanation I had for whatever was happening inside me.
Malcolm looked away, but something told me he knew how I felt.
What did that mean for him?
No! I told myself firmly. No, let Slade go. He doesn’t need to be a part of this lifestyle. Loving you will only cause him heartache. He cannot adapt to this life and you can’t adjust to his. It is better that he just goes before this gets any more complicated for him.
“The cops are here,” Chase announced, the cordless landline still in his hand.
Slowly, the three of us rose to deal with the aftermath of what Troy Caspian had done.
I wondered how we would deal with the aftermath of what I had done.
Nothing was resolved, of course.
There was no proof that Troy had done anything.
A bouquet of flowers and a questionable invitation to our house did not make for a stalker but I knew it was him and so did Malcolm.
The police promised to speak with him and ask him to stay away as a courtesy but that didn’t mean anything to any of us.
Troy would strike again.
And next time it would be worse.
Slade decided to stay the night despite Mal’s offer to drive him home.
In some way I was relieved that he wanted to stay but on the other hand, I was unnerved having him so close.
Mal set Slade up in one of the empty bedrooms and I lay awake, staring at the ceiling, wondering how everything had gotten so messy in such a short time.
Weeks ago I was happy-go-lucky Maya without a care in the world, living life the way I wanted.
Suddenly I was thrust into a place of uncertainty and doubt as my soul yearned to run to Slade and press myself up against him for comfort.
I drifted off at some moment, but I was wakened by the feeling of hot breath on my cheek.
I bolted upright but Slade put his hand on me to steady my nerves.
“It’s only me,” he murmured. “It’s okay.”
“What are you doing in here?” I gasped. “Is everything okay?”
He nodded, and I settled back, my pulse still racing.
“I can’t let you go,” he told me quietly and instantly a lump formed in my throat.
I opened my mouth to protest but he put his lips against mine.
“I won’t let you go,” he whispered as we parted.
