I cling back for a second, then step away before I fall apart. “Sorry,” I rasp. My voice sounds raw. “I—there wasn’t time.”
She pulls back, hands on my upper arms, scanning me the way you’d check for fractures. “Where did you even come from? I thought you were still in Paris. That’s what your last message said.”
Guilt flickers in my stomach. “Yeah. About that.”
She narrows her eyes. “What did you do?”
“A very stupid, very on-brand thing,” I say. “Can we…not do this on the sidewalk?”
Maya glances around. Her instincts are good; they always have been.
“You’re right. Come on. My car’s around the corner. I left work early for this, by the way, so you better have a story.”
We’ve been quiet for a few minutes. Lily is in the back in a borrowed car seat Maya wrestled out of her trunk, half-dozing, clutching a crumbly cracker.
“So,” Maya says finally, glancing sideways at me. “You want to tell me what’s going on, or should I just assume you joined a cult and this is your dramatic escape?”
I huff out a weak laugh. “It’s not a cult.”
“Okay, good. That was my worst-case scenario.” She pauses. “Second worst was prison.”
“Not yet,” I mutter.
She gives me a longer look. “Bella.”
I stare at my hands for a second, then the words come out before I can talk myself out of it. “Do you remember that guy from four years ago?”
She snorts. “You’re going to have to be more specific. I meet all your disasters secondhand.”
“The one from the hotel,” I say. “At the gala. The…Russian.”
Her face clears. “Oh.”
She thinks for a moment, eyebrows lifting. “Oh.”
I know the exact memory she’s pulling up. Me, showing up at her apartment two days later, hair a mess, voice shot, saying things like “I don’t think I’ve ever…” and “I can’t feel my legs…” and “This has ruined me for everyone else.”
“You mean,” she says slowly, “the guy who gave you ‘the best sex of your entire life’?” She even does the air quotes.
I groan, dropping my face into my hands. “Please don’t quote me back to myself.”
She grins, merciless. “Oh, I remember the exact words, sweetheart. You said, and I quote, ‘My brain left my body, I saw God twice, and if I die now, at least I know what good sex is.’ That guy?”
Heat creeps up my neck. “Yes. That guy.”
She cuts me a side-eye. “You’re telling me you got on a plane with that guy.”
I swallow. “Maya…you know how I told you Lily’s dad was a one-night stand and it was complicated and I didn’t want to talk about it?”
Her head snaps toward me so fast the car swerves half an inch. “Oh my god.”
“Eyes on the road,” I say weakly.
She corrects, knuckles white on the wheel. “You’re telling me…that guy. Hotel guy. ‘Saw God twice’ guy.” She gestures between me and the back seat. “That’s Lily’s dad?”
I nod, once. “Yeah.”
She just stares for a second, then lets out a low whistle. “Wow. When you do drama, you really commit.”
