Is she a spy?
I freeze.I don’t know what to do.Uneasiness pricks me harder now, a restless, concern crawling beneath the suspicion.I don’t want to do this; catch her doing something, but I also can’t turn a blind eye and walk away.That would be reckless.
I walk towards Katherine’s office.It’s another windowed space, so I can see right in.The door is closed.The lamp is on, throwing a soft light into the room.I find Maya curled up on the small sofa near the window.
What is she doing?If she’s spying, if she’s up to no good, that wouldn’t make sense.That’s not Maya.That’s not the woman I know.
My chest tightens so sharply, I let out a fast, panicked exhale as I skulk in the shadows, filled with uncertainty.She looks so small, lying there, folded in on herself.It hits me somewhere deep and I don’t like it.I see her shoes neatly placed on the floor and her folded jacket lying on the armrest.Everything about this tells me she’s not taking a nap.
She’s sleeping here.
A thousand thoughts crash into me at once.I can’t walk away.I just can’t.And then I remember that she wanted to leave early yesterday.Something was up, and she didn’t tell me what it was.
She’s in trouble.
That’s the only explanation for this, and now my shame burns deep, for thinking she was up to no good.
The door is closed, and her eyes are shut.I knock softly.She bolts upright, looking scared to death, and staring at me wide-eyed as I open the door and step inside, every instinct screaming at me to make sure she’s okay.But I also feel like an intruder.I have a feeling that she wouldn’t have wanted me to see her like this.
“Zach?”She sounds fearful.“What are you doing here?”She sets her feet onto the floor, and reaches for her jacket, like she’s preparing to sprint out of here.
“Hey,” I say quietly, engulfed by a myriad of emotions binding together: her leaving the Knight Estate quietly, and now lying secretly here, all alone, like she has no place else to go.
The thought shakes me to my core.
She quickly slips her feet into her shoes, looking like she’s getting ready to bolt.“I was just taking a quick nap.Katherine’s office is the only one with a sofa …” She looks away and swallows.She doesn’t lie, but there are little telltale things I know about her, that tell me when she’s being evasive.Like now.
“A nap?”
“I was working late.”Her voice is shaky.“I just needed to get some shut eye.”
It’s ten o’clock, and if she were working late, she’d be at her desk.
“In Katherine’s office?”
“I’m just tired.”
“Looked to me like you were settling in for the night.”
No comment.
“You know we have cameras here,” I say, hoping this might make her tell me the real reason why she’s here.She stares up at the camera directly above the door.I’m surprised she didn’t see it.It dawns on me then that these are the actions of someone who has no other choice.Someone cornered.Displaced.Stuck.
“What’s going on?Are you … are you sleeping here tonight?”
She huffs out loudly through her mouth.“It’s just temporary.”
“So, you were going to sleep over?”It doesn’t make sense.What happened?She was evicted?Couldn’t make the rent?How is she in this situation?
How did I not have a clue?
She blinks at me, looking like a petrified big-eyed doe caught in the headlights.
“Maya, it’s me,” I say softly.“I’m not going to tell anyone, butwhyare you here?”
“My apartment’s being fumigated,” she says finally.“The building management gave us forty-eight hours’ notice.”
Relief washes over me, followed by a sharp stab of anger.“That’s why you left early yesterday.”Why didn’t she tell me?
