Swiping the back of my hand over my mouth, I shoot her the same look I did when we were kids and she’d tease me about my overbite. “Don’t go there, Maya.”
“Go where?” She asks with a bat of her eyelashes. “From what I see, you went there.”
“Don’t,” I warn with a raised brow.
“You’re wearing Emma’s lip gloss.” She smacks her lips together. “She was flustered when I interrupted. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that I have horrible timing.”
I won’t argue with that.
Emma and I may not have been in the middle of our heated kiss when Maya barged in, but the discussion we were wading through wasn’t over.
She’s Drake’s sister. That’s a fact that will not change.
“Don’t have second thoughts.” Maya swats a hand over my forearm. “You’re having second thoughts already.”
I arch my neck back. “She panicked.”
“Because of her brother?” she questions.
Running the pad of my thumb over my bottom lip, I nod. “I hesitated. She brought up Drake.”
“Was your hesitation because of him?”
I go with honesty because that’s something Maya can always count on from me. “No.”
“No?” she parrots back. “Yesterday, you told me nothing could happen between you two because of Drake. Now you’re saying he’s a non-factor?”
I take a deep breath. Confessing to Maya that I felt something other than a need to fuck when I kissed Emma would set me up for an hours-long conversation about my feelings, so I dance around it. “I met up with Gavin last night. He helped me see that we’re all adults here, and Drake will have to deal with it if something happens between his sister and me.”
Hearing the words pouring out of me makes sense. Whatever reservation I had about Emma is evaporating. I can’t tell if I’m looking to Gavin for justification to act on my intense attraction to Emma or if I’m ready to toss my friendship with her brother out the window to take her to bed.
Either way, what’s happening between Emma and me is ultimately about the two of us.
Maya’s quiet for a moment too long. “You felt something when you kissed her, didn’t you?”
I try to contain the conversation by downplaying. It’s what I do. It’s what I’ve done for years. “It was a good kiss.”
A laugh escapes her. “It was a good kiss? It blew your world apart. I see it on your face. You must feel it.”
I feel it everywhere. I finally feel alive in a way I haven’t in a very long time.
Crossing my arms, I stare her down. “Why are you here?”
“Why are you changing the subject?” She shakes her head. “You can pretend that you’re not falling for her, but we both know that’s a lie.”
“Why are you here, Maya?” I repeat the question because I need to think, and I have to do that alone.
“I’ll drop this temporarily.” She nudges her elbow against my arm. “Pam and Rod apparently have commitment issues. I thought they’d sign on the dotted line, but so far, nothing.”
I shove a hand through my hair. I had hoped that this would be a done deal today. I anticipated an offer in hand by tonight.
“You came here to tell me that?”
Scratching her forehead, she lets out a heavy sigh. “No. I have a client in Boston who is looking for a place in New York. He’s very interested in your apartment. He wants to see it in person this week.”
“When?”
“He’ll let me know once he has a chance to look over his schedule.” She glances down at the phone in her hand. “He wants to fly in, do a tour and fly out so I’m going to need some flexibility with time. It could be a last minute thing. Do you think that will work?”
