He stood and gently pulled Maya up with him. When he smiled at her, she knew that he was unaware of anything else around them, and that all he could see was her, and she forgot all her reasons for ever having fought her feelings for him. The top of her head just grazed his chin, so if she rested her head on his chest, she would fit in that secure area between his cleanly shaven chin and muscular chest. He held her close enough their bodies touched, and the light musk from his cologne relaxed her. She fit in his arms as if she belonged there.
“Tonight,” he said, “we dance.”
They enjoyed the music in silence for a few moments, and Maya was wondering how it would feel to rest her head in that secure place on his chest, when Sam spoke.
“What about you? You just graduated. What now?”
She tilted her head up to meet his eyes. “That’s easy. I’m looking for a job in a restaurant. I’ll need some extra training, but eventually, I’d like to be head pastry chef in a five-star restaurant.” Maya smiled. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“Maybe it’s all you’ve ever known.”
Maya pulled back a fraction. “What does that mean?”
Sam frowned. “Just that it seems like you’ve worked in that bakery all your life. You’ve never done anything else but bake.”
Maya narrowed her eyes at him and stiffened. “That bakery was survival for my mum and me. My father left her with only their scant savings, which was enough to get us here, and not much more. She worked nights as a cashier in a twenty-four-hour corner market with me asleep behind the counter.” Those days, her mother’s only priorities had been Maya and making a life for them both. Maya had always taken pride in the fact that her mother had been able to build that life from flour and eggs, sugar and butter.
Maya pulled away from Sam as she spoke, all thought of that shoulder wiped from her mind. “I think I knew how to bake and decorate a cake from scratch before I hit middle school.” She was proud of that, too. She took a deep breath and looked him dead in the eye. “It may not be glamorous like the law. And it may well be the ‘only thing I’ve ever known.’” She did the air quotes with as much disdain as she could muster. “But that doesn’t make it the wrong choice for me. And in any case, you don’t know me well enough to know if it is or isn’t.” Honestly, who did he think he was?
Blood pulsed in her head and she paused again for breath. “It’s honest work and it makes people happy.”
Sam pressed his lips together, the nonchalance with which he had downplayed her bakery gone from his face. He met her eyes with something like regret or shame, as he sat down and indicated that she join him. But she wasn’t about to sit next to him. “And to be quite honest, I’m really good at it.”
Sam gazed up at her with innocent eyes in what was now light from the rising moon and the stage. “Okay.” He shrugged and patted the ground next to him. “You’re an excellent baker.”
“Pastry chef,” Maya corrected him from between clenched teeth as she continued to glower at him. She did not sit. He didn’t seem to get it.
He smiled up at her, eyes wide, apologetic. “Pastry chef. I’d like to apologize, but it’d be easier if you were sitting next to me.” She folded her arms across her chest and cocked an eyebrow at him. That smile had her heart racing, but she wouldn’t give in that easily.
The smile faded, replaced by something else. Was it amusement? Admiration? Irritation? Maya couldn’t be sure. But in the next instant, he was standing a head over her, his face contrite, looking almost ashamed. He reached out a finger and gently tilted her chin up to face him. “I’m sorry I offended you,” he said. “It can’t have been easy growing up without a father—I had no idea what you or your mother had been through.”
“This has nothing to do with my father! I don’t needpityfrom you.” She wouldn’t take pity from anyone. So she’d grown up without father. Worse things happened all the time.
He bit his bottom lip and continued, his voice low and sincere. “I’m not pitying you, I promise. If anything, I respect your mom for standing on her own two feet. You’re right, I don’t know you well enough to know what you should be doing with your life. And trust me, I’m the last person who should be making that judgment, anyway. I’m sorry.”
His eyes searched hers, she had the sense he was hoping for forgiveness. She unfolded her arms.
“And I certainly am not one of those people who thinks the law is glamorous and better than everything else. But you don’t know me well enough to know that, either.” Sam leaned in close and whispered, “That’s something I would like to change.”
His breath on her ear made that whole side of her body tingle. Maya did her best to ignore the sensation, and continued to glare at him for a minute longer. His apology was real, and it broke down her anger. She became conscious of the fact they were the only ones standing, and the headliner was about to begin. “We should sit—we’re in the way.” She sat down first, but glanced up at him and scooted over to make a spot for him.
“You know, you never asked what my mom does,” Sam said.
“Okay.” She indulged him, a smile prickling at the edge of her lips. She couldn’t help it. “Sam, what does your mom do?”
Mischief took over his eyes and he started to chuckle. “She’s a lawyer.” Sam threw his head back and laughed.
Maya threw grass at him and shook her head, fighting the laughter that bubbled up inside her. It shouldn’t be so easy for her to forgive him. But his laughter was so real and so free, it became impossible for her not to smile.
“See, I told you I’m in no position to judge.” He wiped a tear from his eye as Maya finally stopped laughing. “Now, do you think we can be done with the ‘yelling at Sam’ portion of the evening?”
Maya leaned her shoulder against his in answer. He put his arm around her, and didn’t remove it for the rest of the concert.
SAMDROVESLOWLYand chose the long way back to her uncle’s house, and it thrilled Maya that he was trying to prolong their time together. Her curfew had never bothered her before, but tonight, she truly resented it. She was old enough to voteanddrink, after all. Just because her mother wanted to choose who she spent her life with...
They were lost in conversation when he finally pulled in front of the house.
“But, Sam, if your father is a doctor and your mother is a lawyer,” she asked, “why take all those loans and extra jobs?” They had long since passed topics that were off-limits. “I mean, can’t they help you?”
