I sat back down and put an arm around Maia, admiring the chaos I’d caused. “I just told them their hero might actually be the bad guy. Everything they thought they knew is a lie!” I laughed dramatically.
She took my hand. “I know the feeling.”
It took her a few turns to understand what was happening, but once she got into it, she was laughing and shit talking with the rest of us.
When we’d wrapped up a round and it was time to call it a night, everyone was buzzing with fun energy as we cleaned up.
I helped Kelly carry the trash down the hall while Maia finished her dessert. The hotel would gladly have had someone take care of the trash for us, but on game nights, it was an unspoken rule that we kept things as low key as possible, like we were just friends getting together.
“So…” I said, grinning. “The fuck did I walk in on with you and Maia earlier?”
He dumped the trash and shrugged. “You should ask her. If she doesn’t tell you herself, she doesn’t deserve you.”
Not what I was expecting him to say, but I didn’t push.
“And if she does?”
He put an arm around my shoulder. “You two would have to work your shit out. But for what it’s worth? I can see what you see in her.”
We were back at the suite where I found Maia chatting away with my crew.
Dan said, “Maia, you need to make a character for the next game! Whose faction do you want to be in?”
Before she could answer, Kelly said, “We don’t have another game night scheduled until Paris. Maia will be long gone by then. Won’t you, Maia?”
He was antagonizing her, trying to provoke a response.
Maia was completely unruffled. “He’s right, but for what it’s worth, I’d join your army any day, my liege.”
Dan hugged her and stuck his tongue out at me.
She got held up by our stage manager who wanted to ask her about restaurant stuff. I stood by the door watching her, wishing for things I couldn’t force into existence, things I couldn’t even ask for after promising we wouldn’t make the same mistakes twice.
Like he was reading my mind, Charlie said, “You seem…better when she’s around. If she wants to stay, we’ll make it work.”
I clapped a grateful hand on his shoulder. “She’s got a life to go back to unlike the rest of us grizzled road warriors. But I appreciate that.”
When we made it back to the room, she stopped me inside the door. “Well, that was…unexpected.”
“Why?” I knew why, but I wanted her to say it.
“Not exactly the after-party I’d been picturing. It felt like…family.”
It was hard not to be frustrated and it came out in my tone. “I told you who I was the day we met, told you I’ve never wanted any of what you were picturing.”
We didn’t talk again until the lights were out and she said, “That was about more than the party, wasn’t it?
I took a deep breath, wondering if it was a bad idea to even have this discussion, but what did I have to lose?
“I had my slut phase,” I said. “The one you told me I needed to figure out what I wanted.”
“It was a little tough not to notice,” she said softly, like I’d been deliberately rubbing it in her face instead of having my privacy invaded at every turn. “You’re saying I was wrong about that too?”
“I’m saying I knew what I wanted then and I know what I want now and nothing in between made any difference.”
“Are you saying…”
She stopped. She couldn’t even say the words aloud.
