Chapter 7 - MAYA SAID NO
I asked Maya to dinner.
A date.
Not accidentally.
Not disguised as gratitude.
She stared at me.
“No.”
I hadn't expected that.
“Okay.”
She blinked.
“That's it?”
“What else would there be?”
“You're not going to ask why?”
“Only if you want to tell me.”
She sat across from me on Mom's porch.
Then smiled.
“I thought you might make a speech.”
“I had one prepared.”
“Of course.”
“Very moving.”
She laughed.
Then became serious.
“Carter, your mother loves me.”
“I know.”
“You're grateful to me.”
“Yes.”
“People confuse gratitude with love.”
“I know.”
“You were married to someone who betrayed you.”
“I know.”
“And I spent months living inside that disaster.”
“I know.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Stop agreeing.”
“Sorry.”
She laughed again.
Then said:
“Ask me later.”
“How much later?”
“Six months.”
“Specific.”
“I like deadlines.”
“So do engineers.”
---
I waited seven.
Partly to prove a point.
Mostly because work got busy.
Then I asked again.
Maya smiled.
“Yes.”
Dinner became another.
Then another.
We moved slowly.
Painfully slowly, according to Mom.
I ignored her.
Maya needed certainty.
So did I.
May you like
She had spent too long protecting someone else.
I wanted her to know she never needed to rescue me.
