Maya

"I heard you sent in the application for the apartment on Lou Lane," Nella says into my ear, that evening.

After I filled out the information that Marcus needed, he said he'd give me a call as soon as he heard anything. I had to know if it would be one day or five - or somewhere in between - so he told me it would likely be forty-eight hours. I was staying in the hotel until Friday, and had no plan of where I would go after that. George drove me back to the hotel after the application was sent off, and that was that.

I hadn't turned on my old phone again. I had been preoccupied enough that morning that I hadn't thought about it, but once I was back in that quiet hotel room, the worried thoughts filled my mind again.

"Yeah," I tell Nella, and wait for her next sentence. I know what she's going to say.

"It's a good area," she says, which is beating around the bush and we both know it.

"Right," I agree.

Finally she sighs. I hear Willow shriek in the background, and some water splashing. "Okay, I know it's likely  not where you thought you'd end up. But George said it's a nice place."

"It is."

"Can you afford it?" she wants to know.

"I have some money saved and I applied to some jobs today," I tell her.

"Where?" she asks, because she must know everything, obviously.

"The pet store," I deadpan.

"Wow, thrilling," she says and laughs. "I'll see if the art store is hiring."

I smile because I'm glad that Nella remembers that I loved art, when we were younger. As a teenager, I hung out at this particular art store a lot. Nella's friend Kayleigh worked there and gave me a discount on supplies.

"Kayleigh still work there?" I ask.

"She's the manager," Nella says proudly. "She just got back from her honeymoon, actually."

"Oh, that's exciting. Let me know if she's hiring, then?"

"I will."

"So, George... he's pretty great," I say, though I'm sure she already knows this.

Nella lets out a quick laugh. "He is."

"He knew that I was unsure about the area, too," I admit.

"Well, yeah. He knows about... you know. The shit that happened to us." Nella says this as if she's uncomfortable.

"I figured."

"Maya, I met George exactly when I needed him. It was random but perfectly timed and... he's a good one. I'm really lucky," she explains.

I think she adds the part about being lucky just to emphasize that she knows she has something special. She knows not everyone ends up with a sweet husband who would do anything for her, as well as her sister who shows up out of the blue.  I'm grateful for George in a big way.

"Yes, you are lucky," I repeat. "Is it weird that I miss you and Willow already?"

She snorts. "Little missy is just getting out of the bath and will be in bed in a few minutes. But we can hang out tomorrow?"

"Sounds good."

"So... what did you think of Marcus?" Nella goes on, even though it feels like our phone conversation is almost finished for the night.

I swallow hard. I shouldn't have put it past my sister to ask about this. Even though she knows I literally just fled an abusive relationship, she's thinking that I might like Marcus that way.

"As a realtor? He was great," I say anyway.

Nella clears her throat. "No, dummy. As a guy."

I smile to myself, because I knew what she meant. "Not only did I just leave a pretty bad situation," I remind her, "but Marcus is your husband's best friend."

"Exactly," she says seriously. "He just ended it with his ex, of like six months. He's available and he's a good guy, and-"

"I've been in Boothbay for exactly two days," I tell my sister, shutting that down.

She is quiet for a moment. "I know. You're right. Sorry."

I laugh anyway. "Don't try to set me up with anyone. I'm here to get another chance with you, and with Willow."

"That's sweet," she coos. "You have other relationships to fix, too, though."

What is she talking about? Our father? Who says I want to fix that mess? I understand that my sister didn't give up her father-daughter relationship the way I did, after the news came out. She suggested he was just lonely and hurting and grieving. I would have agreed, if he'd been sleeping with his secretary after our mom died. But it was while she was still alive. Nella forgave our father just like that, while I abandoned him and my sister at the same time.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I say, quietly.

"Oh, Maya. You came back here. You can't expect to never run into people who know you... knew you. You know you screwed up a lot of things before you left-"

"I screwed up?" I yell, suddenly angry.

She sighs again, and I hear Willow again, saying something about milk. "Never mind, let's not go there right now."

Good, she is willing to drop it. I am not ready to talk about what I'd done before I left town. But everything I did was justified, in my mind. My father deserved to be abandoned. Holden Prescott deserved to be screamed at and left behind. Erinn Jackson deserve to lose her best friend. I did not deserve to be hurt in all the ways that I was hurt.

"See you tomorrow?" I ask, changing the subject.

"Yes. Um, I work until 2P.M. and I'll grab Willow from the daycare and come pick you up?" she suggests, as my heart settles down again.

"Okay."

"Okay. Goodnight, Maya."

"Night."

I'm sitting on Nella's sofa the next afternoon, watching Willow dump two buckets of toys onto the living room floor, while Nella makes coffee in the kitchen. Somehow I fit in here easily, which I didn't expect. I thought Nella would be standoffish. I thought her husband would think I was a terrible person. I though her daughter would play strange. But none of those things are happening.

"Aunty Yaya," Willow says, as if she's been practising saying my name.

"Yeah?" I ask her, looking down at her sweet little face.

She turns and is holding out a plastic beaded necklace to me. I then realize she's dumped a bin of pretend jewelry, including plastic crowns, necklaces and rings. They are all too big on her but she's wearing them anyway and offering me one, too.

"Oh, thank you," I say, taking it and pulling it over my head right away.

"Pretty," she says, then smiles at me. 

Nella walks into the room with two large mugs and hands one to me right away. I take it and look at the steaming black coffee, feeling thankful. She sits besides me and looks over at her daughter.

"Wow, you look great, Will," she said easily, even though there s a huge mess on the floor that wasn't there when she left a few minutes ago.

"Tanks. Aunty Yaya has necklace too," Willow says, pointing at me.

"I see that," Nella smiles.

"Aunty Yaya do you want cupcake?" Willow asks, and I see that she's now also dumping a bin of pretend food.

"Yeah, absolutely," I tell her.

But my phone is ringing across the room, on the table, a moment later.  The only people who have my new number are Nella, George, the few places I applied for jobs, and Marcus. Nella looks curious as I go pick up my phone and look at the caller ID. I don't tell her it's Marcus, even though my stomach tightens.

"Hello?" I ask into my phone, my hand shaking.

"Hey, Maya?" Marcus's deep voice replies.

"Yeah, hi."

"Hey, so, I heard back from the company that owns the building on Lou Lane," he says.

    Just tell me.

"Oh, okay."

"They just wanted to make sure you can do first and last month's rent when you sign the lease," he goes on, and the words don't make sense for a moment.

"Oh, um, yes. Of course." That's standard when renting an apartment, I know that.

I have a few thousand dollars saved and it will be tight for the first month or two but once I'm working, I'll be fine.

"Awesome. So, they sent me the actual rental lease this afternoon. We can do it all through me, since I work with that company a lot. We'll just have to get together soon and have you sign the lease and bring a cheque? Will that work?"

Still, these words aren't processing in my head. I swallow hard.

"Sure. Um, do you mean I got the apartment?" I ask, even though I feel silly because I'm not sure.

"Yes, Maya. They want to fill the unit as soon as possible, so they accepted the application. It helped that you went through me, too. It's available as of March 25th," Marcus goes on, as if my reaction was no big deal.

March 25th is one week away.

Nella is staring at me, waiting. I nod at her and her eyes grow big. And then she's clapping, a huge smile on her face.

"Wow, okay, awesome. Thank you," I say to Marcus.

"Oh you know, again, it's my job," he says cutely. "So, can we met up tonight? The sooner the better, then I can get this off to the company tomorrow."

Tonight? Tonight I was planning on lounging on Nella's couch and playing with Willow. I wasn't planning on meeting up with Marcus. But I know this has to get done, so I swallow hard.

"Sure. I'm at Nella's right now," I say, while my sister gives me a weird look.

"Oh, sweet, I can be there in an hour? If that works," he suggests, because of course he does.

"Yeah, sure. Um, I don't have cheques. Uh, could I do a money order? I could run to the bank and get that-"

"How about I pick you up in an hour? We can go to the bank and get that done and then go get a coffee and go over the lease agreement?" He says this so smoothly and easily, as if he does this all the time. I mean, it's his job, right?

"Oh. Okay, yeah. That sounds good," I say, because for some reason I want to see Marcus again. And I know he's just being nice by offering to do this, but still.

"Great. See you around 6P.M., Maya," Marcus finishes.

I put down my phone and look at my sister, who's waiting on the edge of her seat to find out the news. She wants every details, I can tell. Her hair is laying around her shoulders and she's wearing her glasses, which I didn't even know she had.

"I got the apartment," I tell her, finally letting the information sink in.

"That's amazing, Maya!" Nella yells, and Willow looks over from where she's preparing a whole meal of pretend food.

I swallow hard and nod. "Also, Marcus is coming to pick me up, in an hour."