FERRY-LOVE-BOAT

Chapter 29

Maya's POV:

-What happened to your face? - Andy nudged me hard as she passed me, and the shock of her body against mine almost caused me to drop the cell phone that was in my hands.

"I can't wait to see you"

"I'll be at your house at 8pm" - I finished typing before turning towards my friend, who was trying to spy over my shoulder what I was typing.

-What? - I asked back. - What's wrong with my face?

-There's something weird in your mouth. - She pointed in the direction of my face. - Something like a smile, but no ordinary smile, the smile of a person who is texting a crush.

-You're crazy. - I rolled my eyes.

-I would agree. - I started walking to my office. - If I hadn't seen Carina's name on your phone.

-Can you not spy on me? - I complained, snorting and rolling my eyes.

-Are you two seeing each other?

-That's none of your business.

-Did you guys kiss? - Her voice denoted her excitement and when I entered my office and tried to close the door, her hand stopped me.

-It's none of your business. - I just repeated.

-Did you two have sex? - Andy asked almost in a shout.

-That's none of your damn business! - I hissed through my teeth.

-Oh, you like her! - My friend stared at me with narrowed eyes, and there was an accusation that was easy to read between the lines.

-Can you please stop talking about this! We are working, and my personal life should definitely not be on the agenda here. - I took some papers from our last scene and organized them, tapping the sheets against my desk trying to line them up evenly.

-You were the one who was all flustered, asking me if I thought she liked you on game night! - Andy crossed her arms against her chest.

-That was before.... - I started, but managed to stop myself in time.

-Before what? - She urged me to continue, but I didn't answer because I didn't want to admit my fears out loud. - You can talk to me, Maya.

-I don't want to talk. - Now my back was turned to Andy, clutching the sheets of paper in my hands tightly to try to calm the rapid beating of my heart.

-Okay. - She spoke softly behind me. - I'm here for you if you need me.

I heard her dragging footsteps to the door and I turned as she turned the knob.

-Andy. - I called out, and the woman turned her head to look over her shoulder. - Thank you. I appreciate it.

-No problem. - She gave me a small, discreet smile, almost out of politeness. I knew she wanted me to share more of my personal life with her, but I wasn't good at doing that.

Andy was one of the few people I trusted, but we were different in many ways. Her culture made her much more receptive and open to talk about her own feelings, and I was a good listener, I was there for her whenever she needed to vent - even when she did it in Spanish and I couldn't understand half of her complaints. Andy was a special friend to me, she often had a different perception of my past, of my traumas, of my abusive experiences so many years ago and I loved her for that, and because she is one of the few people who truly knows me, confessing things to her most of the time implies making me hear truths from her that I am not yet ready to hear.

It was for this very reason that I still hadn't told her about my kiss - my kisses - with Carina yesterday; when I saw her in the morning changing clothes in the changing room my tongue itched to share some of my nervousness and happiness with her, but I knew that she would make me think even more rationally than I was already thinking and force me to deal with all the emotions that filled me as well.

It was too much.

I needed some time with myself to understand what was going on inside me because surely there was a change. Something was different, but I still couldn't name any of these new sensations.

I looked at the clock and sighed heavily before I smiled, deciding at that moment to forget about my anxiety and focus on my excitement about taking Carina to dinner in less than three hours.

I was determined to give the Italian a great night.