Roommates & Soulmates

2nd Epilogue: Maia's Stakes

Two Years later

It all came down to this. Maia had to focus on the task at hand. The stakes were too high for fooling around. There wasn't a sound in the room apart from their breathing and she slowly, cautiously reached forward.

Moving her hand away, Maia held her breath. Once she had leaned all the way back again she let out the air in a deep sigh of relief.

"Beat that!" Maia said.

"I shall," Jordan replied easily.

Maia watched as he inspected the tower, looking for a safe place to remove a block. Oh how she wished he'd topple them down but she knew cheating would cost her the win and she needed the win. It had been a long day at work and Maia just wanted to sit on her butt and watch tv until she collapsed in bed. Whatever Jordan wanted to do couldn't be nearly so important as that.

His hand moved forward and Maia held her breath as she watched the block between Jordan's fingers. It came out clean but now Jordan had to put it on top of the tower.

Maia had watched him closely. She'd noted all the blocks he'd tested that hadn't worked and would make sure not to test them again. That is if Jordan didn't knock the whole thing down here and now.

To her disappointment his block sat gently on top without disturbing the tower.

"Rats," Maia commented. Now it was her turn. Turns were dangerous. You could only lose on your turn.

Maia had her eye on one specific block. She turned a little to the left to get a better view before reaching out to test it. It didn't feel loose so she tried another and another. Finally she found one that didn't seem to have any weight on it. Slowly Maia pushed it through so she could grab it on the other side.

"Yes!" she exclaimed once she had the little block in her hand and the tower remained standing.

"Not so fast," Jordan replied. "You still have to place it."

"It's more likely to fall from the pulling than the placing," Maia informed him as she slowly and gently placed her block on top of the tower.

"Just for that I hope yours falls the next time you place a block," Jordan commented.

Maia stuck her tongue out at him. Jordan just smiled. After over two years of living with this man Maia had learned that it was hard to annoy someone who thought everything she did was cute. Even when she was mad at him he just smiled at her. Some days it really pissed her off. She'd even kicked him once just to prove her point but he'd still only said something sappy which had quite ruined her angry mood.

Maia didn't know how to show affection so openly as her boyfriend did, but that didn't mean she loved him any less. In a strange way she felt like Jordan knew that. He knew that when she called him stupid or kicked him it was her way of showing affection. Maia knew it wasn't the right way, but it was the only way she knew how. Whenever they talked about this Jordan always smiled at her and blamed her parents which made Maia laugh. How could she not love him when he knew her so well?

Maia pulled her thoughts back into the game. Jordan was taking his turn. She watched with bated breath as he got a block free and placed it on top.

"Your turn," he said.

Maia let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She reached forward to touch a block and just barely stopped in time. She tried another. It also seemed to be weight bearing. Feeling like her luck was leaving her, Maia tried one more block.

To her horror the tower started to wobble.

"Oh no!" Maia said, reaching forward to try and steady it without thinking. Even if she hadn't intervened it was doomed. The blocks came crashing to the ground one after another as if to try and make Maia's failure all the more embarrassing with their loudness.