On My Knees Excerpt

Chapter 2

MAYA. I nearly slipped on the wood floors as I stepped into the apartment. A light snow had started not long before I came back to the office and my Manolos did not agree with the accumulation on my brief walk home from the metro.

I steadied myself and kicked them off, grateful to be home and warm at last.

"Home sweet home!" Eli sang from the living room, which was only two feet away, separated from the entryway by a partial wall. "You want some wine, hon?"

"Sure."

I stepped farther inside as he rose from his perch on the couch. He was wearing his usual uniform, faded black skinny jeans and a T-shirt from one of the many concerts he'd attended in his illustrious and excruciatingly low-paying career as a freelance music journalist. He disappeared into the small closet that our landlord claimed was a kitchen.

I carried on to my bedroom—entirely mine and, unlike the rest of the apartment, a decent size. We lived modestly, but I refused to sleep like a sardine. I had a queen-sized bed, and I could walk all the way around it. I stripped off my suit and found my oldest pair of blue jeans. They were faded and ripped in several spots. They felt like home. I pulled on a hoodie and padded out to the living room where Eli had just returned with two generously filled glasses of our favorite red.

"Here you are, my sweet." He handed one to me.

"You're amazing. Thank you."

"I know, and you're welcome." He smirked and settled back into the couch. "So tell me about your day. Did you see Vanessa?"

"No, we were going to grab lunch, but her boss had her running around doing something."

"I'm surprised either of you made it to work based on how you looked last night. You two are pros."

I sighed. The discomfort of my earlier hangover was not nearly a distant memory. "Yeah, I barely survived. Don't know about her, but I'm guessing she made it."

Along with Eli, Vanessa had become one of my best friends since I'd moved to the city. She was also one of the only people who could make a Tuesday night feel like a Friday night and didn't judge me for it. Most people went hard in college. I blossomed a little late in that department, and Vanessa hated her job equally if not more than I did, so we commiserated often.

I stared past Eli to our bookshelf filled with random books and framed candids from our various inebriated adventures.

"You seem distracted. What's up?"

I met his gaze again, hesitating whether to tell him. Seeing Olivia was nothing, a blip in my day. But I hadn't been able to shake it.

"I saw an old friend today."

"Who?"

"Olivia Bridge. We were friends in college." I picked at the frayed fabric of my jeans, still in disbelief that I'd seen her. I'd run into plenty of people here. Tons of people, really. New York was like a Mecca for rich Ivy League kids, and that's who I'd been rubbing shoulders with for years now. But I hadn't seen Olivia since graduation. She hadn't changed much, if at all. Physically she was the same beautiful, put-together girl who I'd shared a house with in college.

Eli's eyes went wide. "Wait... She's not the one who's brother—"

"Yeah, she's Cameron's sister." I said.

"Oh, wow. I didn't realize they were from around here."

"They're not. I guess she just moved here, so it was pretty random."