Pearls

Chapter 21

"Alright, I'm off!"

"'Off'? Where are you off to?"

"Just out of the office. It's about time we closed for the day, don't you think?"

"I guess so?" I checked the time and saw that it was a full half hour earlier than when we normally close. "Hey, Nick, we still have a half hour left. Did you want to—"

"Sorry, Maya, but I've got to run off somewhere. I've actually got something planned tonight and I need to be home early if I want to be on time. Sorry about this but can we save whatever it is you wanted to do for tomorrow?"

"Huh? Oh, uh yeah. We can save it for tomorrow."

"Thank you, Maya!" He says as he comes over and hugs me. "You're the best!"

Caught off guard by his random show of affection, I hear the office door click shut. Phoenix had left before I realised he had let go of me and was out the door with no time to say otherwise. Pearly walks into the room moments later with a board game and meets my flabbergasted self.

"Mystic Maya, where did Mr. Nick go? I thought tonight was game night."

"It was. Sorry, Pearly, but Nick had to go somewhere important I think, so it's just the two of us tonight."

"Oh."

Pearl looked so glum, I found myself falling as well and brought her over to sit next to me. Taking the board game from her hands, I looked at the title. "Pictionary? I've never seen this game before. Do you know it, Pearly?"

She shook her head. "No. That's why I thought Mr. Nick could teach me but he's not here."

I open the box and bring out the instructions. "Don't worry, Pearly! I'm sure it isn't that hard to learn. Nick can teach us more about it when he comes back tomorrow, right? He promised us after all!"

"He did? Okay, then let's play!"

We happily played the night away, learning how the game worked and sharing laughs between us. Our drawings weren't the best and we didn't know all the words in the game but we still had a lot of fun. 

I hope that Nick doesn't rush off somewhere tomorrow either.

*Bzzt bzzt*

Hm?

The next day...

"Morning, Maya. Did you and Pearls behave yourselves last night?"

"Who knows? Did you behave yourself last night?"

"Maya?"

I stood up and stormed over to Phoenix, forcing him to back up into a wall. "How could you do this?! How could you do this after all we've done?!"

"M-Maya! What are you on about?!"

"This!" I pulled out my phone and showed him the photo of Phoenix with Iris. "I got this last night from Larry who just so happened to be there at the time!"

"Larry? You're really trusting something like this from him?"

"YES!" Shoving my phone back into my pocket, I glared fiercely at Phoenix. "How could you do this to us, Nick? How could you do this to Miles?!"

"Listen, Maya! This is all a misunderstanding!" He removes himself from the wall and sits me down on the couch. "We weren't doing anything bad. We were just catching up on the times that we missed and I thought it'd be good if I gave her a proper goodbye rather than leaving her in the dark. Wouldn't you do the same?"