Summer Fling

New People

Hey everyone!! Thanks for reading. I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter!
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Maya walked along the pier, raking in the fresh air and the slight breeze that blew through her hair. It was the first time she had really been able to be alone since they had arrived two weeks ago.

There was so much that had been going on. She had either been hanging out with Riley, Farkle and Lucas, or somewhere off having sex with Josh. Not that she didn't enjoy it, but so many feelings and emotions were hitting her at once and she needed to have some time to herself so she could think.

It was half past six in the morning and everyone at the house were still asleep. Places started opening up at the beach around six, so there weren't very many people out, but Maya wasn't the only one either.

She had been careful not to wake Riley as she snuck out of the bed and stopped in the living room to grab her jacket that was hanging up by the door. She had thought about sneaking into Josh's room and waking him up, but decided against it as she saw the sun beginning to rise over the sea.

Slipping on her shoes and wrapping her jacket around herself, she grabbed an extra key for the place that was on the counter and headed out the door. She had left a note on Riley's bedside just in case everyone started to panic when they couldn't find her when they got up.

Maya was currently beating herself up. What was she thinking? Making a deal like this with Josh. Anyone else she would have been able to make the deal and not think twice about it, in fact, she had. But Josh was different. How could she ever think she could make a deal like this and not expect to catch old feelings again.

Maybe she should just call it off. But she couldn't, because every time she thought about it, she would get so caught up in the feel of being with Josh that she would just melt. It wasn't healthy for her to keep going on like this, for them to keep going on like this. But she didn't have the strength to call it off.

There was a small outside bar that had umbrellas set up everywhere. Maya went and sat down at the bar and sighed as she looked up at the bar tender. She put on an exhausted smile and asked for a club soda.

"Too early to drink, huh?" He asked her as he put the glass in front of her and started filling it. Maya smiled.

"Nah, just not much of a drinker." She admitted. The bartender smiled at her reply as he finished filling the drink and gave her a coaster to put underneath.

"Something on your mind?" He asked her as he grabbed his rag and continued to wipe down the countertops with it. Maya shrugged her shoulders.

"You usually get a lot of people this early in the morning?" She asked him. He shook his head.

"Only ones that are usually heading out. That's why I don't like closing so late, I close around two in the morning, anyone that wants to continue to drink and party after that can take it across the pier to the all night bar." He told her. Maya nearly choked on her drink.

"You close at two and open at six?" She asked him. The bartender laughed.

"Well I do have other people that work for me, doll. I do get more than four hours of sleep every night." He told her. Maya laughed slightly and shook her head. "So back to you. What's got you coming to a bar at six thirty in the morning, even if you ain't having anything heavy."

"I just got a lot on my mind." She told him honestly.

"Well you know what they say about bartenders, they can sometimes make the best therapists." He told her. "What's your name anyway?" He asked her.

"Maya." She responded.

"I'm Fred." He stated. Maya smiled at him. He looked like he was in his mid thirties. He had a wedding ring on his finder and there was a picture of him and a little girl behind the bar. He seemed like a nice guy.

"So why aren't you home with your family?" Maya turned the tables around on him. Fred stopped wiping the tables and looked up at her, he grinned as he looked down at his wedding ring and then briefly over his shoulder at the picture frame of his little girl.

"Nice observation skills, doll." He complimented her. He continued to wipe down the countertops. "My wife died last year, she was diagnosed with cancer and lost the battle with treatment. My neighbor helps out a lot and takes care of our little one for me while I'm here at work." He explained.

"I'm so sorry." Maya said. She gave him a look of sympathy and Fred shrugged his shoulders.

"It happens. I guess I just never was ready to take off the ring. Plus it helps with some of the women that come here every night. Believe it or not, some of them care if you have a ring on your finger." He joked. Maya chuckled before taking another sip of her drink. "So, back to you." He gave her a pointed stare.

"Well, I've had a crush on my best friends uncle who is three years older than me, since I was in middle school. I pined over him for two years until he finally admitted that he liked be back and we started this someday deal where we agreed that one day we would be a couple, but not in the near future. We flirted back and forth while I was in high school and he was in college until one day I got an acceptance letter from a school in California and decided to go there to college instead of NYU where he was going. We agreed to call someday off and go our separate ways, which was heartbreaking for the both of us but we knew it needed to be done. So I left and we ended up not talking for the whole four years that I was gone, well when I came back we both thought that we were over one another and we could be great friends. Except that we both hadn't been laid in a while and agreed to do a whole friends with benefits type of thing while we're on summer vacation with both of our families and living in the same house for the whole summer. Now we're sneaking around behind everyone's backs and having sex in random places with no strings attached. Except all these old feelings are coming back and now I'm pretty sure that I've fallen back in love with him and I've let my heart get way too involved and I can't tell him, but I can't break our deal off and now I'm just really confused."

Maya looked up and saw that Fred was just staring right at her. His rag laid forgotten beside him as he continued to stare. Suddenly he reached down and grabbed another glass, put it on the table and started filling it.

"Here," he said as he slid it over her way. "On the house." Maya chuckled.

"Thanks."

And before she knew it, Fred had pulled up his own chair and suddenly they were talking about everything that had been clogging her mind since she had gotten back from college.
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Thanks for reading. Until next time!