I nod slowly because, finally, for the first time, I feel like I see her. All of her.
She’s beautiful, inside and out.
“You turned down a salary more than three times what you were making for your dog?”
“Yes,” she says, frowning.
A clump of dog fur floats through the air between us. We both watch it slowly, delicately land on
the knee of my pants. Maya looks from it, to me, a little wobble on her lips that morphs into a stunning
smile.
“That’s killing you right now, isn’t it?” She asks. I nod because, yeah, it kinda is. I eye my lint
roller longingly. It’s just out of my reach, dropped when I saw Maya’s upset. If there was any doubt in
anyone’s mind how much I love her, the fact that I dropped the lint roller for her is proof of my
feelings.
She laughs. “I can’t believe you travel with a lint roller. And that you used it on that woman.”
“Yeah, well, the alcohol probably had a little to do with that. But she really needed it.” The
woman walks past us, carrying a stack of bowls, and I do a double take. “What the fuck?” My eye
starts twitching, and my hands flex rhythmically.
Maya's giggles morph into full belly laughs. “Oh my god, your face.” She’s snorting into my shirt,
shaking, and it distracts me a little from my horror.
A little.
“How is it even possible? It’s been what? Ten minutes? How is she as covered as before?”
Maya reaches up and presses a kiss to the twitch at the corner of my eye. Everything in me relaxes
as I’m surrounded by her. Her hair rests against my cheek, and I just breathe her in. “She works in a
kennel honey. I’d say it’s a miracle she stayed hair free for ten minutes.”
Suddenly I don’t give a fuck about the hair on my knee or on that woman’s clothes. All I’m
thinking about is Maya and that word,honey. My hands flex again, but this time not because I want my
lint roller, but because I want more of her. I give into temptation and slide my hands along her side,
meeting at her ribs just below her breast.
“You just called me honey,” I say softly, watching her face carefully. I’ve been called that before,
but never like this. Never with affection and warmth and just a hint of exasperation. I fucking love it.
Her eyes widen slightly, then dart side to side, like she’s about to run. I tighten my grip, because
no fucking way is she getting away from me. But she doesn’t run. Instead, she takes a deep breath and
