My dad steps forward to take Skye from her arms. Over the past few days, Maya has become incredibly trusting of my family as they’ve welcomed her with a warm embrace, too. My parents and Ivy would do anything for that little girl, and Maya knows it. That’s definitely helped calm her nerves.
“Plans for today?” Maya asks as she leans onto the counter beside me.
I drink in the sight of her fresh face and her long, dark hair draping over her shoulders. I draw in a slow breath as I continue to admire how incredible she looks today—especially the fact that she doesn’t look as tired as usual because Skye slept a big portion of the night.
“I was thinking we could take Skye down to the beach,” I say as I fold my arms over my chest. “I know it’s cold, but we can wrap up warm. Get a coffee and some lunch, head into town. I can show you around.”
Maya’s eyes light up. “Sure, sounds fun.”
After putting on our coats and placing Skye into her pram, I wave goodbye to my father, and we head out of the house. I’m immediately hit by the cool wind that makes it feel a few degrees colder.
I push the pram as Maya keeps her gloved hands in her pockets. “Coffee first,” I murmur as puffs of air appear in front of me.
Maya hums instantly, and we head straight to the coffee shop.
“I can’t believe this is where you live,” she exhales as we stroll down the beachfront where the parade of restaurants and shops are. Her hands are wrapped around her to-go coffee cup. “It’s so peaceful and beautiful.”
Even just the thought of Maya being in Willows Bay does something to me. The place I grew up and learnt a lot about myself.
“Yeah, it’s been good to me, for the most part.”
“What happened this summer?”
I drag my tongue over my lip as I feel heaviness sitting on my chest.
“You don’t need to tell me if you’re not ready to. It’s okay.”
“No. I think it’ll be good to talk about it.” Deep down I’m ready to tell her.
As we perch on a bench and I roll Skye’s pram closer to me to find her sound asleep, I turn back to Maya, who is clutching her coffee between her hands.
“It was the first summer I was seeing Ivy again since her accident,” I start. “And god, I was terrified. She still didn’t know that I made up that stupid lie about her, and I’d just get drunk at any opportunity I could to ignore the guilt that choked me.”
Maya frowns as she scoots closer to me, our knees resting against one another’s.
“But it wasn’t just that,” I murmur. “I was also mourning our relationship and keeping it bottled up. All of it was eating me alive, and the only thing I could do was drown myself in alcohol to stop myself from feeling.”
She places down her coffee and takes my hand between her gloved ones instead.
“We went to a fair on the beach, and Ivy and JJ and all our friends were there,” I say before inhaling a deep breath. “And then Ivy’s ex’s friends turned up and taunted her like the assholes they are, and then they told her that I was the one who said that she had been cheating on Ben. The lie I told to get them to break up.”
I glance down because the thought of looking at Maya’s face breaks me. Saying it out loud never gets easier; it reminds me of the nasty person I was to do that to my own flesh and blood.
“Of course, Ivy was upset.” I release a morbid laugh. “She was devastated, and she didn’t want to talk to me. God, I still remember her face as she sobbed and looked at me like she didn’t even recognise me. I was so drunk, but I still remember that look.”
Maya smooths her thumb over the back of my hand tenderly, but I don’t deserve it.
“I proceeded to get so drunk that night, I barely made it home. I don’t even remember most of it, to be honest, until I woke up in the hospital the next day,” I say as I grit my teeth and force my tears back into my head. “I’d practically crashed my way into the house where my entire family found me having a seizure. They took me to the hospital to pump my stomach from the severe alcohol poisoning. The doctors said that I almost died. If I’d passed out outside or anywhere where my family couldn’t have found me, I would have died.”
“Fuck,” Maya exhales jaggedly. “Finn, I had no idea.”
“That’s when my family practically begged me to go to a rehabilitation centre. We all knew I couldn’t end up like that again. It could have been fatal, and seeing how upset my family was, that’s what broke me the most. And how Ivy still wanted totalk to me, I’ll never know,” I sniffle and wipe my face. “But she did, she kept fighting for me, and I didn’t deserve it.”
Maya forces my eyes to hers. “She did it because she loves you.”
“After what I did to her? I deserved nothing.”
“Finn,” she whispers, scooting impossibly closer. “You’ve had therapy for this. You’ve gone through the toughest part, and yes, I know you struggle to forgive yourself, but Ivy forgave you, and she was willing to move on because she wanted to see you get better.”
