Page 90 of Take Her On

“What about me?”

Carly paused, waiting until Maya looked at her before continuing, “I miss you.”

Maya’s default reaction was to scoff, but instead, her stomach tingled. Carly’s eyes held hers, and she smiled. She seemed genuine. Then Carly sighed, shifting herself around the table so they were now sitting side by side.

“I do miss you, Maya.” Their knees brushed together. “We used to be really close.”

Is it the alcohol…or is Carly flirting with me?

Maya swallowed. “A lot has changed since then.”

“Talk to me about it.”

“You don’t want to know.”

“Try me.”

The heat from her thigh pressed against Maya’s, combined with the fuzzy buzz from the vodka, made it hard to think straight. Carly’s kind blue eyes were sucking her in. She was struggling to think of reasons not to talk.

So, with a sigh, she told her about Jamie. Not everything, just the bare details. Carly listened intently, asking questions, touching her arm, giving Maya the attention she’d craved for all those years.

It fed her ego. They drank more. The rest of the Globe faded at the edges. She felt like they’d jumped backwards in a time machine, or fallen into an old fantasy of hers.

“We’ve always had a special connection, don’t you think?” Carly murmured.

Maya finished her drink and pushed the glass away. The multicoloured flags decorating the ceiling blurred into a watercolour mess as she tried to focus on anything other than Carly’s hand on her thigh. She’d accepted that she and Carly were never going to happen. The thought of that changing was seriously fucking with her head. It was impossible. So what was going on? Had Carly really missed her?

“I don’t know, Carly.”

Carly leaned back, her gaze flicking over her. “Because of her?”

Jamie’s face appeared behind Maya’s eyelids. Her cheeky grin and her soft blonde hair. All her fierceness and playfulness. How easily she could switch between different emotions. Her kindness and her silly dancing. The way she’d look at Maya like she was the only thing worth seeing. A warm feeling swelled inside her before she quickly squashed it. She didn’t know how to feel about any of this. Jamie hurt her. She wanted to push it all away. Drink it into something more tangible. But even the alcohol couldn’t help. And now Carly was making it worse.

“I don’t know,” she said.

Would sleeping with Carly make her feel better? Casual sex used to be her go-to, and the alcohol wasn’t working. But could anything be just casual with Carly? Did Maya even want that?

Carly’s phone lit up on the table, and she rushed to darken it.

“Who was that?” Maya asked.

“Just Luke.” Carly squeezed her thigh, and hot pulses swam between her legs.

Fuck. Is she actually into me?

That was all Maya had dreamed about. She looked at her soft pink mouth, and the corners of Carly’s lips pulled upwards. She’d have done anything to close the distance between them once. But something held her back. It felt wrong. Even with the copious amount of alcohol in her system.

Jamie. All she could see was her… Then Carly faded back in. Those curious eyes watching intently. Was she planning on cheating on Luke? That didn’t seem like her. Was she into women, too?

“What would Luke think about your hand on my thigh?” Maya asked.

She wrinkled her nose. “He wouldn’t mind.”

Okay. That pissed her off. “Why not?”

Her face lost a little bit of its composure. “He…doesn’t mind.”

Maya straightened up a little. “What are you saying, Carly?”