AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, awesome.” The girls did some sort of fist pump shake they’d made up — it looked similar to the one Joe and Lewis had done — then hugged, and Maya closed the front door behind Sam and Chloe. Amber went off to play with the three boys in the front room.
“Why the frown?” Emma said, sitting at the table where Sam had sat, stuffing a biscuit into her mouth.
“Sam.”
“What about him?”
“I don’t know. Just as you arrived he was about to ask me something or say something, and well, he’s said it can wait.”
“Can’t be important, then. Unless he wants to ask you out!”
“No…” Maya said, plopping back into her chair. Her coffee was lukewarm, but she drank it anyway.
“Maybe.” Emma shrugged, then popped another biscuit in her mouth. Once she’d swallowed, she said, “Tell me about last night. Where did Pierce take you?”
Maya burst into tears. Thank God the children weren’t in the kitchen.
“Oh, Maya, what’s up?” Emma reached across the table for Maya’s hand.
“He dumped me.”
“Really?” Emma frowned. “I thought he was keen.”
“So did I.” Maya then went on to tell Emma the full extent of the conversation.
“What an utter bastard. You should have called me!” Emma said.
“I was exhausted from the day out with Sam, and to be honest I just needed to be alone.” In her own self-pity party.
Emma nodded, taking another biscuit. “Right, well, from now on you’re on a three-date rule.”
“What’s a three-date rule?”
“You’ve never heard of the three-date rule? You don’t ‘put out’ until after the third date. That way, if they’re interested in you, they’ll at least take you out three times.”
“Oh, I see. Another way to sort the wheat from the chaff.” Maya wiped her eyes.
“And the players,” Emma said.
“Do you think Pierce is a player?”
“Yes, absolutely. He bloody used you, Maya!” Emma said sharply. Then, more calmly, she mused, “Who’d have thought meeting men on the internet would be such a minefield?”
“It is a minefield!”
“Right, well, I mean it, Maya. Doesn’t matter how hot a guy is, you’ve got to keep him at arm’s length initially. When I get home, I’m checking if I can buy chastity belts, and I’ll be the one in charge of the key.” Emma laughed.
Maya laughed too. “You can trust me.”
“Maybe, but I can’t trust them!”
Maya didn’t want to sound whiney, but she needed her friend’s opinion. “He said he liked me but wasn’t into happy ever afters. Didn’t believe in them. So what’s he saying, he doesn’t want to commit? Yet on his profile it states he wants a relationship. What did I do wrong?”
“It’s nothing you’ve done; the guy is a player. Maybe he’s learnt that if he puts he’s not looking for a relationship, he doesn’t get much bite. Or the quality of bite is very low. Therefore, he pretends he is after a long-term thing.”
How deceitful. “But players don’t stick around after the first date — do they?” Or two, in Maya’s case. “I could handle a one-night stand — especially if he’d been honest with me, but I can’t handle the way he dragged this out.”
“He probably did really like you, Maya,” Emma said, her tone softening with sincerity. “You are gorgeous. Maybe he’s had a rabbit in the headlights moment.”
