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“Maya? What are you doing, baby girl?” I say through my teeth, trying to sound as nonchalant as I could.
“Shh, I’m trying to find the clasp,” she said.
I tried to relax. Soon, I felt something around my neck.
“A necklace?” I asked without opening my eyes.
“Not just a necklace,” she said, kissing my cheek.
Was it a little too close to my lips?
I shook my head.
“You can open your eyes,” she said, and I opened my eyes with a sigh of relief.
When I grabbed the necklace to see it, I realized it was a locket. Slowly, I opened the locket, and there it was, her and my picture at each side. Caressing her picture, I closed the lid and kept rubbing the locket. It was nothing fancy, just a simple rectangular design black in color, but I loved it. The sharp edges on the corners, the worn out look, the color… It was perfect for us.
“Do you like it?” she asked softly.
“I love it, baby. I’ll never take it off. Thank you,” I said, hugging her close to me.
As I sat there with her in my lap, I ignored the way my body was still tense.
I stood and closed my eyes as the memory passed by. We had too many moments together it was so hard to untangle the innocent ones from the inappropriate ones. It was moments like this I couldn’t tell if I was in love with her all my life or if it was a love that grew from familiarity and the same fucked up darkness. But as I reminisced every memory, my need for her grew bigger each time.
As I walked through the aisles my sick head imagined her in every kind of item I saw, sexy lingerie included. I wanted to kick myself in the balls, but instead, I forced my gaze away from the seductive pieces, and I chose the most basic designs for her. After grabbing jeans, sweatpants, yoga pants, and a few t-shirts for her, I hurried back to the hospital.
I was worried about being late as I climbed the stairs two at a time, but the therapist was just closing the door to Maya’s room. She looked kind of shaken and unoccupied while she rubbed her neck. I walked toward the room slowly.
When she saw me, something changed in her face. Something I couldn’t really name. She looked down at the bags in my hands before studying my face. I didn’t know what she was looking for, but her shoulders sagged, and she sighed.
“Mr. Wyatt,” she finally acknowledged me.
“Miss Bailey,” I said with a nod.
“Maya will be discharged tomorrow,” she said.
“Is there anything I should do for her?”
“Yes. Take good care of her,” she said and sighed before continuing, “I know I said she should see someone, but don’t force her to do it.”
I nodded.
She sighed again. What was it with the sighs?
“Don’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do. She needs to be happy,” she murmured. I could see she wanted to add more, but she shook her head and turned to leave. “I’m here if she’ll want to see me,” she said over her shoulder.
I frowned at her but refused to give my focus to anyone else but Maya as I entered her room.
CHAPTER 11
MAYA
Zeke stayed next to me during my stay in the hospital. In three days, he hadn’t left me alone except for the therapy sessions I had with the hospital therapist. During the days, we hadn’t talk if it’s wasn' necessary, we were two strangers in the same hospital room. At night, as I was in and out of sleep because of the exhaustion my body was dealing with, I felt his hand wrapped around mine or caressing my cheek from time to time. His touch was warm, comforting, familiar and trying to pull the emotions out of me, but I chose emptiness over the feelings.
The doctor came to check up on me once more before letting me out of the hospital. Zeke didn’t try to talk to me or make me talk, and I didn’t ask him where we were headed as he helped me into his car and took off down the road.
Looking out the window I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of my situation as we passed the million-dollar places in a blur. My kind of world was dead, monochrome, and suffering, but his world was alive, multi-colored, and vibrating with joy. I turned to look at Zeke’s profile, he was the epitome of tall, dark, and dangerous, but he always wore the dangerous bad boy look so well, people were always ready to eat from his hand. Only I knew his soft, caring side.
