Loving Maya

Another Crime And Tooth Fairies

"Maya."

She stands at the door, a small smile on her face.

"What are you doing?" She approaches me.

"Hmm, nothing. I'm waiting for Ollie so I can kick his ass."

"Aww, a bonding session." She coos.

"It's not a bonding session, I'm showing him that I'm the best in the ring."

She narrows her eyes at me and smiles.

"Your mother told me some boy from the neighbourbood has been training him. Are you jealous?"

"If course I'm jealous. He starts boxing and I'm not the one to teach him, some punk is."

"Hey, this punk sounds very considerate. He has to be a nice guy to give him time to Ollie."

"I was expecting a 'oh, he can't be even half as good as you are. He's wasting Ollie's time'. Something along those lines." I pout.

"He sounds like a halfwit." She wrinkles her nose and shakes her head disapprovingly and I laugh.

In all honesty, it's a bit comforting that Ollie has found something he likes and there's someone helping him. I can't always be around and I know mom worries about him a lot.

She doesn't admit it but I know it's mostly the fear of the past repeating itself.

I just want to meet this guy and find out what kind of person he is.

Her eyes shift as she focuses on something to my far right. I notice she's looking at the first aid kit before she stretches out her arm to grab it.

"Are you hurt?"

"No," she shakes her head, "I just want to try something.

A smile, half shy and half excited, forms on her face.

She softly takes my hand and takes out the bandage from the first aid kit. She unrolls it and slowly begins to wrap it around my hand, occasionally glancing up at me. She smiles shyly each time our eyes meet.

I'll never get tired of seeing her smile or of her shy reactions.

I watch her as she slowly and carefully covers my right hand with the bandage.

"Where did you learn how to do this?" I ask, stretching my fingers out once she's done with my hand.

"I actually just came across a picture of it on my Pinterest." She beams and looks up at me. "I remembered that, oh, my boyfriend is a boxer."

"A darn good one." I grin and lift my chin up.

"Ah," she rolls her eyes and smiles, "the modesty."

"Right?" I grin before swiftly leaning in and kissing her cheek.

"Stop." She giggles, trying to move her face away, a second too late.

I remain still as she finishes putting the bandage on my other hand.

"All done." She smiles.

"Thank you." I reply softly.

I get up and put on my gloves.

"Did you bring a book?" I ask as I approach the punching bag.

"No, why?" Maya asks behind me.

"I assumed you'd read whilst I train, so you don't get bored."

"Hmm," she shrugs, "I was just gonna watch."

"Creep." I smile and she sticks her tongue out at me.

"Besides, you'll be with Ollie. I'm going to your mom's store to help our Niran."