Finding Me

Chapter 33

I roll my eyes and stop in my tracts, making Nick collide into me and almost knock me down. Luckily, he catches me before I fall. He immediately lets go of me and then continues his annoying game of poking my side. I shake my head and get in the elevator with Nick poking my side and my uncle questioning our level of maturity.

"So," I pause and slap Nick on the arm to try to make him stop poking me, "tell me how horrible it's been working with Nick, Uncle Sam. It seems like he's extremely annoying."

I get an extra hard poke for that, and I let out a little yelp as my uncle raises his eyebrow and tells me with a firm voice, "It looks to me it's just you that he bothers. Although, if he continues to touch you, he may find that another person is very annoyed by him."

The poking immediately ceases, and I look at Nick's face to see him half horrified and half amused. I look over to Uncle Sam and see a 'don't mess with my niece' look on his face, and I almost laugh. Still, I have the feeling he isn't kidding at all. That makes me want to smile, but it also wants to make me cringe at how late he is in taking on the position of an overly protective father or guardian, but at least he cares, and I'm thankful for that.

Luckily, the elevator door opens before the sudden silence can get any worse, and we go to the hotel's dining room. We're seated immediately at the table in the very back. My feeling of relief over the silence being broken when we left the elevator was for nothing as I sit in awkward silence with my uncle and Nick.

I finally say, "Come on, you guys. Stop sitting there saying nothing and making me feel extremely uncomfortable."

My uncle opens his mouth to speak but doesn't get the chance to say anything because his phone rings. He pulls it out of his pocket and sees that it's an important call, so he excuses himself and answers it. I sigh and watch him leave before looking back at Nick. Now that Uncle Sam is gone, I suddenly feel nervous to be around Nick.

"So," I say nervously, "then there were two."

He gives me a small smile. "Yeah, I guess so."

His short reply gives me no help in coming up with something to say, so I just sit back in my chair and let the awkward silence take over. Luckily, the waitress soon comes and takes our order for our drinks and even our food because the awkward silence left us to stare at our menus. She soon leaves, leaving us still awkwardly sitting in silence without meeting each other's eyes.

I finally say something after we get our drinks. "Why were you at the courthouse and why did you leave so suddenly?"

He sighs and leans forward in his seat, his arms resting on the table. "Mr. Erickson told me that he had to go to court for a private case. I was curious, so I went. When I saw that it was about you and your father, I was shocked, but it all made sense to me. When I saw you again, I didn't know what to do. All those times you pushed me away suddenly made sense, and I felt guilty."

"Why on earth would you think you were guilty for anything that happened with me? I made the decision to be a jerk to people, and I also made the decision to push people away. I made decisions to be the way I was. I didn't tell you about my past because I was trying to forget it, but I guess the only way I could move on from it was to face it head on," I explain to him in a whisper.

"How's the festival going?" he asks, switching the subject.

I don't even reply because I'm shocked at how quickly he can turn a serious conversation into something lighthearted. It almost makes me angry that he doesn't find the subject of my situation with my father a serious matter. How can he quickly go from having fun with me to being awkward and seemingly uncaring? While I'm thinking, I become irritated with him.

I tell him in a short, irritated tone, "No idea."

He seems to sense that something is all of a sudden wrong with me, so he backs off. I look away from him and stare at my hands. I don't understand him, and I don't know why I thought things might be different. I shouldn't have let him near me until I heard why he left Clearwater Bay the way he did. I shouldn't have acted like nothing had happened. That's a world of fantasy, and I'm not one to live in a fantasy.

As I sit in my thoughts, I glance at Nick a couple of times, and it looks like he's also deep in his thoughts. I don't say anything to him, and he doesn't acknowledge my presence. The food soon comes, and I'm pretty sure the waitress was uncomfortable with how quiet our table was and how Nick and I weren't even looking at each other.

After she leaves, I say a silent prayer of thanks for my meal and then cut my chicken. I place a piece of it into my mouth, and it tastes delicious. I almost forget that I'm at an extremely awkward meal with Nick, the guy who I'm not overly happy with at the moment, until he starts coughing. I'm immediately placed back in the present, and I look over at him and see him coughing with a red face.

"Are you okay?" I ask without any emotion.

He coughs a few more times before replying, "My water went down the wrong way. Sorry."

I shrug. "You can't help it if you choke on your water."

"You know that's not what my sorry was for. Maya, I'm sorry for not seeming like I cared. You opened up to me, and I didn't respect that. I'm sorry for switching the subject when it was an important moment for you. I just don't tend to know what to do in those kinds of situations. I didn't know what to say," he tells me quietly.

I open my mouth to say something to him, but I hear a quiet ding come from my purse that says I got a text message, which is extremely rare, so I pull out my phone and see a link from an unknown number to a blogpost. I curiously press on the link and wait for the blog to open. I gasp when I see the title.

"Maya Walker's Father: The Man Who Murdered my Mother"