Carina had almost reached Maya's level.
The blonde had seen her coming but she had not turned to her.
- "Maya?"
The captain had turned to her.
- "Hmm Carina right? Do you want an autograph too? Didn't you come with your... husband?" She asked, pretending to look around.
-"I uh... I, I just wanted to say hi..."
- "Good evening, then. Excuse me, I have a lot of people who want to see me".
- "not... No worries. I was... I was happy to see you" she said, her heart breaking.
The Italian had gone to join her brother.
- "What happened?"
- "she, she, asked me if I had come with... Charles"
- "oooh, Carina" said her brother, taking her in his arms. "I'm going to go see her"
- "no Andrea"
- "sì!" He said as he left in the direction of the blonde
"Maya?"
- "shall we... Andrea?"
- "in the flesh" he said, crossing his arms.
- "you are the plus one of your sister?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
-"Maya, you haven't seen Carina for fifteen years... She has suffered a lot, you mentioned Charles... A lot has changed... You hurt her... She doesn't deserve this."
- "Well, both of us were hurt then"
-"Maya, really, give my sister some time, please."
- "I... I'll see what I can do."
- "Thank you"
Andrea had returned to Carina who was now with Taryn.
- "I did what I could."
- "it's not your fault"
The evening had progressed and Maya had finally been able to free herself.
Alumni had taken the stage and given a speech before playing a video about their high school years.
Ryan and Andy, who had been elected prom king and queen at the time, were spotlighted and Tanner got down on one knee and asked Herrera to marry him.
Knowing that Maya had been contacted, he asked her if it was possible for her to help him propose to her best friend.
As Ryan made his speech to his future fiancée, the blonde looked at the brunette. She saw herself in a hotel room in London asking her to marry her.
Then she saw herself a few years back going on Facebook, the lack of the Italian becoming unbearable and seeing that her status was now in 'married' and that she had simply decided to leave Facebook and never come back, deactivating her account.
But what did Andrea mean by 'she suffered a lot... A lot of things have changed'.
The shout of joy of her best friend had taken her out of her thoughts and she had come to take her in her arms, then Ryan.
The video had resumed, showing Maya as a high school star, as well as in the category of the person who was most likely to become famous. She had received a fake medal. Other people had been elected in other categories.
The last classification had been the couple most likely to still be together fifteen years later. Maya and Carina had been nominated. They were each at one end of the room, their eyes fixed on the screen where pictures and videos of them were playing.
Jo had asked them to come to the podium. They looked at each other before they both finally moved.
-"I'll let you go to the center of the floor to open the dance," Jo said.
-"We are not... Prom queens" replied Maya
Jo had hidden the microphone: "Our kings and queens are getting married... It's not fun. You were the ones we had all our hopes on... It's just three minutes, Maya."
The blonde had turned to the brunette.
- "You want to?"
- "I don't care."
Maya had looked at Jo: "so no speech!"
The captain had reached out her hand to the Italian and they had both felt a jolt of electricity when their hands had made contact.
They had come down from the stage and walked in silence to the middle of the floor when Sara Barreilles' Gravity had started.
'Something always brings me back to you
It never takes too long
No matter what I say or do
I'll still feel you here 'till the moment I'm gone
You hold me without touch
You keep me without chains
I never wanted anything so much than to drown in your love
And not feel your reign
Set me free, leave me be
I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity
Here I am, and I stand
So tall, just the way I'm supposed to be
But you're on to me and all over me
Oh, you loved me 'cause I'm fragile
When I thought that I was strong
But you touch me for a little while
And all my fragile strength is gone
Set me free, leave me be
I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity
Here I am, and I stand
So tall, just the way I'm supposed to be
But you're on to me and all over me
I live here on my knees as I try to make you see
That you're everything I think I need here on the ground
But you're neither friend nor foe though I can't seem to let you go
The one thing that I still know is that you're keeping me down
You're keeping me down, eh ooh
You're on to me, on to me, and all over
Something always brings me back to you
It never takes too long'
Carina had placed her hands directly on Maya's skin at the small of her back, in the opening of her dress and the blonde had put her arms around the brunette's shoulders.
The Italian had brought her body as close as possible and had tightened her hands on her skin, she had slid her right hand as far as possible on her side, passing the tips of her fingers in her dress.
She had stuck her face against her cheek and had leaned her head slightly in front to breathe her smell, towards her neck and she had closed the eyes.
Maya had swallowed, she had clearly not seen the turn that this evening was going to take; for her, Carina was always in London and especially she did not expect that she has tightened her in her arms thus.
Both their hearts were beating wildly.
- "Maya, can we, can we talk?"
- "What do you want to talk about?"
- "a lot of things"
- "okay, but not here"
- "when you..."
- "after the party, we can go sit in a diner if you want"
- "today?"
- "yes"
- "o-okay... Maya you, you, have mis..."
The end of the song and the arms of the blonde that had left her body had stopped her in her tracks. The Italian had returned to her brother and her friend.
- "Are you alright my bella?" Asked Taryn
- "I'll be fine."
Carina had spent her evening with Taryn, it had reminded her of her youth to be in this place. She had also spent some time with Andy, including giving her her congratulations.
Andrea had spent her evening between Jo and Izzie. The brunette seemed jealous that the blonde was interested in him.
A little after 11pm, Maya had come to see Carina.
- "Shall we go?"
- "uh, yeah like, like you want"
- "you're the one who wanted to talk to me"
- "no, yes I know, I, I don't want to disturb you"
- "it's okay, I think I've fulfilled my part of the bargain here"
- "okay, I'm, I'm just warning my brother, and Taryn"
- "I'll wait for you by the entrance, I'll book an Uber. Unless you have a car?"
- "no, Andrea drove me."
- "ok. I'll wait for you there".
Carina had gone to say goodbye to her friends and to tell her brother that she was leaving with Maya.
She had joined the blonde and they had taken the Uber ride in silence. They arrived at a diner and sat across from each other.
They didn't talk for a while. They both had coffee.
The song Need You Like That by Ezi had started playing in the diner as the waitress came to drop off their coffee. They still hadn't spoken.
'Hard to stay away
I'll do anything to stay so I hold out
Just wanted to taste what I know now
Delicate or rare
Gotta handle you with care when I weigh out
But I know it's worth the risk when I come down
I always unfold
'Cause you find a way inside my head
Tryna' gain control
Gotta get away while I'm ahead
I don't wanna need you, need you, I need you like that
I don't wanna need you, need you, I need you like that
Get the fuck out of my mind
I don't wanna need you, need you, I need you like that
But I need you like that
You're in my fingertips
Spreadin' through my system
Feel the jitters in my veins
Air in between my lips
It's tastin' hot and bitter
Thinkin' things I can't resist
I always unfold
'Cause you find a way inside my head
Tryna' gain control
Gotta get away while I'm ahead
I don't wanna need you, need you, I need you like that
I don't wanna need you, need you, I need you like that
Get the fuck out of my mind
I don't wanna need you, need you, I need you like that
But I need you like that
But I need you like that
But I need you like that'
-"you are so beautiful" Carina was the first to break the silence.
- "Carina, please"
- "How are you?"
- "Fine, thank you and you?"
- "to be polite, I'm fine"
- "what are you doing here, Carina?"
- "the same as you, I came to the reunion"
- "how long are you staying?"
- "indefinitely..."
- "what do you mean?"
- "I moved to Seattle not long ago"
- "you moved here and didn't, I don't know, try to contact me Carina?"
-Of course I did" the Italian woman reached out to put her hand on Maya's, but Maya had run her hand across the table to put it on her knee. "I am, I came to your station, you are a captain, that's impressive... You were always impressive..."
- "I didn't see you."
- "You, don't, but I did, I saw you. I saw you with a girl, an Asian girl, you kissed and she came out of your office".
- "what? When?"
- "it was... About a month and a half ago... Not long after I arrived in Seattle"
- "it was... Nobody... And then you could have come, after all you are married"
- "I was, I was married..."
- "it was ... Thomas?"
- "no, I was not married to Thomas. When... When you left London, I found it very hard to... Keep smiling... I held out for a week, a week and told Tom everything, I told him who you were, who you really were, who you were to me, I told him that you had raised money for a scholarship, that we had... Fell in love, and... And I told him everything, including about London. And the worst part about it was that he was understanding. He had seen it coming. And he comforted me. I cheated on him and he comforted me."
- "so you weren't together anymore..."
-"no, and I, I didn't sleep with him... Not, not after you"
- "and your husband... Your ex-husband?"
- "I met him just two years later. We got married pretty quickly..."
- "you're a teacher?" The conversation was too intense for the blonde, she couldn't hear Carina say she had married someone else.
- "not anymore."
- "you do what?"
- "I work at Relentless"
- "really?"
- "yes, I am a training manager for North America and Europe"
- "so you are still in training people"
- "yes"
- "and why Seattle?"
- "it's the headquarters. I was in charge of Europe and they offered me this promotion... You know... For a long time I was looking for a job here... But obviously, an Italian teacher is not the priority as a language to teach in Seattle".
- "Okay. How long has it been since you've been a teacher?"
- "almost eight years... since two thousand and seventeen"
- "okay."
- "I missed you Maya"
- "please Carina"
Lily Kershaw's song As It Seems had started as the blonde had her eyes closed and the brunette was looking at her.
'Well I knew
What I didn't want to know
And I saw
Where I didn't want to go
So I took the path less traveled on
And I'll let my stories be whispered
When I'm gone
When I'm gone
When I'm gone
When I'm gone
Well in this life you must find something to live for
'Cause when the darkness comes a callin'
You'll go back to where you were before
'Cause this life is as
Fragile as a dream, and
Nothing's ever really
As it seems
As it seems
As it seems
As it seems
Well I lost my innocence when in I let him dive
But the way that he looked at me
Made me feel alive
And now I know
Nothin' at all
But the release that comes when you're
In mid fall
In mid fall
In mid fall
In mid fall
'Cause in this life you must find something to live for
'Cause when the darkness comes a callin'
You'll go back to where you were before
'Cause this life is as
Fragile as a dream, and
Nothing's ever really
As it seems
As it seems
As it seems
As it seems'
- "excuse me, I'm just saying I missed you"
- "but I don't want to hear that"
- "excuse me"
- "I found out on Facebook that you are married Carina"
- "I'm sorry... I... I called you the day, the day of my wedding, I, I tried to call you... But, your, your number was no longer assigned"
- "after my medal, I, I had to change my number, someone must have shared my number and I was getting harassed... Why did you call me?"
- "I wanted you to tell me not to marry him"
- "if you didn't want to marry him you shouldn't have done it"
- "you were the only reason that could have prevented me from marrying him"
- "you,... You, you fell in love after me?"
- "once, with Charlie... Since you, I've only loved Charlie"
- "and what happened?"
- "cystic fibrosis"
- "he, he is... Died?"
The brunette had tears in her eyes and clearly she had a lump in her throat.
- "yeah, he, he was supposed to have a lung transplant and, he got a lung bacteria, from another patient.... When you have cystic fibrosis, you can't approach someone else with cystic fibrosis because the bacteria from one patient can be deadly to another patient."
- "like in the movie Six Feet Apart?"
- "yes, like this..."
- "when was that?"
- "six years ago... Six years ago"
- "I'm sorry Carina, I'm here having a... A fit of jealousy and... It's been thirteen years, what did I think... I thought you were going to wait for me... No, you, fell in love which is normal, thirteen years..." Said she before adding for herself: "Charles..."
-"Charlie" Italian forced a smile, her eyes sadder than Maya had ever seen them.
- "you really wouldn't have married him?"
- "really..."
- "but you loved him"
The brunette had frowned slightly.
-"It wasn't... It wasn't the same, Maya... What about you? You, have you been in love?"
- "only with you"
Brandie Carlisle's song The Story had started in the diner.
'All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true, I was made for you
I climbed across the mountain tops
Swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines, and I broke all the rules
And, baby, I broke them all for you
Oh, because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do
I was made for you
You see the smile that's on my mouth
It's hiding the words that don't come out
And all of our friends who think that I'm blessed
They don't know my head is a mess
No, they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what
I've been through like you do
And I was made for you
All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am
Oh, but these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true, I was made for you
Oh yeah, well it's true, that I was made for you'
They had looked at each other without saying a word.
"Thirteen years old," said Maya.
-"Thirteen years... So much has happened..."
They had been cut off by Carina's phone ringing on the table announcing a message, the screen lit up to reveal the picture of a little boy.
- "Who is it?" Maya asked with a smile
-"Charlie, my son, Charlie DeLuca-Leveque."
-----
Pooooow!
Well, come on... Did you see it coming?! With all this Charlie-Charles confusion...
I can't wait to share the rest with you !
xx
-¥-
P
Ps: please don't hate me....