After what seems like forever of sitting with Uncle Sam just being in the peaceful moment, we decide to go get something to eat at the hotel's restaurant because we're both extremely hungry. He gets up from his spot to change out of his suit, which I don't understand, but he says it's not suitable for him to go down to eat with me in his suit. I roll my eyes. A suit is perfectly fine, right? Anyway, whatever his reasoning might be, it doesn't make sense at all.
My thoughts are interrupted by a knock on the room's door. I sigh and slowly stand to open the door. Uncle Sam calls for me to open the door as I'm getting to the door, so I just roll my eyes and shout back at him that I'm already at the door.
When I open the door, I stop and stare at the familiar warm blue eyes. He gives me his familiar warning smile, and I try to smile back. But, no smile comes to my lips for some reason, so I just stand there staring at him. I don't even make a sound, so he finally speaks.
"Hey, Maya," Nick says softly.
I finally come out of my frozen state when he speaks. "Hi. Um, what are you doing here?" I ask him nervously.
"Well, I was hoping to your uncle for a second, but I can come back later if you two are busy," he replies with his smile remaining on his face.
"Come on in, Nick. We were just about to go eat, but I'm sure Maya wouldn't mind if we waited a few minutes," Uncle Sam says from behind me.
I turn around and see him approaching the door with a smile on his face. He still has his suit on, making me roll my eyes. I turn back to Nick and open the door wider so he can come in. Nick nods at me as he walks past me into the living room area of the hotel room. I shut the door behind him and then join my uncle and Nick.
"What happened to you changing into something more suitable?" I teasingly ask my uncle.
He rolls his eyes and sighs as he sits down on the sofa. "I'm going to go with the idea that you really don't want to know. You just want to make me look silly."
I laugh and sit down in a chair as I reply, "You're right."
He smiles at me before turning to Nick who is standing by the window. "So, what is it that you want to talk to me about?"
Nick turns around and says, "I don't want to do the tour."
My uncle raises his eyebrows and motions for me to leave. I get up and head in the direction of the bedroom but stop and listen in on the conversation like the nosy person I am. "Nick," my uncle begins with a serious tone, "what are you doing? You're the one who pushed for the tour. What's stopping you?"
Nick sighs, and I can just imagine him running his fingers through his hair. "I don't know. All I know is that I don't want to do the tour. I'm not ready for that just yet."
Uncle Sam sighs. "Nick, I don't want to get into an argument right before I go to dinner with my niece, but I have to tell you that you must make up your mind. The rest of my label and your management team are getting tired of you going back on forth on this. They want a final answer, and you have to make up your mind."
"You're right. I'll get going so you and Maya can go eat. I'l talk to you later Mr. Erickson," Nick replies as he begins to walk to the door.
"Wait," my uncle says, causing Nick's footsteps to stop. "I think you need some food. Come eat with Maya and me. I'm sure she would appreciate some time to catch up with you. Plus, I think she needs a friend after the stress of today."
"I don't want to intrude."
"You wouldn't be. If you're worried about that, why don't you just ask Maya what she thinks?"
"Maya?" Nick calls as I hear footsteps getting closer to where I'm standing.
My eyes widen, and I rush into the bedroom and plop down on the nearest chair. I try to slow my beating heart. I look around for something that I can be pretending to look at, but I find nothing, so I just look down at my hands and pretend to be examining them.
"Maya? You want to tell me why you're staring at your hands?" Nick asks.
I look up and see him smirking in the doorway. I raise my eyebrows and reply, "I was just looking at my fingernails. I really need to get them done."
Nick shakes his head. "You and I both know that you don't get your nails done, but I'm pretty sure eavesdropping on a conversation is closer to something you might do."
Despite my best efforts, I smile slips onto my lips, and I ask him, "How did you know?"
"I heard you rushing to the bedroom, and I also knew that something was up when you were sitting here without doing anything," he replies.
I shrug. "Well, I can't say that I learned anything particularly interesting."
He smiles. "So, does this mean I can join you and Mr. Erickson for dinner?"
I smile back and stand up. "Only if you don't tell him I was eavesdropping."
Nick holds up his hand as if he's taking an oath in a courtroom and replies with mock seriousness, "I solemnly swear to not tell Mr. Erickson about you eavesdropping."
I smile at his oath to me for just a minute before my face falls as the events of the day come back to me, and I sit back down with a sigh. Nick senses something is off because he walks over to me and bends down so he can be at eye level with me. He has his sweet smile on his face, along with a comforting and apologetic look. I wish I would stop noticing His smile. After him leaving without explaining the truth, I shouldn't even be noticing him, yet I am.
"I didn't mean to bring that up. I'm sorry. How about we go eat?" he apologizes tenderly.
I give him my best smile, ignoring my thoughts to not let him get close to me, and push him, causing him to fall on his rear. "Sounds perfect. Let's go."
I walk past him sitting on the floor with a slightly shocked face, and he asks me right before I leave the room, "Aren't you going to help me up?"
I laugh and turn back around to look at him. "I think you can do that on your own."
"In that case, let me return the favor," he replies with a twinkle in his blue eyes as he stands up and moves to grab me.
I laugh and hurry away from him. Unfortunately he's bigger and faster than I am, so he catches me as we reach the living room. He wraps his arms around me and begins to try to bring me down to the ground. I laugh, and I see my uncle looking at us at the doorway and shaking his head at our childish game.
I laugh as I beg him, "Okay, I'm sorry! Please let me go! I'm hungry!"
Nick laughs his deep laugh that warms me and then slowly lets go of me. I shove him quickly before grabbing my purse and heading to the door. Uncle Sam smiles at me and opens the door. He holds it open for me, and I hurry out of the room because I know Nick is right behind me. Suddenly, I feel a finger poking my side softly but annoyingly.
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"