***
The useless seems to matter more and more
All my life is just something I can't ignore
Consumed and enthused by all that came before
***
Maya walks across the room with Timothée trailing behind her. She stops and admires the painting, The painting of an angel showing a knight the path to salvation. She looks down at the tag, "Antonio de Pereda's The Dream of the Knight."She reads out loud.
Timothée places his chin on her shoulder as he looks at the painting from behind her. Despite the painting being undoubtedly the 50th painting they've seen tonight something about this one seems to have stolen her attention.
Perhaps it was the underlying metaphor that the painting held but seems to be overlooked. The knight seems to be disinterested and asleep. His greed for materialistic items was too strong to seek salvation. Timothée wraps his arms around her waist and kisses the base of her neck. She turns around and faces him.
Maya smiles and places a gentle and quick kiss on his lips. He untangles his arms and removes his head from her shoulder.
Timothée holds his hand out for Maya, she grabs his hand and they walk off into the next exhibit. "I think we've seen everything, let's get out of here." He leans over towards her.
"Yes, but can we stop at the bakery?" She asks. He nods his head and holds his hand out. She looks down at his hand and interlaces their hands together.
As they walk out of the museum together Maya finds herself getting closer towards him. Hopefully he won't notice.
***
"I'm going to miss the food." Maya says between bites. He laughs and grabs her hand. She smiles down at their hands but doesn't say anything about it.
"What happens when we go back?" She looks up at him. "What do you mean?" He furrows his eyebrows.
"This," She refers towards their intertwined hands. "We don't need to change or stop anything if thats what you'd like." He shrugs his shoulders. They continue to walk.
"Is this just an unspoken thing between us then?" She says softly. There was no way he couldn't see that she wants it to be spoken.
She wants to have the conversation with him. After they talked about it last night. There was no way he was that blind. Maya wants to yell at him, tell him that she loves him.
But she can't, not now at least.
"I think it is," He nods. She finishes off her donut. They continue to walk towards the hotel in silence. This time the silence isn't comfortable. Its heavy and uncomfortable.
Maya and Timothée seem to have something to say but neither of them do. They walk into the hotel and towards the elevator.
***
"I can't believe you got a cannoli. There was so much to choose from." He points out.
"You can't go wrong with classics." Maya furrows her eyebrows. "But you can get one at home." Timothée tells her.
"Wrong," She smiles. "It's not the same, just taste it." Maya holds out the cannoli towards him as a gesture for him to take a bite. He leans over towards and takes a small bite.
"See, it's so good." Maya finishes the cannoli. She gets up from the chair and lays down on the bed.
"Okay so maybe it is better." Timothée says.
Timothée finishes up his pastry and follows after Maya. He lays down besides her. She slowly crawls over towards him and rests her head on his stomach.
He wraps his arm around her torso and pulls her up. She yelps in response, he pulls her up to his chest and she turns around to face him.
She smiles up at him. His face seems to be hidden in the dark hotel room. But there's no way Maya can miss the huge smile across his face. He's smiling back at her.
She's not sure if she would be lying if she would think that his eyes were twinkling. Just like every other kiss, it made her heart beat faster and her hands clammy.
Although his touch was not foreign it felt like it was. Maya leans forwards and kisses him. The kiss is soft and gentle at first.
Maya slowly climbs on top of Timothée without breaking the kiss. She's straddling him while his hands wonder down to her hips.
Maya pulls away from the kiss first and rests her head in the crook of his neck. What was this trip? Maya thinks, they had gone from barely being able to handle being in the same room together to not being able to get their hands off of each other.
Timothée sits up with Maya still straddling her. She holds on tight to his neck in fear of falling off. He grips her back and lets go once he's comfortable.
She pulls away and looks at him. His hair is a mess, the curls look tangled and sloppy. But none the less he looks beautiful.
"You're gorgeous." She whispers. "I'm supposed to be the one telling you that." Timothée teases.
She shakes her head and wraps her hands behind his neck. He leans forward and brushes his lips against hers. The slight touch of his lips sends shivers down Maya's spine.
His lips travel down towards her neck. Maya closes her eyes as he sucks on her sweet spot. She grips his hair and he groans.
Maya tilts her head allowing him more access. She releases his hair and her hands travel down to the hem of his shirt. She lightly tugs, he removes his lips and pulls off the shirt quickly.
His hands travel down to the hem of her shirt. He pulls it off and ovr her head.
She goes to kiss him but he moves and stops. Maya's face drops and she pulls away.
"No, it's okay. I just need to make sure that you're okay and comfortable with this?" He asks softly. She nods her head and fiddles with her hands.
"Are you sure that you want to do this?" Timothée whispers, his eyes scan her face while he waits for a response.
She's unable to speak, her words fell stuck due to their closeness. Maya nods her head slowly.
"I need you to use your words, you don't have to do anything you don't want." He brings his thumb up to her face and rubs her cheek.
"Yes, I do. I promise I'm comfortable." Maya reaches forward and pulls him closer.
Timothée kisses her carefully, afraid to rush anything or make her uncomfortable. Although Maya does appreciates his concern the gentleness is not what she wants.
He notices this by her unbuttoning on his pants and attempting to slide them off of his body.
But due to their postion its nearly impossible. He moves his legs from underneath her. Her back hits the mattress as he hover over her. She continues to unbutton his pants.
He wiggles them off his legs. Timothée assists her by pulling away and shuffling them down his legs and tossing them with the rest of their clothes.
His hands grip the clasp of her bra before he can unclasp it, he asks once more "Are you sure?"
"I am," She mumbles.
***
Maya looks over slowly. He still sleeping, good. She slowly slides to the edge of the bed with the sheets wrapping around her naked body.
He moves, his hand hits where she was just aying. Hes patting down on the empty spot. Timothée opens his eyes slowly and notices that shes in fact no longer laying down.
"What's wrong?" He rasps.
"Nothing," She turns around. "Come lay with me." He holds his arms out. "I'm still naked." Maya says.
"It's fine," He pats the available space mext to him. Maya crawls back onto the bed towards him. She removes her arms from the covers and lays downon top of his naked chest.
She plays with the stitching on the blanket. It's not hard to sense that Maya's nervous.
He places his hand on her lower back and she pulls in closer.
"I love you," He whispers. She quickly pulls away from him. With her back facing him, his stomach drops.
She slowly turns around. Timothée's eyes widen when he sees the terror across her face. Everything in her is telling her to scream it back but she can't.
Those 3 little words were used every-time Noah would hurt her. He manipulated her into believing he loved her.
'I love you.' Mean't nothing. But Timothée's different. Hes not Noah, but it's still so hard.
Timothée sits up on the bed. "You don't need to say anything back. I just wanted to let you know that I do love you." He searches her face for an response or any other emotion besides confusion.
Maya shakes her head. "I love you. I'm so sorry for making you feel dumb. I'm not used to any of this. Noah would tell me he loved me after he would hurt me." Her eyes begin to water as she slowly loses the tight grip on the bed sheets wrapping around her body.
"Listen to me, you never should feel obligated to say it back. You're not dumb, it's not your fault for anything that he did." Timothée pulls her body close to his. As soon as he wraps his arms around her naked body, she lets out a sob.
"I'm sorry," She mumbles.
"It's okay, everything will be okay." He mumbles into the top of her head.