AUGUST
Chapter 18
Living with someone who was perpetually angry with you was kind of a pain in the ass.
Maya moving in had, at first, been everything Everett wanted. Bringing her things into his space gave him a warm feeling. He loved seeing her clothes in the closet, her shampoo in the shower, and her cute little dishtowels hanging on the door of the refrigerator.
He especially loved having her in the house with him all the time. Even if she was on the porch painting and he was in the den working, he knew he could take a break and wander out to rub her shoulders and get a quick kiss, or she could storm into the den at random moments and strip off her clothes, which led to sex on the desk, or the couch, or even once, the floor.
Having dinner together every night, cuddling on the couch while watching television, sharing the sink while brushing their teeth, and most important, waking up to her every morning, were the greatest bonuses.
But for the last three weeks she’d been stalking around the house, totally pissed at him. Sure, he’d managed to get her to smile at him every once in a while. She still kissed him when she was feeling weak. And late in the night when he put his lips and hands to work, she made love to him willingly. But each morning she told him it was the last time until he “fixed his mess.”
As he loaded the last of the supplies into the SUV, he thought about the disaster he’d helped create. Staring into the neatly stacked boxes of business cards, novelty gift bags, plastic champagne flutes, and the high end bubbly he’d insisted on buying for Maya’s gallery show opening night event, he rolled over the whole scenario in his head again.
Carlos’ ex-wife was far more nefarious than either he or his friend had really understood. It was all the more shocking in comparison to Everett’s ex-fiancée who had recently regained her spot among his friends.
Kimberly had managed to drive a wedge between Carlos and Amy. She’d used a combination of rumor, well-planted suggestion, and Everett’s own desire to protect his friend to make it appear that Amy was trying to use Carlos for his position in the company.
It had all culminated in a massive misunderstanding, and Carlos and Amy had broken up.
Everett’s role in all that had become a point of contention with Maya and Carlos. Though he’d worked it out with his best friend, his girlfriend, on the other hand, wouldn’t forgive him until he’d found a way to undo the damage his skepticism had caused.
Carlos had lost his girl, and Everett’s girlfriend was furious with him. Tonight might just be the chance they both needed to mend it all.
Everett closed the back door of the SUV and rounded the car. Maya was already at the gallery setting things up with Melissa. He was serving as errand boy. But he wouldn’t be alone. He was stopping by to pick up Carlos at his condo. Together they would go to Maya’s show about an hour early to help put together the final touches.
Carlos looked as pathetic as usual when he climbed into the passenger seat ten minutes later. The turned down lips, sunken cheeks, and incredibly sad eyes had been plastered on Carlos’ face for three long weeks.
Everett let out a deep sigh as he took the car out of park and pulled onto the road. “We have to fix this, C.”
“I’ve tried. Amy won’t talk to me.”
“I heard you talked to Elias on the phone the other day. He have any advice?” Everett had been happy to hear that his two best friends were talking again. And since Elias had once had to fight to get the girl he loved, Everett figured he could help Carlos out.
“He said the same thing you did. I have to find a way to get her to talk to me.”
Everett turned onto a larger street and merged lanes. “Tonight’s the night, man. She’ll definitely be at Maya’s show. There is no way she’ll miss it, even to avoid you.”
“Doesn’t mean she’ll talk to me.”
“You are so fucking negative. I have never seen you like this.”
“I’ve never been in love with anyone like this before. Amy is everything to me. I bought an engagement ring just before she left me.”
Everett’s gaze shot to Carlos for a split second before jerking back to the road. “No shit?”
“Yeah. I was going to ask her to marry me. I mean, I didn’t have the details figured out yet, but it was going to happen.”
“You don’t waste time, do you?”
“No reason to. I know what I want.”
Everett shrugged. “You’ve been divorced. Some people, a lot of people I know who’ve been divorced, have the whole ‘I’m never doing that again’ attitude.”
“That’s not me. I like being married. I was just married to the wrong person before. Amy is the right person.”
Everett wasn’t sure about marriage. It wasn’t that it was off the table for all time. It just wasn’t something he felt the intense need to do. Maya was pretty ambivalent about it, too. And while they’d discussed their feelings about that massive step in vague terms, they hadn’t gone public yet and she hadn’t actually admitted that she loved him. So, yeah, marriage was way the hell down the line for them.
Everett and Carlos discussed details like the ring and Carlos’ potential proposal ideas for the rest of the trip to the gallery. When they arrived, they found Maya and Melissa sitting side by side on a bench in the center of the large main room looking at the paintings spread throughout the space.
“Good. You brought champagne. I am so ready to start drinking,” Maya said when she saw him.
Melissa rubbed Maya’s arm and smiled. “This is going to be great. But your girl here is a little nervous.”
Since Carlos now knew he and Maya were a couple, Everett was in a room with people who were all in on the secret. It wouldn’t last long. But for now, he felt free. So after he and Carlos deposited all the goodies from his car in the refreshments area, he walked over to Maya, pulled her up to standing, wrapped her in his arms, and kissed her thoroughly.
“Hmm. You do know how to relax me.”
“It looks great in here.” He didn’t take his eyes off her as he said it.
Maya smiled at him. “I could have smeared melted chocolate on the walls and you’d still say that.”
“Maybe.”
“I want to show you something.” Maya took his hand and led him through the room.
He’d seen all the paintings in here and had engaged in several discussions with her about which pieces should hang where in the big room. So he wasn’t sure what she was planning to show him until she rounded the corner with him in her wake. “This little room is where the show pieces that aren’t for sale go. It’s a chance to show off what the artist can do with personal pieces.”
Everett was only half listening to her explanation about the small space with three paintings, each hanging on one of the narrow walls. Instead, he was transfixed by the one in front of him.
“It’s me.”
Maya wrapped her arm around his waist. “Yep.”
His pose in the painting was casual. He sat on the couch in his living room. He was in jeans and a Giants t-shirt with Roger’s number. He was barefoot and relaxed. His mouth was spread in a wide smile. His eyes, which were the richest shade of brown possible, stared at the viewer with love.
“Wow.”
“You like it?”
Everett turned in her hold. “Baby, it’s amazing. I can’t…I…”
“You’re speechless. That’s a good sign.”
He was. So he kissed her.
****
Maya scanned the room. The opening event was going on hour three and there were still quite a few people here. She’d just finished giving an interview to a local reporter and he was off photographing the works and talking to guests. Melissa was making a sale in her glass office. And Everett was gone. But Maya wasn’t mad, because he’d left to take Amy to Carlos’ place and make sure they reunited.
A lot of her friends had come and gone, as well as her parents and Trudy. But there were some late-comers still roaming around and drinking the last of the champagne. That included a few of her fellow artists, the reporter, and her old professor. It also included her twin brother and his secret lover.
Roger and Mica had been delayed because Roger was playing a home game. They’d come straight from the ballpark, Roger’s hair still wet from his after game shower in the locker room. Maya was grateful and filled with love and appreciation for them. She’d squeezed the life out of them both when they’d come running in, out of breath, and checking to make sure they’d made it before closing.
They took off after her initial greeting to look around the gallery. Ten minutes later, she swiveled her neck to try to find them again. She had yet to take them into the back room. There was a painting in there she wanted them to see.
When she spotted Mica, her heart nearly skipped. He stood with Roger, just a few feet away from the reporter, their fingers intertwined as they held hands. Maya flew across the room and planted herself between them and the reporter, who was thankfully preoccupied with Maya’s old art professor.
“Hey. There’s something I need to show you two.”
Maya wedged herself between them, which forced them to drop each other’s hands. Then she ushered them into the small exhibit space in the back.
As soon as they were alone, she stepped back to get a good look at them both. They immediately stepped toward one another and re-clasped their hands. It was like they were magnets.
“That was a reporter out there.” Her words were breathless.
“I figured,” Roger said casually. “I think I’ve seen him before.”
“Aren’t you worried about getting caught?” Maya’s eyes flashed dramatically to where they were linked together.
Mica smiled so big it was blinding. “Not so much.”
Maya’s mouth dropped open.
“I’m coming out.” Roger said it calmly, but Maya knew this decision had to be fraught with anxiety. “As soon as the season is over. That will give the crazies all winter to get the hate out of their system before next season. The team is supportive and their PR people and my agent all have a plan.”
Mica held up their hands. “This is actually part of the plan. We’re not supposed to hold back so much in public. If there are rumors leading up to the announcement, it makes it less of a shock.”
“I had no idea this would actually happen.” Maya slumped against the wall beside the painting of her parents and Trudy that took up one the three spaces in the small room. “I mean, I guess I thought you’d wait until you retired.”
“Even though that was a daunting prospect, since I plan to play for another fifteen years at least, I was planning to do that, too.” Roger turned to look at Mica. His face grew soft. “But I can’t. I want to be with Mica. And I can’t hide us away. It’s not good for our relationship. And right now there are two things I need in my life, baseball and Mica.”
Maya’s eyes filled with tears. Overwhelmed with happiness for her brother, she couldn’t ignore how this all paralleled her own life as well. Roger was brave enough to face what was sure to be the biggest battle of his life just to be with the man he loved, and she was too scared to tell a few friends about the man she wanted to be with.
Maya wiped at her eyes and pulled them both into a tight hug. Then she turned them around to reveal the painting she’d made of her and Mica as kids playing in the tall grass of an abandoned lot across the street from their house. The baseball they were throwing was a nod to Roger and the candle perched on a square of concrete in the corner was for Everett.
The four of them wept and laughed and smiled and hugged until Melissa came looking for Maya. The event was over, sales had already been made. More would come over the next month.
Mica and Roger helped the two women clean up and Roger gave Melissa his autograph. By the time they had Mica’s car loaded up with the remains of the day, Everett pulled back into the lot.
****
Everett jumped out of the car, enthusiastically shook everyone’s hands, kissed Melissa’s cheek and thanked her, then ushered Maya into the passenger side of the vehicle.
As they made their way back to his house he told her about his conversation with Amy and how he’d convinced her to go talk with Carlos. Then he’d driven her to Carlos’ condo and left her there.
He wasn’t positive Carlos and Amy had made up, but he told Maya he was sure enough that he wasn’t willing to interrupt with a phone call or a text to verify. Laughing at all that implied, Maya agreed.
She grew serious suddenly after that. In his peripheral vision he caught her biting her lip. She hugged her knees to her chest, resting her heels on the car seat. Then she launched into the story of Roger and Mica and how they planned to go public. She was clearly worried about them, about the kind of hate and intolerance they would face. But she was also happy for them. Everett was, too. It was a wonderful thing to find a love worth fighting for.
When they got to the house, Maya ran to the door, used her key to open it, and flashed inside well ahead of him. Everett took his time. His mind wandered over the evening’s events as he moseyed slowly up the walkway to his front door. People he cared deeply about were finding their paths. He’d found his as well, but it wasn’t complete.
If Carlos could battle his evil ex-wife to keep Amy, and Roger could come out as a major sports star for Mica, where did that leave him and Maya? Maya wasn’t even willing to tell their coworkers about them. Did Everett see their relationship as something more than it was? When compared to the epic stories of those around them, it seemed so much smaller than what he felt in his heart.
“It’s about time.” Maya’s voice echoed from some unseen location in the house as he walked through the front door and closed it gently behind him.
“Where are you?”
“In the bedroom.”
Everett did not pick up his speed as he made his way up the stairs. Somehow sex seemed wrong right now. He needed something else from Maya, something that would keep his heart from teetering off the edge it was perched on.
When he finally rounded the door and stepped into the bedroom, he was met with an unexpected sight. The bed was stripped down to the mattress, all the bedding tossed to the far side of the room. A plastic sheet was draped over it, and beside it, Maya sat in her art chair with a paintbrush in her hand.
“Ummm?”
“Take off your clothes.”
Everett began unbuttoning his shirt, but he continued to stare at her with a deep sense of confusion. “What’s this all about?”
“Do you trust me?”
“You know I do.”
“Then get naked and lie on the bed.”
Everett didn’t question her. He wanted to talk, not have sex. But he also wanted to give her whatever she wanted. When the two things warred, her desires would always win.
She didn’t watch him as he undressed. Instead, she played with something on the bedside table. With her hunched over it, he couldn’t see what was happening. So he stayed focused on his task. Once he was completely stripped down, he lay on the bed as she asked and turned his head to face her.
Maya smiled at him and brandished the paintbrush, now rich with color. “Don’t worry. This is body paint. It’ll come off in the shower.”
“You’re going to paint me?”
She nodded. Her eyes sparkled with mischief. He couldn’t resist her.
“Don’t look.”
He didn’t close his eyes, but he didn’t follow the brush with his gaze either. Instead, he stayed focused on her face as she worked. He’d watched her before when she was painting. Her eyes were sharp and focused. Her brow furrowed in concentration. She usually bit her bottom lip as she did now. She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
The wet sensation on his chest was not unpleasant. Maya must have warmed up the paints or the water she mixed them with. Either way, the soft brush, the careful stroke, it was lulling his body into a deep relaxation. He felt himself melting into the mattress. Even the strange sensation of the plastic at his back became part of the experience.
His eyes drifted closed. He was on the edge of sleep when she called him back. “Look.”
His eyes popped open. His view of Maya’s beautiful face was obscured by a mirror being held over him. The reflection showed his painted chest. Like all of Maya’s paintings, it was a riot of bright colors. The right side of his chest held a rainbow and a star. His sternum was lined with an intricate candle, elegantly twisted. And right over his heart she’d written the words he’d really needed from her. I love you.
She pulled the mirror away and set it on the table beside her. She’d taken off her own clothes at some point and she crawled over him naked, straddling his waist, her hands planted on the mattress on either side of his head.
“The greatest work of art inside me is what I feel for you.” Her words were soft and sincere. Her lips hovered over his.
“I love you.” He reached up and cradled the back of her head in his big palm then pulled her to him for a deep kiss.
Maya met his enthusiasm, dropping down on his chest and smearing the paint all over them both as she pressed them together. They rolled around on the plastic, spreading colors in their need to touch each other everywhere. The end result was a handful of orgasms, a massive mess, and two deeply happy people.