I got the hell out of there. I don’t know what was going on, but one thing I wasn’t about to do was try to drag anything out of her. I was doing the best I knew how, and if that wasn’t enough, or was a problem… it was hers, not mine.
The next few days passed in a blur of more meetings and paperwork, but on Friday, I boarded my flight from California to Dallas with 25 more Ignition locations in four new states, and the open door to start selling franchises. I was exhausted, but the effort had been more than worth it, and now, as I had told Maya, I could sit back and relax, and let my corporate team do the work. I was sick of wearing suits.
When I touched down in Dallas, my thoughts immediately went to Maya. Since that day at the restaurant, she’d been withdrawn, and not very responsive to my attempts to reach out. I made the — admittedly risky— decision to stop by her house, knowing she was usually home, showered, and preparing to go to bed at this time. I considered stopping to get something for her, but her reaction to my last gift was still etched into my mind, so I nixed that, and a few minutes later, I was pulling into her driveway.
“What, did you forget something?” She opened the door with a smile I hadn’t seen from her in nearly two weeks, but it dropped from her face when she realized it was me. “Oh. Avery… what are you doing here?”
I lifted an eyebrow. “I just got back in town, so I wanted to come and see you… did you have company or something?”
“My mom just left,” she said, tightening the belt of her robe around her waist. “And I was getting ready to get in the shower when the bell rang, I thought it was her coming back.”
“Okay… can I come in?”
Her eyes widened, and she glanced around behind her before pulling open the door to let me in. “Yeah… come on in, I guess.”
You guess?
I couldn’t help frowning a little as I wondered what was up with the weird vibe Maya had going on. “So… I think you’ll be happy to know we signed the deal today. It’s all done, the first Ignition shops on the West Coast will open in a little over a year.”
“Oh, okay. That’s great Avery!” She managed a smile, and pulled me into a lackluster hug.
“Did you start wearing a new perfume or something?” I asked, after breathing her in as I always did when we embraced.
She immediately stiffened in my arms. “What?”
“You smell different,” I explained. “Not your usual perfume. This one is… interesting.”
“Oh.” She pulled away from me. “Well, like I said, I was getting in the shower, so…”
“Maybe I should join you? I think we need to do a little reconnecting.” Cupping her chin, I tilted her head back intending to kiss her, but again, she pulled away.
“I don’t think so, Avery. Actually, you should probably go. It’s not okay for you to pop up at my house unannounced like this.”
What?
“Maya… you showed up at my door insanely early three Saturdays in a row last month for ‘surprise pancakes’, and I didn’t have a problem, but this is a problem for you? Are you serious right now?” I chuckled at Maya’s dumbfounded expression, but she quickly recovered.
“Well maybe I shouldn’t have been doing that either. It was too much. This is too much. The earrings, the other jewelry, it was too much. You’re smothering me!”
Again, What?
My face contorted into a scowl. “Maya, a few days ago you were complaining about us not spending enough time together, how the hell am I smothering you now?”
“I’m telling you how I feel. This is all… moving way too fast, and it’s getting more serious than I’m comfortable with for someone I’ve only known for three months. It’s overwhelming.”
“Then say that. How was I supposed to know you were feeling like that when you’re telling me you wish I were around more? Where is this coming from?”
She shook her head, tucking her hands in at her sides. “I… I don’t know. I know it’s sudden, but its how I feel. Maybe we should take a step back, and move a little slower with this.”
Yeah, maybe so.