Maya sprawled her petite body on the comforter, her bag falling next to her as she was assured that she was a magnet for drama.
But at least she was glad this drama had nothing to do with her new bane of existence and though many people recognized her as Xavier's fiancée they were more interested in what she was working on with Jared.
She didn't know much about marketing and adverts but what she did know was that they have gotten people to stop now and listen, definitely they would be watching.
As expected, on a bad note few blogs took advantage of the news to get traffic on their sites by throwing cheap jabs on her because of how close she was to Jared but apart from that ugly incident, all in all, it was a win for Playit and a great relief to the staff. Now she needed to ace whatever acting skill she thought she had in the past which was none. But there was a first time for everything yeah?
She heard the expectant knock on the door and closed her eyes already aware of who was on the other side.
"Come in," she owed him this much and it wasn't like she was going to put off the stunt he had made in her place of work forever.
There was a tentative pause at the door and for a second she thought he had left but he pushed the door minutes later and then with his hands on his pockets and his face looking anywhere but at her, he settled himself on the chair adjacent to her antique dresser.
"Rough day huh?"
"One of the reasons why it was even more rough is standing in front of me." Her whisper was sullen and she didn't spare him a glance even as she removed her back from the bed, leaning against the wall now.
"You should have told me. Imagine the betrayal I felt when I saw those pictures of you barely a few minutes after you left and I knew those pictures were not staged."
"I should have told you and betrayal mmm." She muttered mulling over his words thoughtfully, "Why?"
Disbelief crossed his features for a second before he slipped back on his damn mask but at his next word she could tell his feelings had been morphed to anger.
"I consider what we share valid enough reasons for you to tell me you were planning on featuring on a trashy advertisement stunt for Tyler."
"Importantly, it wasn't for Tyler, it was for Playit, and secondly what exactly do we share?" He gawked at her, "Even Jessica and Jasmine didn't know anything about this and I don't see anyone storming inside my office and causing a scene or Alex? The Alex that wasn't allowed to visit and have only seen once and that's when I was in the hospital yet he isn't commanding my boss around."
"Really?" He exhaled harshly, "You are still placing me in the friendship zone!"
"Removing you from there gets you back to the ex-boss zone who I have no business staying in his place. On a warm note, I might be going to my place, next week."
"Maya what do you even mean by that? We have something, a connection."
"We have a sexual chemistry and whatever happened during the past few days was just two adults messing around and nothing more." She inhaled, "I should have told you I'm aware but I didn't regardless you were wrong today."
"And I'm sorry."
She gave him a tight smile, "Then we are good."
"We are far from good if we are going back to the fake ass pretense that we are friends while we fantasize about each other in the bathroom."
"Would you rather be a booty call, add me to one of your too many notches, or want us to have a friends with benefit relationship?" She batted her lashes giving him a sugary sweet smile even as he cursed under his breath.
"I don't want that!"
"Then what the hell do you want from me, Xavier!" Her eyes were fixated on him even as her eyes were bulged wondering when she went from whispers to screaming, "What is this? What are we? What box do we tick this off into? We have explosive chemistry but there is nothing else here! Don't you see why removing you from the friendship box just complicates things for everybody!"
Her lungs burned and she blinked back tears even as she placed her head in-between her laps conscious of her harsh breathing intermingled with the dead silence of the room. Xavier was stunned.
"I want to date you, Maya. We can be in a relationship if that's what you want."
She waited for a toe-curling flutter at the thought he was willing to date for the first time in his life just because he wanted to be with her but yet she felt nothing. She needed more. Her heart and her mind were screaming that she deserved more.
She looked up, "Just get out, Xavier. You ain't thinking clearly. We both aren't."
"I want this. I want you, Maya."
"Yes and that's the more reason why you ain't thinking straight," she shot him a harsh look, "You just want to keep me!"
His surprise made her very much positive that they both were nowhere near ready for anything that had a relationship on it.
"And that is bad because?"
She placed her hand on her head wondering how to tell the man in front of her how everything about his idea was wrong, "I don't want you to date me because I need a relationship."
"Why? I'm ready to give you anything you want. Why are you just making excuses?"
"Because a relationship is not about ownership, Xavier. You don't need to date me so I can be kept. You need to want this just as much as I do. You need to want to keep me and that's why we would decide to morph that idea into an exclusive relationship." She closed her eyes pushing the words out of her mouth, "I'm not a trophy, Xavier."
"Jesus. Where do you even get that idea from?" His blue eyes were already stormy with undisguised incredulity.
"I know you just might not recognize this yet but your drive to win all the time is inspiring this particular move of yours."