Page 47 of The Interns

“Yeah. That one,” he answered before meeting Maya’s eyes as she slowly came to. “How many Reeds do you have?” he teased quietly.

“Stop.” She swatted at his chest then pressed her hand against it to push herself up. She sat on the edge of the couch and rubbed her eyes. “What are you doing here, Darbs?”

“Watering Adam’s plants while he’s away,” she explained as she took a seat at the opposite end of the couch. “What are you doing here? You scared the heck out of me.”

“I’m sorry,” Maya said with a heavy sigh. “We needed a place to crash last night, so we came here.”

“Why?” she asked, completely oblivious.

Reed looked from Darby to Maya, feeling more than awkward that he was trapped behind them lying on the couch while they talked over him.

“We had some drinks and it was late,” Maya explained. “The bar was around the corner from here.”

“Oh. You know, I went on a great date last night, too,” Darby volunteered, absolutely lighting up at just the mention of it.

“Oh?” Maya asked hesitantly.

And that was his sign. He pushed himself up and slipped between Maya and Darby. “I’m gonna,” he started quietly as he nodded toward the bathroom.

Maya nodded back. He patted her knee with his hand then used it to push himself off the couch.

20

Maya

She completely understood why he wanted to extract himself from the situation, and only wished he had taken her with him. Maya felt like she was going to die, both of embarrassment and a wicked hangover. Her mouth was dry, her head was pounding, and everything she had consumed last night was sitting somewhere between her mouth and stomach threatening to come back up with one false move. She wanted a bagel, a glass of water, more Tylenol, some Tums, and more sleep. Preferably curled up against Reed because being in his arms last night felt so good, even if it did complicate everything.

“Yeah. This might sound crazy,” Darby continued without missing a beat while Maya watched Reed disappear into the hallway. “But I have a really, really good feeling about her. She’s so nice, and funny, and down to earth. And really cute, Maya.”

Maya smiled, but she just couldn’t do this right now, she really needed Darby to go water the plants already, so she reached across and tapped her on the arm. “You know what? Why don’t you go take care of the plants and we’ll catch up over breakfast?”

“Oh, good idea. Can we do Ria’s? I could go for pancakes.”

“Sounds perfect.” Maya stood, trying to prompt Darby to get a move on it.

“It’s gonna take me a little while. I have to bring all the plants in from the patio. There’s a hard freeze warning for tonight.”

“Take your time.”

Once Darby left the room, Maya grabbed Reed’s blue shirt from the back of the couch and looked around the living room then down at her striped pajama pants and UPenn t-shirt. She shook her head, and asked herself again what the hell are we doing here? Upon hearing him pad across the hardwood floor, she turned to face him.

“I am so sorry about that.” She moved toward him. “I had no idea—”

“It’s no big deal,” he said as they met in the middle of the room.

She handed him his shirt and watched him for a moment as he slipped his arms in and began buttoning it from the bottom up. He glanced up and gave her a shy grin when he caught her looking at him. As much as she wanted to talk about what happened the night before, she wasn’t sure she was ready for it. But she knew she had to say something.

“About last night,” she started hesitantly, and not smoothly at all. “Are we okay?”

She decided that’s where she would start because that was the number one priority. She just wanted to be okay with him in some way or another. He could obviously sense her uncertainty because after he finished buttoning his shirt, he reached down and grabbed her hand.

“Of course we are.”

“Thank God,” she breathed out with relief.

“I should get going, but I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Yeah.”

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