Page 83 of Love me, Maddie Mendoza

“What?” Where the hell that was coming from?

“I don’t know, Z. You don’t open up to people. If you were talking to her…do you like her?” she asked again.

I tasted the words in my mouth before saying them. “And if I did? What would you do?”

Something worked in her throat. “You’ll have to talk to Jay.”

I tsked. “He doesn’t see he’s into her yet.”

She nodded to herself. “Then we tell him. And you both talk like men.”

I chuckled. “So your plan is for me to open his eyes to his feelings just to crush him? Because Cathy apparently is into me. So it isn’t like he’s going to win.”

Maddie looked like she was taking the subject seriously, running over her head with a few possibilities. After a moment, she grabbed my t-shirt in a ball. “You still can’t do anything without talking to him. That’s not how friends behave. If you really like Cathy, I can help you… I can…”

I laughed, tipping my head up. When I looked back at her, she was frowning, so I pleaded. “Can you please stop setting me up with Cathy? She’s Jay’s woman.”

“But… but…”

“Ready to go?” I asked, interrupting her.

The hand between us slapped me on the chest. “What the hell, Zeek? No, I’m not going, I’m going to stay and dance.”

She turned her head just to find her date long gone. “The knight in shining armor left long ago.”

Maddie didn’t look too sad.

“We can watch a movie in bed.” I offered.

She breathed in and out, shaking her head. “Why don’t you want me to stay here and dance with… with…” she couldn’t remember his name, I smiled at that. “To anyone?” It was her conclusion.

“Why don’t you want me to date Cathy?” I asked instead.

She opened her mouth to say the word Jay, so I stopped her. “And Aisha? Do you think I have a chance?” I didn’t give her a second to reply. “What about that girl?”

Maddie was silent, a crease in her temple while she worked on the best answer.

But I had one on the tip of my tongue. “These are our last months here. Things are about to change. We don’t know where real life is going to bring us. So why don’t we… enjoy ourselves.”

That picked her interest, I could tell. “What do you mean?”

I shrugged. “Why complicate things by getting into relationships at all? We can enjoy the last months we have together. The only time in our lives we lived under the same roof.”

“That’s true…” Maddie nodded to herself.

“Whatever is about to come is a mystery, anyway. We can…. you know?”

“We can enjoy each other’s company as much as we can.” She agreed. “And yeah, you’re right. Dating right now would only complicate things.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“So no dating?” She confirmed. “Neither of us?”

I let her go just enough so I could bring my hand between us and shake hers. “You got yourself a deal."

“Aye, aye we are officially in session.”

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