Page 28 of Hear Me Roar

“Maya?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m here, sorry. Just processing. You're really saving my life, Hazel,” she said, and this time I knew was crying. “Thank you,seriously.”

Bernie’s sweet face popped into my mind and my heart clenched because if Maya was hurting, I knew he was hurting too. “Your dad meant everything to me. He shaped me into the woman I am today. This is simply me repaying him for all hedid.”

“Regardless of why you’re doing it, I’m verygrateful.”

“Knox and I are going to check out some flights tonight when he gets home from work. Is it okay for me to text this number once we have theinformation?”

“This number is safe. Dimitri has no idea I have this phone in mypossession.”

“Jesus, it's worse than I thought.” I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on from the hail of crap that had unfolded in less than five minutes. “How soon do you need toleave?”

“The sooner, thebetter.”

“Okay, so we’ll search for next week or the following. Does thatwork?”

“Two weeks would be better. He leaves on a business trip to Russia in exactly two weeks from today, which would be the ideal time for me toleave.”

“Two weeks then,” I confirmed, peering at a very silent Knox besideme.

“Two weeks,” sheagreed.

Well,we did it. After a few days of comparing prices, and going back and forth on dates and times, Hazel and I finally bought Maya a ticket from New York to L.A. for the first week of July. July 4th to be exact, the same week her husband would be heading out of town. We’d also scheduled a town car to pick her up right outside her building, two hours before her flight was set to depart. Now all she had to do was pack essentials and leave when the time came. She assured us slipping past her implanted security would be a breeze, and that Dimitri would be kept in the dark long enough for her to get on the plane and fly across the Nation. Once she made it here, Karley could begin official preparations for her divorce, and she’d be a long ways away from Dimitri and his heavy hand. Everything was good togo.

So why did this all of feel tooeasy?

As proud as I was of Hazel for initiating anything, after her resistance to speak with Maya in the first place, I had the most unsettling feeling when I thought about this girl coming to stay with us. With Dimitri being violent and the added factor that she was essentially running away from him and their marriage, who knew what this man was truly capable of once he realized what she’d done. This could get ugly very quickly – with Hazel and I stuck in the middle – and I don’t know that she'd had ample time to think this through before offering Maya refuge. In any case, I didn't voice this reservation with her; mostly because I didn't want her worrying, too, especially when there was a chance the imminent shit storm I was imagining could be nothing at all. Plus, she had enough on her plate in terms of preparing herself to meet the woman she'd never thought she'd actuallymeet.

Albeit the circumstances, I could sense Hazel was somewhat excited, even if she didn’t openly admit it. We had a calendar hung in the kitchen where she’d marked Maya’s arrival date, and steadily crossed off the days as they ticked by one by one. June swiftly carried into July and now, we were just 72 hours from welcoming Maya to L.A, though you'd think the President was coming visit. Hazel’s energy was through the damn roof. She'd cleaned every inch of the condo from top to bottom, prepared the guest room, done an obscene amount of grocery shopping, and bought things any woman who was traveling across the U.S. with almost nothing might need. And of all that was done completely uncaffeinated. Her organizational OCD was at an all-time high and in the span of a day, I learned how nasty the Lioness could be if you poked too hard. I leftonetee on the floor and she almost ripped my head off with her bare hands. I could’ve sworn her head spun a little too. Yeah, let's just say I haven't done thatagain.

“You know what I thought about earlier today?” Hazel asked me as she rinsed the shampoo from herhair.

“What?”

“How the hell are we going to have sex while Maya ishere?”

I chuckled at her query and rubbed the soap from my eyes, only to catch her staring at me with a serious expression through a stream of hotwater.

Okaythen…

“What do you mean? Like we alwaysdo.”

“I don't think so. She’ll be right in the next room, and I highly doubt she'd want to hear me moaning your name as the headboard bangs against thewall.”

“You'll have to learn to be quiet then, kitten,” I said, amused, knowing indeed how loud my girl couldbe.

“With you,impossible.”

“Then buy her noise-cancellingheadphones.”

She scoffed, pouring a dollop of body wash onto her shower puff thing. “And tell her what? I got you a present I need you to use atnight.”

“If she's watchedThe Big Bang Theory,she’ll know exactly why you boughtthem.”

“I don't think she'll be as clueless and understanding asSheldon.”

“Sheldon isn't understanding, babe. He wears them simply to shield his ears from Leonard and Penny’s sounds ofcoitus.”

---