Page 5 of Aries Mated

MAEVE

Imanaged to get through the front door of my condo just as the sun was rising, cursing under my breath. What a damn crazy night. I did not expect to be at the police station for four freaking hours. How did it take that long to get a statement from me about a burglary that didn’t even happen? Atlas got the guy before he could really do anything, so what was the point? I truly felt like the officers did everything too slowly, annoyingly so. That wasn’t the way I did business. I was efficient and quick, always on top of everything.

I was exhausted. So tired that my eyes desperately wanted to close, but I couldn’t let them. I had let Sol down last night badly. While it wasn’t exactly my fault, I didn’t think my boy would understand. I had made a promise to him, assured him that I would take him to meet the competition participants, and I really couldn’t let him down. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long and I could get some rest later on.

“Sol?” I croaked, my throat aching with lack of rest. “Are you up yet?”

He wasn’t, but the scent of coffee let me know Viola was. Thank God, because she made the best caffeinated drinks.

“Oh, morning, Maeve,” Viola said with a small smile. “Busy night? You’re in late.”

I nodded. “Yeah, there was a burglary in the bar, so I had to sort that out. Nightmare.” She handed me a mug and I drank like coffee was my life force. “I was planning to be in much earlier.”

I needed to speak to Viola about the late-night phone calls from Sol and see if there was something we could do as a team to make things better for him, but my brain was annoyingly foggy. I couldn’t really think straight. I sat down at the kitchen island and rested my head on the countertop. I just needed a few minutes, and then I’d be ready for the day.

* * *

“Mom?”There was a shaking, a rumbling, a bit like an earthquake. “Mom, you’re asleep. I need you to wake up.”

“Huh?” I murmured, the world shifting was as I opened my bleary eyes, blinking as I lifted up my heavy head. Everything was so much brighter now, which was weird because it seemed like I had only closed my eyes a second ago. “What’s going on?”

“Viola just left,” Sol told me. “She said to say goodbye to you, and she left you some breakfast on the side board.”

“Breakfast?”

“Yeah, and I’m ready. Can we get going?”

I checked my watch. It was eight a.m.! “Uh, yeah, the meet and greet. Just give me a couple of minutes to get dressed.”

Sol sighed with clear irritation at me. I hated the way that sound broke my heart. It didn’t matter how much I did, I could never be good enough for anyone or anything. If I gave a lot of myself to Sol, work got messed up; if I devoted myself to my career, my bond with my son suffered. It was a battle I didn’t know how to win. It seemed like I was always climbing a big mountain and the peak just kept getting further and further out of reach.

“Fine. I might as well watch TV, then,” he grumbled. “I can see what’s going on with the Astro Games.”

I watched him sadly as he flopped on the couch and brought the TV to life. The news presenters who focused solely on the games, Karly and Ben, seemed awfully chipper for this time in the morning. Something I couldn’t help but envy in my current mood. I used to be happy in the mornings as well, until my life got too chaotic for the mornings to be anything other than this. It felt as if my body was moving at half speed. Sluggish didn’t even begin to cover it. The temptation to tell Sol that the meet and greet had been cancelled so I could get some more sleep was more than tempting. But that displeased look in his eye kept getting to me. I’d let him down way too many times. I couldn’t do it again.

“Mom,” Sol called out, sounding irritated yet again. “Don’t you hear that? Your phone is ringing.”

Those words snapped me to attention and I did actually begin to hear it. Before I could put my body in gear to go get my phone, he brought it to me. I could see it in his face that this meeting was all he wanted to do today. If I let him down, it would crush him completely. I was going to have to suck it the hell up and make sure he didn’t hate me forever.

“Thanks,” I muttered before hitting the answer button. “Marco, hey. How’s it going?”

“You’re asking me?” he exclaimed in shock. I rolled my eyes. I should have known. Word travelled quickly around these parts. “I heard there was some drama last night.”

I sighed heavily. “You could say that. I spent half the night at the police station.” He gasped in horror. “We had an attempted robbery. Fortunately, one of the Astro Games competitors was around and put a stop to it.”

“Oh, which one?” He was intrigued for all the wrong reasons. I seemed to be the only person too busy to be fascinated.

“Atlas.” Saying his name made my heart flutter weirdly. I must have been all over the place last night because I’d actually agreed to go for a drink with him. I didn’t have time for that. Though I suppose it would be nice to connect with someone who knew Pi. “But anyway, there wasn’t much damage. It was just a pain more than anything. Especially dealing with the police.”

“If you say so. I will get all the deets from you later on.” Marco knew me well enough to sense that now wasn’t the time to give him a play by play of what all went down. “But be careful today, okay?”

I agreed with him, went over some of the bar numbers I still needed to complete, and finally hung up the phone. Once I did that, I couldn’t resist scrolling through my texts. Not that I was expecting Atlas to message me first thing in the morning. Maybe not even at all. Hell, what did it even matter anyway? I had much more important things to be dealing with today. I needed to get back on track with getting ready before Sol really lost his patience with me.

* * *

The extra timeit took me to get dressed and pour myself a travel mug of coffee was only made worse by Sol’s huffs of irritation, but somehow we managed to make it out the door without ripping one another’s heads off. I sipped on the coffee, begging for a miracle, as we drew closer to the arena. There were so many people around. It was nuts. The arena held events all the time, which was expected of the biggest building in the whole of the Zodiac Empire, but there was never anything like this. The Astro Games had really attracted everyone.

“Oh, look, Mom!” Sol enthusiastically grabbed my arm with delight. “There are a bunch of the participants here. Even some who have been disqualified.”

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