“What are you doing?” Saphora asked, as they pulled into a parking lot unfamiliar to her.
Granted, the driveway to his house would have been unfamiliar to her too. But this was not a residential home. It was a commercial building, and one she had never seen before in town. She had spaced out on and off during the car ride, and now she was up and alert, realizing that she was at an unknown place with an unknown man. Granted, she had the means to defend herself, if not kill him all together, but the realization was still enough to wake her up. Maverick smiled as he pulled into an available parking space.
“It’s just an old book store near my apartment. We can go in, if you want to. Or we can talk here in the car,” he offered, resting his hands in his lap. She stared at him for a moment, genuinely appreciating that he hadn’t brought her to his apartment, or to a crowded location. The in-betweens of that she knew must be scarce, but he was able to manage. However, she knew that if she were to get emotional while talking, she would become loud. And she didn’t want to do that in the calm atmosphere of the book store. She also didn’t want to be any more of a burden to this guy, already having dragged him out of work to talk with her. So she decided to stay in the car to talk.
“We can stay here … I don’t mind,” she said, taking off her seat belt and letting it cling against the door.
“Okay,” he said almost too quickly.
He did the same with his seat belt, trying to mask the goofy smile that had crept onto his face. Hearing that she’d rather stay alone in a car with him instead of going inside gave him the idea of, well, he didn’t exactly know, but it was making him as gitty as a school girl, and he was trying his best to hide it. He turned slightly, so that he could more easily look at Saphora during the conversations, but Saphora stayed, more or less, facing forward. There was an awkward silence before Saphora turned to look at him.
“You should … Probably introduce yourself,” she suggested, even though his name tag was on his apron.
“Oh, right. Uh – Maverick. My name is Maverick. Sorry … I should’ve, uh, said that back at the café.”
“About the café. You’re not … going to get in trouble, are you?” Saphora asked, making more of an effort to face Maverick. He shook his head, smiling and dismissing the concern with his hand.
“Don’t worry about that. I only had like an hour left anyway. I just made a deal with the girl that was there,” he said with somewhat of a grimace. He smiled again, refocusing on Saphora. “So what did you want to talk about?”
Saphora stayed quiet, thinking about that. And then she was suddenly dumbfounded, and frustrated with herself all at once. What was she thinking? She couldn’t possibly talk about everything that had happened as if it were a casual conversation. About her ability to fly and her fear of falling that had been made a reality. About meeting a man who claimed to be her hunter, and proceeded with actions that justified his claim. About being a suspect of a man’s death. A man that had run her over with his car. A hit that she survived. About her disconnecting with Fran, a woman who she trusted and loved. Or about thinking about her therapist conspiring against her. Trying to make her seem crazy. Even though she had divulged a brief summary of her life to him at the café, she couldn’t possibly go into detail about everything.
She found herself hesitating to answer the question. So what now? Now that she had dragged this poor man out from his work to talk about nothing. She groaned, and decided to just … talk.
“Oh, I uh … I don’t know, really,” she said with a little bit of a nervous laugh. “I was,” she sighed, shaking her head and looking down. “really stressed out. But, I don’t really want to talk about that anymore,” she looked back up at Maverick, who was starting to frown, thinking that she was going to ask him to leave. “How about you just say what you were going to say to me on Monday?” she offered, leaning back in her seat with a look that registered in Maverick’s mind as regret.
He paused, internally arguing with himself. He wanted to jump at the opportunity to ask her all the questions he had thought up since then. But when he looked at her face. And her pent up expression, he seemed to question himself. He wanted to see her at ease. Even though she said that she didn’t want to talk about it, he knew better. With that ambush of information she had said to him back at the café, he knew that something, if not those things, was eating at her. And for her to come back to the café and find him, of all people. Someone who she did not know, and after the incident, probably had no intention of knowing. He knew that she must have been desperate to talk to someone about what was going on. She was probably just scared of what he would think. About what he would say. About how he would judge her.
“You know … I’m not gonna judge you or anything,” he started, making a gesture with his hand. Saphora looked up at him with a silent request for an explanation. “For anything you want to talk about, I mean. I mean, you came in talking about police and something … It’s okay if you want to talk about that.”
She stared at him for a minute, almost caught off guard. Her eyes narrowed as she spoke.
“That day. Didn’t you come over to talk to me because you found me attractive?” she asked rather bluntly. Maverick’s eyes widened as the conversation turned.
“I – no! I mean – yes you’re attractive, but … I didn’t – uh, I … I wasn’t going to do anything,” he said, averting his eyes as he felt the blood rush to his cheeks. “Talk to you. I was going to talk to you.”
“Yeah? About what?”
“Well … There was your hair, I think. And maybe –“
“They’re real,” she said, cutting him off with slight laughter. He stopped, almost not registering the response. Before he could say ‘what’, she continued. “The colour of my hair and eyes? They’re real.”
“… Really?” he asked, trying to refrain from touching either one. She nodded, noticing the sudden restraint in his body language. “But how is that possible? I’ve never seen anyone with natural hair or eyes like that.”
Saphora shrugged, looking up.
“I’m not like most people.”
“Err, what about you? You wanted to talk. Don’t you have any questions?” he asked, trying to turn the tables. Saphora paused, amused and shrugged. With a sigh, Maverick cleared his throat and nodded, coming up with a compromise. “Alright, how about this? We ask each other questions. I’ll ask, you answer. Then you ask, and I’ll answer. Okay?”
“And what if we run out of questions? What then?”
“Then … The winner gets a prize.”
Saphora paused, this time her body language harsh. And Maverick took notice.
“I’m not sleeping with you,” she said bluntly. And again, the blood rushed to Maverick’s cheeks as he hurried to defend his intentions.
“No! I know! I’m just – I’m just saying. That’s not gonna be my – Do you think I’m trying to get you to sleep with me?” he asked, flipping the situation. Saphora blinked, not expecting to have the question flipped on her. To her own surprise, she felt the blood rush to her face, and she stammered over her own words.
“What? Uh, well – You agreed to talk to me and you said you found me attractive.”
“So I want to sleep with you?”
“Well, I … Sorry. I didn’t mean to assume that … Fran has just been warning me my entire life about men.”
“Fran?”
“Oh, my -- she’s like my mom.”
“Oh. Wait. Does that mean … You’ve never had a boyfriend?”
There was a silence, giving him his answer. He couldn’t help but smile, making Saphora frown.
“What?”
“Nothing, nothing,” he said, clearing his throat and putting up his hand. “Sorry. Should we start? I promise not ask you to sleep with me if I win,” he offered. Saphora nodded, deciding to ignore the previous question.
“Okay.”
“Alright. Since I asked that question, why don’t you ask one?”
Saphora tho
ught.
“How long have you been working at the café?”
“About two years. I’m surprised it’s been that long. People come and go from that place all the time. What made you come in that day? I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen you in my two years of working there. Or my ten plus years of being a customer. And I’m pretty sure I would have remembered you if I did.”
“I don’t get out much … I was looking for somewhere to relax after having a stressful day.”
“Oh … I’m sorry that I didn’t help make that happen.”
“It’s alright, I-“
“No, and while I’m at it I want to apologize for saying what I said to you. It was such a rude question and I was just desperate for you not to leave. I’m sorry.”
Saphora was silent as she listened to the seemingly heart-felt apology. And to her surprise, she believed it. It wasn’t something she was used to, so it took her a moment to respond properly.
“It’s okay … I wasn’t really socially accepting that day.”
“Why is that?”
Saphora paused. It confused her how her wall could fluctuate so frequently during their conversation. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. Should she be defensive? Of course she should. She was sitting in a car in the middle of nowhere with a stranger. And a man at that. Should she be open? She didn’t know what open was. But she knew it involved giving away information. Could she afford to give out information? She had never thought so, what with all her thoughts about what would happen to her if she did. If she were to let anything slip. But the way he was talking, she’d never experienced before. Not from a stranger. People always just stared at her. Talked behind her back once she had walked away, or even insulted her. She had every reason to put her guard up. But with every word this guy spoke, she was finding less reasons to keep it up.
“ … It’s my turn to ask the question,” she said, avoiding an answer. “How long did it take you to save for this car?” She looked around at the smooth interior of the car as Maverick chuckled.
“My dad bought it for me on my eighteenth birthday. It took me about six months to save to get it painted black though. It was blue before. … Do you have a job?”
“No. Fran doesn’t want me to work. Why didn’t you like the blue?”
Maverick shrugged.
“I like black … You seem to mention this Fran a lot, despite the fact that it sounded like you were upset with her.”
“That’s not a question,” she argued.
“Right … Why won’t you talk to me about what’s bothering you?”
Saphora frowned, looking at him again.
“Because I can’t.”
“But you came all the way out here with me. Surely you thought you could talk to me about whatever it was.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking. There’s no way I could tell you anything about what’s going on in my life. I don’t even know you,” Saphora grumbled, running her fingers through her hair and scratching her head in frustration. Maverick was silent, letting her catch her breath after her exertion of emotion.
“So why did you come?” he said, after some time of awkward silence.
Saphora sighed, dropping her hand into her lap as her other hand went to swing open the car door. Maverick sat dumbfounded as he watched her get out of the car. He hurried to get out of his own seat and rushed around the car to meet up with her.
“Whoa! Whoa! What are you doing?”
“Leaving.”
“What?”
“This was a mistake. I’m sorry I wasted your time,” she said, going to push past him.
“What – Wait? Wait a minute!” he said, moving back in front of her until she stopped walking. His hands were up submissively as he pleaded with her. “Why are you leaving?”
“I’m tired of answering questions. I’ve been questioned all day. My honesty. My sanity. I don’t want to answer any more questions,” she said, looking for a way to move around him. But with each attempt she took, Maverick cut her off.
“Okay – Okay, whoa! I’m sorry, okay? I just wanted to know why you chose to talk to me.”
Saphora grumbled, standing still and looking up at him. His body tensed as he wondered if she was going to bum-rush him to get past. But instead she rolled her eyes.
“I wanted to talk to someone who was nice to me,” she finally answered. A bit lost, Maverick just stood, staring at her, making her sigh and go more into depth. “Nice? I wanted to talk to someone who was nice to me. And I couldn’t talk to Fran. You were the only other person I thought of, okay? Are you happy?”
Maverick’s brows furrowed.
“I was nice to you … That’s all?” he said, with somewhat of a laugh as his hand reached up to rub his temple. He shook his head, unable to contain his smile. Saphora frowned, seeing the laugh and scoffed, ready to move past him. “That’s all it was? Me being nice? What horror have you been through in your life to feel the safety to lean on someone from one act of kindness?” he asked, looking up at her. Her eyes widened, but didn’t narrow. She was offended at the question that made her sound naïve. Her hands rose to push at Maverick’s chest, and he stumbled back in surprise.
“Not one that I’m going to share with you,” she said, her voice guarded. Maverick raised his hands in defense in case she went for another blow. “Leave me alone,” she said, moving to walk past him. But again, he moved to block her path.
“Wait! Wait. Look. I know I’m a stranger. I get it. You have every right to be skeptical. You do. But I’m pretty damn proud of the way my parents raised me. I’m not about to disrespect a woman that has done nothing to me. Look. Just talk to me. Please? What have you got to lose?” he said, trying to make talking to him a positive. But Saphora frowned as she answered,
“Everything”.