He might've royally screwed up or did something good. At the moment sitting in the kitchen with Maya, listening to the slur of Spanish words coming from the living room where Isadora was cleaning, Lucas wasn't sure. Neither of them said anything once they got upstairs and he was more than happy to rip the damn flannel off his face. Just as he expected, the very brief part that Maya had let him see of her face showed all the evidence that she had been crying.
If he was honest, he wasn't sure what came over him in the basement. Hearing Maya not be the Maya she showed him was odd, almost as odd as him trying to hug her.
Was it a pity hug? He didn't think so. Sure, once he walked in the house and found that Maya wasn't in her room or in the living room, he had to ask Isadora who flooded him with details about everything that happened before he got there.
"I wouldn't normally do this unless I was really worried about Ms. Hart, which I am." She explained quickly looking at their surroundings even though it was only the three of them in the house.
"Alright, what happened?" He asked suddenly worried that she might've done something after seeing the tabloid.
"Well," Isadora leaned in closer and spoke a little lower, "I heard shouting coming from her bedroom and then Mr. Hart stormed out of the house. Not even a minute later, Ms. Hart came down too and I was worried because she went downstairs to the basement and she said that I'm not allowed to go down there so I couldn't check to see if she was okay an—" Lucas held up his hand to stop her rambling.
"I'll go check if she's alright, is that better?"
Isadora didn't mind the interruption though, she simply smiled and nodded her head. He realized after Isadora went into her bedroom that he couldn't really go downstairs otherwise Maya would kill him. A thought came to him briefly and he thought it was probably because of how ridiculous it sounded. The flannel he was wearing over his plan t-shirt would make due but he needed someone to guide him if he was going to go down the stairs.
He went to knock on Isadora's door but he stopped short when he heard her scream at someone presumably over the phone who, "was being a cowardly, selfish, rich piece of shit." to whom she was speaking to, he wasn't sure and hearing her speak in an angry tone like that made him too scared to ask.
It was decided then that he had to just make his way downstairs without Isadora's help and hope he didn't fall down the stairs and look like an ass.
It wasn't crazy that he wanted to comfort her, who would just stand by and watch someone cry? Especially if they were partially the reason that the person was upset. And then he went on to treat what she told him yesterday like it was a fragment of her imagination, not to mention what she said in the basement made him feel like complete shit as well.
He knew what he said to her that day was crossing the line, he just didn't realize that it would still stick with her after three days. Maybe, he didn't know everything about her like he once thought. The same intrigue he felt yesterday after seeing her fight with Riley baffled him, sure she wasn't exactly the quiet pacifist but to see her so angry at one person was unusual and completely not what he was expecting.
That could also be what interested him about her, he's had a knack for reading people since he was younger, that's how he knew that Zay was going to end up being his best friend because he could tell from the short moments they talked in kindergarten that he was just a good person who wanted a friend. He had quite a mouth on him that had a tendency to get him into trouble but beyond that was a heart of gold.
When the two of them moved to New York, Lucas was cautious with who they spoke to, knowing that some people would take advantage of how new they were to the city. But...Missy didn't, his brain reluctantly admitted. Missy was a nice girl who wanted to make sure that two cowboys weren't conned in their first trip to someplace that wasn't Austin.
Meeting Chief had left him uneasy because he tried to stay positive and think that he was hard on them for the good of the precinct but Lucas began to realize eventually that maybe his boss was just mean and had no reason behind it other than just to be. His words from the morning didn't leave his ears,
"You are not to mess up this relationship I have with the Hart family, are we clear? If I hear one complaint out of Kermit Hart's mouth, you'll be begging me to fire you."
But not hurting his relationship with the Hart family would mean he had to go along with what Mr. Hart was talking about...which meant that he also had to go along with the rumors. It didn't sit well with him, not just having to lie about a non existent relationship but also because of what Maya had said to him in the basement before the hug ordeal.
Willingly going along with something that hurt her enough that she accepted a hug from him of all people had to really mess her up which brought him back to his original thought about how much he really knew about Maya Hart.
She would be predictable one minute, calling him names and doing things to try and get under his skin like talk about Missy then she would go completely unpredictable like in the basement happens that leaves him confused and questioning things like, why of all people would she cry in front of him? Why when he pulled away from her to go back upstairs did something tell him that she hadn't wanted him to leave?
The last part must've been him imagining things since he couldn't see anything. He could see her tears that ended up soaking through his shirt, he couldn't see how much pain she was in, all he could do was feel how fragile she felt in his arms and the feeling that came over him before he pulled her to him.
The sound of Maya putting her bowl of soup in the sink sprang him awake from his thoughts. He noticed that she had taken out her ponytail that she had when they got upstairs and now there was a curtain of light blonde hair blocking her face from his view. Lucas pondered for a moment if that's why she let her hair down in the first place before clearing his throat to get her attention.
She didn't spare him a glance. She merely continued to scrub her bowl, filling it with bubbly water and moving the sponge in small circular motions.
"Maya." He called her but he got the same reaction. There wasn't even a slight possibilty that she couldn't hear him since he was three feet away from her leaning on the counter. Was she ignoring him?
Maya rinsed the bowl under the running tap and put it to dry on the empty rack, she moved onto her cup when Lucas thought to tap her on the shoulder. She jumped back at his touch and dropped the cup she'd been washing, breaking it in the process. Shards of glass were scattered across the tiled floor and his eyes went to Maya who was already bent down trying to collect the glass from the floor.
"What happened?" Isadora was in the doorway one second then at Maya's side the next, "Ms. Hart, leave it. I'll get the broom and clean it up. You're barefoot, you could step on glass." She argued taking the bits of glass from Maya's hand and she let her take it without a word. She hasn't said a single thing since they'd gotten upstairs, Lucas realized as he watched her get up and walk into the living room.
The realization made him catch up to her and grab her hand so she would stop and he asked in a gentle voice, "Maya, are you okay?" She turned and her baby blue eyes went from his face to their hands and then she nodded, her eyes finding his again and letting her hand slip from his before going to sit on the far end of the couch.
It shouldn't have bothered him that she wasn't talking. People were allowed to be quiet without it being weird, even people like Maya Hart who always had something to say.
The two sat in silence, every so often having Isadora come in and ask them if they wanted anything to which Maya would shake her head while doing something on her phone and Lucas would speak up and say, "No, thank you though, Isadora." and they'd be left in the quiet once again. Lucas thought of piping up to maybe fill the air with small talk but he just felt like it'd make everything worse, so he decided against it.
When her father, sister and step mother stepped through the door, he surely thought that he'd hear something.
He was wrong. Hearing the door open didn't even faze her and seeing her father didn't either. Judging from what Isadora told him earlier that day about Maya and her father, he was expecting a little more especially because she had gone ballistic on that girl yesterday.
Lucas got up to greet them after looking Maya's way to gouge her reactions or lack thereof. It looked like the three of them didn't even notice Maya was on the couch when they said their hellos. Mrs. Hart kissed his cheek before going to the kitchen to make a phone call, Sophia squeaked a hello before blushing and following her mother then he was left with Mr. Hart who pat his back and smiled, "Lucas, we have a lot to talk about."
"Oh? What about?"
"Don't worry yourself, Lucas. You're not in trouble, but it seems like I am and I think you could help me. Let's sit." He gestured towards the couch and Lucas furrowed his eyebrows wondering why Mr. Hart hadn't said a word to his own daughter but wanted to sit where she was sitting. Lucas turned to the couch and saw no one. The two of them sat down while Lucas looked around as if Maya was hiding from him.
Her being quiet for so long was becoming more of a punishment to him. It made him start second guessing what he did in the basement which he thought was completely fine because who refused a hug when they were crying? It might've been his soft side but he couldn't take watching or better yet hearing someone crying in front of him when he could do something. Who—
"So, can you do it?" Mr. Hart said and his eyes looked desperate. He mentally face palmed, remembering that he was supposed to be having a conversation with Mr. Hart not thinking about his daughter.
"Sorry?"
He took a deep breath, "Can you pretend and I emphasize the word pretend because there will be no real romantic relationship between you two, I promise, to date Maya. It'll be for her own good, I assure you. I didn't answer any questions regarding the situation today because I wanted to make sure you were on board but I'll have to speak out tomorrow. So, what do you say?"
An answer appeared so suddenly in his head that he almost voiced it and it was, "No." No to being part of something that had made Maya break down in front of him. No to being part of a lie that played out into some twisted story that's being kept secret in this family. That's the answer that he would've gone home being proud of.
Instead, the most selfish response took it's place. It was the one that was scared of him losing his job, the one solid thing he had in the city over a girl he's known for four days. The logic behind the answer filled his brain and didn't even let him process what he'd just done, all he felt was his mouth open and heard his own voice saying, "Yes."
Mr. Hart's face light up.
"Thank you so much for this, son. Did you want to stay for dinner?"
Lucas shook his head, the weight of the day weighed down on him suddenly and it felt like nothing could relieve the burden but his bed and his cat, "I'm alright, sir. I gotta get home anyway."
"Of course," Mr. Hart said and began to walk him to the door, "Have a good night, son." Lucas was out the door and into the night air shortly after, the reality of what he said hitting him.
He agreed to be Maya's boyfriend like none of today happened. Like he didn't comfort her when she was sobbing into his shirt, like she hadn't stayed silent the whole day much to his dismay, like his heart didn't go out to her in the shitty situation where her father had to dictate what she did with her life. What he said hadn't taken her into consideration at all and he arrived at his home feeling completely guilty about what he said.
He assured her that everything would be alright but now he had a helping hand in what was hurting her.