written by Lena
...
"'Cause baby it's cold outside"
Maya sat on the couch anticipating the knock at the door that was supposed to come any minute now. She wore a long sweater dress and had snowflake pins in her hair, courtesy of her mother who was also dressed up and waiting. They both had broad smiles and the excitement in the little apartment was palpable. Tonight would be the night Joshua Matthews would be formally introduced as Maya's boyfriend. Shawn was out picking up some bread that was forgotten for the dinner Katy was preparing for all of them to get to know one another.
A knock sounded and Katy and Maya both jumped up. Maya rushed to the door, but catching herself, she patted her skirt and hair before opening up. Maya frowned when she saw Shawn on the other side. She trudged back to the seat next to her mother.
"Well, I've never been so insulted," Shawn said with a humph, carrying the paperbag he was carrying to the kitchen.
"I thought you were just getting bread," Katy asked, standing up to see what Shawn could have possibly bought during his five minute shopping spree.
"Yeah, but then I saw this game, I thought we could play it when Josh gets here," Shawn replied, pulling the bread out of the bag.
"What game is that?" Katy asked, trying to peek in the bag but Shawn was quicker, closing up the bag and holding it high above Katy's head. Well, not too high because they're both pretty short people, but Shawn is stronger and therefore was able to fend off Katy's advances to grab it.
"You guys will see when we play it," He responded with a smirk. Maya, who had been distracted by her nerves piped in.
"We are not playing a game with Josh, he's coming by to meet you guys, we're gonna eat, and then go to a movie." Maya deadpanned.
"Oh all right," Katy responded, rolling her eyes.
"We'll see…" Shawn added. At that, there was a knock at the door. Maya sprinted for the door a second time, collected herself, and opened it. Josh stood with a bunch of flowers in one hand and his other arm rubbing the back of his neck, just as nervous as Maya who was hyper aware of her clammy hands on the steel door knob.
"Hey Josh," she said with a squeak.
"Hey Maya." Josh smiled and Maya grabbed his arm, pulling him through the doorway.
"Hello Mr. Mrs. Har- I mean Hunter," Josh corrected. Maya found his nervousness attractive but hoped the whole night wasn't going to go like this.
"Hi Josh," Katy started, "I've heard a lot about you," Katy said. She finished washing her hands and dried them before walking over to shake Josh's hand.
Shawn in step behind Katy, added "Glad to finally meet you." A timer went off in the kitchen and Katy slightly jumped, "Must be the chicken!" She announced before heading to the kitchen. She brought it to the kitchen table which had been set earlier and it was time to eat. Maya whispered a silent Thank You to the chicken, glad it was done in time so the couple could avoid awkward small talk while they waited.
Maya and Josh sat across from each other with Katy and Shawn at the head of each end. Over the course of the dinner, the four grew more comfortable with each other, Shawn and Katy probing Josh with questions about college and his future. Josh didn't seem to mind though. When the dinner ended Josh took his plate to the sink and Katy was impressed.
"Oh, it's nice to know someone has manners around here," Katy said pointedly. Not to Maya though.
"Hey, I take my plate," Shawn defended. He grabbed his plate and brought it to the sink. "See."
"Oh, my mistake," Katy replied, rolling her eyes. Shawn never took his plate and it didn't bother Laty, but she did like to poke him about it from time to time.
"Well, we're gonna go," Maya said, ready to race out the door when the sound wooshed through the apartment, the lights shutting off with it. "Hey!" Maya flicked on the switch by the door to no avail. The power was out.
"Okay, I'll go see what's going on, Shawn announced, grabbing a flashlight from the draw in the kitchen. He walked out, meanwhile Katy grabbed her phone which had several weather reminders.
Snow Storm Alert. Blizzard headed towards New York City. Snowstorm projected to last from Sunday, December 22 8 pm to Monday, December 23 8 am. Power Outages across the city. Stay inside.
Katy sighed, she held the phone out to Maya and turned to look out the window. Sure enough, the snow swirled across the window, thick enough that Katy could not see past it.
Shawn came back in and said, "Power to the building was out but the apartment has a backup generator. It will be using it to keep the heat to the apartments running, everything else would be out until further notice." Maya sighed heavily before plopping herself on the couch. Josh sat beside her.
"Now what?" Josh asked.
"Well, let's get some candles first." Katy went to the kitchen and got some candles, they had a variety from large scented to small ones they used to put inside pumpkins. Setting them out, the apartment was a little brighter.
"Why don't we play the game I got," Shawn suggested, headed to the kitchen to retrieve the bag.
"What game?" Josh chimed. Shawn pulled the box out of the bag, and Katy frowned.
"Monopoly?" She began. "Shawn, you know how I feel about that game," Katy said to Shawn, giving him a look.
"We haven't played this in forever, come on!" Shawn replied. Katy glanced at Maya, who was mildly interested in the game.
"Fine, but I can't be responsible for how I act. You know how competitive I am," Katy warned.
"Hey, you don't have to tell me," Shawn replied, thinking back to the memory when Katy and Shawn had joined the Matthews Family Game Night and craziness ensued. A craziness by the name of Katy whose fake monopoly money went to her head.
They opened the box and Shawn dealt out the money, declaring himself the banker. Maya chose the dog, Katy the ship, Shawn the car, and Josh the top hat.
The game started slowly with Maya opting to buy every single property she landed on. Josh on the other hand, saved his money for better squares and refused to buy anything right off. Shawn's first turn was a double that landed him on community chest. After collecting money from each player, he rolled again and landed on Chance. Collecting another $25 from each player. Katy huffed and rolled. Sadly getting doubles as well, landed herself on the Income Tax square. She shelled over the money, rolled again, and landed in the visiting part of the jail. Already off to a great start she reluctantly handed the dice to Maya. The game continued in a similar fashion and about 45 minutes later, the players were deep in concentration. Maya had several random properties and was neither winning nor losing. Katy sadly owned two properties, and to her dismay, was nearly bankrupt. She landed in jail no less than three times already and it seemed as if everytime she went around the board she had to give up the two hundred she had to property tax, despite having almost zero property. Josh was doing a bit better than Maya, he had a handful of properties and a full color family of magenta, including St. Charles Place. He was gearing up to buy some houses and still had quite a bit of cash left. Shawn on the other hand was far far ahead cash wise. His streak of luck never stopped. He landed on the free parking spot two times gaining all the cash in the middle as well as owned nearly the whole corner by the Go to Jail space. He just needed Atlantic and Pacific Avenue to start placing homes on the yellow and green family. Sadly, Maya owned those two and being the negotiated she is, wished to bankrupt Shawn. Until he was willing to give her a couple thousand, which he most certainly had, he would have to wait.
"Come on Maya, I can give you another one of my squares instead," He offered.
Maya tapped her chin, then leaned over the board and said "Nope." The game continued and everytime it seemed someone was about to run out of money (Maya or Katy that is) they gained a bit more money to keep the game going.
"Gahhh!" Katy screamed after rolling doubles a third time. She thought her luck was turning around, sadly she was mistaken.
"Go to jail!" Maya shouted in response. Katy begrudgingly moved her piece.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Josh asked.
"Going to jail, I rolled doubles three times," Katy replied.
"What? You don't go to jail for that," Josh replied, confused.
"Um, I'm pretty sure you do," Maya chimed. "We always play it this way."
"Well that's wro-" He stopped himself. Maya was giving him a look.
"Wait, really?" Katy was intrigued, mainly because she didn't want to be stuck in jail again.
"Mom!?" Maya turned to her mother. "You know we always play that way!" Maya was getting upset. Partly because she was dangerously close to going bankrupt and if Katy went first, then Maya wouldn't be the loser. The other part of her had expected Josh to defend her.
"What? I know…Josh, we do play it that way," she said. Josh, instead of giving up, continued to push.
"Shawn, what do you think?" The group turned to him. Shawn had remained silent, he agreed with Josh but didn't feel like telling his wife and daughter they were wrong.
"Well…uh…" Shawn stalled and the lights above them flickered and turned on. "Aye, the lights are back on!"
The group was distracted and Shawn announced, "Looks like I won, anyways are guys going to go and catch that movie? I'm sure they've got another showing," Shawn said hurriedly. Katy huffed.
"Isn't it still snowing though?" Maya asked.
"Oh, well…" Shawn began gathering the money and put the pieces away.
"Hey!" The three said in unison, catching on to what Shawn did.
"Too late, guess we'll just have to play a different game," Shawn shrugged and Katy punched him lightly on the arm. Shawn held up his hands, "Hey, I guess I deserve that. Maya rolled her eyes.
"I think I'll pick the next game." She said and smiled at the scene.
...
Our apologies for the late update!