Chapter 7
Glancing at her phone on the train, Maya realized that Riley had finished work at the bakery about an hour earlier. She switched trains at the next stop and was entering Riley's window 20 minutes later. "Peaches!" Riley gushed "how was the museum, how was your date?" "The museum was breathtaking" Maya responded, plopping down in the window seat, "the date, I'm not sure". Concerned, Riley moved from her bed to sit next to Maya. "What happened?" Riley asked. "Well" Maya replied a little uncertain, "we didn't talk that much, except when he told me the entire history of his life in 30 seconds, but it still seemed good, except when we made it to the train, I really thought he'd kiss me, which I guess he did, but on the cheek. That's not good right, he thought the date went terrible and he's letting me down easy right? But who knows, he also told me I was stunning, and he told me a lot of kinda personal stuff so he must be somewhat ok with me, I just don't know!" Maya ended up slightly wailing and flopped over onto Riley's lap. Riley brushed the hair off her face while she tried to digest everything she just heard. "Stunning seems like a definite positive" Riley answered, "Maya I know you really like this guy, but you don't really know him, it's going to take some time before you are both comfortable with long conversations. As far as the kiss, have you ever considered that maybe he's a gentleman?" Maya sat up and looked Riley in the eye "I really do like him, and I don't know why, because you are right, I don't really know him. I don't do well with gentlemen though, I always friend zone them, like Zay and Farkle" Maya concluded, omitting Lucas on purpose so as not to start Riley thinking about him. "Give him a chance" Riley pleaded, "it might turn out to be something great. Besides, the other guys you dated were scumbags and they all turned out like crap". "You have no idea" Maya muttered, thinking about prom, which Riley never learned the details of "can you do me a favor though? You'll see him before me on Monday, just bug him a little about the weekend, don't be too obvious please". "My pleasure" Riley responded. The girls continued talking about the museum until supper, after which Maya went home and spent Sunday with Katy since Shawn was out of town. She had been doing more of that lately, watching shows or playing games together. Katy had seemed really tired lately and it was worrying Maya.
Monday morning Riley was at Andrew's seat the second he sat down, which unfortunately was only 5 minutes before class began. "Andrew hi, how was your weekend, how was the museum?" she asked cheerily. Andrew smiled warmly before answering "the museum was great Riley, have you been there? How was your weekend?" "Yeah, I've been a couple of times, and I mostly worked this weekend, so no big news", Riley responded, desperate to get the conversation back to him. "I talked to Maya, she seemed to really love it there, don't you think?" Andrew glanced down at his desk and smiled again, "she's amazing Riley, when I saw her looking at the sunflowers, it was like watching someone come alive for the first time. She's kind of out of my league, but I really want to ask her out again, what do you think?" Riley's head rapidly bobbed up and down "yes, yes you should absolutely do that". Hearing Mr. Williams, their physics teacher, clear his throat behind her, Riley began retreating to her desk. "I gotta go, but yes, definitely do that".
Riley rushed to her history class, anxious to tell Maya about her talk with Andrew, but Maya was nowhere to be seen. As the bell rang and Cory began to speak Maya hurried in and slid into her seat, shooting Riley a look of innocence. When the bell rang to end class Riley cornered Maya to take her to lunch. "Where have you been" Riley hissed. "I had to go to the bathroom it happens" Maya answered. "Whatever" Riley gushed, "I talked to Andrew, he had a great time, he wants to go out with you again, in fact I'm surprised he hasn't called you." Maya suddenly stopped, she wondered that too, then came to a realization "he doesn't have my number, he never asked for it".
The next day Maya gathered her courage and parked herself beside Andrew's desk. As soon as he got there and said hello, Maya began rambling "I had a great time on Saturday and I heard you did too, so I was surprised that you didn't call me, until yesterday when I realized you don't have my number, why haven't you asked me for my number? Andrew smiled and then answered "I figured if you wanted to give me your number you would when you were ready". Maya nodded, "well, I'm ready; my number is 917-555-1243". As the bell was ringing she hurried back to her seat just as her cell phone dinged.
Andrew: I did have a great time and would love to go out again, are you free on Saturday?
Maya blushed a little then turned to nod yes before Cory called her name to draw her attention back to class.