Aaaand another chapter - thanks for the reviews and follows! This is probably around where the waits will kick in. I've only got about 1 chapters worth left and then it's panic time, but I am determined to finish this story, so we shall see!

- Chapter Six -

It's not that deep

Maya ends up helping out a lot over the next few weeks. The workload begins to lighten, but I feel this is in part because everyone starts chipping in. Even Nahyuta offers his sage-like advice on storage and organisation. His visits don't tend to last long though.

We develop an easier friendship that I'd imagined we might. She's infuriatingly easy to talk to, distractingly funny and is often quite candid when talking about her time working for Mr. Wright.

"You should have seen Nick's face when he got back and I told him the toilet was broken. He flat out refused to take me out for food for nearly two months. I had to get Pearly to fake a crying fit to persuade him the break the ban on the bank of Nick…" she trails off, looking a little troubled, "come to mention it, we did stuff like that all the time. I must owe him so much money…"

I'm cleaning out a particularly filthy corner with a wet, soapy cloth. We've agreed to start on the essentials meaning we've stripped the room back, moved all of the furniture and are scrubbing the walls and ceiling. Business is temporarily on hold, although I've taken to reading old law books in the evening before bed.

"Mr. Wright talks about you quite a bit. I don't think he cares about the money. You've helped him out of a lot of scrapes by the sounds of things."

It's probably my imagination, but I swear I see a faint blush cross her cheeks as I say that, but it's dark, so it's difficult to tell. It's likely my jealousy, but she talks about Mr. Wright a lot actually.

"I guess," she concedes, continuing the scrub the wall.

I decide to push a little harder, "remind me how the two of you met again?" I ask, hoping she doesn't remember that we discussed this at the palace meal.

Maya's jaw clenches slightly and she looks down, her hand pausing on the spot she was cleaning. "Nick defended me. I was on trial for something I didn't do and he took a chance on me. When Mia died…"

I glance down at my bracelet, nothing odd there. She seems to be telling the truth.

"Nick always believes in people. That's why he's such an amazing lawyer."

I shrug, "I think you were special to him from the get-go. He talks about you lot too." I think back to what she said the other day, my instincts badgering me to press this, "I bet he's pretty special to you." My tone casual. Too casual.

"Of course he is," she says, her voice seemingly candid. My bracelet vibrates and my heart drops. I don't know why I started this line of questioning. I clearly can't handle the truth when it's staring me in the face.

I pretend to suddenly notice the time, "oh no, I said I'd meet Datz for lunch. You don't mind if I dash, do you?"

She looks a little bemused, "no, not at all."

"Wanna grab food?" I call across to him. Datz is covered in soot and who knows what else when I find him. He seems to be doing odd jobs around the palace and is on a moving skateboard type device wheeling himself out from a hole in the wall where he seems to working on some pipes.

"Do I ever," he says, wiping a lof of the dust from his eyes and leaving comical marks around his eyes where the skin is cleaner. "I'd better not go for long though. If Rayfa caught me slacking off…"

"How much is she paying you?" I ask him, "I didn't know you could plumb."

"I can't. I mean, not really, anyway. I did a bit when I was younger and mentioned it once hence," he gestures to his overalls which are also coated in dust, "all this."

I roll my eyes. He tells me a little more about his plumbing catastrophe while we head towards the street food stall.

"Enough about that though, I wanna know what's with the impromptu lunch?"

I sigh and run a hand through my hair. Datz can be a clown, but he's no idiot. "I guess work is just hard right now."

"Oh, hard, is it? That got anything to do with your assistant?" he asks, one eyebrow raised.

I choose not to credit his double entendre with a response, but nod as that statement is generally correct.

"I don't understand her. She agrees to go out with me, cancels our date for no clear reason and then asks if she can work with me? Like, what is that even supposed to mean?"

When Datz is silent I look over at him, squinting a little at this out of character behaviour.

"Well? What do you think?"

He pulls a face, "you probably don't want to know…"

"I do! What is it? What do you think is going on?" I say, hurriedly, my own urgency alarming me as it hits me how obsessed I'm becoming.

"Look, it might not be that deep, y'know? The girl has no clear history of liking you, you agreed to a date and then she changed her mind. Now she just wants to be friends." He pauses, considering, "it's not actually that weird."

My stomach drops as his words sink in. He's not wrong and it suddenly seems apparent how much I've been overthinking everything.

"Oh God, you're right. And here I've been waiting for something to happen this whole time - some hint that she likes me, but she's not even thinking along those lines!"

Datz looks sympathetic, the slowly developing lines on his face scrunching a little, "give yourself a break, Apollo. You've been through so much lately and now you're getting stressed out over this on top of everything else? Chill out, have some fun. Stop over analysing everything."

My shoulders slump, "you're probably right. I think I need to get more sleep."

His smile is warm as he playfully digs my arm, "you're not wrong there," he glances at the clock in the centre of the square, "I'd better get back to work. Come to mention it, you should too."

"You said I needed to chill out!"

"Yeah, with the whole Maya thing. The legal system isn't going to overhaul itself! Later!" And with that he strolls off.