Fly With Me | ✓

26

"You're gorgeous."

Everleigh tried not to smile as she ran her hand through her hair. Newly cut and back to her natural brown. She kind of missed the blonde—the fact Maverick liked it was reassuring. "Are you wearing zit cream to make me feel better about meeting your mother? Or do you actually need it?"

"The correct response is, Kingston, you're gorgeous as well." Sure he was, Everleigh wasn't denying that. But that didn't make it false that across his chin was several dots of white zit cream that popped out from his brown skin.

"You've got a shit English accent."

Maverick laughed. "You're impossible."

Everleigh smiled. Even in the tiny screen on her laptop, Maverick could make her smile. If the closest they could get was a blurry video call, she'd take it. She reached past her laptop screen, finding a tube of her zit cream. Unscrewing the cap, Everleigh looked in the mirror above her desk, pressing a couple dots of cream on her cheek where there were spots beginning to form. She screwed the cap back on and tossed the tube of cream back on her desk. "You're gorgeous as well, Kingston."

"I'm absolutely wearing zit cream because I need it," Maverick said, laughing in a way that wasn't at her. "This new album is stressing me out."

Everleigh sat a little more upright. (Her from six months ago would be so embarrassed—Juno was right.) "New album?"

Maverick put a hand on his chest. "Everleigh Meadowlark? Interested in my new album? I'm honoured."

Everleigh rolled her eyes. "Forget I asked."

"I can't tell you anything," Maverick said.

"Can't or don't want to?"

"I..." Maverick narrowed his eyes. "I want to see your reaction."

"Keeping secrets is not the way to start a relationship," Everleigh teased.

"Begging for new music when I just released an EP for you—"

"For Her."

Maverick snorted. "You can say me. You're the only one who can."

"How do I know it's about me?" Everleigh asked. "You never said my name."

"I said ever leave, that's the closest I could get," Maverick said. "I did try."

"I—" Everleigh thought about this. She'd never realized it, but he was absolutely right. He definitely had alluded to her name. "Huh."

"And suddenly she's at a loss for words." Maverick grinned. "Imagine that."

Everleigh held her middle finger up at him.

Maverick laughed and reached past his laptop. When he looked back at her, he grinned. Holding a notebook in front of his chest, Maverick opened to a random page. "If you can decipher that, that's your one hint from me."

Everleigh took a screenshot without question. "Fine."

Maverick closed his notebook and laughed. "I can't believe you actually did it."

"Don't make losing bets." Everleigh shrugged.

"Not a losing bet when I know my handwriting is shit."

"Why the new notebook?"

"Realized I had a new muse." Maverick waved his notebook around. "She's already half full."