A Mean Tongue and Codeine

Chapter 9

Andrew woke up, breath catching in his throat as he shot up, hands immediately moving to his left, searching for any bit of warmth. Of course not, he reminded himself, he'd shot himself in the foot yet again when it came to him and Maia, if you could even call it that. He wondered if bringing her to Missouri was a mistake. If she wasn't here, he'd be able to call her, text her, ask her about anything. Now, after last night, he feared she wouldn't even address him again.

It wasn't that he didn't want to, God knows he had. He'd been waiting for that moment since the first time he saw her. The eye rolling, tone, and overall gives-no-fucks attitude attracting him to her long before he'd stumbled into that fridge at the New Year's party. But after having to wake her up twice on the ride back, and hold her up walking down the hallway...

He couldn't. He let himself give in enough to kiss her, to finally, truly feel him against her, but when she put her hands under his shirt...He couldn't live with himself if she woke up hating him.

Although, that was still on the table, he supposed.

He slipped on his t-shirt, running his hands through the hair he knew looked like shit, and went down to the area of the lobby his management had requested off so they could enjoy a breakfast and day off before hitting the road again.

There Maia sat, hands sliding through that auburn hair, laugh lighting up the room, still in his t-shirt. His heart flipped when he saw the empty chair next to her.

"Hi," he murmured, taking the seat next to her and pouring himself a cup of coffee from the kettle at the table. She didn't look at him, didn't even acknowledge his presence as she continued her conversation with Kristen. "Sleep well?"

She sat up straighter then, eyes almost darting towards him. She coughed once, forced, before starting again with his back-up singer.

"If you really want to feel judged, try to be relatable with a 13 year old. I promise you they're the worst critics you'll ever meet."

Andrew joined in with the laughter, despite not knowing why everybody else thought her comments were so funny. He watched Maia pick at the abysmal-looking scrambled eggs on her plate.

"Makes you miss my cooking, doesn't it?" He asked, loud enough for Kristen to notice and shift her attention away from Maia and down the table.

She halted, dropping the fork on the plate. "Can't remember," She muttered, taking a drink of her coffee. "Rory!" She laughed, smile lighting up everything in Andrew's eyes as she guffawed at his drummers' joke. "That was supposed to be in confidence!!!" She almost choked, cup hitting the table with a thud.

"I don't get it," he faked a chuckle, scooting his chair closer to Maia.

"Yeah, you probably wouldn't," she continued laughing. "He actually wanted to hang around me last night so."

Andrew couldn't stop the piercing look he shot Rory. The recipient immediately shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "We just took a few shots at the club last night, that's all!"

"And wasn't that fun?" Maia clearly forced her laugh out, flipping her hair around.

"Maia, can we-"

"What's the plan for the day?" She threw his hand off her thigh. "I've got one more day with you guys before I go back home!"

"You could stay," He moved his hand back to hers, "Can we please talk?"