First You Fall

Chapter 8

Maisie woke up early, before Clarice or Brenda even. She wanted to make sure to get Niall up and out before anyone knew he was there. If Clarice saw him, it would invite questions Maisie didn't want to answer. And Brenda would only get flustered and embarrassed that a guy was in the house.

Maisie pulled her bedroom door open and padded down the hallway past Brenda and Clarice's room to the living room sofa. The sun was fully up, birds chirping outside sending soft melodic sounds through her windows.

She made it into the living room, rounded the couch and stopped dead. The couch was empty. Niall was gone. She jogged over to the closet where she'd pulled out the blankets and pillow she'd given him to find them neatly folded and put away just where they'd been taken from. To say she was shocked would have been an understatement.

She must have stood there staring at the folded blankets for a good five minutes.

Maisie considered herself to be a pretty good judge of character but she had truly missed the mark with Niall. She closed the door and padded back to her room just in time to see her phone fade to black again after it had lit up with a text message.

She picked it up to see a message from Niall.

Got out early so Clare wouldn't see me and ask questions . I'll be there around 7 tonight if that's ok . If not, lemme know .

He didn't mention why he'd stayed last night or how he'd known she was terrified. And she knew he would never bring it up unless she did.

She smiled weakly and tapped reply.

I hope you slept well last night. The slide show is going to put you to sleep.

She saw the three dots pop up and felt her heart pound just a tad.

Can't wait . I'll take a nap . Keep me outta trouble anyway .

Maisie let out a deep sigh. Maybe there was hope for him after all.

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Maisie walked into her office. She was a little shocked by the change in her attitude after Niall had spent the night. She wasn't scared that her father would show up. She was oddly comforted by the fact that Niall was around. He may have been a complete fuck up at the moment. But he was there when she needed him.

She looked up to see Grant walk into the office with her coffee. He took a breath,

"Jared's on line one."

Maisie's brow furrowed,

"Already?"

Grant nodded,

"He's called twice."

Maisie took her coffee from Grant with a deep sigh,

"Can you tell Kyle I need to speak with him when this call is over."

Grant turned to look at her. The expression on his face was hard to read. Was it shock, annoyance, she couldn't put her finger on it,

"What?"

"He's...gone." Grant finished.

"Where did he go?"

Grant cleared his throat, folding his arms over his chest nervously,

"He uh...got a phone call. And he left."

Maisie rolled her eyes,

"Why are you being so evasive? What was the call?"

"Niall."

Maisie almost dropped her coffee, but thankfully only ended up spilling a few drops. She set the cup down on the other side of her desk and then looked up at Grant again,