Chance

“You and this girl seem to be getting serious,” Aaron joked as Zak came into the house after taking Maisie home.

“That was only our second date,” Zak pointed out.

“Still man, when's the last time you brought a girl to your house and only watched movies?”

Zak just shrugged. “She's a lot different...She's...I don't know. Even Gracie liked her right away. She let Maisie give her a belly rub when she met her for the first time. Gracie likes most people...but not usually when I bring girls back...”

“Did the...y'know...spirit mess with her?” Billy asked.

“That's probably the weirdest part. There was nothing last night, absolutely no activity.”

“None?” Aaron asked, baffled.

“None,” Zak repeated. “I don't know what it is about her but...she's...she's different. Y'know what we did on our first date? We ate ribs and last night, we raced go-karts. And I'll be honest, she whopped my ass.”

“Did she really?”

“Yeah!”

Friday

On Wednesday, Zak and Maisie had met at the park and had a great time with Conner and Gracie. Tonight, however, they had decided that they would hang out at his house. Currently, they were in his kitchen and Zak was making waffles for dinner. She loved the idea of breakfast for dinner.

“Sweetie,” he sighed, turning around. He knew that he would have to tell her eventually, but he knew that the sooner he got it out of the way, the better it would be.

“What?” she asked, sitting on the counter top.

“Tomorrow night, I have to leave.”

“Leave?” she asked, cocking her eyebrow. He turned around and rested his hands on either side of her legs on the counter.

“We've gotta go back out and film. I'll be back by Wednesday but...” he trailed off, surprised that she didn't look the slightest bit angry or even annoyed.

“Okay.”

“Okay? You're not mad at me or―?”

“Why would I be mad? I'll miss you sure but you can still text me and stuff, right?”

“Mm hmm,” he replied, smiling at her.

“What?”

“It's just...”

“Lemme guess, other girls get pissed when you tell them you're disappearing for a couple days?”

“You have no idea.”

“Don't worry, I understand. Besides, it's not like you're technically my boyfriend.”

“Does that bother you?” he wanted to know the honest truth. He wanted to know if she did want to put a label on what they were.

“Are you seeing any other girls right now?” she knew that she shouldn't answer a question with a question, she hated when people did that even though she did it a lot too.

“No.”

“Then it doesn't bother me, Zak,” she told him honestly. “Labels are nice and all but if you're going to screw around with other people anyway, then it doesn't mean shit.”

He wanted nothing more than to kiss her. She was awesome. “You're not seeing other guys, right?” he asked as an afterthought. She smiled a little and shook her head.

“And I don't plan on it.”

“Me neither.” Maybe she didn't have to have a label, but that didn't mean that he didn't want one. Zak knew that he, deep down, did want a label. “Do you want to be my girlfriend? Officially?”

“That'd be amazing,” she replied, kissing him. “Now are those waffles about done?” she smiled playfully.

“Oh shit, yeah, probably.” Maisie giggled and hopped off the counter. “You can go get the TV ready, do you remember how to work it?”

“Aye, aye, captain,” she grinned and skipped off into the living room. She turned on the TV and began flipping through the channels. “What are we watching?” she called to him in the kitchen.

“I don't know, you can pick, it doesn't matter to me. Do you want strawberries or blue berries?”

“Strawberries,” she replied, beginning to look through the channels. She still hadn't found anything when he made it in with their waffles, so she handed the remote over to him and he took over. He stopped on the history channel and it was something about the history on Ireland. Maisie had to admit that this was right up her alley she did love history and learning things about different places. She realized that Zak did too, especially since the beginning part of each Ghost Adventures was a history lesson.

“Is this okay or do you want me to change it?” he asked, looking at her carefully. There were about three ways that she could react to this. She could say that it's not okay and that she hates history—which he could accept; that she is fine with it and really mean it—making him incredibly happy; or the worst of them all, in Zak's opinion, she could say that she is fine with it but secretly hate it the whole time, he hoped that he could tell the last two apart.

“This is perfect,” she smiled, taking a bite of her waffle. “And oh my God, this is amazing.” She grinned at him. “You probably don't need any more ego boosts but, y'know I'm not gonna lie to you.”

“And what's that supposed to mean?” he pretended to be appalled.

“You know exactly what that means, Mr. “I pick a girl up in a Bentley on the first date and then causally mention how I have my own TV show”.”

“What was I supposed to do? Pick you up in a shopping cart? That can be arranged,” he winked.

“Uh no. But going back to your ego, don't think I missed how you figured that I would just take my nephew out with me to lunch with some strange man.”

“You think I'm strange?” he continued to speak with mock hurt.

“In the very best way,” she ate more of her waffle.

***

They stuck to shows on the history channel for a while and some time after they ate their dinner, they fell into a cuddling position with Gracie resting her head on Zak's lap while Maisie petted the dog gently on the head. It was getting very late and as much as Maisie didn't want to, she knew that the time for her to leave was coming, she stopped petting Gracie and looked up at Zak, gaining his attention rather quickly.

“I should be getting home,” she frowned. “It's getting late and I've gotta find my way home...”

“You don't have to go...” Zak looked into her eyes, causing her to blush. “I didn't mean it like that...I mean...fuck...It's late and people around here drive like idiots...Plus, you don't know the area and...”

“I got what you were saying but I don't know if I should, if that makes sense.”

“If you want to leave, that's fine too, you can stay if you want, but I don't want you to stay because I'm pressuring you to, Sweetie,” he gave her a nervous smile.

“Let me call Marco and make sure that he doesn't need me to babysit tomorrow morning, okay?”

“Okay but isn't he probably in bed right now?”

“He keeps his phone on...He'll probably be pissed but nowhere near as pissed as he will be if he needs to leave at six and I'm not there to watch Conner.” Maisie walked outside with her phone and called her brother. After a few rings, his voice came through the end with a groggy tone.

“Hello...” He sounded like he was already ready to yell at the person on the other end.

“Hey, uh do you need me in the morning?” Maisie tried to ask quickly.

“If I say no are you going to stay the night at his house?”

“Just answer the question...”

“No I don't need you.”

“Thanks Marco I—”

“Not so fast! Please don't do anything that you'll regret...”

“I won't,” she agreed.