For Reasons Unknown

“Well that was lovely. Thank You Brian – for sucking so much at pool.” Maya said trying hard not to laugh as Brian’s expression fell at the conclusion of her comment.

“Sorry, couldn’t help it.” Maya smirked.

“Don’t worry, revenge will be sweet.” Brian replied with a seductive, devilish smile.

“Whatever,” Maya began. “One more round of drinks?” the guys both nodded their reply and Maya got up to get another three glasses of coke.
She returned to the table where Jimmy was sat alone, and they both drank some of their drink.

“We’re going to go after these.” Jimmy explained and Maya nodded.

“No problem, I’ve gotta head home anyway, and thank you again for you support.”

“Anyone would have done the-“

“I think it’s time to leave guys.” Brian said apprehensively as he returned to the table and quickly drank most of his drink in one go.

“Brian? What’s wrong?” Maya asked worried.

“I’ll explain when we’re outside. I think it’s just better if we leave now.” He said walking off towards the door. Unsure of what else to say or do, Jimmy and Maya looked at each other and went to follow him. Maya turned to pick up her phone and wallet and out of the corner of her eye she noticed a figure emerge from the rest rooms. She looked up to see William Begg, her attacker, sporting a busted lip and a swollen eye. She quickly turned and caught up with Jimmy and Brian at the crossing. She glanced down at Brian’s hand and noticed that they were red and sore.

“Brian, what did you do?” Maya asked as the walk sign flashed and they began to cross.

“What did you do?” she repeated once they were on the other side of the street.

“I hit him” he said simply, his head lowered to his chest.

“What? Who?” Jimmy asked oblivious.

“I can’t believe you” Maya announced turning to walk away, but she was stopped by Brian taking hold of her left wrist.

“Maya wait. You didn’t hear what he said.” He pleaded gently pulling her to face him.

“So tell me.” Maya demanded.

“He just started talking to me, he’d had a bit to drink so I don’t think he realised who he was talking to.” Brian began to explain.

“Anyway, he started talking about the case so I decided to listen. He said that the only regret he had was not getting to finish the job, that the bitch deserved it and that he’d love to have another go. And that’s all I could handle. I wasn’t going to let him talk about you like that, so I hit him until he was on the floor.” Brian concluded.

With tears in her eyes, Maya collapsed her head onto his chest and hugged him, feeling his arms fall around her waist. She pulled away from him slightly to look at him and leant in towards him to give him a small ‘thank-you’ kiss on the lips.
Their lips were parted for no more than a second as Brian pressed his lips back on hers. Maya was sure she heard Jimmy mumble “finally” but was too taken aback to be sure or care.

“Sorry, but I wanted to do that since the night I met you.” Brian whispered after they’d parted and were smiling at each other.

“What took you so long?” Maya whispered.

“Wasn’t sure if you liked me; being on tour; your case.” Brian explained his arms still around her waist.

“Well, better late than never.” Maya replied with a shy smile, as he leant down and placed another soft, lingering kiss against her lips. They were interrupted by Jimmy purposefully clearing his throat loudly.

“We’ve got to go, but I’ll call you later?” Brian said still smiling.

Maya nodded and Brian finally removed his arms from her waist. He placed another kiss on her cheek before they both realised that she had to follow them over to the car anyway to get her bike stuff.

Maya had a large smile on her face every mile of the way home. She decided to go and pick Abi up from work seeing that she was in such a good mood. She walked into the pub carrying her helmet. She couldn’t see Abi, but she spotted Kat behind the bar serving one of the older customers. The smile on her face grew, she hadn’t thought about how much she could piss her off. She walked up to the end of the bar to where Mike was sat, working on the following weeks rota.

“Hey Mike.” She said happily, sitting down on a vacant barstool next to him.

“Hey smiler.” He replied looking up, the infectious smile appearing on his face.

“Hey Mike.” She repeated, unable to remove the smile.

“So, Abi said that he got a suspended sentence” he replied.

“Yeah, but at least he was found guilty.” She replied, her smile faltering slightly.

“Guess so, so what’s with the sickening smile?” Mike asked as both Kat and Abi joined them at the end of the bar. Maya felt herself blush and her smile widen again as she looked up between the three of them.

“Brian kissed me.” she replied and there was an immediate sound of glass breaking mixed with a yelp of joy from Abi. Kat stood, glaring at Maya, not taking any notice of the glass she’d just dropped.

“He kissed you?” Mike asked in disbelief and Maya nodded still smiling.

“Tell us everything.” Abi demanded as Kat decided to clear up the broken glass.

“Well, it was just as we were leaving. I gave him a hug to say thank you and we kissed.”

“Lucky bitch!” Kat hissed clearing the last of the glass.

“I know, I can’t believe it, it was amazing. And he said he’d call me later.”

“I told you he liked you.” Abi pointed out now smiling as broadly as Maya. With a face like thunder, Kat stomped off to serve a customer.

“I think she’s a little bit pissed at you.” Mike whispered.

“Like I care; I’ve kissed Synyster Gates.” Maya said proudly and both Abi and Mike laughed loudly, causing Kat to shoot them all a dearth glare which only caused them to laugh more and harder.

Maya sat talking to Mike as she waited for Abi to finish her shift.

“I want you to start doing these anyway.” He said tapping his pen on the rota he was working on.

“Why?” Maya asked confused.

“I think you’ll make a good manager. I’ve already talked to Rob in head office, and he wants me to start training you up.” Mike said watching Maya’s jaw drop further to the floor with each word.

“Really?” was all Maya could manage.

“Yeah I think you’re ready for this.” He answered as Maya jumped at the sound of her cell phone ringing. She glanced at the screen before she flipped it open. It was Brian.

“Hello.” Maya answered.

“Hey it’s me.”

“Hey me”

“What? You’re so strange.”

“I know. So what’s up?” Maya heard a little chocked back laugh on the other end of the line and rolled her eyes.

“Sorry. Um, I just got home and thought I’d give you a call, wondered if you would go on a date with me some time.” Maya felt the colour rise in her cheeks and that stupid, uncontrollable smile return to her lips.

“Cool, when were you thinking?”

“Well, um, I’m pretty much free anytime now I’m off tour, so whenever’s good for you.”

“Cool, well, I’ve got next week’s rota in front of Me.” she began leaning over and pulling the rota from Mike’s pile of papers.

“How about Sunday? I finish at 5 and I’ve got Monday off so I don’t have to worry about getting an early night.”

“Ok, so Sunday it is. I’ll take you out for something to eat. I’ll pick you up at about 7?”

“That sounds good to me. I can’t wait.”

“Me neither. Anyway, I won’t keep you; I’ll ring you tomorrow or something. Bye babe.”

“Bye” Maya repeated as they both hung up.

“Ok, I need to shop before Sunday!” she said loudly, a bit panicked.

“You have tomorrow and Saturday morning off.” Abi stated.

“Ok, cool, I can have my hair done as well then.” She said sounding a lot calmer.

“Ooh, you can finally get that purple panelling you wanted to get.” Abi stated from half way down the bar as she poured a glass of beer for a customer.

“Good idea. Sorry, what were you saying Mike?” she replied suddenly remembering that she was in the middle of a conversation with Mike before Brian phoned.

“Well, I want to start training you up as a manager.” Mike said.

“Ok, so when will this training start and how much more will I get paid?” she said her eyes widening.

“We can start Tuesday morning if you want? It’ll mean doing a few more hours to start with and of course you’re pay will go up, but then you, me and Bridget will share managers shifts and you’ll be put onto a salary pay rather than an hourly rate.” Mike explained

“So we’ll have three managers?” Kat commented.

“Yeah, for the time being at least, but according to Rob in head office, they’re planning on opening a few more bars up and down the coast so one of us may be given the opportunity to move.”

“Oh, that would be cool.” Maya stated.

“I don’t want you to move” Abi said sulkily.

“Oh, honey, you’d come with me, or I’d stay here with you.” Maya said and a smile returned to Abi’s face.

“Anyway, are you ready to go?” she said looking up at the clock and then back at Abi.

“Yeah, go on, get out of here” Mike said sarcastically.