Maya and Nate

Maya sat across from the man she thought she would never see again. A man that she had fallen so madly in love for.

Five years had passed and her heart still fluttered at the mere sight of him.

"Maya I—" he began to speak as she raised her hand to tell him to stop.

They sat in a private room in Primus Hotel's restaurant. Maya didn't want to make a scene.

She knew at the person before her was the only one capable of rattling her ice cold heart and shattering the mask she wore on her face.

To everyone else Maya Miller was a strong independent woman that could take on any challenge the world had to throw at her, but deep down she was still human.

She looked at Nate closely, studying how the years had affected him, or rather, in Nate Rue's case, how it had left him looking the same despite all the years that had passed.

He was still as handsome as the day he left her.

Five years might have passed, but Nate Rue still had the same bright eyes, the same nearly trimmed blond hair.

"Why?" Maya managed to ask as she kept her voice from cracking.

"Why what, Maya?" Nate asked her as he tilted his head to the side and cocked an eyebrow.

"You know well enough what I'm trying to ask," she said, unable to complete her sentence, her voice slightly trembling as she was faced with the man who had abandoned her.

"Maya, I didn't have a choice." Nate said as he desperately tried to get her to listen to him.

"Didn't have a choice?! Didn't have a choice?!" Maya's voice broke as she held back the tears that were fighting to burst free.

She was not going to give this man the satisfaction of seeing how much his actions had affected her.

"Let me explain, Maya, please," Nate begged, looking vulnerable as his eyes pleased with the woman before him.

Maya closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

That look, it was a very dangerous look.

It was the same expression that had drawn her in. The same genuine and honest seeming look that got her to fall for him in the first place.

"Maya," Nate sighed as he got up and dragged his chair and placed it next to her.

She looked away from Nate as he reached out to touch her hand.

She felt the as sparks erupted from his touch.

'This man left you, he abandoned you," Maya reminded herself as she jerked her hand away.

"You have no right to even mention my name," she coldly hissed as she glared at him.

As he sat closer to her Maya could see the small imperfections on his face. Lines and wrinkles that time had placed that showed that Nate had not stayed as young looking as she had thought.

But age looked good on Nate.

"Please give me a chance to explain," he pleaded again as he reached out and touched her hand. "Maya, I know you aren't unreasonable."

He was right, she wasn't unreasonable.

The main reason why she had even invited him to a more private setting was so that she could hear the answers for herself.

She might hate him now, hate him for what he had done to her, but she needed to know the truth.

Something always didn't make sense to her with how the events had unfolded.

One moment they were talking about marriage and their future right before bed and the next moment as she woke up he was gone.

He had left most of his things in their small apartment, even his walled complete with his IDs were left on the nightstand.

"Fine," she said in defeat as her shoulders sagged. "You get one chance to explain."

Nate smiled like a child on Christmas morning as he looked at Maya and continued to hold her hand.

"Thank you," he said as Maya pretended to remain unaffected.

"Well?" she demanded, eager to hear why he had left her.

"Maya, when I came to Arlington City I was running from some dangerous people—"

"So you're a criminal?" Maya gasped, taken by surprised by the news.

"No, no," Nathaniel chuckled as he shook his head.

"Then why were people chasing you?" She asked.

Nathaniel's lips parted as he was about to say something, but closed it, as if he had changed his mind.

"Nate," Maya groaned, annoyed at how he just suddenly stopped.

"Sorry—I just—" Nate said as he stumbled on his words, making Maya sigh. "I just don't want you to misunderstand. I don't want what I have to say to make things worse."

Maya smiled and nodded.

It seemed the Nate Rue she had known had indeed grown up.

"I made some mistakes before coming to Arlington City and those mistakes came to haunt me, that's all you need to know for now." Nate said, unwilling to give more details.

'What the hell!' Maya cursed in her mind.

"Is that all you have to say?" Maya asked as she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'll tell you more eventually, but please trust me for now. I had to leave because I didn't have a choice, I had to protect you." Nate pleaded.

"Nate, we always have a choice," Maya said as she stood up and pushed her chair back.

Nate quickly mirrored her actions as he tried to follow her.

She signaled for him not to follow, she didn't want him to follow.

He promised her an explanation and all she got were half-assed truths.

"You might be telling me the truth, leaving might have had been your only option, but did you really have to leave without saying goodbye?" As she said this she turned away, she didn't want Nate to see how much pain she was still in.

Five years might have passed, but to Maya, the wounds on hear heart were still as fresh as it was the night he left.