MAISIE'S CHOICE

“We are really doing this?” Maisie asks shaking her head in disbelief. Her eyes move to the driver seat with a big smile on her face.

“We are.” Tripp nods with a mirrored smile on his lips. He gives her a quick glance and then focuses back on the road.

“Oh God,” She puts her palms on her face. “We are doing this.” She mutters to herself, as it registers. 

She drops her hands immediately, “Whooo,” She yells, drumming on the glove compartment with her hands. She feels she needs to keep talking so as not to be left silent with her thoughts.

For someone who is always referred to as thoughtless by her parents, Maisie does think. She thinks it’s probably not a good idea to elope at the age of nineteen with your boyfriend who just proposed two hours ago. She thinks that pursuing a career in Photography might leave her broke in the future and she thinks thinking makes people sad.

Her thoughts aren’t a happy place. It’s like being in a narrow dark room with no ventilation and no way out. So why go there? When she can be here, right now, right here, in this car with the person she loves most in the world.

“Whoop!” Tripp yells along with her. The two steal a quick glance at each other and then burst into laughter.

They are so high right now, there are no drugs in their system just this overwhelming and intoxicating feeling of love, happiness and hope for their future together. They feel more alive than they have ever felt.

“Talk to me. Say something, anything.” She claps.

“Ok, hmmm.” Tripp starts. “We are driving to LA where I will meet the talent manager that contacted me last week. Remember, I told you about him?”

Maisie nods, “Yeah.”

“I called Jim. He said we can crash with his brother while we are in LA. Plus the guys and I are playing at a bar tomorrow night so, LA is our destination.”

“Cool, cool.” She nods.

Tripp turns to look at her then he stretches his hand for her to take. Once their hand's touch, he focuses on the road and continues driving with one hand. 

He thinks she looks so beautiful tonight. Her wavy midnight black hair falls perfectly on her shoulders, her pale skin, chestnut brown eyes that’s twinkling right now, her dainty nose and chubby cheeks, she is perfect. 

“We are going to be okay.” He promises. “I love you future Mrs Baxter.”

Her cheeks her hurting from smiling but she can’t help it. “I love you.” She mutters, squeezing his hand a little.

Maisie and Tripp met almost a year ago at a mutual friend’s party. He saw her while he was performing, she was in a corner with her headphones on not listening to his song. After his performance, he walked up to her and said he was offended and as punishment, he gave her a private concert.

After he played his song, she told him it was satisfactory, so they talked till 3 am about why his song is satisfactory and how to make it sound better.

Since then they have been inseparable which annoyed Maisie’s parents. Maisie had just finished high school and she decided to take a gap year to prepare for college and think about the courses she wants to take. In actuality, she knew the courses she wanted to take. She wants to study  Photography but her parents won’t be in support, so she took the gap year to brace herself to stand up to her parents.

Mr and Mrs Gibson sees Tripp as a bum and a distraction to Maisie. They hated that instead of being productive with her gap year, she spent all her time with her twenty-one years old, upcoming musician boyfriend who lived in his friend’s basement. Whenever they had the chance, they voiced out their displeasure which was every day for a year.

Earlier this week, Maisie had a pregnancy scare. Tripp proposed and asked her to run away with him before they saw the pregnancy strip results. When they found out that she wasn’t pregnant, they decided to elope anyway. So here they are today, driving towards their future.

4 YEARS LATER.       

“Fuck.” Maisie cusses out as she looks down at the sidewalk which is now stained with her coffee that spilt. “Fuck, fuck…” Her voice gets louder at each cuss word. “Fuckkkkkkk.” She yells throwing the empty cup of coffee to the ground.

She gets some weird looks from passers-by but she doesn’t care. She’s frustrated. She has been for a few years now. Her recent frustration is Mindy, her co-worker in Richardson’s textiles where she works as a receptionist. Mindy just got engaged. Why is that frustrating to Maisie? Well, Maisie has been engaged for four years and she is yet to be married. Maisie knows Mindy is going to announce her engagement to their fellow co-workers and show off her ring to them at lunch today.  Hence the reason she went to a restaurant to eat lunch so as not to eat in the company’s break room.

She doesn’t want “that look”. The look she gets from people when someone gets married or engaged around her, it’s a mixture of pity and mockery. At least, she is grateful they have stopped asking stupid questions. Questions like: “When is the wedding?”, “Are you guys still getting married?”, “Are you guys not getting married because of your lack of money?” and “Why don’t you guys just go back to dating?”

Maisie doesn’t know if she is engaged anymore, she doesn’t even a ring on her finger. She and Tripp don’t have enough saved to buy one. They don’t have any savings in fact.

Adding to her frustrations, she spent an extra 15 dollars that she didn’t budget for lunch and the coffee she bought just spilt while she was walking under the searing sun on her way back to work.

So yes, she’s angry, so angry that she is currently crying in public over a spilt coffee. She walks up to the nearest wall she can find and leans on it. She puts her palm on her face and continues crying.

Suddenly, she feels someone tap her shoulders. She turns and then separates her fingers to see. Blurry eyed, she cannot make a clear image of the person standing in front of her. Maisie blinks out her tears and cleans them with her hands.

There she is, the person that tapped her. Steel-blue eyes that look inhumanly beautiful as she stands under the sun, her windblown long blonde hair make her eyes look bluer, and a wide smile from her full red lips. Her smile so warm that makes Maisie’s shoulders less tense. It’s like a weight has been lifted.

It’s crazy how a smile from a stranger can do that.

“Hey.” She says in a dulcet tone. So focused on her face and its intimidating beauty, Maisie didn’t realise she is holding out a cup of coffee for her to take. “I haven’t started drinking out of it, so have it.” Now she is focused on her British accent.

She looks down at her hand then back at her face, her cheeks pinked in embarrassment. Speechless, she stretches her hands and takes it.

“It’s- it’s not just about the coffee,” Maisie says truthfully, rubbing her right eye.

“I know, but one problem at a time right?”

Maisie nods looking down at the coffee with a small smile creeping in on her lips. She looks up to say thank you, then realises She is gone.

“Thank you.” She mutters to herself as she continues her journey back to work.

~~~

“Good afternoon.”

“Good afternoon, welcome to Richa-” Maisie words comes to an abrupt halt when she raises her head fully from her desk. Her jaw slightly drops when she sees the coffee woman from earlier.

“Hey.” She mutters with a half-smile on her lips. This “hey” is different from her soft “hey” from earlier, this sounds mischievous.

“Y-you are not stalking me, are you?” Maisie asks with a nervous chuckle.

“Either that or I have a job interview here, but whatever makes you feel good love.”

Before Maisie can speak, she is interrupted by a loud voice.

“Hey!” Mr Willams, the CEO of Richardson’s textiles walks up to them and stretches his hand for a handshake “Miss Bell, glad you made it.”

“Yeah,” Scarlett says as she takes his hand and gives it a firm shake.

Why is Mr Williams downstairs welcoming a job interviewee? He is not even the one that does job interviews.

“Let’s go.” Mr Williams ushers her to the elevator.

Maisie watches the 5’9  woman in a black bandage dress and red heels walk into the elevator. All Maisie can think of is how perfect Scarlett is and how much confidence she exudes.

~~~

“I got the job.”

Maisie looks up from her table and there she is again with a wide dimpled smile. Her smile is so infectious that Maisie doesn’t realise that she is smiling as well.

“Congratulations, I guess,” Masie says.

“Thanks. I am Scarlett by the way.”

“Maisie,” She says with a small wave.

She flips her hair to the back as she takes her bag which she kept on the counter when she began this conversation “I guess I will see you around, Maisie.”

“See you around.” She says as she walks away.

She bits her lips to prevent her from smiling any further. She clears her throat before she resumes responding to the company’s emails.

~~~

Maisie opens the door to her apartment and is welcomed by darkness. She groans in frustration already guessing what has happened, still, she blindly locates the switch. She presses it down and up a couple of times even though it’s not working.

“Hey, you are back.” Tripp comes out of the bedroom flashing the torchlight in her eyes.

Maisie leans back a little, putting her right hand near her face to cover her eyes from the light. He focuses the light elsewhere.

“Yeah, did you forget to pay our electricity bill?” Maisie asks adjusting her bag on her shoulders.

“Yeah, kind of,” Tripp replies with an apologetic smile playing on his lips.

She used to find that smile cute, heck, she fell for that smile but recently, she is angered by it.

Maisie breathes out in annoyance. “Kind of? Did you not get your paycheck today? You said you were getting it today.”

If Tripp can have his way, Maisie would never have to worry about money, ever. She wouldn’t have to do that cute rubbing of her forehead and the back of her neck when she’s calculating their expenses and creating a budget. She wouldn’t have to pretend she doesn’t like that dress on the mannequin when they walk past a clothing store. But life sucks; it fucks your dreams up and leaves you with a shit pile of failures.

And today’s failure was Tripp’s inability to pay his electricity bills because his manager at the bar where he works didn’t give him his paycheck as punishment for fighting with a drunk customer today.

“Relax, I will do it first thing tomorrow,” Tripp assures her, ignoring her question.

“There are things in the freezer that could go bad,” Maisie complains.

“You have nothing to worry about.” He says. “Come here, babe.” He commands authoritatively with a boyish grin playing on his lips.

Maisie rolls her eyes but still drops her bag and walk up to him as he commands. She stops right in front of him, biting down her lips.

Their height difference is one of the cute things about them. He’s 6’2 and she’s 5’5. She loves that she has to stretch a little bit to kiss him and he loves her hugs. She makes his day better with her warm hugs, no matter how bad the day has been.

He drags her closer, putting his arms around her. “Go freshen up, I’ll handle dinner tonight.” He says looking down at her full lips.

Maisie puts her arms over his shoulders, stretching herself up so their lips meet. Simple, passionate and short, they both stop and stare at each other for a while before they let go.

“Take,” He hands her the flashlight.

“What are you going to use?” She asks taking it.

“There’s another one around here.” He says putting a quick peck on her forehead before walking past her.

~~~

Maisie walks out bedroom in her pyjama shorts and large shirt to a room lighted up with candles, blankets and throw pillows on the ground with a box of pizza in the middle. Then there’s Tripp bare-chested showing off his chiselled abs. He looks so sexy in the candlelight. Messy blonde hair, lazy brown eyes, angler cheekbones and chiselled jawline and the way he looks in that loose grey sweatpants, all these making her brain shut down.

“Trying to seduce me, Mr Baxter?” Maisie teases as he walks up to him.

“Is it working?” He asks stretching his hand forth.

Maisie nods, “Yeah.” She takes his hands.

He guides her to the ground where she sits in front of him. He drags her close and hugs her from behind. She lets out a light chuckle.

“How was your day?” She asks as she rests on his chest.

“Better now.” He whispers in her ear, fanning her earlobe.

She bits down on her lips as a curling sensation hits her lower stomach.

“Yours?”

“I think I made a friend today. She is new to the company. I don’t think she will want to be my friend anyways, she is so classy and out of this world beautiful-” Maisie blabbers on.

Tripp looks down at her with a smile playing on his lips. He hasn’t seen her nervous in a very long time. “Anyone will be lucky to be your friend.”