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Spread Eagle, who in their right mind would name a bar in the middle of town that? Then again, not a whole lot of people in any part of Hope County could be called in the ‘right mind’ - Maya knows that all too well.
It’s nearing sundown and Maya stands just outside the bar, looking up at the lit up, provocative sign, hands on her hips, slight scowl on her face.
It’s not that hard she thought to herself, crossing her arms and beginning to pace back and forth in front of the bar. She could her some soft rock pouring out of the closed doors, and then a chorus of cheers.
All you have to do, she stopped and took a deep breath, is walk through those doors, order a drink and act like everything is totally fine . Everything wasn’t totally fine though. This was the first time she was back in Hope County, hell, first time back in Montana since the incident almost seven years ago. A lot has changed since then, but coming home was like opening fresh wounds and pouring a sea’s worth of salt on them.
Maya squares her shoulders, lifts her chin and walks through the bar doors, the loud music immediately washing over her like a wave, quickly followed by the stench of booze, cigarettes, and sweat. Being a Friday night, the bar was crowded with all sorts of people and it showed. She had to force her way to the bar, at first trying to slip through the crowd but quickly giving up, instead just ramming her way through. Her hip slams against the bar a bit roughly and she can’t hide the wince, as she reaches to her back pocket for her little notebook and pen.
Maya waves down the bartender with the notebook and is unsurprised to see that its young Mary May Fairgrave, her face red and tired from the rush, blonde strands sticking to her forehead. She’s too busy to really look at Maya, and for that, she’s grateful.
“What can I getcha, sweetie?” She asks and Maya taps the notebook with the back of her pen. Mary May squinted at it for a moment, confusion on her face but no questions asked.
One whiskey, neat, please is scrawled in large letters on the little book. Mary May nods, looks over Maya’s shoulder and shouts;
“Hey Hurk! You break it, you buy it!” Maya turns her head to follow Mary May’s shout, spotting a large, bearded man, red in the face arguing with some greasy looking folk, looking like he was about to flip a table. Mary May turns back to her and gives her a tired, yet award winning smile.
“It’ll just be a second sweetheart.” Just like that, she’s gone again. Not half a minute later, the whiskey is slid in front of her, a quick smile is offered and Maya is left alone. She takes a quick swig of the whiskey and looks around.
There are a lot of familiar faces in the bar, Maya just hopes that hers is not familiar to anyone else. A lot of these people she grew up with, went to school with, played with. But that was a different time, seemed like a lifetime had passed since any of that.
Bobbing her head to the beat of some rock song that was playing, Maya glanced at her watch; she wasn’t early but as far as she could tell, none of the others had arrived yet. A few people had heard that she was back in town, either from the Sheriff himself or from her old neighbor Staci Pratt. Either way, Staci had contacted her, hearing that they were soon to be co-workers and offered to take her out for drinks and meet some of his friends here tonight. She had agreed then, but now was beginning to have second thoughts.
Those thoughts don’t linger long, however. Maya sips at her whiskey, watching the evening crowd from the bar when she sees Staci, beer in hand cheering on a competition between a man and a woman. The man was taller, wearing a grease stained Rye Sons Aviation t-shirt and cap, a flannel tied around his waist. The dark haired woman was dressed a bit nicer, in a red flannel and black t-shirt lacking grease stains. They both were chugging a lager, the woman finishes slightly quicker than the man, slamming down the empty cup on the table and sweeping up three darts before spinning in place three times, the man quickly slamming down his empty cup and following suit. Staci caught sight of her and waved her over.
Gritting her teeth and taking a deep breath, Maya plunged back into the sweaty crowd as the music changed to something more up beat, causing many of the patrons to start dancing and singing drunkenly in place, making the crowd an even bigger obstacle for Maya.
When she emerges next to Staci, he greets her with a shout and a friendly arm thrown over her shoulder, stinking of booze.
“There you are!” He shouts in her ear, entirely too loud for Maya’s liking, She offers him a weak grin and turns her attention to the other two people, who were now trying to throw the darts at a dartboard that had a picture of a well dressed man with long hair and wearing aviators and a headline Join Eden’s Gate Today! pinned to it. The woman stumbled back a little into Maya as she threw the first dart, Maya pushing her forward slightly to prevent her from falling completely. The dart sailed across the empty space and hit the ‘ d’ in ‘Eden’ , and the woman threw a quick grin over her shoulder that stole Maya’s breath.
She was smaller than Maya, but not by much, and her green eyes held a playful glimmer in them, her grin mischievous, dark hair falling in her warm face. She lurches forward, brushes the hair out of her face and throws a second dart at the picture. This time it hits the man’s man bun. The man with the cap has begun throwing his darts as well, the first one missing the picture, instead hitting the outer edges of the dart board. He curses quietly to himself. His second throw takes a little longer, with him taking the time to line his shot up - he mimes the throw a few times before releasing and hitting the center of the pictured man’s forehead.
“Yes!” He throws his arms up and Staci mimics him, cheering, finally removing his arm from Maya’s shoulder. The woman snorts and takes her time with her last shot, glancing at Maya quickly before focusing on the throw. It sails through the air and Maya watches as it hits the picture dead center, hitting the man’s perfectly white smile. Her grin turns into a triumphant smile as she turns to Staci and the other man, hands placed on her hips, and says with a teasing tone;
“Beat that, Nick! Dead center!” The man, Nick, groans, drags a hand over his beard and holds the dart up, glaring at the target. Staci is besides him, drink put aside and rubbing his shoulders, hyping him up.
“You got this man, just, just focus, see the target, be the target.” Nick grits his teeth.
“Staci. Shut up.” And with that he lets his dart fly. It soars through the air, Nick frozen in place, his arm still extended, as he watched the dart with baited breath. Maya puts a little space between her and Staci, uncomfortable with his overt friendliness, as he was distracted with the dart. The side step inevitably moves her closer to the woman, who is also focused on the dart’s trajectory, chewing on her lower lip, faces focused and flushed from the alcohol.
The dart lands between the pictured man’s disproving eyes as the woman laughs, and Nick groans, burying his face in his hands as Staci consoley rubs his back.
“Kim is gonna kill me.” Staci nods, an exaggerated grimace on his face, an expression that Maya was familiar with and knew bespoke of trouble.
“Yup. It was nice knowing you buddy.” He downs the rest of his drink as the woman draws closer to the two men, hands placed on her hips and a gloating, triumphant smile on her face.
“You know the rules, Rye, pay up!” Nick groans again, and lifts his face from his hands, looking pleadingly at her and Staci can no longer hide his wicked grin.
“Is there any way I can convince you to change your mind?”
“Nope!” The woman popped the ‘p’ in nope, almost too gleefully. “Rules are rules and that means you cover the tab tonight. Should’ve thought about that before challenging my integrity.” Her grin grows wider at the man and he reluctantly draws out his wallet.
“I wasn’t challenging your integrity,” Maya hears him grumble as he makes his way past her, towards the bar, calling over his shoulder, “The usual?” Both Staci and the woman cheer in response, and Nick continues his grumbling walk of shame.
With Nick gone to fetch the pair refills, there is nothing distracting the duo’s attention from Maya. Silence briefly falls amongst them, and Maya awkwardly fiddles with her glass, taking a sip, feeling the woman’s eyes appraising her. She is the first to break the silence, turning to face Staci so sharply that her braid whips through the air.
“Staci!” It’s a loud exclamation. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were inviting such a gorgeous woman to Drink Night?” Maya chokes on her drink, coughing as her she felt her face turn bright red, embarrassment flooding through her. Staci stumbles slightly, belaying just how intoxicated he was. He wavers, and tries to casually brace his arm against the table, missing at first before stabilizing himself.
“Ssshhee ish quite pretttty, right?” His words are slurred, as if the alcohol hit him all at once and quite suddenly. “Thish ish my neigh-bar, Maya. Ma-ya. May-aaaa.” He repeats, continuously distorting her name, distracted momentarily by the feat to pronounce her name. The woman spares him a glance, before taking two steps toward Maya, coming a little too close into her personal space. She stuck out her right hand, and Maya switched her drink to her left to shake the woman’s hand.
“I’m Joey,” she offers Maya a genuine smile, causing the dimples to appear again, as her thumb strokes the back of her hand. Maya blushes harder and smiles back at her, heart pounding in her chest. Reluctantly, she releases Joey’s hand and places her drink on the table to draw out her note book, flipping to the first page where an introduction is already written.
Hello, my name is Maya V. I can’t speak so I write or sign. It’s nice to meet you!
“Hello Maya, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” Her voice is husky, and she leans in, making it difficult for Maya to think straight. Joey is close but not so close that she can’t bring her hands up between them. With stiff hands, she loosely signs;
It is nice to meet you.
“I learned a little a while back but it’s not the greatest or most elegant.” Joey looks bashful as she tells Maya, this blushing slightly. Maya grins at her and signs
No worries! You already know more than most I meet! Joeys face scrunches a little, and Maya can see a haze of alcohol in her eyes, most likely making it even more difficult for her to understand what she was saying.
“I got ‘no worries’ ‘know’, and ‘meet’.” She rubs the back of her head in embarrassment. “That’s about the extent of my sign language, that and I know how to say ‘I captured your awkward dinosaur’.” She signed as she did so, indeed proving that she could say such an odd phrase. Maya laughs and grabs her pen, scribbling in her notebook.
“MAYA!” Staci suddenly yells, causing both women to jump in surprise. He totters over to them and Nick returns, shouldering his way through the crowd, balancing three drinks in his hands precariously.
“MAYA!” Using Nick as a support, and ignoring the attention he is garnering from other bar patrons, Staci draws closer to the two women.
“Thish ish Nick RYE who chan FLY.” He throws his arm over the other man’s shoulders a little too enthusiastically, causing the drinks to slosh slightly. “NICK!” he yells into Nick’s ear, causing the pilot to wince. “Nick thish ish MA-ya, my NEIGH-booorrrr. She doeshn’t shpeak.” Maya flushes, but this time not because of Joey’s close proximity. Nick carefully places the drinks down and offers a hand to Maya.
“Pleasure, Maya.” His grin is a kind, if a slightly nervous one, and his hands warm and calloused. “Nick Rye, owner and pilot of Rye & Son’s Aviation.” He points to his shirt as he says this.
Maya smiles at him, shakes his hand and shows him the same note she showed Joey. He reads it quickly, and grins at her.
“Can’t say I know sign, but I can read!” Well, he’s got the right spirit, “Can I buy ya a drink?” He offers. Maya shakes her head and gestures to her own drink before writing in her notebook.
I have my first day of work tomorrow, so this is the only drink tonight.
“Understandable!” He leans in closer, and says in a lower voice “Truth be told, I didn’t wanna try wading through that crowd again.” He grimaces, and leans back before giving Joey her drink and turning to Staci.
“Okay buddy, no more for you, you’re smacked,” He hands a glass anyways, whispering to the women “It’s just water. He’s gonna have a wicked hangover tomorrow, but might as well let him sober up a bit with us.” Staci grabs the drink and starts gulping at it eagerly. “Slowly Staci!”
Joey pulls a seat out at the table and gestures for Maya to sit, and one she does so, Joey sits next to her, close enough that their shoulders brush and Maya can see flecks of gold in her green eyes. She pushes a stubborn piece of hair out of her face with a huff and asks;
“So you new around here?” Nick pulls a seat out for Staci, carefully helping him into it before joining their conversation.
“Nah, I feel like I’ve seen you before.” He rubs his beard thoughtfully.
I grew up here but left for school. Back now cause of a new job. She scribbles for the other two to see.
“Explains the familiar face. Grew up with Staci?” She nods.
“Cool, cool, cool.” Nick seems at a loss for words, unsure how to continue. Joey lets them sit in silence for a heartbeat before turning to her with a mischievous grin.
“So you have plenty of stories about baby Staci?” She takes a sip of her drink, feigning an innocent grin.
“Oh now you have to tell us,” Nick leans forward with an invested grin, as Staci groans besides him.
“Nooooo Mayaaaaa-aa,” That’s all it takes for her to do exactly that; a little piece of revenge. The three of them spend the next hour trading embarrassing stories of mainly Staci, and getting to know each other a little. By the time an hour has passed, Staci is all but unconscious on the table, Nick is swaying in his seat and Joey is leaning against Maya, laughing, a hand on Maya’s arm, tracing patterns into it. She breaks away, to Maya’s disappointment, perking up in her seat when she hears the music change.
“This is an amazing song!” Maya has no doubt that Joey is a bit intoxicated and takes the last sip of her drink, humming in response. It does nothing to prepare her for Joey suddenly pushing her chair back, standing and grabbing Maya to drag her out to where other patrons had been dancing. Maya has no ability to protest, and any thought of doing so quickly dies, when Joey turns to face her with excitement written all over her face. She grabs her hands and twirls her quickly before releasing and beginning to move her hips to the beat. Maya quickly forgets how to think, and it’s not long before she too is moving to the beat, dancing with Joey. At some point, Joey draws even closer to Maya, their chests almost touching and panted breaths mixing together.
Joey stares at her with an eager grin, grabs her hands and places them around her waist as they continue to move to the beat. Her hair was plastered to her face due to the humid air and sweat, and Maya can’t help but brush it back with a gentleness she should not have for a woman she just met, stroking her soft cheek for a second before returning her hand to Joey’s hip, face burning as Joey’s grin grows wider, into a full blown smile that steals Maya’s breath. The music stops, then changes, and they stop moving, still close and Maya’s eyes flicker down to Joey’s lips, then back up, lightning fast. She takes a step away from Joey, who looks almost disappointed before Maya grabs her hand and leads her off of the dance floor, back to where Nick and Staci are leaning on each other for support.
Both men look up at their return, cheering, both obviously drunk out of their minds. Their hands still joined, Maya reaches for her notebook. She drops Joey’s hand to write,
It’s getting late and these two need help getting home.
Joey reads and laughs, nodding her head in agreement.
“Lets get them outside.” Each woman grabs one of the boys arms and began the arduous task of guiding the drunkards through the crowd and out the door, but after much struggling, they were successful, bursting out the doors into the cool night air. They take a few steps away from the bar, till the music spilling out isn’t as loud and sit the men down on the curb, the two leaning on each other to remain upright.
Maya pulls out her phone as does Joey.
“I’ll call a ride for myself and Nick if you handle Staci?” Maya nods and types on her phone, Joey already calling a taxi, finishing up quickly.
I drove and didn’t really drink and Staci live next door to me turning her phone around for Joey to see. Joey reads what she wrote then hold her palm out. Confused for half a second. Maya hesitates before handing her phone to Joey. She works quickly, typing on her phone, before handing it back with a wink as a cab pulled up to them. Cabs in Hope County sure were efficient. The car comes to a stop in front of them, as Maya looked at her phone in surprise; it was opened on the Contacts page, a new contact in her phone as Joey H. She looks up in surprise at Joey, who is heaving Nick off the ground and shoving him into the backseat. She stops before entering the cab, tossing a wink over her shoulder at Maya.
“Text me sometime, I had a great time with you tonight” and she climbs into the cab, leaving behind a stunned and blushing Maya. The cab quickly fades from her sight, leaving Maya lost in her thoughts. She’s quickly knocked back down to earth, however.
“Mayaaa, I don’t feel sho well,” Staci uttered before throwing up suddenly, the puke splattering onto her sneakers. She gags and quickly jumps back, narrowly avoiding a second wave of vomit as poor Staci emptied his stomach on the pavement. Making her way cautiously around the puddle of puke, Maya crouched next to him patting his back and holding his hair back. Once his stomach is empty, he leans against Maya, breathing heavily, the smell of booze and vomit still strong on his breath. They sit like that for a moment, enjoying the cool air and the night sky, something Maya had missed while living in the city.
“Ya know,” Staci seems a bit more sober now. “I’m glad you’re back. Could use a friendly face with all that’s going on right now. I missed ya Maya.” Maya rubs his back with one hand, before signing Missed you too . He sighs and flops back against the ground, groaning. Maya stands, signing to him I’m going to grab the car, wait here. Staci nods, and Maya is off, headed to the car. She gets him in no problem and drives, the short ride home, filled with a comfortable silence. She helps him clean up and get into bed with no more puking instances, before heading home herself.
It’s not long before she finds herself in bed, staring at the new contact in her phone, trying to work up some courage. Finally, she texts Joey;
I had a great time tonight, hope we can see each other again soon!
-Maya V.
I was wondering if you’d text me. Looking forward to seeing you again. But sleep now lol
The response is almost instantaneous and brings a warm smile to Maya’s cheeks as she plugs her phone in and drifts off to sleep, content.
Maya wakes the next morning to a dreary sight of a pounding rain outside. She dresses quickly for work, the new uniform stiff and fitting against her oddly, nervousness building in her stomach like a rock despite knowing she’ll be fine. All she is able to stomach, however, is a cup of coffee. She prepares two thermos before making a mad dash for her car, climbing in the old pickup truck and driving quickly to Staci’s place. Once outside with no sight of Staci or any response to the texts she sent, Maya slams her hand on the horn. The noise is loud and cuts through the pounding rain efficiently, so she keeps her hand on the horn until Staci stumbles out of the front door, one arm in a rain jacket, evidently struggling. He dashes for the side door, quickly climbing in.
“Jesus Maya, was that really necessary?” He grumbles, looking worse for wear, pale, hair stingy, and dark circles under his eyes. She grins at him and nods, handing him the second thermos of coffee. He grunts his thanks and the ride to the Sheriff’s station is done in silence as he nurses his hangover.
There are other personal cars in the lot, evidently they are not the first to arrive. Once inside, both of them shaking water off their jackets and stomping their feet, the feeling of nervousness in Maya’s stomach grows. Staci can tell and tries to offer her a reassuring grin.
“You’ll be fine, stop worrying so much.” He clasped her shoulder before going into the office area. His words had the opposite effect, however, Maya growing increasingly more worried. She took a second to gather her thoughts and took a deep breath, before following in Staci’s path.
Any signs of talking was quickly over as the people in the office stopped to look at the newcomer. Staci was talking quietly to someone she couldn’t see, and the other few officers were looking at her like they were sizing her up, which, granted, they probably were. An older lady was sitting at a desk filled with papers, a harried look about her as she pressed a phone between her ear and shoulder, taking notes on whatever was being told her. She offered the woman a weak smile and got a flash of teeth in response. Maya hurries by her desk, towards Staci.
She stands next to him and her jaw drops in shock, cheeks already turning red. Staci turns to her, smiling.
“Maya you remember Joey from last night, right?” Yeah she remembers her, hard to forget the feeling of the other woman dancing with her, pressed against her, and the impression the beautiful woman had left one her. She looks stunning in the ugly green-beige uniform, somehow, the clothes pulling just in the right places to show off her muscular frame and sleeves rolled up to show her built forearms and tattoo of an eagle and flag that was previously hidden. Joey seemed equally surprised, a blush also on her face, eyes wide as Maya closed her mouth and nodded.
Oh, she thought to herself, Joey H. as in Deputy Joey Hudson, the person who is to be my new partner . She offered her new partner a weak smile and Joey’s face grew more red.
This would be difficult but, Joey reaches a hand forward with a bashful grin, maybe it won’t be bad.
“I’m Joey and I am pleased to, ah, properly make your acquaintance.” Maya shook her hand for the second time, holding it perhaps a bit longer than necessary and running her hand across the back of the smooth hand, causing the other woman to turn bright red.
Nah, it won’t be bad at all. The two many shared another secret, if embarrassed smile, and Maya felt her heart warm and something catch fire in her chest.