A Spring Affair by Té Russ

a bit of decorum I know you were raised with and not cause a scene."
    Darby slung her large handbag over her shoulders, spun on her heels and headed out the door. Before she disappeared down the hall, she turned, glared at Xavier and said, "This isn't over."
    "For all of our sakes, I really hope it is."
    After Darby finally left, Xavier sank back down into his chair and laid his head on his desk. He heard footsteps approach and knew without looking up that it was his sister.
    "Xay?"
    "Not now, Lena," his said, his voice muffled from his head still being down on the desk.
    After he heard the door quietly close, he let out another sigh, as the workings of an out of this world migraine began to form behind his eyes. He pulled one of the drawers open and rummaged around looking for some pain medicine to alleviate his headache.
    He looked up when he heard his computer alert him to a message.
    [Maya T.: You there???]
    Maya!
    With all of the Darby drama, he'd completely forgotten that Maya had instant messaged him...he looked at the clock...he couldn't believe that only ten minutes had passed. Darby seemed to suck so much life out of a person that time seemed to just drag on.
    He sat up and began to finally respond.
    [Sorry. Meant to respond as soon as I got your first message, but something came up.]
    [Maya T.: Everything okay?]
    [Not really, I just went from having a pretty good day to the day from hell.]
    [Maya T.: Oh no! What happened?]
    Xavier smiled at her concern. That was another difference between Maya and Darby. Darby didn't seem to have time to listen to anyone else's problems. Xavier stopped his train of thought. He refused to compare Maya to Darby. There was no contest anyway, so it was a waste of time.
    [What happened was the ex from hell stopped by.]
    [Maya T.: Darby?!]
    [The one and only.]
    There was silence for awhile, before she finally responded.
    [Maya T.: I'm sorry she ruined your day. Do you want to talk about it?]
    [Maybe later. Right now, I think I just need to get out of here for awhile.]
    [Maya T.: Okay. Well, call me if you need anything.]
    [I definitely will.]
    He logged off and shut his computer down. Then he got up and headed to the kitchen. Lena was loading a tray to deliver to some customers.
    "I'm heading out for the rest of the day. Can you guys handle the café?"
    "Of course," Lena said quickly. "But where are you going?"
    "I need a change of scenery."
    Lena smiled, knowing exactly where he was heading. "Do I need to cover for you for the rest of the weekend?"
    He mussed her hair then kissed her forehead.
    "I'll let you know."
     
    Maya had just seen the last customer out of the winery, and locked the door when his car pulled up. She made it over to him just as he was getting out of his car.
    "Xavier?" she asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"
    She could almost see the stress radiating off of his body. He gave her a strained smile as he said, "You said to call if I needed anything. This is me calling."
    "Come on," Maya said, taking his hand and leading him over to the area of picnic tables. "Let's sit down and talk."
    Once they were sitting down, she waited for Xavier to speak.
    He laughed and shook his head. "I was such a fool with that woman."
    Maya felt her heart breaking for him. She reached out and took his hands in hers. "You were in love," she said, sympathetically.
    "Do you know why she showed up today?"
    Maya shook her head and waited for him to tell her.
    "She had the nerve to come into my office and demand that we get back together. As if the fact that she cheated on me then tried to have my café ruined were irrelevant.
    "She did what to your café?" Maya blurted out.
    Xavier went on to tell her all about the 'real' Darby, from how his sister had caught her in the act to her getting her father to try and destroy Xavier's business.
    "I can't believe she did all that," Maya said when he was finished.
    "And the worst part of it all is that I know she has something else up her sleeve.