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"You don't think I'm a creep, do you?"
The question came out of nowhere and it took Maya a second to respond. "What makes you say that?"
Larry traced the rim of his teacup, not quite meeting her eyes. "Well... I say a lot of stupid stuff that doesn't come out quite right. Stuff that makes me sound worse than I am. D-don't get me wrong, I'm not a bad guy! I just, I dunno." He stares into the translucent liquid. "I don't want you to think I was takin' advantage of you being, y'know..."
"Young?" she answered, and it made him flinch.
"Everyone thinks I'm some kinda cradle robber for some reason. It's not a great look. Especially when I wanna work with kids."
Maya frowned, resting her palm upwards on the low table. "Hey... I know you're kinda bad at first impressions, but I think you're a really nice guy. If you weren't, you wouldn't be in my house. You wouldn't be helping Pearly with her art and her reading. You mean so much, to both of us."
Larry took her hand, soft and chilly in his hold. "You reminded me that I have a purpose when I thought I had none. The old me is dead. And I don't ever want him to come back."
Maya gave him a squeeze, calluses rough against her palm. "I know. My mom, she..." she trailed off, blinking back welling tears. "She must have seen something beautiful in you. Something nobody else saw because everyone knew you before you went away. And it was the same for her."
Larry set his cup down, taking her hand in both of his as the dam finally broke. Maya inhaled with a shudder. "She wasn't proud of what she did to my family. A-and I want to understand everything she was going through but the truth is?" She looked into Larry's eyes, his visage blurred as she wept. "She was my mom, and she hurt us, and I'll never see her again. Not like before."
Larry shifted a seat over. He hesitated despite the instinct to hold and comfort and tell her he was sorry until every thought came to a halt as she wrapped her arms around him, gripping so tight he feared she would cut him in half. The only sounds in the universe were the sobs in the crook of his neck, and the cicadas singing in the summer trees.
"You're the closest thing I'll ever have to her again," she mumbled against his skin.
Larry had to laugh a little. "What, you callin' me your mom or somethin'?"
She let out a small chuckle, wiping away a tear. "No, silly. Deauxnim. You're part of her family now. Which makes you a part of mine."
"So like, does that make the flirting weirder or...?"
Maya squeezed him tighter and laughed, harder than she ever remembered.