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Maya hates everything about this. She hates standing in front of a camera and having someone take pictures of her. It doesn’t help that her girlfriend is standing behind the camera giggling at her. She knows that she looks awkward and uncomfortable and that’s because she is.
She has already done the ads and picture for Nike, those were easy. They mainly wanted pictures of her in the shoes and for some reason it was fun. She got to meet a bunch of different American athletes that were competing as well that Mike was sponsoring and it was a better time than she expected, but Coke was a whole different story.
For one she doesn’t drink the drink at all so they had to pour it out and put water in it for her and for second she doesn’t know what she is doing. There are a few other there as well so she’s not alone but the script they are having her read sounds so fake and not like her.
She keeps thinking about everyone back home seeing these and laughing their ass off at her knowing how uncomfortable she was. Mason was going to have a field day and would make fun of her for the rest of their life for these.
“Okay, you need to relax just be natural be yourself.” The photographer yells and Maya rolls her eyes, if she was going to be herself then she wouldn’t be here in the first place.
Maya sees Carina bend down and ask the photographer something and he nods taking a break as Carina makes her way over towards Maya.
“Bella you need to loosen up and relax, you did great during the other photoshoot channel whatever you did then to now.” Carina tries to help her relax but she can tell how wound up she is. Maya isn’t the most social and hasn’t been a big fan of crowds, there is a lot of people here and Carina can tell how uncomfortable she is.
“I can’t. I just want to go back to our hotel and sleep for the rest of the day. I just want this to be over with.” Maya practically whines, she knows she is acting like a child but she is tired and has been dong promotional shoot for ten hours at this point.
“I know but the sooner we get this done the sooner we can order room service and chill at the hotel.” Carina says moving some hair out of Maya’s face.
Maya’s eyes close and leans into her touch trying her hardest to relax knowing Carina is right like she usually is. She just needs to get this over with so they can go home.
“Okay, but no more standing behind the camera giggling at me because that’s making me ore self-conscious.” Maya says pointing at her a small smile on her face making Carina laugh.
Carina tries to hold back her giggles but can’t making Maya glare at her which is making Carina laugh even harder. “I kind help it bella you look so stiff and it was funny, but I’ll make it worthwhile when we get back to the hotel. I’ll do that thing you like with my tongue.” Carina whispers into Maya’s ear. Maya blushes and smiles pulling back to look into Carina’s eyes seeing lust swimming around in her eyes.
Maya’s stomach starts swirling in anticipation of what is to come later on once they get back to the hotel. She watches as Carina struts back over to where she was standing behind the photographer.
“Alright are we ready?” the photographer asks coming back to his original spot and Maya looks at Carina who winks before moving back behind the photographer.
“Yeah she’s ready,” Carina tells him.
They spend the next two hours getting all the shots and videos they need for promos and Maya is relieved when they call wrap and her and Carina can go back to the hotel. The had to be there at 5:30 am and got out at 6 pm, it’s safe to say both girls were exhausted, Maya more so than Carina.
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“You did really great bella, I know that it was uncomfortable for you being in front of all those cameras and around all those people but all things considered you did amazing.” Carina says kissing Maya’s cheek as they get driven back to the hotel in one of the car’s Maya’s manager sent for her.
It’s very bizarre to Maya that she had a manger and a team of people behind her helping with all of these things. Running is a solitary sport and always has been but now being in the Olympics she is no longer on her own. She has a bunch of people by her side making sure she does well and has sponsored and represented well, it’s not something she ever though would happen.
Maya looks over at Carina smiling at her and giving her a quick kiss, “Grazie,” Maya smiles knowing Carina loves it when she speaks Italian to her.
“Honestly that was the scariest thing I have ever done, the stuff with Nike wasn’t so bad it was actually fun. Getting to meet all the basketball players and the other runners from Team USA was actually a lot of fun.”
“Yeah you were actually really relaxed and not at all stiff and uncomfortable. You actually looked really hot.” Carina says with a smile.
Maya laughs and bumps shoulders with her putting her hand on Carina’s thigh as they sit in traffic her hand going a little higher than it should in a public setting. For how long the day has been and how tired she was before now being alone with Carina to just recharge makes her feel better and more energized.
“Shut up, I know I am going to get shit from everyone, especially our brothers. They are never going to let me live this down especially those stupid Coke ads, the little shits they are going to show it everyone they know and post all about it.” Maya laughs and lets her head hit the headrest as she closes her eyes.
“Who cares what they think, you’re the one to the Olympics and they can’t say they are doing that. As for everyone else ignore them before you know it one of them are going to do something stupid and then your ad will be forgotten about.” Carina says taking Maya’s hand in hers and kissing the back of it.
Maya smiles and turns her head having it still resting on the headrest, she loves this woman. Every day she doesn’t think she can love her more and then she wakes up to prove herself wrong. Carina always knows what to do and what to say to calm her down and bring her back down to earth from whatever spiral she is on.
Maya knows how lucky she is to have her by her side for all of this, she knows that this is a lot and extremely over whelming but she is glad that she has Carina who is outgoing and can be friends with almost everyone she meets. Without her she would be standing alone without anyone to talk to because she is the type of person to keep to herself.
“Thank you for all of this, for coming with me and being by my side, I know how overwhelming this is.”
“There’s no need to thank me bella, I want to be by your side for all of this. There is nowhere else I want or need to be, I know how uncomfortable this all is for you. I also knew you weren’t going to do well being photographed and I kind of wanted to see it.” Carina jokes and laughs.
“Carina!” Maya says offended that her girlfriend essentially wanted to see her flop for her own amusement.
“What?! Come on you even said it yourself that you didn’t think you would do well with this. I would never intentionally want to see you mess up or fall but it was amusing while it happened.” Carina chuckles as Maya takes her hand from Carina and punches Carina’s shoulder lightly making the Italian smile.
They sit in silence for a little before Maya turns back to her to see Carina still has a huge smile on her face. “How bad was I?”
Carina chuckles and gets out her phone showing Maya the pictures she snagged with no one looking. In the pictures Maya looks like a statue she is so stiff and unmoving and it makes Carina laugh seeing them again.
“Oh my god! No wonder why you were giggling so much, I look awful in these photos.” Maya says taking the phone from her and zooming in as she laughs herself.
“Yeah…you definitely weren’t the most photogenic.” Carina smiles and watches as Maya swipes through the photos.
“I hope he got something usable.” Maya says passing Carina her phone.
“Oh he did, once you loosened up and relaxed he got a lot of good photos and the videos were also good as well. I’m proud of you bambina, I know how nervous you were about today but you conquered your fear. You should be proud of yourself too.”
“I am too, this was way out of my comfort zone but I am glad I got to experience it, not a lot of people can say they have experienced this. Definitely a story to tell our kids someday.” Maya makes the offhanded comment not really thinking until it left her lips.
They both freeze not really knowing what to do about what was said, they hadn’t even talked about marriage or anything of the sort. They had only been together for a year; they both choose not to say anything else and pretend nothing was said.
“So I was thinking, we have a few days here we should enjoy it, what do you say to date night tonight?” Maya asks turning towards Carina and she does the same thing to look at Maya.
“I thought you wanted to go back to the hotel and relax?” Carina asks raising an eyebrow a sultry smile on her face.
“We still can…but how often do you expect to be in New York City with nothing to do but explore? We can relax once we get back to the hotel, trust me I want nothing more than to relax but I want to take you out.” Maya says smiling suggestively giggling a little making Carina smile.
“Okay, I won’t complain about a night out on the down, can we go dancing?” Carina perks up at the idea having not gone dancing in so long. Maya never went with her, Vic, and Andy when they would go and senior year was too busy for any of them to go out.
Maya watches the hope spread across her face and Maya knows it will be impossible to say no to her. “Okay, but not for long you know how much I despise people seeing me dance.” Maya says reluctantly knowing Carina loves to go dancing and Maya hates to say no to her girlfriend.
“Yes! Mark this day in your calendar, the day I got Maya ‘I hate dancing’ Bishop to say yes to go to a club and go dancing.” Carina jokes and Maya gently shoves her rolling her eyes as they pull up to their hotel.
They both thank their driver and get out of the care making their way up to their room. They both get ready and head out, while Maya was waiting for Carina to get ready she found a nice place to eat and a place nearby to go dancing.
“Alright princess, you ready?” Maya asks walking into the bathroom and stands behind her wrapping her arms around her waist making Carina laugh as she puts the finishing touches on her make up.
“Hahaha you’re funny. Yes I am ready let’s go.” Maya hands Carina her phone and cards because her pants don’t have pockets.
They leave the hotel and Maya grabs Carina’s hand as they make their way to a nice restaurant that is lowly lit to make it very romantic. Maya would never let onto this but she a romantic at heart and Carina loves that she gets to see this side of her. Their hostess seats them a table against the window so they can watch the people who walk past the restaurant.
“How did you find this place? It’s gorgeous.” Carina asks laying her hand on the table asking silently for Maya’s hand. Maya complies and holds Carina’s hand across the table from her.
“Google. I just looked up romantic restaurants and this came up so I chose it because it was by our hotel and there’s a club a few blocks down from here we can go dancing.” Maya says and dips her head to one side curious as to why Carina was looking at her like she hung the moon.
“You really love me don’t you?” Carina asks already knowing the answer, Maya would do absolutely anything for her and sometimes she thinks that she really doesn’t deserve her.
“Of course I do, I will never not love you Carina Deluca.” Maya says squeezing Carina’s hand and frowns a little seeing tears in Carina’s eyes.
“No don’t cry, I hate it when you cry.” Maya says.
“These are happy tears bella, even though this is a last-minute date night you somehow still put thought into it and it makes me feel really loved. You never cease to amaze me Maya Bishop.” Carina says smiling and catching her tears with her napkin as they threaten to fall down her face.
“I want to make you happy and planning date nights make you happy, going out outside of the apartment makes you happy so I want to make the effort to make you feel loved and seen.” Maya says making the tears once again pool at the bottom of Carina’s eyes.
“You are perfect. I don’t know what I did in a past life to deserve you.” Carina says letting her tears fall not caring about her make-up.
“I don’t know about perfect but thank you baby. I think the same thing sometimes, I feel like sometimes I don’t deserve you. You are so caring and kind and patient and fiery which I love. I wonder what happened to make me deserve you. But I don’t want to take it for granted ever because you are too important to lose.”
“Okay you have to stop saying things like that or I am going really going to start crying.” Carina says looking up to the ceiling trying to stop the tears from rolling down her face.
Maya laughs and rests her head on her hand that is being supported by her elbow on the table while the other stays on the table holding Carina’s hand still.
Maya loves this woman with her whole being and she knows she’s the one. On days like today where she was put into an uncomfortable situation she was able to get through because she had Carina by her side. She knows that no matter what she has to go through in life she will have Carina by her side to keep her grounded. She is the only person she wants standing by her side for the important and unimportant things in her life.
As she looks across the table at the goddess that is Carina Deluca she knows there is nothing she wouldn’t do for her to make sure she is happy and healthy and taken care of. This woman is the love of her life and Maya isn’t going to ever do anything to jeopardize that. She will treasure every moment of the life they are building together, because she doesn’t want to do life with anyone else.