buy out her contract. A slightly underhanded move, to be sure, but it'd do away with any uncertainty. It would ensure that she could stay here on Hollander.
I was half-tempted to do it right away, but I didn’t want to be rash. I had no idea what was going through Maya’s head, after all. What if her sudden coldness had nothing at all to do with the IEP contract? What if she had just grown bored of me and her feelings weren’t as strong as I’d thought? If I bought out her contract without telling her about it, that’d be like pulling a pin on a grenade.
We needed to talk, I needed to tell her how desperately I wanted her to stay. But at the same time, I was pretty sure she wouldn’t want to discuss this with me. She’d already been pulling away—I didn’t want to make things worse.
Raking one hand over my face, I considered my options. None of them seemed good. And yet, I couldn’t sit here and do nothing. The way things were going, it was possible that my inaction would cause me to lose Maya. In the end, I decided I needed some advice.
“Shouldn’t you be at work?” Niall leaned forward, one eyebrow arched as he appeared on my Holopad screen. “Did something happen?”
“I am at work,” I replied. “And no, nothing happened. I just need some advice.”
“I see.” He leaned back, allowing a giant grin to spread across his lips. “You need some older brother wisdom, right? I’m more than happy to dispense it, young one.”
“Really funny.” I furrowed my brow and shook my head. “I’m serious, Niall. This is about Maya. I don’t know what to do.”
“Maya, huh?” He urged me to go on, and I walked him through the entire situation, right up to the point where I was considering buying out her contract.
“Don’t.” He straightened his back and his lips turned into a straight line. “No way, Soren. Don’t even think about it.”
“But—”
“Look, I know how it feels,” he said, “but I’ve already made that mistake before. Trust me when I tell you that’s not the way to go about things. When I decided to buy out Brittany's contract, it almost cost me everything. She felt betrayed, Soren, as I’m sure you can imagine. Don’t make that mistake.”
“You’re right,” I muttered, tipping my head back and looking up at the ceiling. If I couldn’t interfere, then that meant my hands were tied. “Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Nothing,” he replied. “Just let things run their course. Besides, I highly doubt that she’s going to choose the Tracorox contract...and that’s even if the IEP decides to offer it. Just think of it. Most people who sign up for a Tracorox assignment don’t know anything about the planet. Maya does, since her sister has already worked there, so she knows that Tracorox isn’t the place to be.”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Also,” he continued, “Most humans that go there are greedy. The Tracorians have to pay a huge amount to the IEP, just so they can get their bids in, and the workers are usually very well-compensated. Maya doesn’t strike me as greedy.”
“That’s because she isn’t.”
“Exactly.” He offered me a smile. “Lastly, is Maya power-hungry? Does she want to learn dark sorcery?”
“Of course not.” I said it without thinking. It made no sense to have Maya and sorcery in the same sentence. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if I truly knew her.
After all, she had a chronic mistrust of aliens when I first met her, and she had never shared much about her past. Everything Niall had said seemed to indicate that Maya would never want to go to Tracorox, but if that was the case...then why the hell had she been short-listed for a position there? As far as I was aware, that usually happened when the humans were vying for a specific posting.
Unfortunately, there was only one conclusion that I kept coming back to—Maya was hiding something.
“You’re right,” I finally said, sighing. “It’s best for me not to hold back. I’m just gonna wait and see what happens.”
“Finally, you’re talking sense.” Visibly relieved, Niall reached for the screen, ready to terminate the call. “Just be patient, all right? Everything’s going to work out.”
“Thanks, Niall,” I replied, but I still felt that bottomless pit of anxiety inside me. I had never been a fan of the ‘wait-and-see’ approach, especially when the stakes were this high: I loved this woman. But Niall was right.