She knows she shouldn't have a crush on him. He's her best friend's boyfriend and having feelings for him breaks absolutely every rule of friendship but she can't help it. She's met him a total of four times ,but it only took one encounter to leave his image resounding through her mind day and night, causing her constant conflict with herself. "He's your best friend's boyfriend," she tells herself but it doesn't do anything but make her think of him even more.

When Riley first told Maya about the cute boy she met at the bookstore around the corner, she couldn't help but feel a little jealous. "He was holding a copy of Lolita and I remembered everything you told me about it ,so I was able to start a conversation with him," she gushed to Maya, explaining how that had prompted him to ask her out on a date. Of course, this drove Maya into a sad mood for days. It had been weeks since she'd gone out on a date and the guys she went out with were never interested in discussing literature, art or politics ,but rather comics, sports, and girls with hot boobs. Riley however had managed to find a guy with Lolita, one of her favorite books, in his hands. That was just her luck.

When the day came for Riley and "bookstore guy"'s date, Maya spent the entire day helping Riley prep with painting her nails, doing her hair and makeup and helping her pick out an outfit. At 6 o'clock, the guy, who Maya is now told is named "Lucas" rung the doorbell of their tiny New York City apartment. Before Maya opened the door, she had already been slightly fond of him for his taste in books but after she comes face to face with him for the first time, her feelings towards him reach an entirely different level.

Lucas was much taller than she was, she would guess about nine or ten inches, and was wearing a blue button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up (one of Maya's absolute weaknesses) and jeans with some black boots to finish it off the ensemble. His eyes were the most beautiful combination of green and hazel she's ever seen and his jawline just screams "fuck me." It wasn't until he coughed that she realized she had been staring at him for a while without saying anything.

"Oh sorry," she laughed awkwardly, trying to hide her blushing face, "You must be Lucas. Come in. Riley should be done getting ready in a bit."

"Thank you," he laughed, following Maya in to the living room and sitting next to her on the same maroon colored couch that Maya and Riley had bought almost three years ago when they had first moved in together.

"You're not from here are you," Maya asked him, breaking the weird silence that had been filling up the space.

"Texas. How did you know," he asked, raising an eyebrow and giving her a small smile that sends Maya's stomach in to knots.

"For starters, you have kind of an accent. It's cute and all but it's not from here," she began, wanting to finish her observations but being interrupted by his.

"You think it's cute?"

"Anyways," she said loudly, ignoring his question, "You're also wearing cowboy boots and you brought sunflowers and that kind of hospitality is not found with guys from New York."

Lucas wanted to say something in return ,but paused once he saw Riley appear from her room dressed in the white tee, black blazer and skinny jeans that her best friend had chosen for her to wear. He said something to her about how she looked beautiful and commented how he liked the necklace she's wearing and Maya chuckled quietly to herself because it was the necklace really belongs to her, not Riley. After telling Maya not to wait up for her and giving her a wink, Riley led Lucas out the door.

"It was nice meeting you Huckleberry," Maya told him, silently cursing herself for calling him such a ridiculous nickname.

"The pleasure was all mine, ma'am," he laughed, tipping an imaginary hat towards her.

Maya closed the door and spent the night thinking about how he showed up to pick up Riley with her favorite type of flowers in his hands.

Every Sunday since she'd been about eighteen years old, Maya went to the same coffee shop down the street of her apartment building. It was a small little place situated between a flower shop and pizza joint and although not many people knew of it, she liked to believe it was the best place to grab a coffee and people watch.

Maya walked up to the counter where the same middle aged woman who had been taking her order for years was and began to think to herself what she wanted to order that particular morning. While she began to start the sentence of her order, she felt an immediate presence come up behind her.

"I'll have a large coffee with steamed milk and two sugars," Lucas said, smiling down at Maya's somewhat startled face, "Oh don't worry, I'm paying. Go ahead and order whatever you want."

Maya bit her lip to keep herself from smiling. "I'll have a medium caramel iced coffee. And the name for the order is Ranger Rick," she told the woman, laughing as Lucas looked embarrassed paying for the drinks.

"What is with the nicknames," he asked her, leading them to a small table in the corner of the shop, pulling a chair for her to sit across from him.

"You're from Texas. It's just who you are. The nicknames suit you," she explained, trying to tell herself to stop staring at his eyes so intensely.

"Well then, I don't think you would mind if I gave you nicknames," he smirked, cocking his head slightly to the side as if trying to read her better. She shrugged, acting as if she didn't care but secretly loving the idea of having him call her nickname, the list of possibilities growing endless. "Okay then Shortstack, let the nicknames begin."

Maya tilted her head back laughing. It was the first time ever that someone had teased her about her height that she hadn't been offended. Her laughter was interrupted by the sound of the woman calling "Ranger Rick" to pick up his order, causing the other customers in the store to look around the place in every direction to see who the person with the funny name was.

"I'll get you for this Shortstack," he teased her, getting up from his seat to go collect their drinks.

"Yeah," Maya thought to herself, "But maybe that wouldn't be so bad."

When Maya usually came home from work at around six in the evening, she had the apartment to herself for a good hour, which she would spend showering and starting dinner for her and Riley. Maya came into the apartment, throwing her purse on the couch and shedding herself of her shoes and tight jeans, anticipating the hot shower that awaited her. She locked the front door of the apartment and walked to her room, the last thing she expected was to see Lucas there.

Yet there he was, back turned facing the door and rummaging through Maya's shelves of records and books. She stopped moving and caught her breath, almost screaming at the intruder before realizing that it was just Lucas. She tried to retreat back quietly to the living room to retrieve her pants and put them on before he could see her wearing the black panties she had decided to put on the morning ,but he felt her presence before she had the chance.

"I didn't know you were a fan of-," he began, turning to look at the door and finally noticing that Maya was there almost half naked in front of him. His jaw clenched and eyes widened at the sight in front of him and Maya stood there frozen, almost thinking that if she didn't move he wouldn't notice. Just as quickly however she decided to simply walk over to her dresser and pick some sweatpants to put on. If she didn't make it a big deal, then he wouldn't either.

She slipped them on, smirking as she noticed that he was still staring at her.

"Take a picture Sundance, it'll last longer," she joked, walking over to him and taking the book he was holding from his hands to wake him from his trance.

"I umm," he blushed, obviously embarrassed by the encounter, "I thought you were Riley. I was going to say that I had no idea she was a fan of Edgar Allan Poe."

"Are you kidding," Maya laughed, "Riley hates anything even a little depressing. This is mine."

"Oh. Well then how about this Journey record," he asked, picking up the album and showing it to Maya. She laughed, putting down the book and taking the record from him to put it on her record player.

"Let's just assume that considering this isn't Riley's room, everything in here is mine." He instantly blushed, embarrassed by the fact that he had thought it was Riley's room in the first place. The room was filled with classic novels and framed imitations of artwork, two subjects of which Riley had never spoken of. He explained to Maya how Riley had told him where the spare key was and had invited him to come over for dinner. She waved his explanation off, making it no big deal and instead asking him to join her in the kitchen.

Even though they were in a completely different room, they could still hear the rock music playing from the record player. She laughed as he tried to distract her from her cooking with his poor air guitar skills.

"Dork," she grinned, rolling her eyes and continuing to chop some vegetables.

"How rude," he gasped, pretending to sound offended and putting his hand to his heart. He walked over to the counter and grabbed a handful of breadcrumbs that Maya had out and threw it at her, most of getting caught in her hair. She dropped her knife and slowly turned her head to look at him.

"You. Did. Not. Just. Do. That," said through gritted teeth, making sure to enunciate every word.

He smirked, crossing his arms and shrugging, "I think I just did."

She slowly grabbed the slices of carrots she had been cutting and threw that him at his face, both of them motionless right after she did that. Almost simultaneously however they both started grabbing whatever they could get their hands on first and started throwing them at each other. The sound of Maya's laughter and Lucas' taunting words ("Really, Shortstack? That's all you got?") filled the room. Maya turned on the water from the sink and grabbed the spray nozzle, soaking him from head to toe as best as she could. He grabbed it from her hands after she continued to wet him even after he told her to stop. He turned her around and held her body close to his as he sprayed her, ignoring her squirming and protests to let her go.

They both stopped at the sound of Riley's voice entering the room. "What is going on here," she screamed, dropping her bag on the floor. Lucas looked a little more scared than Maya, barely letting out a "hey babe" as she got closer to them.

"I'm going to go get cleaned up," Maya said, excusing herself from the kitchen and making her way to the bedroom. She changed out of her ruined clothes, all the while trying to ignore the sound of Riley squealing Lucas' name by quietly singing the words of "Faithfully" along to the record that was still playing.

"I'm forever yours, faithfully."

Maya pushed through the crowded platform and got on the subway, wanting nothing more than to sit down after such a tiring day of work. The entire day had been spent running around the city from her office to the homes of different artists and back, negotiating prices with them so she could purchase theirr work for her boss's art museum. It's not that she didn't love her job because she did. She loved looking at art and speaking to others just like her everyday but a part of her always felt sad that she wasn't actually the one painting and getting her art displayed.

She sat down on one of the seats, clutching her purse to her chest tightly as she waited for the subway to take off.

"Well if it isn't Shortstack," she heard. She looked up and saw Lucas standing in front of her, holding on to the railing with one hand and holding a textbook and umbrella in the other. He was wear black rimmed glasses and a Marvel T-shirt and jeans and considering it was the most laid back she had seen him yet, he definitely looked his best.

"Now I'm convinced you're following me," she smirked, moving aside so that he could sit next to her. He sat down, smiling widely at her like he always did and asking her about her whereabouts.

"I had a long day at work, but I can't really complain. The only other job I've had was working at a diner and I'd much rather be an art consultant and private buyer than a waitress any day," she told him. His admiration for her was apparent in the way he looked at her as she spoke and the way he listened to every word he say. "And where are you coming from?"

"I, umm," he began, caught obviously by surprise by loss of focus- or in this case too much focus. "I'm taking some classes at NYU to get my masters degree in English. I want to be a professor and write the next great American novel. Maybe write some columns and articles for Time magazine."

Maya's smile towards him grew even brighter, thinking back to how her mother always said that if it was possible, to fall in love with a writer because if you're their muse, you will never die. She always thought it was silly but now, looking at Lucas and noticing the passion in his voice, she could see what she meant.

"I think that's amazing, Lucas," she said honestly, putting her hand on his bicep and giving it a light squeeze. He smiled at her shortly before it faltered and turned into a face of surprise by the subway's abrupt stop, pushing him onto her quickly. Their faces were inches away from each other and their gazes were locked. She knew that if she didn't pull away something potentially disastrous would happen. Maya blinked and moved her hand away from his arm to push her up.

She was going to just walk away from him without saying anything, the scene replaying in her head even though it had just happened seconds ago. If she stayed and talked to him, she knew that feelings would come up and she simply couldn't risk it. Every time Riley talked about Lucas her eyes shone a little brighter and even though it killed Maya to hear about them together, she would rather endure that than hurt her best friend.

Lucas however ruined her plans by quickly following her out of the station and onto the busy street, stepping close to her and opening his umbrella. Of course, Mr. Perfect was going to be a gentleman and walk Maya the next eight blocks it would take her to get home. Maya usually wouldn't have allowed it but he had an umbrella and the rain in the city was just starting to get really bad, so she kept her words to herself and let him walk next to her.

They were silent on the walk to Maya's apartment building, Maya silently humming the tune to "Singing in the Rain" and Lucas carefully listening. Once the brick building with the green vines growing all over appeared, they both stopped.

"Well thanks for walking me," Maya said hurriedly, trying to rush up the steps to avoid speaking to Lucas. He grabbed her hand just before she was able to get to far and stopped her. She turned to look at him, eyes wide and staring at him speechless while the rain started to drench her.

"Maya," he licked his lips, never taking his eyes off of her. She knew what he was going to say. He was going to say how it was no problem whatsoever that he spent his time making sure she got home stuff. He would say that he had a good time with her like always. He would say that he didn't know what he was feeling but he wasn't quite sure if he felt the same about Riley.

And then before he got a chance to say any of that, Maya slowly pulled away from, letting the touch of her fingertips linger on his just a little bit too long to be just friendly. She turned and began to walk back towards the front entrance of her building. Lucas hadn't said anything but her name yet she still knew exactly what he had meant. She didn't need to hear it. What he had done had been more than enough.

xo. This was my first complete Lucaya fic and I am so excited to write more! My next one is a school rival au! that has been in my head for ever and it should be up soon .xo