One evening James ducked out to grab some ingredients Maze needed for dinner. It was too short notice to have them delivered and Maze insisted he needed them or the meal would be ruined. They decided it would be best for James to go, just in case.

When he got home, Maze was still in the kitchen where he’d left him, only now he was chopping vegetables so aggressively that pieces of onion were flying off the chopping board onto the floor. He was ignoring them as they fell, completely focused on massacring whatever was still left on the board. James hesitated in the dining room, wondering if he should leave his friend to take out his anger about whatever had happened on the onions in peace but it was too late.

“You had a visitor,” Maze said without looking up. His tone was not a happy one and James winced.

“Oh?” he raised an eyebrow as he moved into the kitchen, set the paper bag down on the counter next to Maze and slid onto one of the bar stools.

“The human,” Maze spat the word at the onions as though they had offended him. When James didn’t immediately guess who he was talking about he turned his black eyes up to glare at him. “The short one, female, dark-hair.”

James felt his mouth fall open. “Alicia?” he gaped at the alien. “What the hell did she want?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Maze snapped angrily, throwing his knife down on the cutting board and moving to inspect the stuff James had bought.

“You don’t know?” James frowned after him. “She didn’t say anything?”

“She asked where you were,” Maze growled low in his throat as though the memory of it still rankled him. “I showed her my teeth and she ran.”

James burst out laughing. Oh what he would have given to see that!

“I’m glad you find it so amusing,” Maze glared at him for a moment before picking up the knife and beginning to chop the new vegetables James had bought. “I don’t want her here again.”

“You think I do?” James frowned.

“I don’t know, do you?”

He glared at the top of Maze’s bent head. Had he not heard the argument he and Alicia had had that night? How could he possibly want think James would want anything to do with her after that?

“You certainly seem interested in why she was here,” Maze mused, moving onto the chicken he would add to James’ meal but not his own.

“Of course I’m curious,” James continued to frown at him. “It was three years without a single word from her the first time she showed up again and now it’s been months without anything and she’s suddenly back again. Aren’t you curious what she wants?”

“No,” the alien said flatly. “I am however curious as to why you care? Did you not tell me once that you were glad she left?”

“I did, I am,” he said quickly. “I don’t want her back here any more than you do but … I don’t know, it’s just irritating that she won’t go away and I have no idea why. God! She’s always been so frustrating! She always knows how to get under my skin. Some women are just way too good at that, aren’t they?”


Maze stopped chopping the chicken and stared at it for a moment before carefully placing the knife on the counter and leaning forward. He splayed his large hands on the counter top and his eyes raised to meet James’ with a significant look.

“I wouldn’t know,” he said simply.

“Oh,” was all James could think to say.

He’d known of course, or at least suspected, but to hear it straight from Maze’s mouth was still slightly … not shocking but unexpected.

“I’ve made you uncomfortable,” Maze said quietly as he moved around the island to lean against the side of it and folded his arms. It wasn’t a question.

“What? No,” James said quickly, shaking his head more to try to sort out his thoughts than to disagree. “No I’m not uncomfortable.”

“It doesn’t bother you?” Maze raised one eyebrow.

“Why would it bother me?” James frowned. “It’s really none of my business.”

“Isn’t it?” Maze smirked.

“No it’s not,” James narrowed his eyes at the alien. He had no idea what he was going on about but if he hadn’t been uncomfortable before he was starting to be now with the way Maze was looking at him. “Your sexual preference is your own business, not mine.”

“Is that why you painted a naked picture of me?” the corner of his mouth rose in a smirk and James felt the heat rising in his cheeks.


“You weren’t naked just …” he cursed at himself, realising the argument he was about to present didn’t sound any better. Not naked, just shirtless? It was essentially the same thing but he had been trying to forget he’d ever made that damn painting. “It was just a painting, it didn’t have any meaning at all. It’s still none of my business either way.”

“Oh?” Maze raised his brows. “Is that why you get so flustered every time I bring it up? Because my sexual preference is none of your business?”

James gaped at him in shock. He’d never heard Maze speak like that before; the way he had practically purred the word ‘sexual’ as he leaned forward slightly was almost … No. The alien was being an arse, trying to get a rise out of him, and it was working. James shot out of his seat, suddenly furious at both of them. Maze for trying to provoke an argument and himself for allowing it to happen.

“Is that why you were so pissed when Alicia kissed me then?” he shouted at Maze, trying to get his own back. His plan backfired spectacularly.

“Yes,” Maze said with a smirk and James could only gape at him again.

He’d never bothered to ask why Maze had reacted the way he did when he’d seen Alicia kiss him, for good reason. Part of him now wished he had, but another larger part of him hadn’t wanted to know because he liked having Maze around and didn’t want the answer to make things awkward. And yet here they were.

He couldn’t deal with this right now. Between Alicia and Maze and everything that had happened in the past year, it was all too much. Without saying a word he turned to go to his bedroom … but Maze was faster.