"Elk, how are you?" Maya asked, tucking her hair behind her ears, feeling nervous.

How confident she had been when she said she would talk to him, and now it was all slipping away.

In front of Jackson, she had been composed, acting as if she would nail it, but now, truth be told, she felt too nervous to even open her mouth.

She was so anxious that her stomach grumbled, as if she might vomit at any moment.

The music was loud, but where they were sitting it was relatively quiet. The drink she had was too weak; this type of conversation should have happened after having some strong...