My top priority

While Noah and Laila had gone to sleep, Steve and Maria had been left on their own in the living room to finish what had been so abruptly interrupted. Though they had been fine before, being left to themselves so suddenly and so obviously, a certain sense of awkwardness seemed to be present in the room.

Steve was the first to say something and said, "Well I guess they felt we needed some more time alone but they need to work a little on their subtlety."

Maria let out an awkward laugh before she said, "Yeah, they mean well but I am not sure they realize how obvious they are being."

Steve noticed how Maria was still a bit off and he decided to use the opportunity he had been given to brighten up her mood a bit, as far as it was something he could change. He turned his sitting-position more sideways, lifting on of his legs up under his other upper leg and placing his arms on the couch-railing. He wanted to face Maria in order to engage her more into the conversation and allow himself to notice any subtle changes in her expression to know if it was a topic she did not want to talk about.

He began by saying, "Well, since they decided to be considerate in their own way, why don't we try and make the most of it. Talk some more. Share some things with each other-". Seeing him change his way of sitting and seeing that Steve wanted to have a conversation with her, Maria decided to change her position as well. Once Maria was sitting, this time in a more relaxed and comfortable position, Steve glanced back up to Maria and looked into her eyes. Her gaze, the look into her eyes and even the way she had chosen to hug her legs as her knees had been lifted up, told Steve that Maria was waiting for him to finish.

The build up, the unnatural way he ended his sentence voice wise, all told her that there was still something he wanted to say, something he wanted to ask. So, now that they were eye to eye and he had her undivided attention, she gave him a slight nudge by saying, "Like?" Steve chuckled before he had a more serious look on his face as he said, "Like what you and Laila were talking about in the dining room."

When Maria heard these words her eyes grew wide. She had hoped that her moment of drama had gone unnoticed but it seemed that was a naïve thought. Their voices had been loud enough to reach the living room. Even if it was just as a murmur. Having half of the people in a room leave suddenly, is hard not to notice. Especially with the way Laila came to her, Noah was a witness to her exit. Feeling a bit embarrassed and have most of the emotions she felt at that moment in the dining room come back to her, Maria curled up a bit tighter and looked away a bit awkwardly.

This of course did not go unnoticed by Steve and he backed his words up by saying, "I kind of noticed that something was off, that you were feeling down in a way after you came out. It seemed like you had been crying. It's okay if you don't want to talk about it but I want to help if I can. Even if it is just by listening. I didn't to ask about it when Noah and Laila were still in the room because I didn't want to make you uncomfortable by drawing attention to you at that moment but now that they left, I wanted to see if you wanted to talk. If not, just shake your head or something and I will change the subject immediately and won't bring it up again."

Though Maria wasn't sure she wanted to talk about it with Steve as she had done plenty of talking with Laila about it, it was still on her mind. Apparently enough so for Steve to notice she was still not completely herself. So, if he wanted to hear about it, it couldn't hurt to get it all out once more and see if Steve could manage to get that last bit of residual guilt out of her system.

"Well, it wasn't anything big but I was just feeling a bit guilty. Well... a lot guilty." In a surprised tone Steve asked, "Guilty about what?" This made Maria smile a bit. Though it was faintly, the fact that this was Steve's initial response to her saying she felt guilt after all that had happened today, Maria felt herself feeling more cheerful already. She continued and said, "Well, it was me who continued with the whole date thing, when today was not in the least a suitable day for that with all that was already going on. Then I made matters worse by making you put you phone on silent as well as mine, all while knowing that Noah and Laila were executing an important task and your help was essential for its success. Even if I wasn't fully aware of it at that specific moment. But because of that, because of my focus being on something that shouldn't have been my top priority for today, I almost managed to mess everything up."