Seeing the Benefits

"So quite honestly my curse has always terrified me" Maisie begins, and you sense she is finally starting to open up to you about a subject she tried to shut down almost as soon as she brought it up in the car and hasn't liked talking about since "Part of that is obviously down to what happened to Aunt Carly, and part of it is from Mom and Holly constantly hammering into me how terrible it would be if anyone found out about it. Holly was completely against me even telling you when I mentioned the idea to her. She said no guy could ever be trusted with it, but I guess you proved her wrong. I always knew I could rely on you not to take advantage of having that sort of power over me. There is literally no other guy I could say that about"

You realise you should be flattered by that statement, and it is clearly intended as a compliment. But there is still something about the reasoning behind Maisie choosing you, her complete faith that you would never indulge in her curse like any other man would, that bugs you. If you are forcing her to be open and honest, you feel like you should be as well.

"Maisie, I am going to ask you something and I want you to answer me truthfully. Did you choose to share your secret with me because you think of me as a great guy and a trusted friend. Or was it because you think of me as a doormat, someone too pathetic to try anything sexual with you, even when you had literally given me the power to do anything I wanted?"

"What? Why would you say that?" Maisie asks, initially becoming quite defensive at the suggestion, as if she had never consciously considered that.

"Maybe you don't recall as well as I do, but in the car when you told me about your curse, one of the reasons you gave for choosing me was that I wasn't really like a guy. That shit hurts, you know? Especially coming from a girl I have feelings for. And then you were ignoring me when I wanted to find out more about your curse so you could text some random dude who you had known for five minutes, but who was obviously more important to you already than I could ever be"

You didn't mean for that to sound as angry and emotional as it came out, so much between you and Maisie had changed since then after all. But it felt like opening up an old wound. When you look back at Maisie, there are tears in her eyes.

"Oh God, I'm so sorry! I'm such a thoughtless self centred bitch sometimes!" she apologises as she wipes the teardrops from her cheeks "The not a guy thing, I don't actually remember saying that. I don't know what I was thinking and it isn't at all true or in any way my opinion of you. I'm just a fucking idiot sometimes. As for the random dude I was texting, Jesus I can't even remember his name. He never was and never could be anywhere close to as important to me as you are, okay? And I'm devastated if I ever made you feel otherwise. But honestly, I was only playing with my phone because I didn't want to engage with you while you were trying to talk about the curse"

That made sense, you figure. And you feel happy from her emotional and obviously genuine response that your friendship with Maisie was never a sham and you weren't just being kept around for her to unload the curse onto. Maisie takes a moment to compose herself then begins speaking again.

"Honestly, part of the reason I told you is because I did think I could easily talk you into not using my curse, because you can be a bit of a pushover, at least when it comes to me. But part of it was also down to the fact I think you are a great guy. Because you are a great guy. And in my defence, my instincts were right. Not once have you taken advantage of my situation"

At this point, you feel you need to come clean. To some extent at least, if only to prove you were never the doormat she took you for.

"Maisie, why do you think you are sitting in my apartment totally naked in front of me?"

Maisie's eyes widen and her mouth opens as the penny drops.

"You did that? And you made it so I didn't realise you had even done it! You sly old dog!" you are not sure if you should have told her that, but she quickly breaks into a smile "I guess I had that coming, huh? And I don't mind, honestly. As long as it is just the two of us here, that is. I would appreciate it if you didn't send me walking around the block butt naked though!"

That ship has already sailed, but that piece of information you decide not to share with Maisie. Instead, you want to know what she was planning to talk about before you diverted her.

"So you said you had been thinking about something?" you remind her.

"Oh yeah. I was going to say since you have proven to me that I can trust you with my curse now" she pauses, glances down at her naked body, then shoots you a theatrical, mock annoyed look "Since I still do trust you. I figured that, rather than me being terrified of the curse and never even wanting to think about it, perhaps we could find some cool stuff to do with it"

"Like what?" you want to know.

"Just as an example, you could make me the greatest Mario Kart player in the world, and you would never even be able to get close to beating me again"

"And why the fuck would I want to do that?" you laugh.

"I said it was just an example!" she giggles "But if we put our minds to it there must be tons of cool stuff we can do together, And I'm not talking about anything sexual, by the way. If anything like that happens between us, I would want it to evolve naturally"

Taking anything sexual off the menu instantly rules out about 97% of the initial ideas you had for cool things you and Maisie could do together. But you will take this as progress anyway. Her talking finally, after all of these years, like you are a viable sexual candidate to her actually gives you butterflies. Whatever happens from now on, one thing is for certain - your days of not really being like a guy to Maisie are officially over.