A hard bargain

Now that Steve had managed to get the truth from Maria and had even gotten her to agree to accept his help, it was time to determine what that help would be. This appeared a more difficult task than Steve had initially imagined as Maria was driving a hard bargain. Almost an hour had passed, and no decision had been made yet. They were arguing back and forth, with Maria not willing to go down without a fight. "You have helped me so much already. Don't think I haven't realized. I might be naïve at times, and I am not the greatest at picking men, but I am not a complete idiot. Although I can't prove it was you, I know that it was. I have never won a single raffle or lottery in my life. I even stopped buying the tickets to play. So, can you explain to me why I suddenly managed to win multiple gift cards and whatnots in the past few months? Why suddenly my debts have become less, even though I haven't been able to pay off as much as before since one of my temp jobs ended?" This silence Steve for a moment since he couldn't deny these claims as he was indeed 'guilty'. He thought he had been subtle about it, but apparently not subtle enough.

"I tried to pretend like I didn't know it was you. I told myself that it was just some mysterious person. Since I really needed that help at that point in my life and it felt so good to not have all that pressure weighing down on my shoulders. To finally be able to see light at the end of the tunnel and be able to take a breath for a moment. So, I turned a blind eye when I shouldn't have. But I refuse to take advantage of the current situation. I agreed to help you myself and while I have also agreed to accept some of your help, I refuse to have you pay my way through life!"

Where he was feeling a bit caught with what Maria had said initially, this final sentence triggered a different emotion in him. Steve was visibly frustrated with how the conversation was going and showed this by pushing his hands through his hair as he lowered his head and let out an exhausted sigh. Then he raised his head back up with a determined look on his face. His eyes were showing his stubbornness, which appeared a close equal to that of Maria. Once their eyes had met up again, standing face-to-face, he said, "Fine! I give up. I am done arguing with you on this matter. I have one final offer. We will look up the costs of a live-in nanny and a 24-hour nurse. We will compare their rates with what you were making on a monthly basis. If the pay is higher than what you made at your previous job, we will add the two incomes and divide it in half, to find a pay that is somewhere in the middle. If it is less, I will pay you the amount you would have earned from working a month at your previous job. I won't accept less than a month, because you need to be compensated for losing your job because of me in the first place. If you argue with me on this any further, I will kiss you until you can't argue anymore. Either way I am ending this pointless discussion."

Maria gasped. This was an unexpected move from Steve and she contemplated for a brief second if she should accept his deal and whether he would actually follow through on what he said. But headstrong as she was, in the end she didn't listen to Steve's warning and got ready to fight back his words. Ready to tell him that he couldn't just end a discussion, or any type of conversation one-sidedly. However Steve saw that Maria wasn't getting ready to agree with him and was about to argue some more and he was faster than her words could cross her lips. In the second she needed to take a breath in order to fill her lungs with the oxygen she needed to throw out her arguments, Steve grabbed her face between both hands and pulled it up towards him. Before Maria could even grasp what was going on, Steve had made his move, sealing her lips before even a single sentence could be uttered.

At first Maria attempted to push Steve away, not being done with stating her arguments, but Steve wasn't one to fall back so easily either. The moment she pushed, he hissed and pretended to be hurt. This of course allowed him to pull Maria back within his reach as her concern for him made her drop her guard and made her instinctively reach over to see if he was alright. No sooner had she asked him if he was alright, or had he shown his all-telling smirk. In an almost mocking tone he said, "Of course I am fine. Why wouldn't I be?", before he pulled Maria back into his arms. This time kissing her more passionately than before. But although Maria had pushed him away the first time, her resistance wasn't quite as present during the second time.