“I’ve GOT to get this song out of my head!” she said aloud, aggravated.

Yet again, she was closing all by herself while Liz was out having fun with Max.

“She owes me big time,” Maria grumbled.

Giving up on the dishes, she glanced around the small kitchen for the mop. Remembering that she left it by one of the booths, she grabbed a stack of clean menus and backed into the swinging door.

When she looked up, her heart almost stopped. A figure in dark clothes was peering through the front window. She caught her breath and stormed over to the door.

“Michael, what the hell do you think you are doing?!”

His face went blank for a moment and then he answered. “We need to talk.”

“Then why didn’t you knock on the door like a normal person?!”

She could have sworn he almost smiled. “Because I’m not a normal person.”

“Oh… yeah. Well, that still doesn’t excuse you from scaring me half to death.”

He just shrugged. “Are you going to let me in any time soon?”

Maria felt a wave of panic wash over her. She didn’t want to be alone with this guy.

She guessed that Michael saw her hesitation because he rolled his eyes and said, “I told you, I just want to talk.” He pushed past her and she paused before shutting and locking the door behind them.

Maria looked down at her hands, which were shaking and took a deep breath. Slowly she turned to face him only to find herself eye level with his chest. Startled, she lifted her head to look at his face.

“Are you okay?” The words are like air, soft, light, almost nonexistent, but it was enough to knock some sense into her.

“No I’m not! You scare the crap out of me!”

He smirked, the closest think she’s ever seen to a smile on his face. “Really?”

The fact that he thought that this was funny, irked her. She let out an exasperated breath and entered the kitchen before she completely wigged out on him.

Michael tagged along and pulled up a stool. Maria carefully ignored him as she mopped the floor until she couldn’t stand his eyes on her any longer.

“So talk already!” she said annoyed.

She must’ve caught him off guard because he looked slightly panicked. “I just… just want to make sure that you won’t tell anybody… you know… about… our secret.”

“No, I’m not going to tell anyone, but I’m not doing it for your sake, I’m doing it for Liz’s.”

“Whatever, just don’t go and blab it to anyone.”

‘That’s it!’ Maria thought as she started walking towards him.

“BLAB?! Is that what you think of me?!” For every step she took in his direction, he took one back with a nervous expression. Maria wasn’t so afraid of this Michael. “What am I going to say? ‘Oh, yeah sure, Alex, I’ll sing with your band on Friday. And by the way, you know that creepy guy that I’m always complaining about? Well, guess what?! He’s an alien!’”

He quickly composed himself and gave another smirk. “You talk about me?”

“No!… Well kinda.” He looked surprised. “What? You ARE always staring at me and it wierds me out. Why do you look at me that way anyway?”

“Because… well… I mean… you….” He dropped his head. “I’m not sure.”

Maria was speechless. Searching for words to say, she felt her face flush as she realized that she had backed him into a wall and they were standing two inches apart from each other. Embarrassed, Maria looked down at the near miniscule space in-between them and began to move away.

Before she could get very far, he grabbed her hand and pulled it into the space she had been examining seconds before. Both froze at the same exact moment, unsure of what was happening. Maria couldn’t move. She couldn’t take her eyes off of his hand gripping hers. She felt her heart speed up and she felt strangely “connected” to him in some way.

“Maria!” Liz’s voice drifted from the front of the restaurant.

Michael dropped her hand and pushed her out of the way. Confused, she left the kitchen without ever looking back at him.

“Hey,” Max greeted her.

“Hey,” Maria answered.

Liz looked at her peculiarly. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she answered a little too fast.

“Hey Maxwell,” Michael’s voice came from behind her.