Chapter Sixteen
When I knocked on Max’s door, I could hear music in the background quietly through the door. It wasn’t loud enough to drown out my knock, but he didn’t answer. I turned the doorknob slowly, finding the door unlocked. Cracking the door a couple inches, I peered in through the opening and saw Max asleep on the couch. I looked at my watch: only twelve-thirty. I slipped my shoes off just inside the door, closed it silently and tiptoed over to the couch where he lay fast asleep. I stared at him, struggling with what I should do to kill time until he was recharged.
Not wanting to wake him, I eased myself next to him on the couch and draped his arm over me. After a few minutes I could tell his breathing had quieted, and I had interrupted his sleep. Hoping that he would ease back to sleep, I stayed motionless beside him. His hand caressed my arm briefly and then he squeezed my shoulder, a groggy voice asking me, “When did you get here?”
“Just a couple minutes ago. I’m sorry I woke you.”
“I’m glad you’re here.” He hugged me tenderly and kissed the back of my neck. I looked at his barren walls; the apartment was neat and tidy just like yesterday. I wondered why he fell asleep on the couch instead of in the bedroom. The couch was nice, but after working all night, the last thing I’d want would be to sleep on the couch.
Max squeezed my shoulder again, “You aren’t sleeping, are you?”
“No, but I’m not the one who stayed up all night. Go back to sleep.” Max was so warm; he already had one arm draped over me, and he slid his other arm under my neck. “I’m awake now. What do you want to do today? I’m off until Wednesday night.”
Half teasing, I asked, “Want to go to dinner with Seth tonight?” Both arms that were wrapped around me went tense and Max said nothing. I waited for a smart-aleck response, but he stayed stoic. “Hello?” I wrenched my neck around to look at him. “Do you want to go out to dinner with Seth tonight?”
“No, not really.”
“Max, I should have checked with you first. A news reporter wanted to ask me some questions earlier today. Seth really seemed to like her. He asked, as a favor to him, if I would answer a few of her questions. I could tell he was really in to her, and she’s the first person that he’s shown any interest in since he and I broke up. I wanted to encourage it, so I volunteered to go to dinner with both of them – like a double date.” I had blurted it all out so fast that I began to worry that Max hadn’t heard all of it. I waited a minute and then two more; he still didn’t respond. “I really didn’t think you’d mind. I’m sorry. I should have called and asked you first.”
“I understand you and Seth are friends, but I don’t want to go.” Max tightened his grip with both arms around me, his words slow and deliberate.
“Max, I can’t cancel and I don’t want to go without you.” Knowing that trying to be authoritative with him was absolutely the wrong approach, I opted for a more playful tone. “There has to be something I can do to change your mind.” I intertwined my arms over his for a second. When he didn’t respond, I decided I had better be more convincing. I twisted my body around, so I was still wrapped in his arms but was now facing him. “Max,” I nuzzled his neck, “won’t you please,” I kissed his ear, “reconsider going to dinner with me?”
Max closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. “Is this how you’re going to win every argument we have?”
“I sure hope so. Does that mean I won?”
He said nothing but I could sense defeat in his manner. Max leaned up on one elbow and played with a strand of my hair with his free hand. I couldn’t understand what his reservation was. Rather than trying to pull it out of him, I opted for silence, knowing that if he wanted to tell me he would. Max, too, remained silent, paying more attention to that stray strand of hair than resuming his disapproval of my plans. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore, “Okay, I’ll bite, are you mad?”
He shook his head that he wasn’t. “Are you ticked that I made plans without checking with you first?” He shook his head again. “Did you have other plans that I didn’t know about?”
“No, but I just got back. I want to spend time with you, Lauren.”
“Newsflash, I’ll be there.”
“Yeah, with your ex-boyfriend. I can hardly wait to hear about all the stories you two have together.”
“It’s not like that, Max.”
“I know you two’re close. The fact that I have an issue with it is my problem, not yours,” his words weren’t angry, but he wasn’t hiding his frustration.
“Max, we broke up before you left. Until he and I went out last night, I hadn’t been alone with him in over three months.”
“You and Seth went out last night?” His frustrated look appeared to be evaporating in favor of a little stronger emotion, “While I was working?”
“Yeah, after I woke up I took a cab home. Instead of trying to get past all the reporters, I sneaked into Seth’s house and made him go out.”
With brows furrowed at me and in a stern voice I hadn’t heard before, “Do you think that was something you might have mentioned before now?” Despite his even tone, I could see fury burning through his eyes, and I was caught off-guard by this reaction. I broke free from his hold on me and sat up on the couch, looking at him bewildered.
“It never occurred to me you would be the slightest bit interested. Are you saying I need to ask your permission to spend time with my friends?”
Max stood up, walked to the kitchen, and opened the refrigerator door. He stood there a long minute before deciding he didn’t need anything and closed it. I followed him into the kitchen and hoisted myself onto the counter. I knew he had heard my question; I wanted the answer but refused to ask it a second time. He finally walked over to the counter and put his head on my shoulder.
“No, you don’t need to ask my permission. I just hate that you have a history with him. Is it so wrong of me to wish that there was no one before me?” Max looked up, the fury that had escaped a few minutes ago was gone, but what was it replaced with? It looked like - fear. Impossible.
“Max, maybe you forgot one small detail. You’re the person I want to be with and the only person I see in my future. Who cares about my past? Do you need me to tattoo your name on my butt or something?”
“Nothing that drastic,” he was still humorless, “but I don’t want you going out with him by yourself.”
“That’s pretty funny, Max, because I think I just asked you to go out with him, with me, and you said no. Which is it?” I was still doing everything I could to keep my tone light and be as jovial as I could, but I was just as certain that this was a conversation that we needed to have.
“What time and where are we going?”
“I’m not sure, I didn’t get that far. Do you want to call him or should I?”
Max picked up the phone, “What’s his number?” When Seth got on the phone, Max’s voice turned hard, “Seth, this is Max. Lauren mentioned that we have an engagement with you and a reporter this evening. Where are we meeting? . . . Okay, what time? . . . I can hardly wait, we’ll see you then.” Max hung up, “Just what I always wanted, to spend the evening with your old boyfriend. I should go buy a lottery ticket; this is my lucky day.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. It isn’t so bad.”
“You don’t get it, do you? Every time I’ve seen Seth within ten feet of you, it’s never looked like two pals. Watching him in bed with you in the hospital, him thanking me for his future when you were being discharged, twirling you around in your front yard the day I came to spend with you?”
“I get it, but that was months ago.”
“I’ve never been jealous of anything or anyone in my entire life – maybe because I never had anything worth losing. The last thing I want is for you to be anywhere near him when it’s so clear to everyone around you how he feels about you, and you’re oblivious to it!”
/> In a clinical, emotion-free voice, “One, he wasn’t in bed with me in the hospital: he was concerned about me and his feelings for me got confused. Two, he was an ass to you during my discharge, but only because he knows me so well, and realized in that moment he had lost me. Three, that day that you saw him twirl me in the yard was a fluke. Had you waited thirty seconds or opened your door and said ‘Hi,’ I probably would have knocked myself out trying to sprint over to you.” I grabbed Max with both arms and pulled him to me. I’m not certain whether my stinging words, my ferocious kiss, or the desire welling up in my eyes convinced him, but our argument was over.