Lovers at Heart(34)

An hour later, with her hair dry and pinned up into a ponytail, having donned clean jeans and a fresh T-shirt, she headed out to her car. She stood in the parking lot remembering her legs wrapped around Treat’s waist just feet from where she now stood. Ugh! I can’t keep doing this to myself. I chose to leave. It’s for the best.

She drove circles around town just to avoid being alone in her apartment and wallowing in memories that made her skin burn with regret. She drove toward the office, but when she entered the dark parking lot, she realized that she was too tired, and it was too late, to do any real work. She drove into the Village, where the familiar lights in the trees brought a smile to her lips. Treat would love it here. She forced the thought from her mind.

Max followed the sidewalk past all the stores, around a corner, and down an alley, then disappeared down a few steps. She pulled the heavy door to Taylor’s Cove open and waved to the bartender and owner, Joe Taylor.

“What’ll ya have, Max?”

Joe’s grandfather had opened the pub years earlier, and when Joe had taken it over, he’d encouraged the hard reputation the pub had of catering to bikers and blue-collar workers. Joe might serve a rougher crowd, but he ran a tight ship. He didn’t allow any trouble, and the result was a quieter pub where there was little conversation and an abundance of solitude.

As she climbed up on a stool at the empty bar, she waved her hand. “Whatever. Something strong and yummy.”

“You look beat, Max. You okay?”

“Yeah, just flew halfway across the United States. I’m tired, but I’m fine.” She took the glass without asking what it was and sucked down the pungently sweet liquor, licking her lips as she slammed down the empty glass.

“Wow, that was good!”

“You know my rule, Max.” Joe wiped the bar with a towel and removed her empty glass.

Max rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, no refill for a full minute.” Max was already feeling the effects of the drink. The tension in her shoulders and neck loosened as she touched her right ear to her shoulder, then the left. Treat would rub that pain away. Oh my God! Shut up! “Has it been sixty seconds yet?”

“Almost.” Joe leaned on the bar.

She looked around the small tavern and tried to focus on the television, but it didn’t hold her attention. There were two older men sitting at a table in the corner, and a younger man was sitting at a table just to her right. What am I doing here?

Max dug through her purse for her cell phone. She must have left it at home. Damn it. She tried to remember when she’d last used it but couldn’t think beyond her desire for another drink. Luckily, Joe was placing one in front of her as she looked up.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile. She nursed her drink. The more she drank, the less sure she was about what she’d done. Maybe she shouldn’t have taken the onus off of him to realize that giving up the things he loved to be with her was the wrong thing to do. The thought of Treat waking up to find her note no longer seemed the kindest way to have set him free. Maybe she should have stayed put and fought it out with him. She finished her second drink and held up her glass.

“Five minutes, Max.”

“Whatever,” she said, then went right back to focusing on Treat. Hadn’t she told him to love her through her insecurities? This was his fault. It had to be. He should have never let her go. He should have declared his love for her. Wait. Did he? Oh yeah. He had.

Max slid off of her stool to go to the ladies’ room, which seemed very far away. Why was the floor wobbling like that?

When she came back to the bar and asked for another drink, Joe shook his head.

“Joe, I’m almost thirty. I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to drink.” Joe had always watched over her, ever since she’d first walked in as a twenty-two-year-old, doe-eyed girl.

“Yeah, you are, but when you first came in here you said you weren’t a drinker. I’ve seen you only a handful of times since then, but you never drank like you are tonight, which tells me two things.” He leaned over the bar, and Max leaned closer.

Between her exhaustion and the alcohol, she had a hard time remaining still.

“You’re either getting over some man, or you’ve been fired, and since I spoke to Chaz and he assured me that you’re still an employee, I’m thinking it’s the first.”

“You called Chaz?”

He ignored her question. “And because I’m thinking it’s the first, and I can’t have some guy coming down here with a baseball bat to have at me for allowing you to drink so much that you end up in the hospital, or dead on the side of the road, I’m pulling rank.”

Max had to smile. He was right. He had been at this a long time.

“Mind if I join you?” Kaylie slid onto the stool beside Max.

“Oh my God.” Max covered her face and groaned. “I’m sorry he called you, Kaylie.” She glared at Joe, who shrugged with a caring smile.

“Thanks, Joe,” Kaylie said. “Wanna talk about it?” she asked Max.

“God, no,” she said, feeling the effects of the alcohol. Maybe it was a good thing she hadn’t gotten that third drink.

“So, you went to Mass and he wasn’t there. So what? I told you fate was a load of donkey doo.”

On second thought. “Joe, now that I have a driver, may I please have another drink?”

Joe brought her half a glass.

“Thanks, Dad,” Max teased. She slammed her head back and gulped it down. “Ahh. Okay, now I can talk.”

“I can tell this is gonna be good.” Kaylie rubbed her hands together.

“Don’t get too excited. Long story short, he was there. Fate did step in.”

Kaylie touched her arm. “No way. And?”

“And I’m here and he’s there, and…”

“And?” Kaylie asked.

Max held her palm up toward the ceiling. “He’s wonderful. He’s…Oh God, where do I start?”

“I want the good stuff, so start with that.”

Max leaned in close so she and Kaylie were head to head, and she whispered, “He’s loving and romantic and, Kaylie, oh my God, I never thought I could feel the way I did when I was with him.”

Kaylie put her hand on Max’s shoulder. “Max, you told me all of this before you saw him. So…what are we really talking about here?”

At the same time that Kaylie said, “Multiple orgasms?” Max said, “It’s definitely love.”

“Wait, what?” Kaylie said.

Max blushed. “And that other thing,” she whispered.

“Max!”

Max shot a glance at Joe and saw a wicked grin on his lips. She covered her face. “Great, now I’m the town tramp.”

“Oh, stop it. Joe knows you better than that.” Kaylie winked at Joe. “You were the town tramp before Treat; now you’re also the Wellfleet tramp,” she teased.

Max slapped her arm.

Joe sauntered over and leaned in close again. “Maxy, I’ve never even seen you with a guy besides this one’s husband.” He nodded at Kaylie. “I think you’re a lady, no matter what she says.”

“Thank you, Joe.” Max noticed the room was beginning to spin and reached for the bar.

“I wanna know the rest. Why on earth are you home? Chaz gave you the week off.”

Max stood up, gripping the bar. “I left in the middle of the night. Left him a note.”

Kaylie grabbed her arm and steadied her. “I’m gonna take you home with me tonight.” She paid Joe for Max’s drinks and thanked him, then walked Max out of the pub.

“He was giving up Thailand for me,” she slurred. “I couldn’t let him do that.”

“Thailand?”

“And acqui—acqui—acquisitions. Everything he loved. Poof! Gone. And all because of me.”

They arrived at Kaylie’s car, and she leaned Max against the side as she opened the door, then guided her in. “If you’re gonna heave, open the window,” Kaylie instructed.

“I couldn’t let him poof! because of me.”

“You’re not making any sense, Max, and I don’t understand.” Kaylie drove out of town, toward her house. “You like everything about him, but you don’t want him to give up what? What’s Thailand?”

Max closed her eyes.

“Are you asleep?” Kaylie asked quietly.

“No, I’m not asleep. How can I sleep when I’m this drunk?” Max opened her eyes, squinting at the bright streetlights. “Okay, so he was talking about for-e-ver. You know about for-e-ver? You have it with Chaz, only Chaz didn’t have to give up Thailand and all the things that got his juices flowing to have his forever like Treat would have to do. What kind of name is Treat anyway? He is delicious, let me tell you.”

Kaylie laughed. “You are so drunk, Max. Before the other day, I’d never heard you say two words about a man, and all of a sudden your mouth spilleth over. So, I assume by got his juices flowing you mean he would have to give up other women, and Thailand is some sort of reference to exotic women?”

“Locations.” It seemed like the right choice. She missed Treat. Just talking about him made her loins ache.

“So, he has women in exotic locations and he’d have to give them up? Well, hell yeah, he’d better if he’s going to have forever with you, but he didn’t strike me as that kind of guy. I guess you never know. I mean, he’s really hot.”