She said, “Mason, I’m okay now, if you need to go.”
I looked over at her. “I’m good, thanks.”
“Really, Mason, I know it’s unfair to keep you here, so if you need…”
“Hey,” I interrupted her. “Listen to me. There is no place I’d rather be than right here with you, understand?” She nodded without conviction, and I added, “Now, get your sexy ass over here.”
She slowly moved closer to me. I put my arm around her, and I nestled her underneath my arm.
I kissed her head, “There; that’s better.”
“Thank you, Mason,” she replied.
“It’s no problem.”
Maxine got quiet again.
Then I heard her whisper, “This is hard, Mason.” She moved back from me and looked me in my eyes. “I don’t think I can do this. I mean, I keep asking God what I had done to have bad things happen to me. Why did he have to take her away from me? What did I do that was so awful?”
I touched her face.
“Baby, you did nothing wrong. Life just fucking sucks.”
She laughed.
“Thank you, Socrates. You are extremely profound.”
I shrugged, glad to hear her joke.
“It’s one of my many talents.” She shook her head, and I continued, “Listen angel, I don’t have all the answers. But I do know how it feels to lose someone close to you. I also know how it feels to be helpless. It does suck, and it doesn’t get easier with time. Every day, I miss the hell out of Alex. I want to dial his number. I expect to hear his voice. But I can’t. That fucks with me, especially since I’m such a control freak. But what I am thankful for is that I still get to be surrounded by the loved ones I do have. Those are the people that care about me the most. Before you say anything, you are definitely in that category. It’s just that by the time I realized I needed to be thankful, I felt like I was at a point of no return. I couldn’t go back because I was afraid of hurting you. I didn’t want that. I know it wasn’t my place to make that decision for you, but it’s something that I felt I needed to do.”
I moved closer to her, putting my hand to the back of her neck.
“But no matter what the past brought, I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
I kissed her possessively, letting her know who she belonged to. When we parted, she looked at me panting.
I said huskily, “Now pick what movie you want to watch.”
I pulled her back to me, and we watched the latest die hard movie. I wasn’t concentrating on the movie. Instead, I was thinking about what I needed to do in order to assure Maxine I was here to stay. I needed to decide if I wanted to take the risk of hurting her or be miserable all my life.
My phone vibrate, and I reached for it, keeping Maxine resting her head on my chest.
“What’s up?” I said to Roland.
“Shaw wants to speak to Max.”
I paused a second. I knew Roland would make sure the call couldn’t be traced while tracking where Shaw was calling from, so it would be safe.
“Okay, hold on.”
“Angel, your father wants to talk to you.”
“My father? Why is he calling on your phone?”
“It doesn’t matter at the moment. Just tell me if you want to speak to him or not.”
She looked in my eyes and saw no other answers would be given to her on the matter, so she said, “Yes.”
I put the phone back to my ear.
“Patch him through.”
Then I handed the phone to her, and I got up to give her some privacy. I put our wine glasses and our plates in the dishwasher and started it. The sucker was so freaking loud. I wasn’t able to hear myself think much less to eavesdrop on her conversation. The sooner I get her out of this apartment and into my place, the better.
When I came back, she handed me my phone.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Since when did you and my father become buddies?”
“I told you we were going to have a discussion about you and your safety, and we did that.”
“Humph. I wonder how that conversation went.”
She eyed me suspiciously.
I shrugged.
“He’s still alive, so I think it went very well…considering.”
She shook her head. “You are a piece of work, you know that?”
I smiled. “I am that, among other things.”
I leaned in closer—looking at her beautiful lips and wanting to feel them again—when my phone buzzed. I looked down and saw it was Diane. Max saw it too, and she moved back from me.
“Are you going to get that?” she asked
I sighed and, as much as I wanted to send her to voicemail, I answered.
“Are you still there?”