Wanting to Remember,Trying to Forget(11)

“Alright.” She smiled. “Max.”

He noticed the quick wink of her eye and his throat ran dry. They continued talking to him about their plans and objectives and Max found that he was not listening with the required amount of attention to commit anything to memory. He refrained from talking to save his pride and simply nodded when he was addressed.

Eventually the conversation began to wind down and he pounced on the opportunity to get out of there as fast as possible. “I’m…uh…I’m gonna get back to work,” he said, using a great amount of effort to keep the wobble out of his voice. “It was nice meeting…all of you.” He risked looking at Sofia again. “Uh…when you’re ready, we can…we can set up a meeting and…yeah.”

“Sure.”

“Alright.” He nodded then left the room, sprinted to Charlie’s office, and shut the door. “Charlie, you’ll never guess what happened.”

“Dorothy agreed to go out with me?”

“Uh…no.” Max swallowed hard and tried to calm down. “So the boss calls me into his office and tells me I’ve got a new account. Fine. I’m cool with that. So I’m looking at Luke Skywalker and—”

“Luke Skywalker? Max, have you been drinking?”

“It’s his name, Charlie. Anyway, she just pops out from behind him and I find out that we’re gonna be working on this thing together.”

“Wait a minute. Who’s she?”

Max sighed and threw his head back. “Sofia Panadero. I don’t know if I can do this. She winked at me. She winked at me.”

Charlie looked completely dumbfounded. “I don’t get it. Is she ugly or something?”

“Just the opposite.” He heard Mister Marsden bidding the Bit-by-Bit team farewell outside the office door. “Come here. I’ll show you.”

Charlie crept to the door, opened it just a crack, and peeped outside.

“She’s the one with the red shirt,” Max said, moving backwards to the desk.

“You are shitting me, Max! That’s Sofia?” He cast a quick look back. “She did not wink at you. Chicks like her don’t wink at guys like us.” He closed the door and turned back to Max. “Okay. If what you’re saying is true, you gotta go for it.”

“Go for what?”

“It, Max. Go in for the kill. Ask her out.”

“I can’t do that. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it.”

Charlie threw his hands up. “I can’t believe you’re making excuses. Anything with testosterone would find any reason to tap that—”

“Charlie!” Max began pacing the length of the room. “I can’t do it, okay? I won’t.”

Charlie threw him a dirty look. “This doesn’t have anything to do with hazel eyes, does it? Because you made a resolution last week.”

Max stopped pacing and glared at him. “When you said to move on with my life, I didn’t think you meant immediately…And I didn’t think you meant with one of our clients.”

Charlie walked across the room, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him hard. “Get a grip! Would you start thinking with the right part of your anatomy for a change? She’s not going to be a client forever and the chances of you having the opportunity to nail a woman like her is never gonna happen again.”

“Would you stop speaking about her like she’s just a piece of ass?”

“Did you see that ass, Max? You could bounce a penny off that ass. Danny’s finished. She’s over. She’s in the past. Okay? Now ask yourself this. Do you want a deranged, devil worshipper who you’re never gonna get or do you want a hot, sophisticated woman? She’s probably rich too, and did I mention that she’s hot?”

“She’s not a devil worshipper, Charlie.”

“I say all that and that’s all you heard. You’re not focusing, man! Now—”

The knock at the door stopped any further conversation and both heads snapped in the direction of the sound.

“Max,” came Sofia’s voice from the other side.

Max froze. “Fuck! It’s her!” he whispered frantically. “Charlie, it’s her!”

“Go talk to her,” Charlie whispered back.

“I can’t. You go talk to her.”

Charlie’s lip tightened. “She’s not here to see me.”

“Tell her I’m not here. Tell her that I’m sick and I had to leave early.”

“She just saw you five minutes ago. I think she would have noticed if you were sick.”

“Then tell her I retired. I handed in my resignation forms and she has to find someone else to handle the account.”

“I’m gonna slap you, man.” Charlie gritted his teeth. “I’m gonna slap you; hit you with a classic Jin Kazama triple power uppercut. Go and talk to her!”

Max moved around the roller chair and used it as protection to keep Charlie at bay. “You don’t get it! I’m gonna bumble like an idiot and that’s so uncool. She’s gonna think I’m a complete dork.”

Charlie lifted a stapler and it did not look like an idle threat. “I swear, your nuts are getting stapled to this stack of paper if you don’t go talk to her right now.”

There was another knock on the door. Charlie lunged himself at Max, toppling the chair shield in the process.

“Charlie!” Max whisper shouted almost desperately.

“Now!”

Max inhaled a heavy breath of courage as he moved towards the door. He took another deep breath before he opened it, but he only opened it halfway so as not to reveal the toppled chair and Charlie behind the door, holding him hostage with a stapler. The left side of his body was still shielded from her view, which made Max feel just a tad less vulnerable because his trembling leg was not exposed. “Sofia…what a…what a surprise. What brings you…to…here…this part…of the office?”

Way to go, Max, you player, you. Dazzle her with your articulation and witty charm.

She smiled delicately. “The receptionist told me you were in here. I came to set up that meeting.”

“Oh…well um…I’ll have to check when I can…slot you in…” Just play it cool, he thought, running a nervous hand through his hair. “’cause uh…I’m al…I’m always doing…some…thing…stuff.” Wow! That was really cool.

Her smile widened. “How about tonight?”

The question took him by surprise. People didn’t have business meetings at night. They had dates at night. Was she asking him out on a date? His stomach tightened. His throat ran dry. “Ooh, tonight? Um…tonight is out…Tonight is…bad.”

“How about tomorrow night?”

“T-t-tomorrow?” Tomorrow was Saturday. That wasn’t even a working day. This was definitely sounding more and more like a date. “Tomorrow would be…”

Charlie kicked his left shin from behind the door. Max winced but managed to keep his smile intact. “Great,” he spurted out squeakily. “Tomorrow would be great. You can ask Dorothy for my business card…and you can call and…yeah.”

“Okay. Great.” She turned and started walking away. “Oh,” she said after a few short steps. She stopped and turned back to him. “I think the bumbling is kinda cute.” She lowered her voice to somewhat of a whisper. “And you’re too young for retirement.” She winked at him again. “Hasta manana, Mister Shepard.” She turned and waved as she strolled away, leaving Max with his mouth hanging open.

He slowly closed the door and gaped at Charlie. “She heard everything we said.”

“That’s not so bad,” Charlie assured him. “She thinks it’s cute. You are the man! Not many guys would’ve been able to pull off that what brings you to this part of the office line but you did. You had her eating out of the palm of your hand. And did she speak to you in Spanish? She probably said take me to bed, Mister Shepard.”

“I think it means see you tomorrow,” Max corrected, still feeling rather shaken.

“Well, in essence, it means the same thing.” Charlie walked across the room, lifted the chair, and rolled back to its rightful spot in his office. “Why didn’t you wanna go out with her tonight?”

“It’s Valentine’s Day,” Max replied simply.

“And you don’t wanna go out with a hot, beautiful wom—Wait a minute.” Charlie narrowed his eyes and looked at him with undeniable scrutiny. “What did you do?”

Max didn’t respond.

“You can tell me. I won’t hurt you…severely. What did you do?”

Max still did not respond.

“Max, as a friend, I’m begging you to tell me that you didn’t do the asshole thing again. I mean, I know you got it bad for that girl but please…please tell me that you did not do something as idiotic, as assholy, as buying her something for Valentine’s Day.”

Max dropped his head and nodded slowly. “Charlie, I most definitely did the asshole thing.”

* * *

Max sat on the sofa, waiting for Danny to come home. She generally cooked on Friday nights, which had left him with nothing to do to occupy his mind. He knew he had done something indescribably stupid today. He didn’t need Charlie to tell him that, but what Charlie didn’t know was the depth of that stupidity. Buying her something for Valentine’s Day was bad enough, but what he had done took stupidity to the next level.