Wanting to Remember,Trying to Forget(12)

Now he was just waiting to reap the rewards of that harebrained idea. Danny was going to come in any second now, bubbling with excitement, and the shitty feeling he could feel already building inside him was the price he seemed willing to pay this morning when he had been slapped with a stupid stick. Then again, it was like he told Charlie. Stupidity was a thing of the mind. Those asshole tendencies he spoke so fondly of were very much alive.

As predicted, Danny came home a few minutes later. “Max,” she called excitedly from the door. “Max, where are you?”

She would have seen from the door had he not been slouching, had he not been willing the sofa to swallow him whole. He inhaled a deep breath and prepared himself for what was to come. “In the living room.”

She came rushing in with a big bouquet of red roses and a gigantic white and red teddy bear. “See what Richard sent me. He isn’t even in town and he still went through all the trouble of sending me a gift for Valentine’s Day.”

He looked at the gifts and simply smiled. He had expected this to happen. Okay. Maybe he hadn’t expected it to hurt quite as much. Maybe he had been holding onto the hope that she would have instinctively known that the gifts were actually from him. After all, Richard wasn’t the type to do things like that and Max was hoping that she would see that. But hope had no place in Danny’s little dream world.

He had contemplated for twenty minutes who he should sign the card from. If he had sucked up his courage and signed it from himself, she would have given him a thank you and a smile, but it wouldn’t have been the smile that was stretched across her face right now. And after the formalities of the fake smile and half-hearted thank you, she would have gone to her room and cried her eyes out, the same way she did last Christmas when Richard hadn’t even bothered to pick up the fucking phone.

He therefore decided not to sign the card at all and he knew that by doing so all praises would go to that undeserving bastard, but at least she would be happy, gleaming the way she was now.

“And listen to what the card says,” Danny said, retrieving the card from the bouquet of roses. She unfolded it and read it aloud. “I searched everywhere trying to find something as beautiful as you, but when I realized that such a thing doesn’t exist, I settled on the roses. Happy Valentine’s Day. Love Always.” She clutched the card to her chest and sighed. “Isn’t that the most romantic thing you’ve ever heard?”

Max tried to smile, wondering if it would have made any difference if he left the card in his own handwriting instead of asking the florist to print it out. “He’s quite a charmer,” he said despondently, trying his best to keep the hurt out of his voice.

“And everyone at the office was just going on about it. Like, oh, your boyfriend’s so sweet and I wish I had a guy like that. Amber almost fell off her chair when I called her to tell her about it, but you know Amber. Richard can do no good in her eyes. She doesn’t think he’s the type to do this sort of thing.”

Max pulled his lips in and tried not to make a comment about that. How was it possible that everyone could see it except her?

“And Lauren thinks I have a secret admirer because the card isn’t signed, but I know its Richard.”

“Of course, it is,” Max said softly.

That stupid stick had slapped him pretty hard this morning. He found himself wondering why the hell he had done it in the first place. As much as he hated Richard, he had decided to swallow in his pride and make the noble sacrifice. Only he wasn’t feeling too noble right now. He felt as if Cupid had shot that fucking arrow straight through the heart and the pain just wouldn’t go away. It was torture to watch her swoon over those wretched flowers that Richard hadn’t even sent. This abyss of emptiness threatened to consume him. It was devastating. It was suffocating. He was drowning, but Danny was too blinded by Richard to even notice.

* * *

“That was not five spaces,” Danny said irritably. “You were supposed to land on jail.”

“No.” Max moved his ship-shaped bead from the jail space Danny had placed it on to the one next to it.

After the burnt chicken schnitzel Danny tried to prepare for dinner, they settled on grilled cheese sandwiches and Max suggested a game of Monopoly to lighten her mood. Not that it took much. She was still glowing because of the gifts Richard sent today. This was the first time since she moved in that they were actually using the dining table for something other than work and she seemed glad about that fact.

“Count it,” she said, placing her forefinger on the space his ship had occupied. “One…Two…Three…Four…Five. See? You were supposed to land on jail.”

“But I wasn’t on that space,” he explained.

“Go to jail, Max.”

“…I was on the one next to it…”

“Go directly to jail.”

“…so I would land on this space…”

“Do not pass begin. Do not collect—” Tired of arguing, Danny reached over the table and tried to grab his ship, but he snatched it before she did and clutched it tightly in his hand. “Must you cheat at every game we play?” she asked impatiently.

“I didn’t cheat,” Max said, nipping his lower lip.

“Liar! I saw that, Max.” She climbed onto the table, grabbed his hand and desperately tried to uncurl his fingers. “Just go to jail so we can get on with the game.”

Max smiled as he watched her. Her lips were curled in, an expression she made when she was really concentrating on something. Favorite facial expression, number three.

“Max,” she said through gritted teeth, “would you just let it go!” Then without warning, she bit down into the side of his palm.

He fiercely jerked his hand away from her mouth, but she holding on so tight that the sudden reaction brought her sliding across the table, knocking the board, and everything on it, onto the floor. She flew into him, toppling him off the chair, and sending both of them crashing to the carpet. Her head hit his chest. They stayed on the floor in a pool of cards, paper money, and little red and green houses for quite some time trying to recover.

“Ow,” he groaned, shifting in pain as he tried to sit up.

Danny lifted her head from his chest as he did so. Her knee was digging into his thigh and she moved her leg to relieve the pressure, straddling his hips, yet she made no attempt to get off him.

“There are other ways of getting what you want without using violence,” Max said.

“Maybe if you didn’t cheat at everything, I wouldn’t have to resort to violence.”

The retort was supposed to be firm, maybe even harsh, but it didn’t come across that way. Her hand slowly moved up to remove a little green house that was lodged in the collar of his shirt and her fingers lingered there even after she had discarded the house. She inhaled a shaky breath as her eyes slowly moved up his neck; her gaze dwelling on his lips for a few moments before it moved up to his eyes.

Max swallowed hard, his throat feeling awfully dry all of a sudden. The way she was looking at him was just not friendly. Her hazel eyes were asking for something he so wanted to give. In six years, this was not the first time they had found themselves in such a compromising position but in six years, this was the first time it looked like she wanted to compromise, compromise this friendship and meet him half-way.

But then something clicked inside her and it was like the moment never happened. She quickly removed herself from his lap and looked awkwardly around the room. Her eyes caught sight of the large white and red teddy bear still sitting on the sofa and the last smidgen of anything she felt dwindled from her eyes. The atmosphere in the room suddenly became very tense and still nothing was said.

There was a knock at the door and Max exhaled a breath of relief. He felt awkward and exposed and the presence of someone else was not just welcomed, but necessary. He slowly stood up and went to open the door.

“Sofia!” he said, surprised. “You’re here! Well…of course you’re here…’cause I’m looking right at you…but what…what are you doing…here?”

His eyes moved up and down the length of her. She was dressed in black skirt that hugged her hips and flared at the knee. Her light blue shirt was tight, but not too tight and her dark, luscious curls hung beautifully over her shoulders. It was not the most revealing attire and yet she still managed to make it look sexy. Not many women had that gift yet she did it effortlessly.

Sofia smiled at his stuttering. “Your colleague, Charlie, I think his name is…caught me in the parking lot and told me that any plans you made had been cancelled. He gave me your address and said I should just come by.”

Max laughed nervously. “Oh, he did, did he?”

He found himself mentally writing out Charlie’s eulogy. Of course getting time off from prison so he could attend the funeral might pose a slight problem. They rarely showed compassion to those who committed murder in the first degree.

“I’m sorry,” Sofia said. “I should’ve called first. You’re probably busy. We’ll do it tomorrow as planned.” Looking hurt and rejected, she turned to walk away.

“Don’t be silly,” Max said quickly. “I’m not busy.”