He used his thumb to gently stroke away the tears on her cheek. Moving both hands around her neck, he clasped his fingers together at the base of her head. The fine length of her hair tickled his skin. “You didn’t do anything,” he whispered, resting his forehead against hers. “I think that’s the problem.”
* * *
Max dropped the plugs of his gaming console when he heard a knock at the door. He had not fully recovered from Richard’s ass whipping and standing up required quite a bit of effort. He slowly limped to the door to answer it.
“Hey, Charlie.”
Charlie’s eyes popped out. “Fuck! What happened to you? Did you run face-first into a bus?”
“Richard,” was the only explanation Max offered as he limped back to the living room.
Charlie closed the door and followed him in. “Is that boyfriend number four?”
“Five,” Max corrected, plonking down on the sofa.
“So was it a full on death match or did you go down swinging?”
“I only got in two good punches.” Max didn’t think it was necessary to mention the failed roundhouse kick. The situation was embarrassing enough as is.
Charlie sat down and lifted the controls, but when Max did not do the same, he turned to look at him. “You okay? You seem a bit out of it.”
“Yeah.” Max nodded. “Just got a lot on my mind. Richard said some things that were so…it was so…true.” He went on to tell Charlie about the whole series of events from the rejected kiss to the argument he’d witnessed with Melissa to Richard beating the living daylights out of him. “He basically said that I only have her because he doesn’t want her anymore…and…and he’s right, Charlie. Danny is only with me because I lied to her…lying to her.”
Charlie released a heavy sigh. “Max, I’ve never really liked Danny and you know that. She is selfish and crude and I used to believe that she was more trouble than she was worth. But one thing I could never fault her on is how much she cares about you.”
“As a friend, Charlie.”
“No, Max! I wouldn’t have sacrificed you to the devil if I didn’t see with my own eyes. Let me tell you what your problem is. When you think about her, all you see is every other guy. You don’t see what’s right in front of you. She goes out of her way every year to make your birthday special. Why would she do that, huh, Max? Why did she invite you to the charity dinner instead of Richard? Why was she so jealous of Sofia? Why is she with you every Christmas, no matter who she’s dating? You may be lying to her, but you can’t force her to feel something that’s not there. She wanted to kiss you. You didn’t put that thought in her head. Those are all her feelings. You want her to choose? She’s choosing you every day, but you’re so hung up on the past that you’re screwing up the present.”
Max dropped his head and considered Charlie’s words very carefully. He wasn’t wrong, but he wasn’t a hundred percent right either. One thing he agreed with Charlie on was the fact that he was messing up the present. She had sat crying on the bathroom floor just two nights ago because he had been too consumed with his own rage. He was lashing out at her for things she could not remember and she didn’t deserve that. Damn Richard! Damn him and Anthony and Steve and Rolind and all those other fucking jerks. It was his time now.
Danny came through the front door a few minutes later.
“Hey,” Max greeted. “Did you have a good time with Amber?”
“Yeah. Though sometimes she’s so rude it shocks me.” She giggled as she walked to the living room. “Hey.” She nodded a greeting. “It’s Charlie, right?”
“Hi,” Charlie responded.
“Oh, you like video games, too?” she asked, glancing down at the control in his hand. “I guess it’s a good thing you guys have that in common. It must make the age gap feel a bit smaller.”
Max chuckled when he noticed Charlie pull in his lips to stop an outburst. “Are you sure you’re not faking your memory loss, because that’s—”
“Charlie,” Max said quietly to settle him.
“We’re the same age,” he said instead.
“Oh.” A cute little sheepish grin curved on Danny’s face and she toyed with her fingers as an attempt to hide her embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I…I didn’t know…um…I’ll get you guys something to drink.” She hurried out of the living room, but Max could hear her laughing in the kitchen and he was sure Charlie heard it, too. She wasn’t really trying too hard to keep it down.
“Make no mistake about it,” Charlie said, pressing the start button on the control. “I meant what I said earlier, but I still hate her guts.”
* * *
Danny adjusted the throw pillow beneath her head and sprawled her legs out on the living room carpet. She looked over at Max, who was also on the floor, sitting with his back against the sofa. He looked up from his cards, flashing her a smile, and she quickly turned her attention back to her own cards, which she held above her face.
She didn’t like it when he looked at her in that way anymore. It made her feel vulnerable. It made her believe that he was actually attracted to her when she knew he wasn’t.
Side stepping issues was becoming the norm in this apartment. There were no awkward moments, no stilted silences, but the small space was beginning to fill with all the things they weren’t saying to each other. There had been no mention of the goodnight kiss request, no explanation for his bruised and battered body. That was over a week ago and still not one word. They talked. They laughed. They played games, but having a discussion about the things that were really bothering them was the one thing they didn’t do.
Danny slipped her finger under the material of her bandana and scratched her head. Her head itched constantly, but she preferred to keep it covered. Hiding the scar meant hiding every feeling that went with it.
She risked another glance at Max before studying her cards again. One jack, two aces, a two, a four and an eight. With these cards, the game couldn’t possibly end well. “Give me all your jacks,” she said after some deliberation.
Max slid two cards across the floor and without lifting her head from the pillow, she reached over to retrieve them.
Ha! Now, three jacks. It was looking a bit more promising.
“Give me all your sixes,” Max said.
“Go fish.”
After another Friday night of grilled cheese sandwiches, Max suggested a game of cards to break the monotony. She was truly going insane staying at home day in and day out. She had watched Jerry Maguire four times already. She had even watched every Harry Potter movie to kill the time. She cleaned. She read. She listened to music. She tried to perfect her culinary skills, but with limited options of things to do, boredom was eating at her brain. At least the card games were a different form of entertainment.
She felt his eyes on her and tried to focus on her cards. “Give me all your fours,” she said.
“Go fish.”
He was doing it again, looking at her with his distant admiration that made her insides turn to jelly. On days like this, she found him irresistible. On days when he was just Max, goofy loveable Max, without the weight of the past on his shoulders, he appealed to something inside her that was beyond her understanding. A certain look in his brown eyes and she would heat up from the inside out. Despite everything that had happened during the last few days – and the tension and lies that went with it – she was still the girl crushing on her boyfriend.
He drew his knee up to his chest, then eased it back down, trying to stretch out the leg that still caused him to walk with a bit of limp. That was the only remnant that remained after whatever had happened to him last week. The cuts and bruises had healed, leaving behind only the slightest hint of blue under his right eye.
“Give me all your jacks,” Max said.
Danny cringed internally at the thought of giving away her three jacks, but then something struck her. “When did you get a jack?” she asked, sitting up.
“I just picked it up.”
He nipped his lower lip and she had learnt last week what that gesture meant. “You’re lying. You had three and you only gave me two.”
He looked back at his cards with indifference, but the sly smile that curved on his lips showed his guilt. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You cheated!”
“Listen, Baldilocks, I did not cheat.”
“Baldilocks?” she repeated, tasting the name as it left her mouth. “Did you just call me…Baldilocks?”
“Yes.” He snickered, pulling in his lips to stop it from progressing to outright laughter.
“Well, I’ll have you know, Mister hop-along-Joe…” she said it like a nursery rhyme as she pulled off her bandana to reveal the slight fuzz of dark hair on her head. “…that my hair is beginning to grow.”
“Oh, I see,” he said, his amusement seemingly harder to contain. “I apologize. I should call you…Sargent Baldilocks.”
She tossed the throw pillow at his head, stopping his bubbly laughter dead in its tracks.
“It always ends in violence with you.”