He had never complained, but he had to have taken strain supporting both of them for so many months. Things were looking up and life couldn’t be better.
She replaced her heels with a pair of flats and walked through the park until she spotted Max sitting under a tree. As she got closer, she noticed a green picnic blanket and sandwiches wrapped in cling wrap.
“A picnic?” she asked. “Today of all days?”
“What’s wrong with today?”
She sat down beside him and unwrapped a sandwich. “The weather report said it was going to rain today.”
He looked up and there were only a few puffs of white in the sky. “It’s wrong half the time. How was your meeting?”
“Great. I even managed to up my fee.”
They chatted as they ate. She talked about her ideas for new designs and he told more about his family; his mother’s obsession with star signs, Kevin’s moodiness and Jordan’s ability to make him smile even during trying times. She heard the sadness in his voice when he reminisced about Perry. Although she loved Jake and she missed him, she couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like to grow up with such a big family. They were all so close with so much love in their inner circle.
Even though Max complained about never having any time to himself, she would have given anything to have one little bicker with a sibling growing up. She had never felt like she belonged at her previous foster homes and thus had never really gotten to know her foster brothers and sisters. Not to mention the fact that she had moved from family to family when she was younger and yet none of them could ever really be considered family. Family was what he had and she was becoming more anxious to meet them.
Lying down, Max pulled her head onto his chest and they stared up at the sky as the heavy gray clouds began to roll in.
“We should get going,” she said. “It’s definitely going to rain soon.”
“It will hold up.” He pulled her closer. “I just want to enjoy this with you for a little longer.”
Danny had not realized that she dozed off until a drop of water hit her cheek. Another came and then another.
“Max, we need to go!”
She quickly stood up and picked up the plastic wraps as Max grabbed the blanket. Mother Nature skipped the drizzle phase and went straight to full-on downpour. Max covered their heads with the blanket as they raced to her car, accidentally stomping in puddles along the way. She threw her wet body into her car and Max got into the driver’s seat.
“Oh, my God! That was insane.” She looked over at him and laughed. “Told you it was gonna rain.” She handed him the keys, then rubbed her hands up and down her arms to warm up. Her body was soaked and shivering, her white blouse and beige skirt clinging to her cold skin.
“I’ll get us something hot to drink on the way home,” Max said.
They drove not more than a few miles before Max parked the car outside a small coffee shop. He got out and dashed into the building.
Ten minutes went by and then twenty and Danny became irritated. It couldn’t possibly take so long to make two coffees.
More minutes passed and she lost her patience. She got out of the car and ducked under a canopy to protect herself from the rain. It didn’t really make much difference. She was soaked all over again in the time it took to walk to the coffee shop.
She was about to go inside, but froze with her hand on the handle. Through the glass door she saw Max talking to a woman, a beautiful Latino woman with sapphire eyes. The woman reached out to touch his arm and Danny reasoned with herself to not read too much into it. Maybe they were just friends. But the way they looked at each other made it seem like they had a past, a past where they were on more friendly terms. Maybe it wasn’t the past…
What if Max was sleeping with her?
Once her mind latched on to the thought, it refused to let it go. Why else had he been in there for almost half an hour? Maybe this was the woman Jennifer was talking about, the one he had been dating. Had been or still is?
Her mind began to flood with all the ifs and maybes. She had always thought that Max was not the type to cheat, but there was living, breathing, incredibly beautiful proof standing right in front of her. For a split second her mind flashed with a vision of her standing in their kitchen doorway, wearing Max’s white shirt and she didn’t know if it was a memory or a figment of her overactive imagination.
Max had slept with her! All her gut was telling her was that Max had slept with her. And he’d lied about it. She couldn’t get the thought out of her head. It was stuck there, imprinted; almost like it wasn’t the first time she had thought it, as if she had tortured herself with that thought before. He’d said that the first and last time he’d had sex was three years ago, but everything inside her was screaming that this relationship was recent, so recent that it might be overlapping her own.
The tears that rolled down her cheek were camouflaged by the raindrops. Her chest tightened and her throat clogged up, making it difficult to breathe. A heavy weight pulled on her heart and anger pulsed through her body, heating her from the inside. How could he do this to her?
As she continued watching them, more pieces began to fall into place. The reason why he refused to kiss her, touch her; why she had to initiate everything in their relationship. The late nights at the “office”. Jennifer’s outburst. All the secrets. All the lies.
He had wanted her all along, been with her all along.
As Danny watched the other woman stand up on her toes and kiss Max affectionately on the cheek, she felt her wall of strength caving in. Just when she thought everything was coming together, her whole world fell apart.
* * *
“Danny, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing!” she snapped as she walked down the corridor of their apartment to the bathroom, leaving a dripping trail behind her.
Max shut the door and sighed. That was five nothings, three fines and one no-thank-you. Something was definitely wrong. He walked to the bathroom where he saw her kicking off her soggy shoes.
“Would you just talk to me?”
She turned to face him with reddened eyes. The drops that ran down her face had been tears disguised as rain the entire drive home. “Who is she?” she asked, her voice wobbling with exasperation.
“Who?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, Max. The woman in the coffee shop? Who is she?”
“Is that why you’re crying? Because of Sofia?”
He chuckled. Her jealousy was cute, but completely misplaced. She had nothing to be jealous about, especially when it came to Sofia. After all, she had dumped him when she found out he was in love with Danny. He reached out to take her hand but she moved back.
“Is she the one?” she asked. “The one you’ve been sneaking off to see?”
The cuteness faded with the heavy reality of what she was asking. She pressed the wrong button with that question, because he felt anger slowly trickling through his veins.
“Sneaking off to see? That’s some imagination, Danny.” Not even the rain pelting on the bathroom window hid the sound of pure disdain in his voice.
“Did I imagine her touching you or kissing you? You want her, don’t you?”
Another flare of anger, but he reasoned with himself to stay calm. He moved around her to get to the shower and turned on the hot water. “Have a shower, get into some dry clothes, and we’ll talk about this later.”
Stepping in front of him, she blocked his path as he was about to walk out. “We’re talking about this now.”
“No, we’re not. You’re angry and upset and you say really stupid things when you get like this. So have a shower and we’ll talk about this later.”
She shut off the water, adamant that she was not letting it go, and placed her hands on her hips. “No!”
“Danny, I’m not having this discussion with you until you calm down. You misinterpreted everything you think you saw.”
“Do you honestly think I’m that dumb?” She shoved him, so hard he almost lost his balance, and with every word and action, his own temper was beginning to rise.
“Don’t push me.” It was a warning, not a request.
“Then admit it. You want her! And why wouldn’t you? She’s beautiful. She’s not disfigured…like me, no ugly scars on—”
“Don’t!” he snapped, his fingers curling into tight fists. “Don’t even go there.”
She heeded his warning to stop talking about the scar, but did not stop her attack. “Admit it!” she shouted. “You don’t want me.”
“I’m sorry, Danny, but I respectfully decline the invitation to this little pity party you’re having.”
He tried to push past her again. This conversation was becoming volatile. Two hot-headed people could not communicate like rational adults unless at least one of them managed to stay cool. He was choosing to be that person and walk away before it got out of hand, but she blocked his path again.
“Admit it. It was all because of her, wasn’t it? The reason why you refused to touch me, why you keep hiding things from me. It’s because of her. All the late nights at the office these last few weeks. You were with her, weren’t you?”
She shoved him again, even harder than before.