Max checked his cell phone and the only thing he encountered was another stupid text from Jordan. Nothing from Danny. No calls. No messages. One week and she had not tried to contact him once. She was probably with Richard right now. She probably had not even thought of him. Calling her had crossed his mind several times. He wanted to apologize one last time, but it would be pointless.
Aries. The God of War. Argumentative. Confrontational. Combative. Never giving up. Even against all odds, it was in his nature to keep fighting. But this was one battle he couldn’t fight anymore. Danny was something he wouldn’t fight for anymore because he always ended up losing.
He checked the time and realized that he still had over an hour before he needed to start packing and he was going to use those minutes to wish Charlie a happy holiday. At least one of them would be happy this Christmas.
Max slowly turned the photographs over, one by one, unable to look at them anymore. He didn’t pack them away because he had no intention of taking them with him when he left. That part of his life was over.
* * *
Max knocked on the door of Charlie’s apartment.
“Pizza’s here,” a woman sang from the other side.
That definitely didn’t sound like Charlie’s mother. The voice was familiar and the fact that there was a woman here obviously meant that his mother was out of town. He heard slight clicks as it was unlocked and his jaw dropped as the door opened.
“Max!”
“Dorothy?”
His brain could not comprehend seeing the woman in front of him, wrapped in nothing but a bed sheet. Charlie was certainly having a happier holiday than he had anticipated.
She appeared nervous and awkward as she ran her hand through her tangled hair. “Um…I’ll go get Charlie,” she said quickly and slammed the door shut.
A minute later, Charlie opened the door as he tugged on his T-shirt. He stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
“So you and Dorothy, huh?”
“Yeah. I told you she wants my beef.”
Max chuckled, stuffing his hands in pockets as he tried to rid himself of the vision of their prim and proper receptionist in that state of undress.
“So you’re leaving today?” Charlie stated, swiftly changing the topic from Dorothy and her semi-nakedness.
“Yeah. Just wanted to come by and say goodbye before I left.”
Although Max had tried to keep his tone light, he knew his friend saw right through it. “You okay, Max?”
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
“You got your asshole face on. What happened with Danny?”
Max thought about lying because he didn’t want to ruin Charlie’s mood, but he was done with lies. “She…um…she regained her memory and—”
He didn’t know if it was the sadness in his voice or the expression on his face that made Charlie’s shoulders sag in disappointment. “Oh, fuck!”
“It didn’t work. It was dumb to actually believe that it would work. She’s in love with Richard and I’m once again the asshole.”
“Did you explain why you did it? Did you tell her how you feel about her?”
“Charlie…”
“I mean, you guys were great together. Surely she—”
“Charlie, stop. She doesn’t want to hear anything I have to say. It’s over now. She’s still at the apartment, but I left. I’m staying at some dingy motel called Surfin’ Sands. I’ve been gone for a week and she hasn’t tried to contact me.” He dropped his head and stared at the ground. “I tried to trick her into having feelings for me, but I only ended up tricking myself. I thought—” He stopped himself because this was actually becoming too painful to discuss. “It doesn’t matter what I thought…or what I feel. It’s irrelevant anyway. I’m not the man she wants to be with.”
Charlie tapped his shoulder before pulling him in for a hug. Manly yet still comforting. “Forget about her, man.”
Max decided to save his breakdown for when he was alone and pulled away first. “I wish I could.” He exhaled a heavy breath. “Well, you have a good Christmas and an awesome New Year.”
Charlie had the decency to not wish him the same. “I’ll see you soon,” he said instead.
Max nodded and after one more tap on the shoulder, he walked away.
Charlie waited for Max to disappear around the corner before he dashed back into his apartment. He rushed to his bedroom and saw Dorothy waiting for him, naked on the bed. Shutting his eyes, he groaned his frustration. “I’ll fucking kill her,” he whispered to himself. He grabbed his cell phone from the dresser, then turned his attention back to the hot babe on his bed. “Dorothy…oh, my God, Dorothy. I really—” The sight of bare breasts clouded his judgment and made him second guess his decision, but he took a deep breath and tried not to focus on himself. “I really have to go and take care of something.”
She sat up on her knees and brushed her lips against his. “You sure you want to leave all this?”
“Trust me, if it wasn’t for Max, I wouldn’t even consider leaving you right now.” He resisted the urge to push her back against the bed and indulged in a long kiss goodbye. “Don’t move from this bed. Don’t put on your clothes. I want you just like this when I get back. I’ll be about half an hour, forty-five minutes tops.”
“Where are you going?” she asked as he walked out.
“I have a date with the devil.”
He stopped once he got outside and took out his cell phone.
Charlie: Trouble!
Amber: Where?
Charlie: Satan’s place
Amber: Meet you there
* * *
Danny walked down the corridor of the empty apartment, into her bedroom and then back to the living room. She had not seen Max physically in a week and yet she saw him every day. Every day she walked into the kitchen and saw him standing there, holding out a cup of coffee. She saw him in the bedroom, the bathroom, the living room and so every day she walked aimlessly around the apartment, trying to get away from him, but he was everywhere.
They had lived together for almost a year and it was impossible to escape his presence. She had shoved the Valentine’s Day card in her drawer and covered the huge teddy bear with a blanket to avoid as many reminders as she could. She wanted him out of her head. Every time he popped up, she stopped herself from dwelling on the thought, refusing to get sucked back into his web of lies. She didn’t think. She didn’t reminisce. She didn’t feel.
All she wanted to do was bathe in this pool of numbness until he stopped bothering her. Flashes of him were constant, playing on her mind day and night. Apart from a few Christmas parties she’d planned early December, she had no other clients this month so she had not left the apartment in the last week.
She looked at the tiny little Christmas tree they had put up and realized it was going to be a lonely Christmas this year. Lonely. Yes, that was a feeling that had become very familiar to her. Lost. There was another one. It was ironic. A head full of memories and she felt more empty now than she had ever felt before.
Depression swept through her a few times a day. Today was the first day in a week that she had actually changed out of her pajamas. Her best friend lying to her was very depressing, but there was something else. Her mind and body were begging her to explore what this something else was, but she would not allow it. She would allow one thought of Max to linger too long in her head. She felt a sharp constriction in her chest whenever a memory of him came to the fore and she was scared she might break down if she delved too deep. She didn’t want to cry over a man who had willingly betrayed her. He wasn’t worthy of her tears.
A loud thumping at the front door startled her. She rushed to open it, a part of her secretly hoping it was Max on the other side, but all she saw was two more liars.
“You!” She threw herself at Charlie, gripping his gray hair in tight fists.
“Get off me!”
Amber grabbed her around the waist and pulled her off him, kicking and screaming.
Charlie straightened his T-shirt, adjusted his hair, and shut the door. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Me?” Danny shouted. “Let’s talk about you, asshole. You…both of you,” she said pointing from one to the other, “were in on it from the very beginning. Was it fun for you guys? Watching me make a fool of myself the whole time?”
“The only time I ever saw you as a fool was right now,” Charlie retorted. “Did you even bother to hear Max’s side of the story?”
She felt her throat close up at the mere mention of his name. She turned and walked to the living room. “I don’t wanna talk about Max.”
Charlie raced after her, shoving her shoulder so hard that she stumbled back and fell onto the sofa. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Oh, we’re gonna talk about Max.”
“And what makes you think that I have anything to say to either of you?”
“He didn’t want to lie to you,” Amber said, taking a seat beside her. “We started it and we encouraged him to go along.”
Danny’s head snapped sideways to face her so-called friend. “You would do that to me, Amber? I was lying there in that hospital bed, lost and alone, and you thought it was okay to lie to me?”