Chapter 13
It had beena week since I last talked to Max. When he left Lilly’s apartment that day, I didn’t bother to try to get ahold of him, and he didn’t bother to try to get ahold of me. When I came into work, I never saw him once, and I didn’t ask Chase about him either. I could see it when Chase looked at me, though, that something was going on, but he never let anythingslip.
I had gone through my last story for the day when Chase came in to see me. He let himself in after a quickknock.
“Hey.” He seemed more cheerful than he had been this morning. I was putting my phone and charger into my bag, preparing toleave.
“Hey, what’s up? I was just about to head out.” I finished getting my things together, and that’s when I saw him holding a largemanuscript.
“We have another high-profile author on our hands. Max wants you to personally work on this since you did so well on the last.” I stood there, staring at the pages he was holding. If I were to take this opportunity, then I would probably have to see Max, but if I didn’t, then it would say that my personal life was affecting my worklife.
“When would Istart?”
Chase made his way over and sat the papers down on my desk. “Immediately.” His words went in one ear and out the other as I flipped through the 1,000-page manuscript. A young adult novel. Chase then put on my desk the full outline and the royalty values for consideration. I was going to take this regardless, but if I put up a little defense, maybe I could call some of the shots on thisone.
“Max would like you to work on this on your own. He wants you to be the only one who reads it, so that with the royalties you can give your honest opinion without feeling overwhelmed or undermined.” I nodded as Chase kept talking about time frames and extra hours I would have to work. I wanted one thing And I knew it would get me to exactly where I wanted tobe.
“I have onecondition.”
“Shoot.” The look on Chase’s face wasn’t his usual bubbly self, he seemed stoic, and it wasn’t like him. I knew he was probably trying to hide how he felt about everything between me and Max and that he was struggling to keep to himself the words he truly wanted tosay.
“I want to have a private conference room to myself while I work on this. I need the space and don’t want to be interrupted.” His face relaxed, but I didn’t think he understood what it meant to me. The only conference rooms we had were on the fifth floor, where Max’s office was. I could do this, I could extend this hand. He had done it so many times for me already. There was no more avoidinghim.
“I’ll see what I can do. You’ll start on it tomorrow morning.” With that, he left the room. I locked the papers in the first drawer of my desk. I didn’t want to risk losing them on the way to and from work, and this way no one would accidentally mess themup.
When I came in the next day, all anyone could talk about was how Max hadn’t come to the office in a week but he was here today. My heart skipped a beat as I made my way into the conference room. I hadn’t known he wasn’t coming to work, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like my fault. That I was the reason his work was being affected. That didn’t sit well withme.
I shut myself into the conference room and from having worked in here before, I knew this one was soundproof. I took out my iPod and turned on Taylor Swift. When in doubt, listen to love songs or breakup songs, both worked in thesituation.
* * *
The days passed slowlyover the work week, and it was Thursday by the time I reread the manuscript I had been working on. I was moving slower than I normally did, but every time I found myself getting into the book, Max came creeping back into my mind. There weren’t many mistakes, thankfully, just a few sequencing errors. When I had first finished the book yesterday, I set up a graph for the royalties and the author’s wanted price; there was a list of pros and cons for each amount. I had no idea who the author was, but the writing was beautiful. The story could capture the reader and took them out of the present, which was exactly what I was lookingfor.
I was in the middle of the sixth chapter when the door to the conference room opened. I thought I had locked it when I came in today. When I turned around, it was Max who stood in the doorway with food in his hands. I hadn’t heard anything about him coming back to theoffice.
“When I gave you this assignment, I didn’t expect for you to go all leper on us and lock yourself in here.” Max closed the door with his foot and moved towards me, setting the food down on the table. I didn’t make any indication to move from where Iwas.
“I thought you were avoiding me.” He put a hand onto the back of my chair, but I refused to look up athim.
“I wanted to let you work inpeace.”
“And now?” I was trying to make short conversation as I continued to flip through the manuscript. I didn’t want him to know I had been thinking about him. That this was what I had been wanting, what I had been waiting for while I was working in this office, but now that it was happening, I was chickeningout.
“Are you doing okay?” Max evaded myquestion.
“Yeah, I just have a lot of work to do. Since someone wanted me to work on this by myself with no help at all.” I tried to sound angry, but I was actually happy that this assignment was all my own. I also tried to make him feel a little bitguilty.
“Eat.” Max tore the papers from my hand and motioned to the food in front of me. “Now.”
“Demanding ass,” I whispered under my breath. I picked up the food container, and when I opened it, I was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t Chinese or Japanese food for once. Max had gotten me chicken parmesan. There were also peperoncinis in the container. My stomach growled instinctively. How did he know another one of my favoritedishes?
He didn’t wait for me to start eating before he left. I heard the lock click just right after the door shut. Of course he had a key to get into the room. I didn’t see Max the rest of that day or the next, even though he was back in the office. When Friday came around, I was almost done with the book a second time and had already made adjustments to the royalties. I started prepping for the presentation that Chase said was going to happen onMonday.
I walked into the office on that morning with Lilly and Erica, us all taking the stairs for once. It was my way of getting something of a workout since I had cooped myself up this week and ended up going straight to bed as soon as I gothome.
When I walked into the stairwell, I stopped immediately. Max and Chase were standing there talking in hushed tones. They both looked up at us at the sametime.
“Sorry. We’ll just take the elevator.” I moved back towards the door, trying to push the girls out of the cramped stairwell, but a hand grabbed mine to stop me. I turned around and was too close toMax.
