Chapter 16
The last twoweeks seemed to go by in a flash. Max had taken me on a date almost every other night, and I found myself spending less and less time over at Lilly’s apartment. I wasn’t complaining at all, but I could feel the dynamic at work changing. Not just work, though. Everything was changing. I would spend most of my time in the conference room with Max having lunch, and I was definitely craving some girl time. Lilly seemed to understand, but I could see it in her eyes sometimes, that since we were together again, she wanted to spend some more time withme.
“Mexican or Chinese today?” That was Max’s first question to me as he came into my office. I turned away from my laptop, which was sitting next to my work computer. I was caught up on work at the office and was trying to work with a new client for my editing business. I had been working with this business for years, and it was something that I was proud of, but then one day it just seemed like there was so much going on that I couldn’t do anything more with it. I put it to the side, but with editing here at The Ink Well, I seemed to have a lot of time, and not in a bad way. I just seemed to get through projects quicker than expected, but I wasn’t sure I was ready to tell Max about my outside work yet. Lilly knew I had been staying up late working on new novels, when I wasn’t spending the night at Max’s. I had found my niche again, and I was loving every single second ofit.
“Actually, I was hoping to grab lunch with the girls today.” I bit my lip, nervous that he would say no. He looked up from the menus he was holding, with an expression I couldn’t quiteread.
“Oh, yeah, that’s cool. I’ll just meet up with the guys and order takeout instead.” As quickly as he had entered the office, he left. I stared at the door a little too long before texting Lilly that I would meet Erica and her downstairs in the lobby. I wasn’t sure exactly what to feel about how Max had acted. I had wanted to have lunch with the girls, but I didn’t expect him to just blow me off. Were we falling into a rut, where all we did was rely on each other? I just felt that it was too easy for him to walk away likethat.
When all three of us slid into our usual booth in Baker’s, I voiced myconcerns.
“I think something is wrong.” They both looked at me like I was crazy, Lilly with half a bite in her mouth. They waited for me to continue. “I told Max I was going to grab lunch with you guys instead today, and he just said it was cool and walked out. Like, that’s not normal, right? Isit?”
“Well…” I didn’t like how Lilly was starting this conversation. She finished her bite and then continued. “You guys have been glued at the hip. Maybe he just didn’t know how to tell you that he wanted to hang out with theguys.”
“Maybe. But why wouldn’t he just say that? I mean, for us not being together for very long, we have been through a lot, and communication has never been his downfall. In fact, it was the only way I said I would be with him.” I sat in silence until we were finished, letting the girls go on about their day and their food before heading back to theoffice.
My brain kept working itself into a fit about what was happening with Max. I was crazy, I knew that. But it just couldn’t be that simple. I was just overthinking things. No. Something was definitely off. When I walked into my office, I stopped immediately. There were at least 100 sticky notes placed all over the walls. I went up to the first one to readit.
The way you smile.I took it off the wall and went to the nextone.
How your eyebrows scrunch when you are thinking.What the hell were these? I heard the door creak open, and I around to see Max standing there. He looked shrunken down, slowly coming into the room like he didn’t know how I wouldreact.
“I know this sounds corny, but today marks 100 days since I first saw you.” He moved closer to me, taking my hand in his. We were still so far apart and I didn’t understand why. “Along these walls aren’t just 100 things aboutyou.”
“What do you mean?” It was then that he pulled me towards him in one swift move. We were flush against each other. I could feel his heart beating fast under my hands, which were on hischest.
“The things on these walls are 100 reasons why I love you.” I stared around the room at all of the sticky notes again. Who in the world could find 100 things to love about me? I was baffled. Speechless. Max put a hand on my chin and tilted my head towards him. The look on his face melted me. He just kept surprising me more andmore.
“You really loveme?”
His small smile grew instantly. I could feel the tears starting toform.
“I’ve been saying that for a while now.” As quickly as his smile came, it faded just as fast. He could read my mind, I just knew it. He kept saying this word like it wasn’t something that was huge. Like it didn’t change people’s lives, like it could change ours. I was scared shitless of saying those words to him, but each passing day, I knew I wanted to. I knew I wanted to tell him just how I felt, but I didn’t know howto.
“Don’t.” Max’s word took me out of my head. I looked up into Max’s eyes. “Don’t overthinkthis.”
He kissed my forehead and pulled mecloser.
“You don’t have to say it. Ever. If you don’t want to. I just needed you to know how I felt. How much I love you.” I relaxed against him as I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head on his chest. He rubbed his hands up and down my back. This man. He literally thought of everything, and what had I given him? Nothing.Yet.
“Is this why you were acting so weird earlier?” I thought back to him not caring if I went to see the girls, being distant with me. I could feel his smile against my head, where his lipslay.
“I didn’t want to seem too eager to get you out of the office, but you did present the perfect opportunity. I couldn’t let it pass up.” I knew he was pleased with himself, and why shouldn’t he be? This was the most romantic gesture I had ever been given. Even when Adam had proposed to me, it wasn’t anything like this; I had predicted almost everything that Adam had ever tried to do. Max, he was keeping me on mytoes.
“Well, next time don’t act so suspicious. I was going out of my mind trying to figure out what was goingon.”
He pulled me away from him, concern mounting on his face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to dothat.”
“It’s okay. Just don’t do it again.” I slapped his side playfully, letting him know that I was fine now. I truly was. I had no reason not to trust him in what he was doing. Max amazed me at every turn. I shouldn’t have doubted him to begin with. I looked up at him, following where his eyes led. He was looking over at my desk, where I had my laptop open from when I went to lunch. I had forgotten aboutit.
“I saw you were working on something.” Max released me and headed for my laptop. I knew he had probably already seen what was on there, but I didn’t need him to investigate more. He made it to the other side of my desk first, but I reached over the desk and slammed the laptop shut, right before his fingers were about to get caught. His head shot up to me, eyeswide.
“It’s nothing,” I laughed half-heartedly. This wasn’t going sowell.
“Doesn’t seem like nothing.” Max sat back in my chair, kicking his feet up onto my desk, hands behind his head, just waiting for me to explain. I felt like today I had cotton mouth with how I couldn’t get anything out. I huffed out a breath before admitting to what I had beendoing.
“Chase told me the other day that when I finished my books, I could work on what I wanted.” I’m pretty sure he had been talking about work here at the office, but he never directly told me, so I had been bending the rules a little. One of Max’s eyebrows shot up, and that smug smile came out to play. I knew I was going to regret telling him this. “I’ve been working with some of my old clients, and new ones, for my content editingbusiness.”
