“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Max. I accept your apology about the misunderstanding at the weekend. I apologise fordoubting you. But dragging this out,” I point between us with my fork, “It’s only going to hurt me more. I can’t be someone you just need to get your end away. I…” I take in a deep breath and exhale slowly. “Please, don’t make this harder than it already is.”
Max picks up his napkin, dabs at his mouth, tosses it on his plate, and takes out his wallet. He calls over the waiter and says, “Can I pay the bill, please? I need to get back to the hotel.”
“No, I can get my own…”
Max puts his hand over mine to stop me. “Call it a goodwill gesture. A token of my sincere apology. I don’t want to be the one to cause you pain, Alexa. I hate to see what this is doing to you. I just hope that we can become friends again. I miss your backchat.”
I smile at him. “I’d like that.”
“Good. Now, I really do have to get back. I’ll catch you later.”
The waiter returns with the bill. Max doesn’t even look at it. He taps his card over the waiter’s machine, and it goes through instantly. I feel guilty because he has hardly touched his lunch. I didn’t mean for him to run away now.
“Thanks for lunch,” I say.
“Anytime.” He winks at me and leaves me sitting like a loner in the café.
It’s only now that I feel like I can breathe properly. Max has a habit of making me lose my breath and forget what day of the week I’m on. I take another bite of my pasta and savour the taste, trying to think about anything other than Max, but I’m fighting a losing battle.
Chapter 16
Max
I’m supposed to be working, but I can’t think clearly. How can I after having lunch with Lexi? Watching her eat is one of the sexiest things I’ve ever witnessed. I spent my lunch hour with a raging hard-on. I walked back to the hotel with a tent in my pants, blue balls, and a fucking pain in my heart. It hasn’t got any better since. I’ve floated through meetings, Zoom calls, and interviews. Now, sitting here with nothing to do, I want to scream, shout, smash something, anything to let go of this frustration I’m harbouring. Why can I not just forget about the past and live for the here and now with Alexa, plan for a future with her, be the person she wants me to be? Because I’m a fucking idiot, that’s why. When I think about my life, I have everything, or so I thought. Now, without Lexi, I feel like I’m missing a piece of myself. Is it one woman who is making me feel this empty? Can Lexi complete me?
I take out my phone and dial my mum’s number. Instantly, I’m sure my mum sits with her phone in her hand all day long, she answers. “Hi, sweetie, how are you?”
“Hi, Mum. I’m good. I thought I’d check in.”
“Uh-huh, I know that tone. You’re not happy. Does this have something to do with that lovely young woman, Alexa?”
“What? How?” I sigh down the line.
“You don’t get to my age without picking things up. I saw the way your eyes lit up when Alexa walked into the lounge. Isaw how you reacted to her when you introduced her to us. Is she giving you a hard time about the bitch that shall not be named?”
My mum always hated Victoria. She was civil because of me, but there was never any love lost. “She believes me. I told her everything.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“I can’t give her what she wants, Mum. She wants to settle down. I’m not boyfriend material.”
“Now you listen to me, and you listen well. You’re an amazing man. All of my boys were brought up the right way. Okay, you’ve had your heart broken in the past, you were made to look like a fool, but look at how far you’ve come. Never give up on the opportunity of love, son. Life can be very lonely on your own. If Alexa could be the one for you, make sure you grasp her with two hands.”
I let my mum’s words sink into that thick skull of mine. “I love you, Mum.”
“I love you too, son. Let me know how things go.”
“I will. Speak soon.”
I hang up my phone, bring up Interflora, and place an order for a large bouquet of flowers to be sent to Lexi, here at the hotel, tomorrow. I’m keeping those lines blurred, but I honestly don’t give a flying fuck anymore. I need to show Lexi that I can be the man she needs and wants, that I can be like one of those characters she reads about, that I’ll do whatever she wants, because a life without her doesn’t seem very interesting anymore.
***
Opening week is always all go, but we’ve run into a few teething problems with maintenance issues. Silly things, but things that guests will notice and look for some kind of reimbursement for. I’ve been talking to a sweet old couple at the reception desk, offering them an extra night on the house with a free three-course meal. You’d think I’d offered them the world. It’s people like that I love to help and make their stay a memorable one. It’s the people who book a hotel stay just to find fault in everything that bother me, and ‘the customer is always right’.My arse.
“That was a nice thing you just did, Maxwell.”
I look over my shoulder at the voice I’ve been missing like crazy. Just the sound of Lexi’s sweet voice makes me smile. It’s the first time she has broken breath to me since the lunch disaster.
