“I think it’s beautiful. There was obvious care put into the craftmanship of this place,” I look up at the ceiling and smile at the exposed wood beams.
“Don’t tell Andy that,” Max laughs. “It’ll go straight to his head. This was his first project where his boss let him help with the design.”
I keep exploring, making my way over to the kitchen and the dining room. They have a huge oak table, covered in pizza boxes and random pieces of mail. I look over at Max and he flushes while shooting me a sheepish grin.
“I swear I would have cleaned up if I thought I had any shot of actually getting you here tonight,” he says seriously. “We’re not always this bad.”
I had been to enough house parties in guy houses to know that this was true. A little messy, but not completely filthy. It could be a lot worse.
“It’s fine,” I assure him with a small smile. “You thought about bringing me here?”
“Well sure,” Max grins. “However I could. Even if you were just coming over as friends to watch the hockey game.”
Perhaps it is because of the few drinks I had tonight, or myadrenaline was still spiked from my run in with Chuck, but I was feeling a little bold. “Is that what we are Max? Friends?”
I saunter over to where Max is standing in the dining room. I watch as his Adam’s apple bob as he swallows. “I’ll be whatever you want me to be, gorgeous.” His voice is husky.
“Well, that’s perfect because right now I need a tour guide,” I tease, completely changing my tone. “What have you got going on upstairs?”
With a smirk, he takes my hand. “Let me show you.”
The upstairs is exactly what you would assume it would be. A long hallway, with several doors. Max points out Ben and Andy’s room, both just as messy as downstairs, then takes me to the door at the very end of the hall and opens it.
It is completely empty. But it is also probably the coolest part of the house he has shown me so far. The far wall has a large window in the center with an alcove for sitting and is surrounded by built in bookshelves. The walls on either side are also empty, floor to ceiling bookshelves.
“This is supposed to be a library,” Max says. “All my books are packed up in my parents’ basement though and I never seem to find the time to get them here.”
“This is beautiful,” I say while staring at the room in awe. I slowly spin around to take everything in, and I catch Max staring at me with a warm smile on his face.
“Yeah, it is.” He says softly.
“You must bring your books here immediately. A library this beautiful does not deserve to sit empty,” I admonish him.
“Well, I don’t know about immediately, but you are absolutely right.” He laughs, then adds “Would you want to help me? I’ll let you borrow any books that catch your eye.”
“It’s a deal, Max.” I smile warmly at him.
He lets me look out the window for another moment before leading me away, “There’s one more room to show you up here.”
I already know where this is going, and I’ve decided I am totally ready for it.
Max leads me to his bedroom, letting me enter first. Comparedto the rest of the house, it’s actually pretty clean. Maybe Max is the neat one out of the three of them.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Max says. “It’s the cleanest room in the house, right?”
I snort a laugh. “Yeah, that is exactly what I was thinking.”
“Andy lost a bet to me, and now he’s got to clean my room for me once a week for the next year. I guess today was that day because it did not look like this when I left this morning,” he tells me as he laughs along with me.
“What was the bet?” I turn around to face Max and he is shutting the door.
Amusement flashes across his face. “That I wouldn’t be able to find a new employee for the rink by only putting a help wanted sign in the window.”
“You’re joking.”
“Nope. He called me, and I quote, a ‘fucking dinosaur’, and that no one is walking around town looking for help wanted signs anymore.”
He moves closer to me, “It seems to have worked out just fine for me. I wasn’t expecting to win that one.”
