And that was the part that was killing me.
I’d allowed my fantasies to pull me from reality. To fool me into thinking that anything that I built with Avery now could somehow be permanent and change his mind from leaving again. Our ‘date’ had been a stark reminder that I needed to get my head on straight and to focus on what really needed to take priority: moving on.
Come the next morning, and with no word from Avery at all, I decided that instead of wallowing in my own self-pity party, I’d be proactive with actually getting the ball rolling on this whole Max thing.
If anyone had the potential to turn my attention elsewhere, I hoped to God it was him.
Max: Hey! Good to hear from you :) Yeah, I’d love to grab dinner. How’s tonight sound?
Me: Sounds perfect. Want to meet somewhere?
Max: How about I pick you up?
I blew out a breath at the offer.
Obviously it was a way for him to have the excuse of dropping me off back home himself and potentially being invited in for something more. An idea that I didn’t exactly hate.
The only problem was, would I be into it?
Would I have Avery off my mind long enough to focus on a new partner and not let that man swarm my thoughts like usual?
I could still feel his hands on me, gripping my face and cock even now almost twelve hours later. Maybe another set of hands could overwrite his. Marking me in the same way his had.
Or maybe it was all a damn pipedream.
Me: Yeah, that sounds good to me. I’ll send you my address. How does 8 sound?
Max: Perfect! Can’t wait to see you :)
“So,this is your second date, then?” my sister asked.
I moved the phone away from my ear to put it on speaker and set it down on my dresser. “Technically, yeah.”
Fishing out a pair of jeans from my dresser and slipping them on, I moved to my closet and swung back the hangers to reach the nicer shirts I had hidden away in the back. Grabbing two of them, I turned to hold them both up to my chest in the mirror.
“What’s with thetechnically?” she said.
“Well, the last time we went out, we got interrupted so it ended early.” Not finding either of them flattering, I tossed both hangers onto the bed and grabbed two more shirts out, doing the same to them in the mirror.
How sad was it that I was stressing out this badly about my date?
The first time I’d gone out with Max, my head had been too preoccupied to really care what the hell was happening. I’d met him straight from work and had figured if he still liked what he saw with my minimal effort, then maybe that made him soulmate material.
Which was a stupid way of viewing it.
The man deserved effort, so that’s what I was going to give him. If I could go out of my way to look nice for Avery, then I damned as hell needed to step up my game for Max. That was the only way I was going to force myself to take this seriously.
“Oh? Interrupted by what? Don’t tell me you scared him off, Bran.”
“No, nothing like that. I just—” I clamped my lips together before I could finish the sentence.
I’d been adamant not to mention anything related to Avery to any of my siblings up until now. Lila would have no idea who I was talking about, but that didn’t mean one of my brothers wouldn’t clue her in after she recounted the story to them.
All eight of us were close, despite us being a large family. Coming together had been tough at first but slowly we’d made our own way, relying on each other as if we’d always been a part of each other’s life since the beginning.
I loved my big family, even if they drove me completely nuts sometimes.
“Uh oh,” she teased. “I sense you’re trying to hide something from me.”
