I hope this was the right thing to do. I hope she isn’t upset that I basically just planned this fucking day for her. I hope she’s not pissed because she didn’t get to do her hair the right way, knowing what was going to happen ... Maybe I should’ve told her. Maybe I should’ve asked her to help ...
I leave the top button unfastened and look around for a bottle of water. I know I had one just a second ago.
“Max? Where’s my water?”
“In the refrigerator.”
“Why in the hell is it in there?”
“To keep it cold.” He comes around the corner and looks at me like I might jump out the window. “Relax, Alexander.”
“Stop fucking telling me to relax.”
“Okay. Chill out.”
I roll my eyes but let his comment go. “I keep thinking this was the wrong way to do this. Did I just fuck this up? Tell me the truth.”
He laughs loudly and tosses me a water. “No, you didn’t just fuck this up. This was a veryyouway to do this.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That you do what you want, when you want, and fuck what everyone else says.”
“You make it sound like I’m an asshole.” I take a swig and watch him over the bottle.
“Go figure.”
“Fuck you.”
We both laugh, a bit of stress leaving my body. “Have you seen my cuff links?”
“Yes.”
“Can you leave anything fucking be? For fuck’s sake, Max, I just set them down!”
“Can you put anything away?”
“Uh, no. This is a hotel. Nothing has a place.”
“For the record,” he says, picking up a towel I had used earlier after my shower, “I didn’t move them.”
I ignore him and pick them up as Max’s phone rings.
“Hey,” he says. He eyes me closely, like I might pounce on him. “Yeah, he’s here.”
I place the cuff links back down again and listen.
“No, you can’t talk to him. Why’d Kari even let you call?” He listens a second and starts laughing. “You’re not as different from Cane as I thought.”
“Let me talk to her,” I say, reaching for the phone.
He turns his back and ignores me. “Tradition says you weren’t even supposed to see each other at all today—”
I grab the phone out of his hand. “Fuck tradition.”
Max sighs as I walk across the room, his phone to my ear. “Hey, baby.”
“Cane ...”
