After an explanation of last night Sarah’s face never looked more surprised.
“I don’t know whether to be more shocked by your concession or by Jake’s self-control. What a Christmas you two had.”
“Tell me about it.”
Everyone started coming back to the suite, and I noticed that our door had been open the entire time. I didn’t know if Max might have heard anything, as he was sitting on a chair near our room. We walked out of our room and I searched Max’s face but couldn’t read his expression.
We drove to the UNLV stadium to watch our football team. During the ride, my phone went off and my heart raced. It was Jake.
“Hi, Jake. We’re on our way to the stadium. Are you done with work already? How did morning surgery go?”
Jake sounded tired. He had ended up assisting with two more surgeries. We weren’t at the stadium yet so we continued to talk.
“Where are you off to?”
“My house in the Valley. I’m moving my stuff out tonight.”
“You’re moving already?”
“When will you be back? I miss you.” The feeling was mutual.
“We’re here till Monday. I’ll be home by the afternoon. Come over after work. I’ll make you dinner.” I could tell he wasn’t thrilled with me being with Max. He really wanted to come join me. I encouraged him to rest and said good-bye.
“What was that all about?” Sarah was always the curious one. “Where is Jake moving tonight?”
“Jake is leasing out his house in the Valley and moving back into his mom’s house. He wants to be closer to work and to me, I suppose. She lives about five minutes from me. His room at his mom’s is amazing. I don’t know why anyone would want to live elsewhere. His room has to be about a thousand square feet, and it has everything.”
When we got to the stadium we weren’t surprised to discover that Peter got ten tickets all separate from one another. We were separated into groups of three, three, two, and two. Before I could say a word, Peter gave tickets to each of us, and “coincidentally” Max and I got the two seats together quite far from everyone else. I tried to switch seats with Peter, but he ran off with Jeff and Dan before I could finish my sentence. I silently waved good-bye to Sarah and Charlie.
“Em, I guess it’s you and me. Let’s go,” Max said.
I hesitantly followed. What else could I do? On our way to our seats, we stopped by the concession stand and picked up dinner. Fans started packing into the stadium, and Max and I almost lost each other in the rush. He had the tickets so I would’ve been in big trouble if Max hadn’t backtracked and found me. He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me along toward our seats.
Once the game started, we cheered for our team, but couldn’t get a conversation going. I could feel the uncomfortable current between us and tried to replace it with excitement for the football team, but it didn’t work. About twenty minutes into the game, I attempted to have a normal conversation but my first question didn’t come out as casually as expected.
“Hey, Max? Sarah tells me that you and Jennifer broke up. What happened? Was it a mutual parting?” I tried to sound nonchalant. Nonchalant, it wasn’t.
Max appeared uncomfortable and stayed silent for a few minutes. I waited patiently for an answer.
“Jennifer wanted more out of the relationship than I was willing to give her. She wanted to get married and I didn’t. We both thought it would be best if we went our separate ways,” he finally explained.
“Oh,” was all I could say. I felt an odd sense of empathy for Jennifer.
Max stared at me. “What? Why are you making that face? You’re making me feel very defensive.”
“What face?”
“That sad look you have. It’s making me feel like I’m the bad guy.”
I shook my head and chuckled a bit. “I’m empathizing from one ex-girlfriend to another ex-girlfriend.”
This made him mad. “What do you mean, Em?”
Uh-oh. I was in trouble now. I knew he would badger me till I gave him an answer.
“Max, forget I said anything. I’m sorry. Let’s get back to the game.” I tried to divert his anger.
“No, I think we need to talk. Em, I need you to explain yourself to me,” he demanded.
I sighed, regretting having said anything. “OK, I’ll explain myself, but can we do it after the game? I don’t want to bother anyone else around us.”
“You promise? After the game?” Three hours coupled with an exciting football game would hopefully get his mind off this topic.
When we got back to the hotel, Max immediately forced me to go with him to nearest coffee shop for an explanation. His face turned a bright hue like it always did before he exploded. I decided to start talking without any coercion.
“Max, when did you become so sensitive?” Laughing at him didn’t lighten the situation. “I only said what I said because I know how Jennifer is feeling right now.”
“What do you mean?” he asked so innocently.