“Will you stay after and watch a movie again?”
She looked up from the carrots and grinned. “I had Hailey grab me Thor: The Dark World from the library last week. It’s in my car.”
“Excellent. Thor or Loki?”
She snorted. “Loki, of course.”
“You can have the sectional corner today.”
Laughing, she went back to the carrots, hoping he wouldn’t notice the slight tremble in her hands as she sliced. She hadn’t wanted to come today. After her failed attempt to kill her feelings with ice cream, she’d tried to work. She’d actually managed to finish off a job before Max invaded her head again.
It was Sunday and all she could think about was how much teasing he was going to have to suffer through. And they were all his friends and it would all be in good fun, but if it went too far, she knew Max might not be able to cope. Best-case scenario, he went to his room or the basement and collected himself. Worst case, he’d say something wrong and put a strain on friendships that were important to him.
The one thing that would keep them from acting like gossiping frat boys about last night was her being in the room. So she’d sucked it up, put on a happy face and driven to his house.
Back when they were little kids, her parents had brought her for a visit to Whitford. Even though she was a bit older, Tori and Gavin had run wild outside for the entire day, his younger brother, Todd, still being too young, until they’d been called in for dinner. Gavin had then discovered a tick on his testicles and the face he’d made was almost identical to the face Max had made when he saw her. Like he’d found a tick on his balls.
Not one of her finer moments.
But the important thing was that they were back on an even keel, more or less. She just needed to keep it that way.
Butch showed up while she was combining dip mix and sour cream in a bowl. He looked a little rough today, and she wondered how many beers he’d had, trying to keep the cold at bay. For that matter, she wondered how Fran looked today.
“Some party last night,” he said, snagging a pizza roll from the plate Max had just set out. But other than a quick glance at Tori, he said nothing else about it.
Mission accomplished, Tori thought.
Everybody showed up for the game, which kind of surprised her since they’d all had a late night at the lodge. The game was a close one and there was a lot of yelling at the television, but other than a few speculative glances, nothing was said about Max bringing Tori home last night.
Of course, the flip side of the coin was that everybody would consider them a couple now. They’d looked like a couple at the party and then left together. And today she’d been at his house, in his kitchen, like she belonged there.
But being a real couple wouldn’t be as interesting to the gossips, so things would quiet down eventually. As long as she and Max knew what was going on, nobody else mattered.
She breathed a sigh of relief when everybody left. Since she didn’t follow football, she wasn’t sure what was so intense about the game—other than a close score—but they’d been like a pack of feral wolves today. It was so bad she hadn’t even been able to grab a minute with Josh to talk about the ATV club’s logo. They’d chosen one of her designs and he’d wanted to talk to her about the next step in the process, but it was obvious today wasn’t a good time. She was pretty sure she saw Butch actually foam at the mouth at one point.
Paying attention to the movie proved to be a challenge, though. She was in the corner of the sectional and, although he’d chosen the same sofa, he was on the far end. It was like being a million miles away from him and she didn’t like it.
About a half hour in, he hit the pause button. “You seem agitated.”
“The polite thing to do would be pretend you didn’t notice.”
“It would be hard not to. And I thought it would be polite to pause it in case you need to use the bathroom.”
“I don’t have to pee, Max. It’s mental agitation, not physical.”
“Oh.” He started the movie again, then almost immediately hit Pause again. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Not really, but she had to do something. “I’m sorry I was distant this morning.”
“You made it clear it was...a friends-with-benefits thing.”
“To be honest, I was a little thrown off. I guess I have more experience with acquaintances with benefits than good friends, because I felt awkward, too. And when I came out of the bathroom, you seemed so closed off. And I know—I know—you do that when you’re not sure how to act, but I wasn’t thinking about you. I guess I’m not so good at friends with benefits.”
“We could make flashcards.”