“Bye, Max.”
He hit the button to end the call and set the phone on the counter. He was conflicted—part of him happy that she sounded okay and wanted to remain friends, and another part angry that she was okay because he didn’t want to be just friends.
Being conflicted made him anxious, so he rolled up his sleeves to do some cleaning. Anything to calm the jumpiness he’d been feeling since Josh had given him hope that all wasn’t lost with Tori.
It wasn’t until he went to take the garbage bag out of the can and saw the bulletin board on the fridge that he realized he hadn’t made out his lists for November. He’d been too busy getting ready for the Halloween party.
Staring at October’s lists, he looked at what he’d written over a month before.
Find a date.
He’d never even bothered to cross it off. Ripping the page off the bulletin board, he crumpled the paper in his fist and threw it across the room.
*
Tori walked out of her apartment not even five minutes after hanging up the phone. Now that she’d heard Max’s voice, she needed to see him. She had things to say that weren’t meant for cell phone conversations.
During the drive to his house, she tried to imagine what she might say to him, but it didn’t matter. She knew as soon as he opened the door and she looked into those intense green eyes, she would forget anything she rehearsed anyway.
All she could do was hope that when the time came, she’d find the right words to say.
When she’d hung up on her mother, the tight and suffocating fear had started loosening its hold on her. Love hadn’t poisoned her parents. They were, as Max had said that day in the grass, just simply assholes. Acknowledging it and cutting it out of her life had felt like cutting loose a cement block tied around her ankle, slowly dragging her under.
But it was seeing his name on her cell phone’s screen, and his quiet voice asking her if she was okay that had pulled her to the surface.
She pulled into his driveway and took a deep breath before getting out of the car. Then, hoping she wouldn’t get the same reaction she had the last time she showed up unexpectedly, she knocked on the door.
Max opened it, and his expression gave her nothing to go on. Somehow that was even worse than horror. His hair was tousled and his sleeves were rolled up, which was probably the most disheveled she’d ever seen him outside of bed.
Knowing he was probably trying to process the fact she was standing on his step rather than being rude by not saying anything, she smiled. “Can I come in?”
“Oh. Of course.”
She followed him into the house and closed the door behind her. He leaned against the stove, his hands clasped.
“I’m sorry, Max. I’m sorry I let a relationship that had nothing to do with us torpedo ours.”
“It didn’t have nothing to do with us. They’re your parents.”
“I told her I didn’t want to hear it anymore. I hung up on her.”
“That was probably very hard. I’m sorry she made it come to that, but I think you’ll be happier.”
“I already am. I realized, afterward, that I’m not even capable of being like her. I could never behave like that to anybody. Especially you. And it was always about me and my fear of becoming my mother. I was afraid I’d hurt you, but I never believed you’d hurt me. I hope you know that.”
“I know that sometimes things happen in life that cause fears that don’t make sense to anybody else, but that doesn’t make them any less real. I hope recognizing that what happened between your parents—and you—isn’t normal helps.”
“It did. But it was you. I freaked out and was totally unreasonable—and yes, I admit that—and I hurt you, but you still called to make sure I was okay. I trust you and you helped me trust myself.
“I love you, Max. I’m sorry I was too afraid to tell you that. I was so afraid to admit it to myself. But you are...amazing. There’s nobody else I’d rather spend time with and you’re not only my friend. You’ve become my best friend.”
Finally, he moved toward her. Putting his finger under her chin, he tipped her face up and looked her in the eye. “I love you, too, Tori. I’ve waited my whole life to find you.”
Relief flooded through her, making her knees weak.
Max was hers. Sweet, shy, sexy Max who hated the way she loaded his dishwasher but didn’t say so because he was willing to make room for her in his regularly scheduled life.
“I guess Operation—Makeover Max is a qualified success,” she said.
He winced. “It had a name?”
“Of course. Everything’s more fun when it has a name.”
“Why is it qualified?”
She grinned. “Well, I was supposed to make you over, not the other way around.”
“I got a date to agree to let me take her home while I was wearing a Hannibal Lecter mask. I’m calling it a win.”