“I just think this is a terrible idea, for you guys to work together and—”
“Fuck each other?” I interrupted. “You can say it. I’m sorry you miss out on the verb all the time. Must be hard having a fire crotch.”
He opened his mouth to say something, and I knew what too, but Perry was quick and leaned toward him. “My foot is aimed at that same shin, so you better watch it.”
He sighed and leaned back in his chair, running his oversized hand through the red sea on his head. “When did the two of you become so volatile?”
“When you started insinuating shit and threatening to tell Jimmy that Perry and I are together. When did you start caring so much about what we do?”
“When I had to work with you.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. There was something hesitant in his eyes, the twitch of his brows. There was something else but I wouldn’t get at it tonight.
“Anyway,” I went on. “So what is the deal with Rose? You banged her and then what? Banged someone else? She banged someone else? She was your one and only unrequited love?”
His eyes darkened over that last part and I admit I felt a little bad. It was enough to shut me up.
He licked his lips. “We dated and we broke up. It didn’t end well.”
“Who broke up with who?” Perry asked.
“Does it matter? What’s done is done.”
I felt like asking the serious question. “Are you still in love with her?”
He gave me a wry look. “What do you think? No. I got over that shit a long time ago. I had to. It’s just a bit weird to be back here and back with her. She’s changed, too.”
The waitress brought over our food and I doused my crispy oysters with Louisiana hot sauce before asking, “How so?”
“She’s harder. That’s all.”
“So she wasn’t always the type to want to blow my head off with a shotgun?”
He smiled, close-lipped. “I reckon not.” His smile faded and he paid attention to his food. “But I guess I’ve changed too.”
“Well you’ve obviously upped your jackass levels.”
“Yeah. I guess this is just what people call the human experience,” he said before shoving a large shrimp po-boy in his mouth. He took a huge bite and sighed happily. “Now this tastes like home.”
But with cryptic comments like that, sometimes I had to wonder where exactly Maximus’s home really was.