CHAPTER THIRTEEN
An emotion flitted across his face so quickly that I couldn’t register what it was. But then he smiled and said, “Of course. Who couldn’t use more friends?”
Happy, relieved, and disappointed. All at the same time.
“That’s what I always say! Although I haven’t had the easiest time making friends since I moved here. The people I get along with the best also don’t want to leave their houses.”
“Is that why you’re close with your roommate?”
“Yes, it makes it much easier when you both don’t want to go out and you live in the same place.”
He grinned and said, “Tell me about her.”
My hackles went up. I reminded myself that I was not allowed to be suspicious or to ask him why, as if I were jealous. Which I was. Although I figured I probably shouldn’t act that way with him right after I’d said I wanted us to be just friends. Talk about a mixed message.
It was just that guys always went for Vella, and much as I loved her, I wanted to keep Max for myself. Even if we were only going to be pals. “She’s scary smart, but never really finishes anything. I always joke that she has a black belt in Partial Arts. She is the most sarcastic person I’ve ever met. If snark was a science, she would have her PhD. She tries to scare people off, but she’s a big old softie underneath. When I first met her, I was kind of worried that she was going to kill me and make it look like an accident, but she’s great now.”
“She doesn’t really seem like the kind of person someone like you would be friends with.”
Our day doorman, Yiannis, had once referred to us “Workaholic Barbie” and “Scary Goth,” so Max wasn’t the first person to comment on it. “That’s fair. But we just really click and enjoy spending time together. She always says we balance each other out. She makes me be more realistic and I keep her from committing homicide.”
He laughed and I loved that he got my sense of humor. I’d been on a couple of dates where I’d made the same kind of Vella-inspired dark joke and had been met with a strange silence.
“Are you busy now?” he asked, and it was such a sharp turn from where our conversation had been headed that it took me a second to respond.
“I still have to feed my boss’s pets.”
He frowned slightly. “I haven’t seen any pets.”
“Come with me. I have to grab their food in the kitchen. They’re in Adrian’s ...” I wasn’t going to say man cave to Max. Mostly because he didn’t seem like a video gaming / loud movie sort of guy. More of the reading a good book by a roaring fire while looking extremely sexy type. I swallowed down that image and finished my sentence. “They’re in Adrian’s office.”
“What kind of pets does he have?”
“A python and three sharks.”
“Did you say ‘sharks’?” Max asked behind me as we went into the kitchen. “Is he a supervillain? Am I in a lair right now?”
I laughed, ready to agree that Adrian’s place did have that chrome-and-white furniture one would find in a lair when I heard a grunting sound and then a loud thud.
Max was laid out flat on the tile, blinking up at me.
What had happened? I glanced down and realized that I hadn’t mopped up all of the water from when I’d taken care of the plants.
“I am so sorry,” I told him, crouching down next to him on the floor. “I spilled some water earlier and I thought I got it all. Are you okay?”
He gave me a devastating smile. “I’m fine. It isn’t the first time I’ve hit my head.”
He hit his head? Now I felt worse and kept apologizing, but he brushed it off and slowly got up.
“Are you sure you’re okay? I’m so sorry that I caused you bodily harm.” It was like I’d ripped a hole in Van Gogh’s The Starry Night .
“Everly, I’m fine,” he said with a gentle smile. “Now what were you doing in the kitchen? Other than bowling me over?”
I appreciated that he was teasing to lighten the mood, but I still felt bad. “The food is in the freezer. A mouse for the python, and shrimp and tilapia for the sharks.”
It didn’t take me long to locate the packages, as they were the only things kept in the freezer besides vodka. Adrian always ate out. But I stood in front of the freezer for a moment, letting the cold air blast against my face.
Regal and confident, I reminded myself as I closed the freezer door.
“This way,” I said, and we left the kitchen.
But I was so scattered that I was heading in the wrong direction. I had gone down the hall that led to the bedrooms and came to a sudden stop, twirling around.
I’d only managed to say, “Whoops, wrong—” before I turned and crashed into Max, pressed flush against him.
He grabbed me by my elbows and held me in place so that I wouldn’t fall. Our faces were so close together that I could smell the minty toothpaste he must have used before coming over here. I desperately hoped he couldn’t smell the calzone I’d eaten earlier.
His sweet, warm breath caressed my face, and my heart started to pound against my ribs, like it was trying to break free. Our chests were pressed together and I prayed he couldn’t feel my reaction to him.
My skin burned where his fingers held on to me, and blood rushed into my ears so that for a few moments all I could hear were my own ridiculously loud, harsh breaths.
I swallowed down a gulp and looked up into his sparkling blue eyes. Something in his expression made the air in my lungs solidify and my lips tingle in anticipation.
I had never wanted to be kissed so badly in my whole life.
“You good?” he asked in a low voice that made all of my nerve endings light up.
“I ...” I was never going to be good again. Without my permission, my body leaned into his so that I could revel in his strength, and in the planes and ridges of his body that felt so delicious against my own softness. He made a sound in the back of his throat that had my stomach tightening in response.
This was an impossible situation. I didn’t want to waste any more time on men who were not interested in dating me. He’d just told me he was only looking to have fun. I couldn’t kiss him and recover from that. If I crossed that line, we would have to stop being friends, and I wanted to be his friend.
“I’m good,” I finally managed to breathe while disengaging myself from him. I was not a clumsy person, but his touch made me feel like he’d detached my central nervous system from the rest of my limbs and I was no longer in control of them.
I had managed to drop the food on the floor and stooped down to pick it up, grateful for the distraction from my thundering heartbeat and shaky extremities.
Unfortunately, Max bent down to help me and I miscalculated how close he was and we smacked our foreheads into each other. I yelped and we both apologized at the same exact time.
“Let me get it,” he said, and I quickly stood, ignoring the blood rush from standing up too quickly combined with the heat of him being so close. I put a hand over my forehead and wondered if that ringing feeling was from bumping heads with him or just from his nearness.
I dropped my hand when he straightened up. I didn’t need him to check in on me. I would be fine.
Eventually.
“Which way?” he asked.
“Over here,” I said, and walked quickly to Adrian’s man cave ... er, office. I opened the door and went inside.
One entire wall was devoted to Adrian’s saltwater aquarium.
Max let out a low whistle. “How big is that?”
“Hundreds of gallons? Thousands? I’m not really sure.” My brain still felt disconnected from the rest of me. I got out the step stool and opened the cabinet doors above the aquarium to throw in the food. Two of the sharks were extremely interested in what I was doing, but even if the third one was ignoring me, they’d all eat every last bite.
After I finished, I found Max studying the python in his terrarium behind Adrian’s desk. A desk that was for looks only, because as far as I could tell, Adrian had never actually used it.
I hated feeding the snake. I knew he wasn’t going to leap out and bite me on the face, but I still pictured it every time I had to open the top of his terrarium.
“Here, let me,” Max said, gently taking the package from my hands and opening it. I had no idea how he could tell that I was afraid, but I was thankful for his assistance.
After he’d put the frozen mouse in and reclosed the top, he said to me, “I thought you loved all animals.”
“I’m willing to make an exception for snakes. I have always been afraid of them. One of the two things Indiana Jones and I have in common.”
“What’s the other?”
“I look great in a fedora,” I said, and he laughed. I took the wrappers from him and threw them away in the trash.
He looked around the room, taking in the expensive stereo system, the gaming consoles, the imported Italian leather armchairs, the custom-made pool table. “Your boss has a lot of money.”
There was a disapproving note in his voice and I wondered what it was. That Adrian wasted it? It would be hard to argue with that.
Or was Max, like Vella, against people having a lot of money? Given his line of work, maybe he was thinking how many people he could have helped with what Adrian had spent in here.
Strangely enough, despite the fact that I’d defended Adrian every chance I got to my mom and Vella, I didn’t want to defend him to Max.
“I would say he should get to spend it how he wants since he earned it, but he didn’t really do that. Everything he has was given to him.” It was easily the most disloyal thing I’d ever said about my boss.
But I didn’t even feel guilty about it.
“And you don’t respect that?”
“I like it when people make their own way in the world instead of relying on a trust fund.”
“Me too,” he said with a nod. “I find it very impressive.”
His eyes met mine and another charged moment passed between us. The air felt heavy, like something exciting was about to happen, and my brain turned sluggish, hazy, ready to slip into some netherworld where the only thing that would matter would be Max’s lips on mine.
“When it comes to furniture, I much prefer comfort over aesthetics,” he said. There was something in his voice that pierced through my befuddled mind and revved my adrenaline up, even though he was saying something ordinary with no subtext to it whatsoever.
“Me too,” I whispered, and that connection I felt to him, like we were similar in so many ways, overwhelmed me.
He took a step toward me and my heart stopped.
“I’m, uh, going to wash my hands,” I said. “The bathroom is this way.”
Needing to escape, I left the room and went into the guest bathroom, turning on the faucet and pumping out some liquid soap. Max stood just behind me, waiting for his opportunity to do the same.
After I dried my hands off, he entered the bathroom just as I exited it, which caused us to have to brush past each other again, and despite the fact that we were both fully clothed, every inch of my skin prickled with delight, as if he were making skin-on-skin contact.
“Excuse me,” he said, right as I managed a “Sorry.”
I went out into the hallway and leaned against the wall as I closed my eyes, asking for heaven to give me strength.
Because I wanted to go back into that bathroom and throw myself at Max Colby.
What was wrong with me?
I tried to catch my breath while reminding my overeager body of the facts.
He was out of my league.
I’d had feelings for Adrian five minutes ago and was basically transferring my crush from him to someone else because he’d gotten engaged, which wasn’t fair to Max or to me.
Max had an army of women texting him. I wasn’t willing to be one of many.
But most importantly? He had just agreed with me that he wanted us to be only friends.
I was not going to be this pathetic.
He came out into the hallway and I immediately straightened, smiling at him. “Thanks so much for helping me. I should walk you out.”
Before he could respond, I headed to the front door and opened it. This was better. I knew that Max couldn’t be interested in me that way, and as much as I’d enjoyed talking to him and seeing him, this was it and I had to accept that.
Better to end things now, on a high note, than to have a thoroughly regretful interaction that I’d run through my head over and over again every night just before I fell asleep for the next ten years.
I did allow myself to feel sad that I wasn’t going to get to hang out with him again. I knew that maybe we’d text occasionally until he picked one woman in his rotation to be his new girlfriend, and I’d have to content myself with that.
He got his phone and his coat, which effectively snuffed out any sad hope I might have had that he’d forget them again and make it so I’d get to see him a third time. I drank in his masculine beauty, feeling a little depressed this was my last opportunity.
But when he came over to the door, he stopped. “Now that you’ve fed the pets, are you free?”
“For what?” I asked, bewildered, my heart throbbing from him standing so close to me.
“Last night you offered to be my personal New York City tour guide. I was wondering if I could take you up on your kind offer this afternoon.”