Chapter Forty-Five
Forty-Five
Somehow Max was resisting calling or texting Stella.
He knew that all he could do now was give her the space to come to the same conclusion he had.
In the meantime, he still had other things to deal with.
For starters, his father had called him to ask if he’d spoken to Miles and what was going on with the company.
Max was surprised Miles hadn’t already told their parents the whole story about him and Stella.
He decided to take the opportunity to get ahead of it and told him the truth himself.
His father wasn’t exactly thrilled to hear about Max’s involvement in the potential downfall of his brother’s company, but he also acknowledged this was a hole Miles had dug himself into, and he’d need to dig himself out.
Still, Max had no doubt that if it came to it, their parents would at least give Miles the shovel he needed to get out of this mess—that is, a very large check.
Max then went to the office and tried his best to work as if it was a regular day and not periodically check his phone.
At some time around lunch, Rashid stopped by his office and dropped a folder onto his desk.
“Remember when you asked about AI medical tech?” Rashid said by way of greeting.
Max picked up the folder and opened it. In the midst of everything else, he’d forgotten that he made this ask of Rashid. It was after he’d told Stella about his mom. He’d gotten to thinking about how he and Miles were tested for a heart condition and wondered why his mother hadn’t gotten the same.
“What’d you find?” Max asked as he flipped through the pages.
“A lot, actually,” Rashid said. “There’s some good tech already out there, but of course most of that exists for the Western world, not the islands in the Caribbean or developing countries.
I think if you wanted to pursue this, there’s definitely a gap there, and using our AI tech could provide research grants as well, offsetting the costs for some hospitals that may not be able to afford it otherwise. ”
Max looked up at that. “Do we have anyone here who’s worked in medical tech before? This isn’t my expertise.”
“Mine either,” Rashid said. “But I think this might be worth expanding for. If we find the right person to head this up, it could be a big move for us. Plus, the good PR wouldn’t hurt.”
Max nodded. “Can you start looking into people? I’ll handle the interviewing myself. I think I want to be hands-on for this one.”
“You mean you’re going to come out from behind that desk and actually work?” Rashid asked. He clutched a hand to his chest. “I’m shocked.”
“Fuck you,” Max said. He continued leafing through the papers. “Do you need this back? I want to read through it all.”
“I’ve got my own copies,” Rashid said. “Let me know when you’re done. There’s some research in there that I found particularly fascinating. Like did you know that AI has significantly improved breast cancer detection? We could create something that actually saves lives.”
Max smiled at the genuine awe in Rashid’s voice. He felt the same way, and for the first time all day, he was excited to dive fully into his work.
The rest of Max’s day flew by, and other than checking his phone when he was leaving the office, he didn’t let himself think too much about Stella and how she hadn’t contacted him yet.
That was probably why it took him by such surprise to find her standing in the lobby of his building.
She was talking to the doorman so she didn’t notice him at first, but even from the back, he could recognize her right away. Max walked up to her, and Ernesto, his doorman, noticed him first.
“Mr. Williams,” Ernesto said in greeting.
Stella turned around so quickly she walked smack-dab into Max’s chest. He chuckled.
“This feels a little like déjà vu,” he said.
“Except less messy, thank God,” Stella said, taking a step back.
There was a hint of a smile playing on her lips, and Max decided to take that as a good sign.
“I’m happy to see you,” he said. “You should’ve told me you were coming.”
“I wasn’t sure if I was, honestly,” Stella said sheepishly.
“I finally forced myself to leave the house this afternoon and see my parents, who somehow heard about everything going on despite neither of them ever fully understanding what Yellow Sparks was. Anyway, I figured it’d be easier to just explain it all in person, and then I kind of have to pass here to get back home, so when I got to your stop, I just got off.
“I figured I’d see if you were home, and if you weren’t, I’d call you later, but if you were…”
“If I was?”
“Well, honestly, I hadn’t really thought that far ahead, so here we are,” she finished. “Can we go upstairs?”
“Yes, of course.”
Instinctively he placed a hand on her lower back, steering her toward the elevators, but he quickly dropped his hand when he realized what he was doing. For the first time, he felt awkward around her. He wasn’t sure if he should, or could, touch her. He didn’t know where they stood.
The elevator ride up was quiet, and when they reached his floor, Max kept his hands to himself as they walked out of the elevator, down the hall, and into his apartment.
As soon as the door shut, Stella whirled on him.
“I love you!”
Her face looked just as surprised as he felt, but then she swallowed and kept talking.
“I love you,” she said again, a bit quieter this time.
“I should’ve just said that yesterday, because I knew I did.
Or do. It was just a lot, you know? I’ve never had anyone tell me they love me like that before, much less say they love me so much that they’ll choose me over their own family.
It was daunting. And honestly, I wasn’t sure I deserve it. ”
“You do,” Max said automatically.
“Right, except that I lied to you,” she said.
Instantly Max started going through every possible lie she could’ve told him, and the worry on his face must’ve been evident because Stella quickly rushed on.
“I think Chelsea maybe said this in her own roundabout way,” she said.
“But I was a virgin when we met. And I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to make things weird, and guys can get so weird about it, but I wanted to tell you because when I was at Red as Sin, I was ready to just get it over with and have sex with anyone willing.
But I am so incredibly happy that that someone was you. ”
The words flew out of Stella on seemingly one long breath, and when she was done, she was breathing hard.
Max waited to see if there was more, but when she said nothing, he almost laughed with relief.
He hadn’t been expecting this exactly, but he also wasn’t totally surprised.
A lot of things started to make more sense, actually, and he felt kind of foolish for not realizing it sooner. Regardless, that didn’t matter to him.
Stepping forward, he took Stella’s face in his hands and told her as much.
“Stella, I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t tell me that before,” he said. “But just so we’re clear, I’m glad I got to be the person to share that with you, and make it a good experience I hope?”
Stella nodded, so Max pushed on.
“That wouldn’t have mattered to me,” he said. “From the moment I met you, I wanted you. At first it was just for the night, and then eventually I knew I wanted to be with you forever. I’m happy I could be your first, but all I care about is being your last.”
“Oh wow,” she breathed. “That was really good.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I didn’t even have to practice.”
That made her laugh, and he caught the sound with his mouth, kissing her deeply. When they finally pulled apart, they were both grinning.
“So does this mean you’re my boyfriend now?” she asked. “I’ve been told we need to define the relationship.”
“Yes, it does,” he said, kissing her again. “Any other questions?”
Stella became more serious as she said, “Have you talked to Miles?”
Max probably should’ve expected the question, but inwardly he still groaned. He loved his brother, truly, but he didn’t want to think about him at the moment.
“No,” Max said. “I talked to my parents, though. He’ll figure it out, Stella, and once he’s calmed down, I’ll reach out to him. You were right, though. I don’t want to lose him, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to coddle him either.”
“Okay, that’s fair,” she said. “I asked because I heard from him, actually. Well, not him directly. Yellow Sparks. An HR person responded to my resignation email and asked if I would come in to speak about my experience on the whole thing. Apparently there’s some investigation happening about how Sparky was used and the contest Miles put together, which I guess he didn’t run by legal? It sounds like a mess.”
“Are you going to talk to them?” Max asked.
“Yeah, Effie’s going to go with me,” she said. “She said we can record the conversation just in case anything fishy goes down, but ultimately I’ve already quit. I’m not sure what else they can do to me because I don’t work there anymore.”
“Well, if you need a lawyer, I know a guy,” Max said, which made her smile.
“Thanks, I’ll keep you posted on that,” she said. “For now, though, I’ve surprisingly gotten a number of interview requests about what went down, and everyone has been sending me writing opportunities so I need to go through those. Who knows? Maybe I won’t be funemployed for long.”
“Funemployed?”
“Fun plus unemployed,” she said like it was obvious. “Jeez, how old are you?”
“Not too old to do this.”
Before she could respond, he was flipping her, carrying her over his shoulder.
“Max, oh my God, put me down,” she said, laughing.
“I will in one second,” he said. And then he carried her to his bedroom and laid her down on the mattress. They didn’t get up again for a while after that.