Page 17 of Out Of Time

“Ready to go?” she said, appearing out of nowhere, snapping him from his inappropriate sex-fueled fantasy of her.

She invited him as a friend. She was his cleaning lady. He had to draw a line in the sand somewhere, right?

“Ready,” he said, noticing they both had a bottle of Pink Whitney to bring to the party.

She tapped her bottle of pink vodka against his. “Twins,” she said with a wink, before leading the way out, locking the doorbehind her, then handing him her house keys. “Can you hold these for me since you have pockets?”

He took the keys without hesitation. “Hope this isn’t offensive, but what are you supposed to be?” he asked incredulously.

Remi took the umbrella she had in her hands, which Max assumed was for the storm that was headed their way and opened it. As soon as the umbrella opened colorful ribbons fell from it. Remi flipped a little switch on the handle and the umbrella lit up. She did a small twirl, making the dangling ribbons dance around her and finally, it all made sense.

“A jellyfish?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She leaned into him and tapped his nose, “Ding-ding-ding.”

“It’s…” he said quietly, “you’re perfect.”

Remi blushed at his compliment.

Maxblushed at his compliment.

And then without another word, they made their way to the party.

The party was… interesting. Max was completely blown away by the outrageous costumes some of these people had come up with. The amount of skin on display was surprising. He had seen a half-naked cop, a half-naked reindeer, a more than half-naked sexy nurse—who was also a man—and a T. rex with a tray of Jello shots. Remi grabbed two of the small plastic cups from the stumbling dinosaur and handed him one.

“On the count of three,” she said.

Max took the plastic cup from her and squeezed it a bit, detaching the sludge from the sides to make it easier to shoot.

“One–two–three!”

They both sucked down the slippery Jello and Max was shocked at how easy it was. Not just the shot, but being at the party, with his cat ears on—that no one even batted an eye at—andbeing with Remi. She made it easy for him. The loud music made it easy. Thealcoholdefinitely made it easy.

“Let’s go out to the patio so we can talk. It’s too loud and stuffy in here,” she said, grabbing him by the hand as she led the way to the beach access patio. His entire body heated at thesimple gesture, her confident grip on his hand, guiding him—he felt safe, even while completely out of his comfort zone.

“I can’t believe it’s going to rain tonight. The weather’s been so unpredictable,” she said.

“I like the rain,” Max said, watching as Remi brought her bottle of vodka to her lips, taking a long swig before handing it to him. He lifted the bottle and did the same, the vodka warming his insides.

“Don’t you have a game tomorrow night?” she asked.

“I do, but I’m not getting the start in front of the net. It’s probably not the best decision I’ve made in my lifetime, drinking straight from the bottle the night before a game, but I think I can handle a little hangover from the bench.”

Remi looked up at him, and her smile softened. “Yeah, the wholebenchthing,” she said, “we don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. About hockey and all that. We can save it for another night.”

Maybe it was the liquor, maybe it was Remi, or maybe it was the cat ears causing him to feel so bold, but Maxdidwant to talk about it. He wanted to get it off his chest, say it out loud to someone,anyone, because carrying it alone had become so heavy.

“I think there's something wrong with me, with my health,” he admitted, not wanting to be too specific.

Remi’s entire body tensed up at his confession.

“Like, I think I need to see a doctor or something, to be honest,” he confessed, breaking her gaze to look down at his blurry feet. The party raged on, but suddenly the space around them seemed to go silent and still.

“Max…” she said, encouraging him to go on, to give her more, to say everything he was hiding.

“It’ll be okay, I don’t think it’s something that’s going to kill me. I plan to make an appointment soon,” he said, pulling backfrom the conversation by offering her a simple solution, one he wasn’t even sure he was ready to hold himself accountable to.

Remi nodded her head encouragingly, but he didn’t miss the way her entire demeanor had changed at his confession.

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