Page 80 of Love or Leave

Antonio reached out and hugged her, pressing his heart against hers. "I want to be your boyfriend."

They held each other for a long time before pulling away just enough to kiss. When he finally let her go, she thought she might float away.

She had a boyfriend, and he was perfect for her. Maybe the circumstances they'd come together under weren't ideal, but they would make it work.

They sat on the bed and made a quick plan for how to tell Max. Antonio said he'd call him tomorrow and arrange a time to get together to discuss.

Then they kissed goodbye, and he left. Now all she had to do was officially break things off with Jalen—and hope that Max would take their news well.

twenty-two

Antonio grabbed a steaming cup of coffee and sat at the desk in the back of the emergency room. He had about a million things to get done. Normally, everything would have overwhelmed him, but a calm wash of peace settled over him after Cara agreed to be his girlfriend the night before, and he doubted anything could disturb it.

Every problem in his life was finally falling into place.

His future was brighter than ever with Cara. Sure, they'd got off to a rocky start, and she hadn't seemed one hundred percent convinced of his motivations, but he was certain that once Max was in the loop and everyone got over the shock of it all, they would move on and be better than ever.

All he had to do was come clean to Max and assure him he wouldn't ever hurt Cara. Which would be easy enough, since that was the very last thing he'd ever do.

He took a drink of his coffee and pulled out his phone. There was a never-ending list of things he needed to get done, and heonly had about twenty minutes before rounds, so he started on it.

He emailed his new landlord to confirm the time he'd arrive to move in that weekend. He ordered more moving boxes, and he replied to the group chat message that Chelsea had sent, officially inviting him to their rehearsal dinner.

He couldn't wait to go to the rehearsal with Cara as his date. Actually, there were a lot of things he couldn't wait to do with Cara. He'd already started brainstorming date ideas he could take her on, since they hadn't had a proper first date yet.

They could go stargazing. And out for dinner where he could look at her without being secretive about it. He could find out if there was a board game night coming up somewhere.

It was nice to think about it all. But before he could actually start his relationship with her properly, he had to jump the last hurdle with Max.

But how?

He wanted to do it face to face, not over the phone. He checked the time. After work would be okay, he could go to the pub. A public place with witnesses would probably be prudent.

He took a few deep breaths, then hit the call button on his cell.

Max answered after the first ring. "Hey."

"Hey, how's it going?"So far, so good.

"Good," Max said. "What's up?"

Okay, here we go."Just wondering if you want to grab a beer later."

"Can't. I have sound therapy with Willow and Jer tonight," he said.

Antonio laughed.

"You wanna come?"

Shit. He really wanted to be alone to talk to Max about it, but not with Willow and Jer around. It was bad enough Adam andEthan knew already. But he couldn't really do anything about that.

"No, that's okay," Antonio said. "I've got a lot of packing to do. Maybe I could stop by tomorrow?"

"I have meetings all day tomorrow. How 'bout Sunday?"

"I'm moving to my new apartment Sunday morning, but I can—"

"I'll help you move," Max said.

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