Page 40 of For All It's Worth
Max drove us the short distance to the furniture store, insisting that we would need the car to transport our purchases. I couldn’t fault his logic and was grateful that he wanted to drive so I didn’t have to use the car service.
My thoughts were spinning at that near kiss.Itwasgoing to be a kiss, wasn’t it? Had he meant to lean into me like that? Had he felt the electricity between us?
Up ahead, I could see the sprawling modern building of the store Max had recommended. Lots of light brick and windows made up half of the bottom floor. Max had explained that the bedroom furniture was on the second floor, along with a pretty decent café that stocked the same beans that he’d used. In fact, he told me, that was who had connected him to the supplier when he’d been buying sofas for Books & Biscuits.
I’d been on a few of those shopping trips but didn’t remember coming to this store. I wanted to ask him but was worried that one of my binges had stolen the memory for me.
“The building looks great. I haven’t had a chance to visit it since they reopened.”
“Reopened?”
“Oh, they had a store a few streets away and they outgrew it, so had this custom-built. I’ve been following them on social media since I opened my place. They found this unit, knocked it down, and rebuilt something to their specifications. It was really cool, they did polls on cladding and stuff. When they finally opened a couple of weeks ago, they did a video tour.”
“Cladding?”
“The…uh…outside of the building. Like the wood details.” I explained.
“Ah, right. So that’s why I don’t remember this place, then.”
Max reached over and patted my thigh. “You were never drunk when we went shopping to furnish my place. Stop second-guessing yourself. You weren’t nearly as bad as everyone is making out.”
I put my hand over his and squeezed. His faith in me had gotten me through so much. I didn’t deserve him and I knew he wasn’t lying. If Max believed that I hadn’t been that bad, then I wasn’t. He grew up with an addict so he would know; his mom had liked to hit the bottle.
My words, when they finally came out, were choked with emotion, “Thanks, I needed to hear that.” I took a minute to think about what I wanted to say, but then it just burst from me. “It’s like everyone is blaming the attack on me. Yes I was drunk, and yes I’d been thrown out of that club, but it doesn’t mean it’s right that I got mugged. I didn’t ask for it. Maybe I shouldn’t have fought back, but I just wanted the watch. They had everything else.” A sob choked me and I was unable to swallow it down.
Max pulled over just a street away from our destination, quickly switched off the engine, and crawled into my lap.
His movements shocked me into stillness and he wrapped himself around me, muttering soft words I couldn’t catch into my neck.
Hesitating for another moment, I broke out of my confusion and wrapped him up tightly against me.
This is what I want, for always.
A knock on the window startled us both and we pulled apart, though Max was still in my lap.
A parking enforcement officer was pointing at theNo Parkingsign with a no-nonsense look on her face. “Sorry, I’m just moving. Don’t give me a ticket, please!” Max shouted, his voice becoming higher pitched with panic, as he moved back into the driver's seat, quickly snapping on his seatbelt and starting up the car.
The woman moved on and I couldn’t help but catch the humored look on her face. Max was the color of a tomato and it was so adorable I couldn’t help but laugh the rest of the way to the store as he barked at me to stop. Before long, he was laughing with me.
The store didn’t seem busy from the look of the half-empty parking lot, but during the workday on a Thursday was likely to be quiet, I guessed.
Max looked like he wanted to say something as he parked and switched off the car. He started to speak, but another tap on the window interrupted us again.
“Max! Hey.” The guy at the window was young-looking, likely just out of high school.
Max unbuckled his belt and opened the door, motioning for me to do the same.Okay then, guess we will talk about this later.
“Hey, Noah.” Max greeted the young guy with a fist pump and a laugh. “This is Charlie, I don’t think he was here last time I was. Charlie, Noah is the owner’s grandson.” Giving Noah his full attention, he asked, “You here full time now?”
“Yeah, graduated high school last year and deferred for a year to travel but didn’t get far.” He laughed, turning to include me in the conversation. “Turns out I’m the worst flier. Ever.” He shrugged casually. “So I came home and Grandpa put me to work.”
The kid seemed okay, down to earth, and there was a real affection when he mentioned his grandpa.
“Let’s get out of the sun,” Noah suggested. The April sun was beating down on us, making me long for air conditioning. Noah led us into the blissfully cool building. The interior was set out in mock rooms to display the furniture as if it was in your home, and it was tastefully done in a variety of styles.
“I was just helping a customer with a rug. Didn’t think it would fit in her car but we managed. You here for stuff for the café?” Noah asked Max.
“We’re here for me,” I cut in. “I need bedroom stuff.”
