Page 72 of Sparks Fly
Max snapped his fingers. “You guessed it. I went to grab breakfast at a diner after that and stuck around there for a bit to explore. I rarely make it down here these days so I went to the library by the park—”
“Oh, the Central Library? That’s my favorite,” Stella said.
He passed her a pile of folded clothes, and she slipped them into her laundry bag as he continued.
“Right again,” he said. “It was huge. I don’t think I knew it was that big.”
“Yeah, it’s incredible, and they’re always having events there,” she said. “Did you go to the museum? It’s right down the block.”
“I did not make it there,” he said. “I kind of got lost in the library.”
Stella glanced over at him. “Nerd.”
Max only laughed as he continued folding. They fell into a content silence as they worked, and it was a moment before Stella found the courage to speak again.
“Could I ask you a maybe personal question?”
Max looked over at her as he passed her more folded clothes.
“Sure, ask away.”
Stella took the clothes from him, pushing them down into the bag so she wouldn’t have to look at him as she asked, “What was your life like before you were adopted?”
There was only so long Stella could pretend to fiddle with the laundry bag, so she looked over at him as she waited for his answer. His hands had paused their folding, and at first she didn’t think he’d say anything at all, but then his hands began moving again and he spoke.
“It was good,” he said. “Very…different. From what I remember, which isn’t much.”
“How old were you when you got adopted?”
“Seven,” he said. After a beat he said, “Miles was only four.”
Stella had pushed Miles so far out of her mind when it came to his relationship to Max that it took her a second to remember who he was.
“What happened?” Stella asked. “That led to you being adopted, I mean.”
Max sighed and closed his eyes, his body tensing in a way she hadn’t seen before.
“Sorry, you don’t have to tell me,” she said quickly. “I don’t know why I asked.”
“No,” Max said. He put down the sweater he’d been holding and faced her. “I’m glad you asked. Most people either already know my story because they’ve been in my life for so long or they googled me. I haven’t actually told this story in years. Most of the time, I don’t even think about it if I can help it.
“But I want to tell you.” He looked around the Laundromat, which had begun filling up with people, and added, “Though maybe not here. Why don’t we finish this, drop off your clothes, and I take you out to dinner?”
Stella nodded. “I’d like that.”
Thirty-Six
The moment Stella asked about Max’s past, it was like something inside him cracked open and he didn’t know how to close it back up.
Max’s parents had put both him and Miles in therapy when they were kids to deal with the trauma of losing their mother so suddenly and then being adopted and brought to a new country, all within a month. Thanks to that, he felt mostly well adjusted and didn’t spend too much time dwelling on his past, because he didn’t see the point in it.
What happened happened, and now he was here with his brother and they had a good life. There was no point in getting caught up in what could’ve been or what their life was like before.
However, as he sat across from Stella at dinner, waiting for their drinks to arrive, the silence between them growing, Max struggled to find a way to start telling her what had happened.
He flinched when he felt Stella’s hand cover his. She jerked her hand back.
“Sorry,” she said.
