Page 871 of One More Kiss

“I didn’t really work with him. Only met him a couple times.”

Ask my brother what he was like.

And on and on. Max needed to put the old life behind him, the one where he might have gone to prison for something he didn’t do to protect his brother for things he did.

Samuel was the one who’d attended Communist party meetings. But it was Max, nearly the mirror image of his twin, who’d been accused of the activity.

And now he was here, trying to forget the life he’d loved and left behind to maintain his freedom.

Max paid for their meal and the two men walked to campus in silence. At the edge of the park, illuminated only by the street lamps flanking the entrance to the college across the road, Clyde stopped.

Max did, too. “Something wrong?”

“No. I want to…need to ask you something. But I’m unsure how.” Clyde’s voice was barely audible.

“Say it. No need to mince words.”

“I can’t, so maybe this will be enough.”

Max found his back pressed against a tree, with Clyde’s mouth on his, tentative and soft.

He pushed at Clyde’s shoulders, not too roughly, but hard enough to make his point. “I’m sorry. I’m not…”

“Oh my God. Shit. Hell. Damn it!”

“Hey, hey.” Max reached out a hand to calm his assistant. “It’s fine. I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression. My brother—I wish you could meet him. I think you’d hit it off swimmingly.”

“Shut up. Shut up!” Clyde whispered harshly. “This is bad. So bad.”

“Look, Clyde. No worries. I won’t tell anyone. I promise.” Max understood this secret was a hard one for Clyde to hide, concealing who he was for a society intent on punishing him for it.

“Okay. Okay. Okay. I’m going to go now. Let’s not talk about this tomorrow. Or ever. Please.” The last word was a prayer if Max had ever heard one.

He nodded vigorously in acceptance of the terms.

In a flash, Clyde was gone, sprinting from the park toward the dorms, leaving Max standing alone wondering what really would come next. He put one foot in front of the other, walking back to his small bungalow a few blocks away on the east side of campus. When he looked up though, he found himself not at the small house that came with the job, instead facing another home, this one slightly larger. The house Lu shared with the dean’s secretary.

A light was on in one room, on the corner of the home. The silhouette behind the shade revealed it to be Lu’s room, or at least one she was in at the moment.

Common sense told him to turn around and find his way home. But common sense be damned. Tonight, he would find out exactly how her devil-red lips tasted.

* * *

At first Luthought the taps on the window to be from the willow tree, small branches and leaves brushing against glass. The sound though, grew more rhythmic, louder.

More insistent.

She pulled the shade back enough to peek through.

She gasped at the sight of Max Fischer, black hair, black suit, black-rimmed glasses, standing at her bedroom window, his face bathed in the bright mountain moonlight filtering through the tree.

Lu pulled the shade to the side. Max jumped as the light from her room fell over him.

She then pushed the swing-out window open and demanded in a harsh whisper, “What the hell are you doing?”

“I had to see you.”

She drew her flannel robe around her tighter, in defense from the chilly night air.

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