Page 885 of One More Kiss

Max stormed into her classroom,all the wrath of a wronged Hamlet etched deeply into his expression.

“Why, Lu? How could you?” he shouted.

Betty jumped at Max’s tone and looked to Lu for guidance. She nodded for Betty to go. The young woman exited, and Lu assumed she then stood guard outside the door to prevent other students from entering.

“Max, what is it?” She rushed to his side and put her hand on his forearm, but he jerked it away from her. He shoved a crumpled sheet of paper in her face, and Lu took it from him, smoothing it out and reading it slowly.

He sat in a seat in the front room of her lecture hall, spilling out of the seat, his long legs stretched before him. Arms crossed. Scowl darkening his face.

She glanced from the letter and back up to him, reading it a few times in disbelief.

Someone had accused Max of communist activities?

Her heart sank to her toes.

He thought she’d reported him.

Who else had expressed absolute disdain for him since the moment he arrived on campus? No one. Everyone else adored him.

Like she did now.

Nausea welled up from her stomach into her throat. Did he believe she would sink so low, especially after all they’d shared Friday night? But she understood.

“You’re the only one I told, Lu,” he spit out between gritted teeth.

“I…Max, it wasn’t me. I’d never do that to you. To us.”

His expression remained hard. “But you wanted my job. And I gave you an easy way to achieve your goal.”

“No!” He thought the worst of her. The pinpricks in her heart opened into gaping knife wounds. “I…you told me the accusations were false. I believed you.”

“But still, you did this.” He stood from his seat and snatched the paper from her hands.

The tears fell now, the pain at opening up to him, falling for him, thinking he’d fallen for her, so raw. He turned his back to her, but she would not relent until he believed her. “I couldn’t. I’d already resigned to not getting your job. I wanted you gone, two months ago, even a month ago. But everything has changed. In the last two weeks, Max, you’ve changed my life. I thought I’d done the same for you.”

When he still did not turn, she slipped between him and the row of seats, took his face in her hands and forced him to look at her.

“Do you even realize why I’d never report you? I don’t want you to go. I want you here, in the class down the hall from me. In the house blocks away from mine. In the theater, next to me. Max, I’ve never loved anyone.” She sobbed, realizing for the first time what was really happening here. “But I love you. Fight this. We will fight this, together.”

His expression softened, his eyes shining and his lips curling up in a slight smile. “You love me? Dammit to hell, Lu. I love you too. What took you so long?”

He lifted her in his arms and swung her around, whooping.

She slapped at his shoulders. “Put me down! We still need to figure out how this happened. Who did this to you?”

Max set her down, and Lu rushed to the door to tell Betty class was cancelled today, to tell all the students coming in.

Then she returned to Max. He looked at her solemnly. “Clyde.”

“Really?”

“Who else would have reason for me to go? He’s scared. He left class early Friday, and wasn’t in this morning.”

“But how did he find out? About the communist accusations?”

“I heard him Friday night. Heard floorboards creak in the theater anyway. He must have been there and overheard my confession.”

“We can fix this Max. Let me fix this.”

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