A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Tul's POV

I remained seated on the couch staring at the closed door of Max's bedroom.

Okay, it was wrong of me to lie about dating Ella. Ella would probably be shocked to find out that I used her to get out of the mess that I found myself in.

I slowly stood up from the couch and let myself out, locking the front door from the inside before quietly closing it after me.

I was walking back to my car when my phone started to ring. It was Mook. Why was she calling me.

"Hey," I said to her.

"Hi, Tul," she said. "Is Max okay? I have been trying to reach him but my call keeps getting directed to his voicemail."

"He's doing fine," I replied. "When are you going to see him?"

"This evening," said Mook. "I plan to bring him some egg drop soup and moo shu shrimp on jasmine rice."

"You shouldn't have told me in detail what you're planning to bring," I teased. "Now I'm feeling hungry."

"I can bring enough for three," she offered. "You can join Max and me for dinner."

"Oh, no, no, I was just kidding," I told her.

"But I'm serious," she insisted. "Come over to Max's place this evening. We can all have dinner together."

I didn't tell her that I was actually still at Max's house in his driveway.

"Thank you for your invitation, Mook, but I'm afraid I will have to pass on this one." I said as I opened my car door and climbed into the driver's seat.

"Very well then," she sounded disappointed. "Catch ya later."

"Later 'gater," I said, tapping on my phone to end the call and placing it into the cup holder beside me before easing my car out of Max's driveway.

Back inside my house I went straight to the kitchen and poured myself a tall glass of ice cold pomegranate juice.

As I sipped the sweet and cold dark red liquid slowly, I made my mind go back to the disturbing events that I had refused to discuss with Max.

I admitted to myself that I was not open to getting involved with Max, that I was not open to anything more than just friendship with him. He had a girlfriend for crying out loud. I wondered how Mook would react if she found out that Max and I had shared a kiss.

I cursed myself loudly. What the fuck was I thinking.

I finished up the glass of pomegranate juice and went back to my car. I was not in the mood to fix myself anything for lunch.

I decided to drive myself to the nearby mall and see what the food court over there had to offer.

I went from food booth to food booth.

In the end I settled for a bowl of beef chow mein and treated myself after that to a medium size cone of pistachio nut ice cream.

I was happily licking my ice cream all around the sides of the cone when someone tapped my shoulder lightly from behind.

"Ella!" I almost choked on my ice cream.

"Fancy meeting you here," she said with a big smile as she took the empty chair in front of me.

"Did you want some ice cream?" I asked. "I could get you some." I offered.

"Oh, no, no, thanks, I'm stuffed. I just had a jumbo cheeseburger with jumbo size fries," she said.

"So how's your situation with Mook?" I asked.

"She still has no idea," she replied, her face turning serious.

"When are you gonna tell her?" I asked.

"Maybe tomorrow, maybe never," she said with a sad smile. "I don't wanna ruin our close friendship."

"That's exactly what I don't want to do with Max's and mine," I said without thinking.

She looked at me wide eyed.

Shit. Why did I say that.

I stared back at her wide eyed.

"Spill it," she said.

"There's nothing to spill," I said, looking away, no longer able to meet her stare.

"Don't lie to me," Ella said firmly.

There was a brief moment of awkward silence before she said something that hit me hard.

"And don't lie to yourself," Ella said, a look of sympathy and understanding creeping into her eyes.