Chapter 24

I don’t know if it was me or that it was just a coincidence but when I got off the elevator and walked towards the exit I felt like everyone who was still there, was looking at me.
I tried to walk away as casual as I could.
By the trouble I had getting to his office, I figured no one knew we were seeing each other.
Yet, I had the feeling they knew something was going on.

What the hell had just happened? Why did I act so weird? Should I go back?
For a while I just sat in my car playing the scene that just happened over and over again in my head. Just when I wanted to start my car my phone rang. How weird this may sound I actually was hoping it was Max.
“Hello?”
“Mira, it’s your dad.”
“Oh hi dad. Wha..”
“Don’t you ‘oh hi dad’ me”, he interrupted me. “You haven’t visited your mom in a week. What are you thinking?”
I could hear his voice getting louder with each word he spoke.
“Dad, I’m sorry but I also have a very busy job, remember?”
“Julian told me how you acted when he was at your office.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Why don’t you obey for once? Have you ever thought how this must be for your mother? How she feels?”
He was already shouting again.
“Is it that man you’re seeing? Is he making you do this? You know we didn’t even approve of him. Julian told you to tell that man to stay out of our family!”
“Dad! Max has nothing to do with this. And besides that, it is none of your business who I date!”
I tried to stay calm but I was so done. I was tired, I was confused of what just happened and I was angry about my dad and my brother always thinking to know what was best for me.
“We don’t need no rich white man to tell us how to deal with you.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Wow dad..just wow. Now If you don’t mind I’m gonna hang up now. Bye.”
Great, just great. Just what I needed on my Friday night.

I drove myself home and quickly changed my clothes.
“Hey Eddie.”
“Hi sweetheart.”
“Eddie can I come by the diner? I need to talk to you.”
“Sure, I’m still here anyway. Cleaning up.”
I grabbed my coat and headed out to the diner. It was not far from my apartment so I always walked over there. Plus it gave me the chance to drink something. Eddie always had a little something in his back office.
“Excuse me, Miss?”
A man came walking up to me just as I turned the corner, the diner was already in my eyesight. It was becoming dark so I was very careful to just stop.
“Miss?”
The man now had almost caught up to me.
“Can I ask you something?”, he said blocking my way.
“Well, actually no.”
While walking away my mind did that weird thing, like you have some sort of dejavu. I turned around, my arms crossed in front of my body.
“Do you know where this address is?”
He showed me a piece of paper.
My face turned into a frown, I knew where that was. In fact I had just been there.
“I think they are closed now.”
“Please, I need to get there. It’s very important.”
“Hey, I saw you yesterday! We bumped into each other.” As I said that I pointed at him like he was inevitably guilty.
“Oh, yes”, he laughed awkwardly. “That’s right, we did.”
“What a coincidence, right?”
Again with the awkward laugh.
“That’s Woods inc. Like I said they are closed.”
“Oh…”
“Well I need to go. You should try on Monday.”

“Yeah, I guess I will do that. Thank you. And sorry for bothering you.”
“No problem. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
I quickened my pace to get to the diner. Eddie was standing in front of the door. He opened it to let me in and then closed it when I was inside.
“Was that Max you were talking to?”
“That man? No, why?”
“He really looked like Max. I mean I couldn’t see his face, but his posture was exactly the same as Max.”
He was still looking outside as he turned the keys to lock the door.
I sat down at one of the tables and took off my coat. Eddie walked behind the counter. “Do you want something warm or cold?”
“Let’s go with coffee. I could really use some of that black liquid”, I said heaving a sigh.
“Is it that bad?”, he said as he turned around to brew me a nice cup.
“Ugh, you don’t even wanna know.”
“Well, actually I do.”
He grabbed a plate and started making me a sandwich. “You, girl, need to eat something. You look like you could use a bite.”
“I do. I came straight from work to your place.”
“I know you too well”, he laughed.
“But that man reminded you of Max too right?”, I asked trying to confirm my thoughts.
“He did. I would’ve sworn you were talking to him.”
“Well, it wasn’t him. That’s for sure.”
He brought me the plate and then went back to get our coffee.
“So tell me what’s going on?”, he put down the coffee and took a seat himself.
“You sound like you and Max are having some trouble.”
I cupped my coffee and stared out of the window.
“Well not trouble exactly. I was just in his office a few hours ago.”
I took a bite of my sandwich. Something my stomach very much appreciated. Eddie always knew how to take care of me and more importantly, what I loved to eat.
“Then what is it? And why were you in his office? Is it like the pictures I last saw in that magazine?”
His eyes were almost twinkling. He had a soft spot for fancy decorated offices. Don’t ask.
I laughed. “It is. It’s huge, Ed! And very beautiful and in some weird way very sexy I guess.”
Quickly I looked down and grabbed my cup to take a sip of my coffee.
“Mira! Come on spill the details! Don’t leave me hanging in suspense here!”
So I told him the story of the sexyness that just happened. Not all the details of course, but just enough for him to know that things got well, heated.
“Girl you can’t tell me you don’t want him!”, he almost screamed.
I laughed. “Well duh. But, I don’t know, I just want to..wait I guess.”
“Honey, wait for what? For him to grab you by your hair like a caveman and take you to his cave?”, he rolled his eyes.
Again I laughed. I could picture this. Okay, not a good sight, Max as a caveman.
“I just want to be sure he’s the right one. I don’t want to sleep around any more.” As I said that my voice went from normal to whispering.
Eddie put his hand on my arm and pinched it softly.
“Of course you don’t, but everything tells me that Max is too old to play games, Mira. Yes, he is sexually attracted to you, but he also cares for you. It’s more for him than just a fling.”
I stared at him for a brief moment. Maybe he was right, Eddie was almost never wrong.
“So how are you and Jerry? Did you guys finally finished painting your bedroom?”
Eddie stood up and took our dishes to his dishwasher.
“Well… we are finally.” He sighed. Then he walked to the back and grabbed a bottle of wine. On his way to our table he grabbed two glasses, no wine glasses, he didn’t had those in his diner, and poured us a glass.
“Cheers!”, we said in unison as we clinked our glasses.
“You don’t sound really happy about it.”
“I am, but Jerry can nag so much about small things. I mean he always needs everything to be perfect. Now he wants to repaint the kitchen too.”
I had to suppress a laugh. I could totally picture them getting mad at each other and being annoyed at one another.
“Don’t laugh.”
“I’m not.”
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
We ended up laughing. I loved this, it was really a much needed moment.
I almost forgot what it was like to have fun.
“So Jerry asked me if I knew how your mother was doing.”
“I don’t know to be honest. I have been crazy busy at work and I didn’t really feel the need to go see her.”
I told Eddie everything that happened with my family and how my brother also tried to blame Max.
I didn’t really want to spend too much time talking about them. They weren’t worth it anyway.
“So what are you doing tomorrow? Want to come over and listen to me and Jerry argue about what colour we’re going to paint the kitchen?”
“Hahah, I would love too but I’m gonna meet up with Claire.”
Eddie raised his left eyebrow.
“I haven’t seen her in a long time. I need to catch up with her.”
Again he gave me a look, then took a sip of his wine.
“Do you know something I don’t?”
“It’s just.. I don’t know Mira. I know she’s your friend but I’m getting a weird vibe when I see her.”
I threw the last sip of wine down my throat and stoop up.
“Refill please. I’m going to the ladies room and when I get back you are gonna tell me exactly what you mean.”

As I went to the ladies room someone knocked on the diner door.
“Who is that?”
Eddie walked towards the door. Another knock.
“Yeah yeah.”
Whew someone is impatient. What is he doing here?
Eddie turned the lock and opened the door.
“Is Mira here? I saw light burning and I thought I’d check.”
“Hello Eddie how are you? Great thanks”, Eddie said sarcastically.
“I’m sorry, it’s just that Mira wasn’t at her home and she didn’t answer her phone either.”
“Why do you want to know? Did you guys had an appointment?”, he asked.
“No, but I really need to see her.”
Max stood there still in his suit. He probably came straight from his office.
“She is here, but I don’t know is she wants to see you.”
“Can I come in?”, Max asked.
Eddie opened the door and Max stepped in. While Eddie locked the door I came back from the restroom.
“Eddie who are you talking to? Yourself?”, I laughed.
Then I looked up and saw Max standing there.
“Oh, hi.”
He had his hands in the pockets of his fancy pants.
“You weren’t at your home and you didn’t answer your phone.”
“Stalker much.”
“Mira, come on”, Eddie said.
I sat down at our table and took a sip of my freshly refilled wine.
“I’ll leave you two alone.”
Eddie walked to his back office and left us there, with more tension filling the air around us.
Max walked up to the table and took seat where Eddie sat before.
“What is it?”
“I needed to see you.”
“You sound worried, are you okay?”
“I am. It’s just after...”
Then his phone interrupted us. He took a look at his screen and then put it back in his coat.
“Don’t you have to get that?”
“It’s not important. You are.”
He made me blush.
“Will you come home with me?”
“What? No”, I said a bit annoyed. “I’m with my friend and I can’t just go with you whenever you please, Max.”
“You don’t..”, again we were interrupted by his phone.
“Excuse me.”
He walked to the restroom.
Eddie came right back from his office.
“Girl, what’s wrong with you. This man wants you, go!”, he whispered.
“No. I’m with you. I’m not going with him whenever he wants me too.”
He rolled his eyes. “Geez girl, you are so freaking stubborn!”
“Shhhh. He can hear us.”
Eddie turned around and then Max came back.
“Promise you stay with Eddie and let him get you home. I have to go.”
He signed for Eddie to open up the door again and he left.
“See, what was that all about?”, I took a big sip of my wine.
“He is so weird.”
“Okay, I have to admit, that was a bit strange. You think he’s okay?”, Eddie said worried, looking at the door.
“I really don’t know. I mean, he seemed okay, until he got that phone call.”
Silence.
“Oh god, you think my brother is harassing him?”
“No, Julian wouldn’t do that. Yes, he’s annoying but I think he also knows he’s no match to Max. He knows not to mess with him. Maybe it’s just business.”
“You know what I’m meeting up with Claire anyway tomorrow, I could ask her if he was weird like that when they had an affair”, I said thoughtful.
“Do you know how weird that sounds right now?”, Eddie asked.
“Why?”
“Come on Mira, they had an affair. I think you should be careful talking about Max with her.”
Somewhere in my right mind I knew Eddie was right. It was weird, especially cause she never really told me that much about their relationship. On the other hand, this would be a good moment to interrogate her about him.
Eddie and I stayed for a bit talking about various things then as Max had asked, I let him escort me home. Or actually it was Jerry, cause Eddie had drank too much to drive.

When I arrived in my apartment I texted Max that they brought me home and that I was safe. Although he didn’t respond, I knew he would be relieved to see that I actually listened to him.
I wasn’t making a habit out of it, but he really seemed concerned so I didn’t really mind.
As much as I wanted to sleep, I kept tossing and turning. All the things Max had said that day and this weird night kept going through my head. I didn’t know what to do or to think. The thought of being his made my whole body tingle. On the other hand, I like how things are going now. Taking it slow isn’t really that bad.
Eventually I fell asleep. I don’t know how late it was or how long I slept but it felt like 5 minutes.
Not going to work was nice. I needed to do some house chores cause to be honest it was a mess in here. I stayed in bed until my stomach started protesting. After my breakfast I started to clean my apartment.
I actually hoped it would help me distract from the whole Max situation but it didn’t. My thoughts were all over the place just like my laundry…
That was it, I decided to call Max. I grabbed my phone and looked up his number.
“Hello?”
Okay, that really didn’t sound friendly. Maybe this was not such a good idea after all.
“Hello?”
“Max, hi it’s me.”
My voice sounded hesitating.
“Oh. Hi.”
“Max, I…”
“Listen, this is not a good time. I’m kinda busy.”
I heard a voice in the background and he sounded weird. This was not the Max I knew. Or thought I knew.
“Oh, okay…”
“I’ll call you back later, okay?”
Then he just hung up.
He actually hung up on me. Like what the fuck?!
Wow, this really didn’t make things any better.
My rage about how Max was treating me, helped me cleaning my house though. I don’t think I ever cleaned my house so fast, as I had done today.

“Hey girl!”
“Hey honey.”
“Wow, you sound cranky. What’s with you?”
“Ugh, Max. I’ll tell you tonight.”
“Sure. Let’s meet up in the city. Do you want to go to Drake’s?”
”Yeah fine. What time do you want to meet?”
“Let’s say around eightish? Then we can still grab a bite there. I think their kitchen closes around nine.”

I was happy to meet up with a friend tonight. When I woke up this morning I was actually contemplating whether to see go Max tonight, but after the phone call we had I was so done.

After I did some grocery shopping I took a shower and got dressed. Just simple jeans, a cute top with a vest and ankle boots. No high heels or skirt. My feet needed their rest and it was getting colder at night. I was in no mood to get cold today.
I decided to take a cab so I could drink a few drinks. Going out with Claire always ended up with us being too drunk to walk, let alone drive. I wanted to be prepared and I definitely didn’t want to pick up my car somewhere in town the next day.
I decided to walk the last part and stopped the cab. When I came around the corner I saw Claire, but there was someone with her.
Hmmm, could be a new man in her life? That was something I had to ask her. But when I took a closer look I thought I recognized that coat and the posture of this man.
When I got closer I saw him making a grand gesture and then he left, Claire turned around, saw me and started waving enthusiastically at me. I decided to let it be for what it was and not say anything about it. I smiled and waved back at her.
“Girl, I’m so glad to see you!”, I said when I hugged her.
“Let’s go get inside and you can tell me all about it!”
Luckily for us it was still kinda quiet, so we had our pick of tables. We found a table at the back of the restaurant.
A waiter came to our table and took our orders.
“So how are you?”, Claire asked right away.
I heaved a sigh.
“Is it that bad?”
“It’s Max. Can I ask you something about the time you dated him?”
“You mean when he had an affair with me.”
“Yeah okay, I didn’t want to call it an affair.”
“Well it was an affair, so we can call it how it was. It’s okay.”
“Sooo...was he ever like, you know..weird?”
“Girl, what even do you mean? The whole thing was weird!”
We laughed.
“You have to be a bit more specific.”
The moment I wanted to talk our drinks were served. I waited to speak again until the waiter was done.
“Well, these last few days Max has been acting secretive. I don’t know I can’t really explain.”
I stirred the straw that was in my drink.
“He was secretive with me, but then again, he wasn’t exactly free when he was with me. We always had to sneak around and stuff.”
I stared at my drink, still playing with the straw.
“But I think what you mean is different? Or do you think he is seeing someone else?”
“What? No! No, I don’t think so.”
So I told her what happened at Eddie’s last night. How he was overprotecting and insisting on Eddie to bring me home.
“Well, what do you think?”
Just as she wanted to answer our food was brought to us.
“If you want to order dessert you have to do it now, cause our kitchen will close soon.”
“I think I’m good”, I said.
“Yeah me too. Thank you”, Claire answered.
“Okay, so do you want my honest opinion?”
“Eh, DUH!”
“I think he is really into you and he is just very concerned about you. I wouldn’t think anything of it.”
“But the weird calls, he first ignored and then he did answer one and left immediately after. I mean, that’s weird.”
“How do you know it were weird calls? Maybe they were just about work?”, Claire said and took a bite of her food.
“No, trust me I really think that something was going on.”
Claire stuck her hand out and grabbed my wrist, pinching me softly saying; “Honey, I’m sure there is nothing there. You’re just insecure.”
“It would really help if you would tell me a little bit more about your relationship with him…”, I said with a smirk.
She laughed and shook her head.
“You are really something, you know that!”
“Let’s eat first then you have to tell me everything”, I said excited.
And so we did. Even though I wasn’t really that hungry. All I could think of was Max. Which wasn’t new, but now the cause was different.
When we finished our dinner and our drinks were getting refreshed Claire finally started talking about her affair with Max.
“First of all you have to understand, that when all this happened, Max was in a very dark place.”
“What do you mean?”, I asked confused.
“Well, he didn’t cheat for no reason. Max has never been the type to play around with women. He was always very loyal to his wife even though he had plenty of women who adored him.”
Our drinks were served so Claire waited to continue her story. Max was a well known man and we really didn’t need people to over hear our conversation. Gossip was the last thing I need right now.
“At the time his company grew bigger very fast. What I know, is that it took him a long time and a lot of hard work to get where he was at that point. He of course made very long days and almost worked around the clock.”
“So was that why his wife wanted to leave him?”, I asked.
“That’s what you’d think right?”, she said.
I nodded in agreement.
“It wasn’t.”
I raised my eyebrows asking; “What was it then?”
“His wife wanted kids and he didn’t.”
“Wait, is that why he went and had an affair. What kind of crap is that?”
I already started to feel sorry for his wife. I mean not that anything justifies having an affair, but this was so weird to me.
“Relax. I’m not done yet.”
She took a big sip of her drink and went on with her story. Having me on the edge of my seat. I really wanted to know every detail there was.
I mean, I don’t think Max would ever really tell me about his past.
He was very closed about it, the few times I brought it up. So I really didn’t feel like asking him about all the ins and outs of his life with his ex-wife.
“So she wanted kids, but he already had a kid.”
My eyes grew big, Max had a kid?!
“His company was his kid.
After she said that she bursted out laughing.
I threw a napkin at her.
“You little biatch. So not funny!”
“Oh you should have seen your face. I just had to mess around with you  a little.”
“Again, not funny Claire!”, I laughed.
“On to a more serious note. I didn’t really lie though, he really cared for his company and all the hard work he had put in to make it a success. If he would’ve backed down at that moment to start a family, all his work would have been a waste of time.”
“I kinda understand, I think.”
“So from that moment on, Max started working even harder, neglecting his wife more and more. It wasn’t because he didn’t love her, cause when he was with her he did everything for her. They went on more and more luxurious trips together, but all she wanted was to start a family with him.”
“So when did you get in the picture?”, bluntly asked.
She told me that on one of the trips with his wife, they met. She was there with her family on a short vacation. Remind you, Claire’s parents were very rich, so it was no wonder she would bump into a man like Max. If I understood correctly they were out for dinner one night and Max had too many drinks. They started arguing about kids again.
Claire saw the whole thing and watched him eventually walking away mad, leaving his wife behind.
She followed him to the beach and there she addressed him.
“We sat in the sand, watching the waves come and go and started talking.”
This whole time I didn’t say a word, I was so into the story and the Max years before I would meet him.
I followed every gesture she made, every intonation of all the words that came rolling of her tongue.
“What did you guys talk about?”
“Nothing special really. He was drunk remember?”, she laughed.
“Right.”
This felt weird in some way.
“It soon was like ‘oh you’re so beautiful. You smell good’ and so on. Then he leaned in and started to kiss me.”
As she said that I felt a little jealous. I don’t know why, cause what she said was in the past. Still it didn’t feel very good and I didn’t really want to hear what happened next.
“The kiss went more and more intense and before I knew it we were having sex on the beach. Raw, passionate sex”, she sighed. The way she said those last three words, her whole facial expression made it seem she was still into him. I know she wasn’t, but maybe she somehow still longed for him?
“What am I talking about, you know how Max is when he’s making love.”
The way she explained it, it wasn’t exactly love making.
I stayed silent, not really knowing what to say.
“You know right?”
“Know what?” Just act dumb Mira, act dumb, I thought to myself.
“Wait, you never had sex with him?!”, Claire exclaimed.
I looked around to make sure people didn’t hear us. Luckily the music had been turned up, so I was good.
“Sorry. But I am really surprised. How did you not have had sex with this man?”
“I don’t know. I just… I mean.. It really just..”
I searched for the right words to explain it to her, but there weren’t any really. I know how handsome he is, how good he smells and well damn, how good he looks without a shirt.
“Girl, you are missing out here!”
Yeah, I get it already, geez.
Claire saw the look on my face and adapted her words.
“I’m sorry, I just thought you guys were in that part of your relation already.”
“We have been close for a few times. He has set my body on fire for a few times, but it never got any further than 3rd base I guess”, I said with a smirk.
“Ah, I knew you guys did more than just kiss!”
We giggled like schoolgirls, but soon the thought of her having sex with Max troubled my mind.
What if she was better than me? What if he still thinks about her when he’s with me?
I don’t know if this was such a good idea, maybe Eddie was right. I shouldn’t have talked to her about this.
She probably could read my mind or something, cause she stopped smiling.
“Sweety, what’s wrong?”, she asked.
“Nothing”, I tried.
“I can see something is up”, Claire said with care in her voice.
“Really it’s nothing.”
“You know what I told you is history right? I don’t even want him anymore.”
“I know. Just excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom.”
I don’t know why but I suddenly felt the need to cry.

While I was in the bathroom Claire got her phone out. She started typing.

Hey. It’s working. Thanks for the advice.
It won’t take long now.

Sitting on the toilet I told myself to dry my tears and stop being such a baby. I really regret asking about her relationship details with him. I just should have listened to Eddie, but I had to be stubborn.
Now I had to figure out quickly what I wanted to do. I still didn’t really know what brought Max to that darkplace, but I also didn’t need to know more about her love making details with Max.
I could of course distract her by saying that I had gotten a text from my dad and steer the conversation that way. It would also buy me more time to think what exactly I wanted to know from her about Max and if I even still wanted to ask her.
There was still the possibility to ask Max...