by Jordan Bates
Chapter 8
I walked into the lobby of Max’s building, nerves coursing through my body. I had no idea what I was doing, but when I looked at the door behind me, I knew I couldn’t back out. I had to move forward, and this was the first step to doing that.
“Excuse me, ma’am. Can I help you?” The look on the receptionists face told me she knew I didn’t belong there, and I couldn’t blame her for thinking that. I probably looked like a complete mess.
“Um, yeah.” I tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “I’m here to see Max Wellington.”
I knew the moment the words came out of my mouth that I was sealing my fate. I never thought that one day I would be running to my boss, and not just that but running to Max, of all people. My world was crashing around me, but I didn’t know where else to go where I wouldn’t be judged. I wouldn’t hear people say horrible things about my husband. Because even though Adam was leaving me, he was still my husband. Until the ink dried on the divorce papers, I would keep this to myself. No one needed to know just yet.
I was escorted to an elevator off the main lobby. When I entered, one of the doormen put in a key and hit the penthouse button, waving to me just before the doors closed. As I ascended to the top floor, my phone buzzed. A text from Lilly.
Where are you? Adam said to tell him when you got here. That was almost an hour ago.
I checked the time, not realizing how long I had been walking around before I ended up here. The elevator dinged, and the doors slipped open. I wasn’t expecting Max to be standing there waiting for me. He was in jeans and a shirt. The moment I looked into his eyes, a sob broke from me.
“I’m sorry, this was a bad idea.” I tried to turn around, but he pulled me out of the elevator and straight into what seemed like the lobby to his place. I tried to pull away as the tears rolled down my face freely. “I shouldn’t have come here. I’m sorry.”
“What happened, Alexa?” Max’s voice was soft, and I knew that, unlike Adam, he cared. He pulled me closer as I tried to hold him at arm’s length, but he clung to me, not letting me go. He had an arm around my waist and another on my neck, his hand buried in my mess of hair. I let my head rest against his chest.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t drag you into my mess.” My tears seeped into his shirt. I gasped as he lifted me up and carried me to what seemed to be a spare bedroom. Max laid me down on the bed and took my bag. He took my shoes off and covered me with a blanket. He didn’t ask another question, but instead left me alone. My phone kept vibrating as I placed it facedown on the nightstand beside me, but I ignored it. I closed my eyes for what I thought was a moment, trying to escape the horrific nightmare that was now my life, but I was awoken by yells coming from the other room. I flipped over my phone, seeing a few recent texts from Lilly.
Adam’s worried. He wants to know where you are.
I’m worried now. Call me.
I called Greg. You’re with Max?
It was midnight now; the last text had come about twenty minutes ago. The voices grew louder now.
I dragged myself out of the bed, slipping from the room and into the hall to see where the noise was coming from. I knew this wasn’t my place to move around freely, but I didn’t think Max was one to have a screaming match in the middle of the night. When I went into the living room, I could see Max standing by the elevator with his arms out. He was holding open the doors but blocking the way as well.
“She’s my wife. I know she’s in here. Now let me speak to her.” It was Adam.
“She came here and not there for a reason, and you don’t get to call her your wife when she walks through my doors sobbing. What did you do to her?” It was like Max knew. Like he could read my face this afternoon when he found me in the bathroom and when I came here tonight. Maybe this was why I felt so safe with him. I didn’t have to tell him what was wrong, he already knew by just looking at me.
“What do you care? Who are you anyways?” I knew I needed to step in before this situation turned into something that it wasn’t.
“Adam.” His name came out as a whisper, and I was surprised either man heard me. I stepped closer to both of them. Max had moved from the elevator, and Adam was trying to step off it. “How did you get here?”
“Lilly told me you were here.” His eyes were soft and careful. He knew Lilly didn’t know, and that was his advantage. I should have texted her when I left him earlier.
“You should leave, Adam.” I was still facing Adam, but I could feel Max move closer behind me.
“I’m taking you with me.” I held up my hand, motioning for Adam to stop as he stepped closer to me, but he didn’t take it as that. He tried to reach for my hand, but Max grabbed me first, pulling me towards him so my back was plastered against his front. Adam’s eyes widened in shock. Max spun me around and I only caught a glimpse of the anger in his eyes before I was behind him, hidden from both men.
“Alexa.” Adam’s voice sounded strained, but Max still held me tight to him.
“Don’t say her name,” Max barked out. He still had one arm around me, holding me to his back. The muscles in his arm straining to keep me there.
“What are you doing here?” Adam’s question was weary. I stood on my tiptoes to look over Max’s arm, which was in my way. I could see the fear in Adam’s eyes. He had no idea what was happening, but neither did I. I hadn’t expected Adam to come here or for Max to act like this.
“She’s safe here.” Max stole the words from my mouth, but they were true. I tried to push past Max again to get to Adam, to try to explain this, but Max held me still behind him. I was caged to his back.
“You can’t stay here. Let me take you to Lilly’s.” The same soothing voice from earlier came out of Adam. He was trying to get me to do what he wanted. I ducked under Max’s arm, catching him off guard. I stood between the two men again. One hand stopping Adam from coming any closer, but this time he didn’t reach for me. The other hand was pressed against Max’s chest.
“I want to stay here.”
Fire rose in Adam’s eyes. “Who is he?” The venom in his voice made me flinch.
“My boss.” I felt ashamed to say the words, because I knew how this looked. I had just walked away from the man who said he wanted to be with another woman, straight into another man’s home. This was why I wanted to explain things, but by the look on Adam’s face I knew there was no reason to. He had made his opinions about me clear. I stood up straighter, though. I didn’t care about what he thought about me. He had made the choice to leave me, and I was making the choice to move on.
“He’s clearly more than that.” Adam spat the words out at me, trying to hurt me more than he already had, and I wasn’t going to let him. He didn’t care about me going to Lilly’s. He just didn’t want me here in Max’s home.
“That’s enough.” Max raised his voice at Adam as he dragged me back behind him again. I didn’t fight it this time. Instead, I rested my forehead against his back and placed a hand across his chest, holding him closer. I didn’t know why, but I felt as if I was trying to protect Max in all of this as well. “Leave.”
“Not until she leaves with me.”
Max tensed in my arms. He brought a hand to mine, intertwining our fingers.
“Please make him leave,” I whispered against his back so only he would hear. My lips gently grazed where I had spoken my words.
“She’s mine.”
I gasped at Max’s words. I couldn’t see Adam’s or Max’s face, but all I heard was the rustling of feet and the elevator door dinging before it descended. I stayed wrapped around Max for a few more minutes and he started to calm down. His deep breaths became shallower and slower. I felt his heartbeat begin to slow under our hands. He let me go, and I broke the silence first as I pulled away from him.
“I’m sorry for that. I didn’t mean to cause you so much trouble this late at night. I’ll go get my things.” I couldn’t stay here after that, after Max had just admitted to me being his. I wasn�
�t his, though. I didn’t want to know what Max thought about everything, so I tried to move quickly, before he grabbed for my hand. This wasn’t the first time I had had this kind of interaction with Max, but this time, I had a different feeling with him grabbing me.
“Don’t go.” I finally got a look at Max this late at night. He had on nothing but a pair of tight boxers and a tank that fit tightly to his chest. He had a tattoo of a quill on the inside of his right forearm. I was seeing more of the man who was starting to grow on me. “You don’t have to leave. You can go back to sleep in my room. I had just made myself comfortable on the couch. Well, until your husband decided he wanted to chat a little.”
I cringed at his words. He reached for my hands, holding them between us. I watched as our hands stayed suspended in front of us. How did I get here? How did I end up in Max’s apartment with him holding my hands and fighting my battles for me?
“I don’t want you to be alone.” I looked into his eyes and almost started crying again. This was never what I would have expected, and I didn’t know how to act around him. He was so sure of himself, but not in the ways I had once thought.
Max pulled me into him. His warmth emanated through my clothes. He led me to the couch after a few minutes, pulling me into his lap. I curled up against his chest, our bodies fitting perfectly together. He stroked my hair, bringing my head to rest against his neck as he tried to soothe me. Max smelled like heaven—a soft musk but with a hint of wood.
I knew this was the last place I needed to be after I found out my husband had just cheated on me, but I felt safe in Max’s arms. It was the first time I had felt safe in a long time.
“What did he tell you?” I needed to know what had happened before I had walked out of the bedroom.
“Nothing, but I know it’s not good.” I shifted in his lap to get more comfortable. “I only let him up because he wouldn’t leave. He was just saying over and over that he wanted you, and I told him no.”
I pulled Max closer, taking a deep breath, because I knew once I said this, once I told someone, it would become real. It would be my new life.
“He cheated on me.” I paused, not for dramatic effect, but because I didn’t know what else to say besides the truth. “He’s leaving me for another woman.”
Max kissed the top of my head.
“When did you find out?”
“Right before I came here.” Max’s arms stiffened around me. This was wrong, and he knew it was, too, but neither of us pulled away.
“Why did you come here, Alexa?” His voice was soft, but I could hear him straining to calm his temper.
“I don’t know.” I looked up at him now. I had never really looked at Max before. His grey eyes were intense in this hold. His hair shaggy. “I thought maybe you were the one person who wouldn’t question me on what had happened.”
“If you don’t want to talk about it we don’t have to. I can put you back in bed.”
I shifted again in his arms and straightened myself up to moved off his lap. I stood in front of him, holding out a hand to help him off the couch. I didn’t know why I did this, but when his hand landed in mine, I felt it. I felt every spark inside of me come to life.
“What happened in front of your husband. Was that all just in the moment?” I knew what he was talking about. The touches, the hand-holding, my lips landing against his back. I didn’t know what to say, because I didn’t know what they meant.
“What is it that you want, Alexa?” His brows knitted together as I moved my gaze from our hands to his eyes. I knew exactly what he wanted to hear, but it wasn’t what I wanted to say. I couldn’t give him what he wanted, just like I apparently couldn’t give my husband what he wanted. Was I selfish in all of this?
“I just want a friend right now.”
“You could have gone to see Lilly or Erica if you wanted that. So answer me again.” He was starting to inch his way closer to me again. I took my eyes off him, not allowing myself to see how much this conversation affected him. “What is it that you want, Alexa?”
“I wanted to go somewhere where I felt safe. Where no one could find me.”
“And that was here?” I didn’t Know how to answer his question without making everything more confusing. We stood in silence as Max’s arm circled my waist.
“I know that this is presumptuous of me, but your only excuse for pushing me away has been your husband. He won’t be in the picture much longer, Alexa, but I will be. I’m not going anywhere.” It was presumptuous, and even though I knew my side of things was complicated, how could he think that I would so easily just come to him? But then again, I had walked into his apartment without even fully thinking about the consequences.
“What makes you think that I will want someone after having been cheated on? What makes you think that I want you?”
“I’ve seen how you react to me, even when you were with your husband. You don’t push me away as fast as you should. You linger at my touch and lean into me when we’re close, and it started way before tonight.” I instinctively moved away from him at that moment. I hadn’t realized that I had been doing those things. I thought the connection had only been in my head. How could I have not seen this happening? I was no better than Adam at this point. I was married and my subconscious had been pining after my boss. My stomach tossed, and I didn’t know if it was from a sickening feeling that I had about what was happening, or butterflies when Max’s hand brushed my cheek.
“Max, even if I did want to be with you, now isn’t the time for that. I just want to go to sleep and forget any of this ever happened.” I tried to head towards his room, but he pulled me closer to him, our bodies flush against each other. My hands were on his chest, but they weren’t pushing him away. His shirt was fisted softly in my hands. I was clinging to him when I shouldn’t be. I should be pushing him away, running as fast as I could, because that look in Max’s eyes was like a snake charm that I couldn’t resist.
“I understand that you need your time Alexa, but I will be here to catch you when you fall.” Fall? Like in love? Those feelings were far from where I thought I would ever be again, especially so soon, or maybe ever. My trust had been broken, and to let someone that close again would be a miracle. Max grabbed my chin, pulling my face up to look me directly in the eyes. “And Alexa, you will fall. Hard and fast.”
Chapter 9
One Month Later
I rolled over on the bed and pulled the covers over my head. My alarm would go off in ten minutes and I wasn’t ready for that yet. It had been a month since the day Adam told me he had been cheating on me. One month since I had met Natalie. One month since I had talked to Max. Well, we had talked, minimally, at work, but that small conversation two weeks ago was how I ended up here today.
“My lawyers already looked over it.” Max slammed the manila envelope down onto my desk. I opened it and stared at my divorce papers. I looked up at him while he waited for me, his hands planted on my desk and agitation forming on his face. “Just sign it, Alexa.”
“Why are you doing this?” My eyebrows had furrowed and I felt the tears gathering in my eyes. I wasn’t ready for this. Or was I? His fingers tapped on the desk as he grew impatient. “Why do you have these?”
“I need you to sign them.” He came around the desk, took the pen that was beside me, and put it in my hand. “Now.”
“But why?” I was confused as to how Max had these papers and that I didn’t even know what they said, but he was wanting me to sign them. This was the last piece of me that was attached to Adam, and even though he broke me, I didn’t know how to exist in a world where I didn’t have him in it. But then again, I had been doing just that for a while now. “Can I look over it?”
“No.” He had a hand on the back of my chair now and was leaning closer to me. His lips came to my ear, and I shivered. “Please sign the papers.”
The words came out as a whisper, but I felt them down to my core. I obeyed this man. I did exactly what he told me becaus
e for some unknown reason I trusted him. I trusted blindly in the fact that someone was telling me this was what I needed.
I signed my name over and over again. My hand shook, but the pen didn’t. It had a mind of its own, knowing that this was exactly what I needed to do. I handed the papers to Max once I was finished, and he snatched them from my hand. He was about to bolt out the door, before I stopped him.
“Will you at least tell me why you did this?” My voice was weak, still trying to recover from the mood that had filled the room. I felt so small when Max turned around with a sinister look on his face, but that smile, God, that smile was all I needed.
“I need to…” He paused, putting a finger to his lips, and I could see his brain working, like he almost didn’t know what to say. “… keep you safe, Alexa.”
He straightened himself and looked me dead in the eye, his stance never wavering.
“And this is the only way I know how to right now.” He left me with just that and nothing else. I sat in my chair, a tear running down my cheek, and for once since Adam, I didn’t know if it was because I was sad or because I was happy.
That day, I signed away the life I once knew and put it into the hands of the man who wanted to be my future. It had been one week since I signed those papers, and every damn day seemed like a daydream.
I was staring at my ceiling as my alarm went off. All I wanted was just a few more minutes to think about all of this. Ten just didn’t seem like enough time; nothing seemed like enough time. I grabbed for my phone just as Lilly entered the room. We had talked about things when I came home the day after everything had happened with Adam and Max. We had created a plan to just ride it out until the divorce was final, and it was officially now. I hadn’t told my mother or Adam’s parents yet. I didn’t know how to, but if no one was calling me to find out, then I wasn’t going to spill the beans just yet. Lilly set a cup of tea down next to my bed and then sat on the edge.
