Complete Indelible Love Series

by Cee, DW

I looked out my window as a loud roar of pipes rolled up the driveway. Max pulled up in a sleek new motorcycle. At least I thought it was new. I hadn’t seen Max in about eight months so I couldn’t be sure when he got the bike.

  Max was so not the Harley type of guy. He was the straight-laced, straight-A, straight-shooting type. 'The boy next door,' Emily described him. Those monikers, as well as Max’s ex-girlfriend, and my new sister-in-law, Emily, were the reasons why we took a break for a while.

  I stared at the good-looking, brown-haired, brown-eyed guy. With more ease than I preferred, he gave Emily a hug and a kiss.

  “Max! What a wonderful surprise. What are you doing here…and so early in the morning?” Emily greeted.

  “Hi Em. I see motherhood agrees with you. You look beautiful even at this early hour.” Really??? Did he always need to find her so enchanting?

  “Hey!” Of course, where Emily was, my brother wasn’t far behind. “Get your hands and lips off my wife!” he demanded.

  “Lighten up, Dr. Reid. I was just saying hello to my beautiful ex-girlfriend.”

  “Must you always bring up the fact that you and my wife once dated?”

  “We didn’t just once date; we were together twice the length of time you and she have been together.”

  The irritation in Jake’s eyes was cracking me up. He was so easily riled. Though, the conversation outside was making me feel a little snarky, myself .Relax…my new mantra, as we were going to try again. I needed to get over my “hang-ups” as Max called them.

  “Cut it out, both of you,” Emily warned while giving her husband a loving embrace. “Good morning.” Now she was only addressing Jake. “I brought the kids out so they wouldn’t wake you. You got in so late last night from the hospital.”

  “It was lonely in bed without you,” Jake announced loudly, so the whole neighborhood could hear. “I wanted to be out here with my family.” My brother’s voice got louder with each word, but not as loud as his twin son and daughter – Elizabeth and James.

  “Da! Da! Da!” The twins screeched. The four of them made a gorgeous family and the smile on Max’s face warmed my heart. For a change, he didn’t look like he was still in love with Emily, but instead, he looked like he was in love with the idea of a happy family.

  Time to make my grand entrance!

  “Hey,” I greeted.

  “Hey…” His voice was soft as he locked eyes with me. Had he really thought about me in the past eight months? Had he missed me? Had he been dating around? Would we be able to make it work this time?

  “Is this what you meant when you said you wanted to go for a ride?”

  “I thought we’d ride up the coast for a while?”

  “Okay, I guess…” What would happen today? Things had ended so abruptly between us. One day we were, then the next day we weren’t.

  “I can’t wait to spend the day with you. I’ve been looking forward to it all week.”

  Really?

  He somehow heard the Doubting Thomas question in my head.

  “Hey.” He gently tugged my chin up with this thumb and forefinger. “I guess you haven’t missed me as much as I’ve missed you? Can we try this again and see where it takes us?”

  Twenty+ words was all it took to melt away the bitterness of the past year and make me want to start again. I smiled. Pushover! Yeah…pushed-over and falling again. I was such a LOSER.

  “Don’t let go of another good one!” My brother sarcastically yelled as Max tried to muffle his words with the roar of the bike.

  “Hold on tight!”

  Ominous and yet very promising words…

  Dec. 10, 2012 Well...that didn't go so well!

  “You’re back!” My sister-in-law smiled with more enthusiasm than totally necessary. “You spent the night?”

  “No,” I cut her off, “I mean yes, but no.”

  “Explain, Sister.” The thing about Emily – as sweet as she is, she’s ruthless when she wants something from you. Whether it’s the dazzling smile she throws your way, or her sweet innocent pleading look, you can’t say no. Does this woman have any negatives in that beautiful frame of hers? I love her, but ugh!

  “We rode up to Santa Barbara and were having brunch at the Four Seasons, when everything went downhill.”

  Emily didn’t need to know that the ride sucked. There was too much wind, the seat was uncomfortable, it was cold, and we didn’t say one word to each other for an hour and a half, but did I complain??? No! I was accommodating – as accommodating as Jane Sydney Reid was ever going to be.

  “And..?”

  “Max’s cell phone kept ringing. After about the fifth ring, I kinda yelled at him to pick up the phone, and guess who was calling him?”

  “Who?” Emily’s big brown eyes were bugging out. It was cute, in a freakishly bugging sort of way.

  “Some GIRL! He was so uncomfortable talking to her and he couldn’t – no, he wouldn’t tell her that he was out with me. I was so pissed, I felt like walking out on him, but I sat through his awkward conversation to get some answers.”

  While I was pining away for him the last half of the year, apparently, this jerk was dating around.

  “He explained that he had ‘group-dated’ this girl, another doctor at his hospital, briefly.” Emily’s mouth opened, but I didn’t give her a chance to start. I had too many things to say. “And though it bothered me, all would have been okay except…his last date with her was just 'a few days ago.'”

  Those were the jerk’s words, verbatim! What kind of man tells one woman that he misses her and would like to try for a relationship with her one day, then goes out with a totally different woman the next day? Am I wrong to want someone to love me and me only? Forget love – way too soon for that concept. I just want someone to want me and me only. Maybe it’s an LA thing? Perhaps I should move back to New York and work a hundred hours a week and be on track to become the youngest partner at our law firm.

  “No!” Emily was horrified, then mad. She pulled out her cell phone and before she could call Max, I took it away from her. “Let me call him and yell at him. He can’t treat you like that! Oh Jane…” Then, she hugged me. I think she was more hurt than I was. No matter what I thought or said about my sister, I loved her and she genuinely loved me. The rivalry was only on my part and solely in my head. “So where were you all yesterday?”

  “I left Max, got myself a room, then a rental car. After calling around, I got a hold of my girlfriend, Hilary, and we hung out the whole day. The thought of sitting in the hotel room and gorging on ice cream was tempting, but I spent a boatload of money on clothes and shoes, instead.”

  “Oh, sweet Jane! Your knight in shining armor will come around. Max just needs to sort out his life and grow up some more.”

  At this point, Max ≠ a knight in shining armor. Well…back to the drawing board!

  Dec. 12, 2012 Another date...and his initials aren't MD

  This text greeted my morning.

  Can we meet for a quick lunch? You need to give me a chance to explain.

  I need to give you a chance?

  Okay, sorry. Not the right thing to say. A lunch for a chance to grovel?

  That made me laugh. Since I left without hearing the full explanation, I suppose I needed to give him a chance. Ha! It was more like I was dying to know who this Joyce girl was that he had been dating. From what my brother Jake told me, she was this brilliant doctor from Stanford who had been after Max for a while. When I asked what she looked like, he shrugged saying that he hadn’t paid attention to another woman’s looks since he met Emily .Whatever…Dork!

  OK but you’ve gotta come my way cuz I only have 30 min.

  Perfect. See you soon.

  The morning flew by between meetings and prep work for a case I was assisting.

  “Jane, you have a moment?”

  “Um, sure.”

  Donovan, the head lawyer in mergers and acquisitions, waited for m
e to get up from my seat and practically held my hand into his office.

  “What’s up?”

  He handed me an envelope and gestured for me to open it.

  “I just got these tickets to a Laker game and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me.”

  “Like…as in a date?” I sounded so sophomoric, or better yet, so moronic asking this in a high pitched voice.

  “Yes, as in a date. Dinner at The Palm, floor seats to watch Kobe, Pau and Howard in action? Unfortunately your favorite player is still injured.”

  Damn!

  Double Damn!

  Floor seats, Laker game, hot successful lawyer…why couldn’t he have asked me out just a few days ago? Do I go? Do I need to explain about Max? What would I say? Um…I’m kinda re-seeing this guy who had been dating around while I thought about him constantly?

  “Hello .Earth to Jane?”

  “Wait, how’d you know Steve Nash was my favorite player?”

  “I heard you mention it the other day and bought these tickets with you in mind.”

  A man who listens to what I have to say even when I wasn’t talking to him? Was he for real? Was I an idiot for letting this one go?

  “Sure. I’d like that.”

  “Great! We’ll take the company shuttle .I’ll pick you up at 6:00?”

  A goofy smile crossed my lips. “See you at 6:00.”

  That high didn’t last long as the speakerphone buzzed. “A Max Davis waiting for you in the lobby…”

  Triple Damn!

  Dec. 17, 2012 10 hours, 2 hot dates, Part 1

  “Do you go anywhere without your Harley, now?”

  “This is my transportation of choice these days. I like the open air, the freedom…"

  … the bugs, the dirt, the helmet head, was how I wanted to finish his sentence.

  “Thanks for giving me a chance to explain.” Max pulled me in for an impromptu scorching kiss, tongue and all, before placing the helmet on my head. I had to admit, rather than enjoying the make-out session, I was more worried about Donovan walking out of the revolving door to our building. Did this officially put me in the slutty girl category? Making out with one guy, then going on a dinner date with another guy?

  “So…Joyce?” I casually asked, right before I bit into my egg salad sandwich.

  “About a month ago, a group of us from the hospital went out for drinks. Joyce and I sat next to each other and spent a few hours talking. Then she invited a smaller group of us to her parents’ beach house in Laguna and we hung out the whole weekend. This same group of friends decided to go out to dinner and a movie last Wednesday, but three out of the five of us got called back into the hospital. So, Joyce and I had a solo dinner and movie date.”

  “Did you kiss her? Have you slept with her?” Crap. Obviously, the brain-to-mouth filter was off.

  Max smiled that gorgeous smile.

  “No and no, Miss Green-eyed Monster. The only girl I’ve kissed in the past year is you – and not nearly enough, if you ask me.”

  His confession made me happy and mad at the same time. “Why didn’t you tell me this up in Santa Barbara? I stewed the whole weekend, thanks to you.”

  “I was pissed that you were willing to walk away without listening to my explanation. So, I wanted you to stew.”

  With that lingering thought, he brought me back to work and immediately frenched me in front everyone walking by. We stayed lip locked for a while. It felt so good, so right, to be with Max again.

  “I’m at the hospital tonight but have tomorrow off. Dinner?”

  Dinner…. Tonight I was having dinner with a man who wasn’t Max. Confession time.

  “Pick you up at your parents’ around 7:30?”

  Pause, pause, pause…

  “Yeah, okay.”

  The freakin' coward that I was, I confessed nothing. I then ran into the building letting Max believe all was right in this world.

  “Jane! Wait up. Hold the elevator.” Donovan slipped in. “Was that you on that sweet Harley?”

  Quadruple Damn. Karma was a vengeful Biatch!

  Dec. 20, 2012 10 Hours, 2 hot dates, Part 2

  “Harley…me…yeah…ummm, that was me.” I was so busted. What had I done in my lifetime to receive this kind of punishment? Two hot guys, two dates, on the same day – why me? “So, let me explain?”

  Donovan contained his smile as deftly as humanly possible. “Okay, Jane Sydney Reid, let me hear your explanation. I’ve known you since you were born, and know what a clever girl you are. I’d like to know how you’re getting out of this one."

  Lucky for me, Donovan wasn’t mad. In fact, he was finding my predicament funny. If this situation weren’t entirely my fault, I’d almost call him out for being so ungentlemanly.

  “That was Max, we had lunch and we are kinda back together again, I think.”

  “What does it mean to be ‘kinda back together again, I think’? From the way you two were going at it on the sidewalk, it was more than being kinda together.”

  “We were together for a while last year.”

  “I remember Jake mentioning something like that – some incestuous relationship involving him, Emily, you and this guy, Max. Wasn’t he in love with your sister-in-law?”

  Damn. He was still smiling through all this.

  “Was.”

  “Now he’s in love with you?”

  “Not really. I don’t think so…” I pulled Donovan into his big office, closed the door and sat him down. “Here’s the deal, as I know it. Max and I met right before my brother and Emily got married. We dated for a while, but I was still in New York, and between the distance, my work, and his med school schedule, it didn’t work.” I didn’t mention my total insecurities about, and Max’s obvious feelings for, Emily. “When you asked me out this morning, I was not expecting what happened at lunch to happen. And I…”

  Donovan cut me off. “Are you married?”

  “No…”

  “Are you and Max together?”

  “I don’t know. I think so? I don’t have an answer to that, yet.”

  “Do you still want to go out tonight with me?”

  “Yes?” Did that make me a bad person to want to hang out with Donovan tonight?

  “See you at 6:00. Now, you’ve got to go ‘cuz I need to jump into this conference call.”

  I got out of that one with relative ease. I did feel super guilty for going out with a guy other than Max. Maybe if it weren’t Donovan I’d have canceled the date. Like he said, he’s known me my whole life and I had a massive crush on him when I was little. It was cool that my childhood obsession asked me out.

  Fast forward seven hours. We were sitting courtside, watching the Lakers lose to the Bobcats. Dinner went better than any dinner date I’d ever been on, and now we were sipping beer chatting about old times.

  “How do you like working in the LA office?” With his body slouched on the chair, his legs out and crossed, his arms across his chest and his tie loosened, he looked soooo sexy asking me this humdrum question. “Very different from the New York one, huh?”

  “Yeah. I feel like I can have a life here. Is that why you finally made the move?”

  “Yep. All my friends were getting married and having kids while I was billing hours around the clock.”

  “Have you dated much since you got here? I thought I heard Jake say you were seeing someone.”

  “Naw. I was waiting for you to grow up and notice me.” He smiled a devastating smile. I died a thousand deaths from his romantic profession. Damn, Damn, Damn.

  “You know I had the biggest crush on you when I was like, 7 years old.”

  “But not now as a 27 year old?”

  I was soooo screwed.

  Max? Max, who???

  Noticing my obvious discomfort, he put his hand on my neck, pulled me to him and kissed the top of my head. It was the hottest brotherly kiss, evaaah!

  Conversation ju
mped from embarrassing moments from our childhood to what he’d been doing while living in New York for the past 15 years. I don’t think we watched much of the game. In fact, if you asked me now who won, I couldn’t answer that question.

  We got back to the office and went up to collect our briefcases, when I saw my three main bosses in their office, working. Last thing I wanted to do was ask if I could help in any way, but since these people were heavy-weights in the firm, and could probably nix my chance of ever making partner, I walked into their office and offered to help. There went my sleep for the night.