No More Heartache: The MORE Duet

by Anders, Tarrah

  Two hours later, I’m not sure how I’m able to function or communicate properly, but just as I’m completely wasted, so are the girls. I’ve bought at least 5 more rounds of drinks and we’re having a blast. I’ve zeroed in on Tatum several times and her friend Sammie has facilitated several times by joining Monica in the ladies room.

  Monica and Sammie haven’t been gone a minute before I turn to Tatum.

  “So, Tatum.” I start.

  “So, Max?” She inclines her head.

  “Are you seeing anyone, boyfriend or… girlfriend?” I smirk.

  “No Max, I’m not. Kind of you to ask, usually it’s just assumed information.” She smiles.

  “I prefer to not flirt with women who are taken. Bad for the ego.” I smile.

  She laughs and my dick immediately goes to command. I put my hand on the back of her chair, and lean in close to her to her ear.

  “I want to take you upstairs.” I whisper with my mouth grazing her earlobe and I can see the goose bumps explode across her skin.

  “Hey guys,” Monica stumbles into my elbow.

  Sammie smirks as she sits down and mouths Sorry, as I rub my elbow. Tatum hasn’t said anything to my declaration, but the goose bumps on her arms tell me that she’s either cold or affected. I’m hoping for the latter.

  * * *

  My head is under the pillow and my hotel room is bright. I slowly lift my head, aware that I drank a lot the previous night, however with no recollection at all how I got back to my room. My eyes instantly shut as the room is super bright from the morning sun. Slowly, my vision adjusts to the brightness and I notice a faint noise beside me. I move my head slowly, as my head is pounding.

  You would think that I was a teenager gasping at the beauty besides me. It’s the one I was hitting on all last night.

  Fuck, what’s her name? I’m getting really bad with names. Tatum. Score! I don’t remember coming up to the room, but I’m glad that she came with me. Neither of us are wearing any clothes and I mentally fist pump and wish I remembered fucking her. Maybe I can get another round in, before I ask her to leave.

  I slowly get out of bed and decide to let her stay asleep so I can take a quick shower. I quietly close the door behind me. I look in the mirror and notice that I look like shit and it tastes like a cat shit in my mouth. I start the process of the shower and within 15 minutes, I’m opening the bathroom door to … an empty room. There’s a note on the pillow.

  Instead of doing the walk of shame with an audience,

  I’m saving myself the embarrassment.

  Thank you for last night, you were charming and by far the most interesting individual in a bar that I’ve ever met. ~T

  I walk over to the bar area and pull over a tumbler in front of me and pour from the vodka bottle.

  I was humped and dumped, what the fuck, that’s my game!

  10

  Davis

  Max’s phone goes straight to voicemail, his bed looks the same as it did a week ago, and he hasn’t been into work. Dane and I had both searched his normal nightly haunts, I even saw Nikki at one of the bars and she said she hasn’t seen him. Worry started to set in, and I’m having problems concentrating.

  I just dismissed my class for lunch and I’m grabbing my sandwich to meet up with the other teachers. It’s been a relaxed week, since it’s the final week of the year.

  “So, you just left him? While he was in the shower?” Sammie mid-chew asks Tatum as I sit down beside her.

  “Yeah, I wanted to save myself the humiliation or any awkward conversations.” Tatum shrugs.

  “Mind-bending sex from a hot guy wouldn’t be humiliating.” Sammie smiles.

  “Sam, he was drunk when he came to our table, we threw down, what 6 rounds of shots with him? I honestly don’t remember if it was mind-bending or not. So yeah, humiliating.” She sighs.

  “Max was really nice though, from the looks of him, I guarantee it was mind-bending.” Sammie takes a bite out of her salad.

  My ears perked up at the name.

  “What are you guys talking about?” I ask directing my attention primarily at Tatum.

  She blushes. “I met a guy Friday night when we were out with my sister. That’s all.”

  “You said his name was Max?” It could purely be coincidental; my brother isn’t the only person with that name.

  “Yeah. Why are you looking at me like you’re shocked that I met a guy?” Tatum said defensively.

  “Was he tall? Good looking? Brown hair, with some facial scruff and a glassy stare?” I ask as I pull out my phone to pull up a photo of him from my photo gallery.

  “You sound like you’re describing someone out of a romance novel. But yeah, I think that would describe him. Why?” Sammie says.

  “Where did you guys seen this guy?” I ask avoiding Sammie’s question.

  “Some hotel on the bay. Why Davis?” Sammie says mimicking Tatum’s defensiveness.

  “You guys met my brother. I haven’t seen him around in a week. What hotel was he at?”

  “Wait, you’re the brother who walks around the house in his boxers?” Sammie starts laughing.

  “Polka-dot. Do you remember the name of the hotel?” I deadpan, seeking my answer.

  “No, not off the top of my head. But it was the one that’s really tall, directly on the water. Something Bayfront. So Max, the engineer guy who bought us rounds upon rounds of drinks, is your brother?” Tatum asks.

  “If it’s the same guy, that would be my brother. Do you remember what his room number was?” I ask Tatum.

  She diverts her eyes in embarrassment. “No, sorry. After the 3rd round of drinks, everything is a little fuzzy. Sorry. Then I kinda fled from his room in the morning without a look back.” She looks at her watch. “Shit, I’ve gotta round my kids up. Um, good luck with your brother, please don’t tell him you and I are friends.” She pleads getting up.

  I nod and turn to Sammie. “No Nic today?” I say noticing he wasn’t there.

  “He has a pizza party today, so he’s in his classroom.” Sammie explains. “So, your brother is hot Max?”

  I roll my eyes.

  “Seriously, hot. But he only had eyes for Tatum on Friday. How come you didn’t tell us about a hot brother? Are you hiding him from us for a reason?” She has a far off dreamy look as she rests her chin on her hand.

  “I’m surprised he didn’t try to hook up with you too or worse.” I say.

  “Why’s that?” Her interest is perked up.

  “Max, well he’s gone through a lot the past year or so. He likes women. That’s all I’ll say. He’s a great guy don’t get me wrong, but not someone that I would intentionally set up with a friend of mine.” I shrug, I need to text Dane.

  “He was a smooth talker and very generous on Friday. He bought several rounds and he did seem to eye fuck Tatum most of the night, even from across the bar.” Sammie recalls.

  “That he is.”

  We finish our lunch making random small talk. I finish my sandwich and excuse myself with a good 15 minutes before I have recess duty. I place a call to Dane and arrange to meet him after work to head over to the hotel.

  Using my browser on my cell phone, I bring up the search term of in-patient rehab clinics. I call a few and finally find one that will take Max in tomorrow morning. It’s a nice spot along the coast and all I can hope now is that he will accept this help. I’m willing to try anything at this point and I think with the recent accident, he’s gone over the deep end, and will hopefully not see my offer as anything other than caring about him.

  * * *

  Dane is standing against the bumper of his car as I pull into the guest parking space next to him.

  “Front desk gave me his room number, but we won’t need it. He’s sitting at the outdoor bar by the pool.” Dane said.

  “Cool. How do we play this?” I ask nervously.

  “Honestly, I have no idea. He may not like that we’re here, especially since he’s made no attempts to co
ntact either of us. It could go a few ways, he will be angry to see us or he can be annoyed to see us. Depending on how drunk he is right now, or he could kick us out. Even at his drunkest though, he’s a reasonable guy, he’ll hopefully listen. ” Dane explains.

  “I’ve got him a spot at a rehab facility up the coast for tomorrow morning. I tried for tonight, but I couldn’t arrange that on such short notice. He’ll be pissed at that, but I’m hoping that he sees it differently, and then he’ll be pissed that we found him. I hate this.” I rub my hand over my face in frustration.

  “Should we somehow get him up to his room?” Dane asks.

  “Fuck if I know. Probably, to save him the embarrassment in case someone overhears.” I reply.

  “How did you know he was here anyways?”

  “My co-workers met him on Friday night.” I supplied leaving out the details that Max hooked up with one of them. Not my story to tell.

  “Let’s do this before we lose the nerve.” Dane clasps my shoulder and we begin walking.

  We walk up to the front desk and ask the receptionist to let Max know he has guests at the front desk. Hopefully from there, we can steer him in the direction of his hotel room.

  Moments pass and eventually Max stumbles through the double doors with a fruity drink in his hand. He’s dressed in board shorts and a t-shirt, aviator sunglasses and flip flops. His face falls when he sees that it’s us and probably not some girls that he may have met during his stay here.

  “Well, not who I was expecting. What the hell are you guys doing here?” He slurs angrily.

  “How you been buddy?” Dane takes the lead, thankfully.

  “Eh you know, I’ve been better. What brings you to this fine establishment?” He’s acting like he hasn’t been missing for so many days.

  “We’ve been looking for you, worried about you.” I clarify.

  “Ah yes. I’ve been vacationing, my phone is dead, and I’ve wanted nothing to do with anyone, still don’t. Care for a drink?” He motions to the area behind him.

  “No thanks, let’s go up to your room, where it’s more private.” Dane insists motioning to the elevators.

  “If you insist, let me grab a drink.” He slurs.

  “You’ve already got one buddy.” I say.

  “My ice has melted.” He turns and walks to the bar. At the bar, he leaves his current colorful drink atop the bar and flags the bartender. He orders his usual 3 fingers of scotch and we walk to the elevators. We enter his hotel room on one of the upper floors and both Dane and I whistle at appreciation for the quality of his room.

  “Nice Suite.” Dane says.

  “Yeah, so what do you guys want?” He asks gesturing to the seating area.

  “You don’t call, you don’t write…” Dane starts as he takes a seat in one of the chairs. I follow and sit down as well.

  “I needed a vacation. I need to be away.” He shrugs.

  “Dude. You were wasted the last time we saw you. Dane put you in the shower and to bed, and then the next morning, you vanished. Then a week goes by and no word from you. We’ve been losing our shit.” I seem to have started to whine, not wanting to pussyfoot around the subject any more.

  Max’s glazed stare blazes through me. Then he quickly diverts his eyes as if he’s been shamed like a dog after my words have likely sunk in.

  “A simple phone call to let us know you were fine would have eliminated so much. I know you’ve been dealing with a lot of shit, and I know its sucked balls, but you have us to talk to. Sterling would bend over backwards to talk to you if you would let her, she’s just as worried as we are. I don’t want to make you feel any worse than you could possibly feel, but we both want you to know we worry about you and we care.”

  Max sits down on the loveseat facing us. He sets his drink down, but keeps his eyes locked on the glass.

  “I don’t want to talk about it or think about it. I want to forget it.” He mumbles.

  “The booze and the chicks?” I ask.

  “It gives me a temporary memory replacement. Changes reality for a brief period of time.” He sounds helpless as he describes his thoughts on how he’s been coping and I realize that he is telling us why he’s been drinking the way he has.

  “Do you want to change that? Or do you want to stay in this endless cycle?” Dane asks. Damn, he’s good, And to the point.

  “Right now, I don’t know any other way to forget.” Max admits.

  “You don’t need to forget, but you gotta move on. I know everything has sucked, but you can’t quit. Betsy would have never wanted you to quit, she was your perfect cheerleader man, she wanted nothing but the best for you.”

  “She was the best for me. I wanted to marry her, I wanted to make little Betsy’s with her. I wanted what you and Sterling have.” Max pushes his face into his hands and takes a deep breath.

  I move over to sit next to him and place my hand on his back. We sat in silence for several minutes while I got my thoughts together. The next piece of information can go several different ways.

  “Max, if you’re willing to accept it, I have something to offer you.” I start as Max looks at me through his fingers. “Tomorrow morning, I have a spot for you ready at a nearby clinic.”

  “Like rehab?” He asks as I nod my head. “No, I don’t need rehab. I’m alright.”

  “It’s a nice one, on the cliffs. We think it may be the best thing for you right now. I hate seeing you like this. As mushy and un-manlike as it sounds – I miss my brother.”

  Max nods. “I don’t need rehab or any facility. I’m alright. Besides rehab, it also asks for me to be sober which impacts you guys.”

  “Bullshit excuse, but go on.” Dane plays it straight.

  “We can’t go out for drinks, can’t keep booze around the house and stuff like that.” He says.

  “Look man, people don’t necessarily need a drink to have fun. It will be different, but it will be a good thing. It’s not something that will be difficult for anyone nor is it a determining factor when you care about your friends. Answer this, do you want to keep drinking? Do you enjoy it?” Dane asks.

  “I drink, like I said to forget and to not feel. Do I enjoy it, I think I do sometimes. Other times, it’s more of an obligation. I feel like I need to drink to deal. It helps me get through the day, avoid the nightmares, to not have to remember. But I don’t need to go somewhere to get control of myself and stop drinking. Who says I even want to stop?”

  “You don’t need to forget. You were dealt a shitty hand. But you are still alive, you can still carry her memory if that’s what you want. You don’t need to rely on drinking though to do that.” I say slightly worried that we’re pushing too hard and asking too much too soon.

  There’s a slight knock on the door. We all turn our heads to the door.

  “That would be… um some chick that was here recently. That’s who I thought you guys were when you first showed up. Sorry, give me a second to break her heart.” He attempts to joke to calm himself as he gets up and answers the door.

  I see a slender tanned arm reach for him and pull him to her, she’s just out of sight that we can’t see her. Max says something quietly to her and then he’s shutting the door and returning to the loveseat.

  He sits down and his expression is contemplative. No one says anything, in fear to break Max’s thoughts.

  “I know something needs to change. Am I acknowledging that, yes. Am I embracing it, not quite. I’ll fully admit to you right now, I’m not sober and I haven’t been not really since I drove over to this hotel, and even though I was probably still drunk from when you guys put me to sleep that night. So yeah, I will acknowledge that I have a problem.” He then turns to me. “I don’t want you, either of you to have to worry about me. I don’t agree with you that I need to go into a rehab place. I don’t think that I need it and I don’t want it.”

  “Max, we need you at the office. But we can’t have you there when you’re like this.” Dane says.

&nb
sp; “So either I go into rehab or I’m... what…. bought out of our company, the company that I helped build?” Max asks angrily.

  “I don’t want that to happen. But I can’t have you at the office drinking, and I can’t depend on you to be present, when you haven’t been. I want you to be the guy you used to be.”

  “That guy is gone, Dane, this is who I am now!” He roars standing up.

  “It’s not. You know that and we know that.” Dane argues back.

  “What does it matter?” Max grabs the glass he placed down and gulps the remainder of the drink, then throws the glass against the wall.

  Overcome with emotion, I hug my brother and I hug him hard.

  “I need my brother. I. Want. Him. Back.” I whisper to him enunciating each word.

  Max tries to push me away, but my grasp isn’t letting up. Max began to tremble and I hugged him harder.

  “Alright.” He says sounding defeated. “I’ll do it and fuck you for using the brother card.”

  During our embrace, Dane has stood up and took note of the bottles, the numerous large bottles along the bar top.

  “Are these yours or the hotels?” Dane asks.

  “They’re mine. The mini ones are the hotels.” Max said standing and walking to Dane. Dane hesitates to pour a bottle out and looks to Max. He hands Max the bottle to have him make this decision.

  I hold my breath as Max grasps the bottle by the neck. He walks to Dane’s side in front of the sink and tips the bottle upside down. Relieved, I step up to the other side of the bar.

  Several silent moments pass the three of us.

  “I have a question.” Max starts looking between Dane and myself.

  “Did you guys dump the alcohol in the house?” He asks.

  “I did, while Dane showered you.” I reply.

  Max smiles. “Phew, I had thought that I drank it all, granted I left the house and bought more alcohol, but I thought I drank all of the bottles in that cupboard.”

  I smiled at him, it looked like he had a panicked moment of drinking too much.