by Jolie Day
The man shrugged, playing it cool. “I just like skulls, man. It’s not that deep.”
He struggled to get one of the bags out of the dumpster and Max stepped up to help him. “You know,” he said, “that looks like a tattoo for that gang in town. What are they called? The Hell’s Sevens!” He snapped his finger and watched as the man turned pale, swallowing thickly.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, man. I just like skulls.”
“Look, don’t worry about it, kid,” Max said, looking both ways before tugging up his sleeve. “Me, too.” He showed him the tattoo on his arm. The guy’s shoulders relaxed at that.
“Thank god,” he said. “Thought you were a cop, man.”
“Do I look like a cop to you?” Max laughed, motioning to his clothes.
“I dunno, man! You just started asking all these questions. Honestly, I didn’t know what to think. My name’s Hector, by the way.” He held out his hand.
“Mike,” Max lied, shaking it. “What are you doing hauling trash around, Hector? I thought CJ was supposed to take care of you.”
“He is!” Hector assured him. “But I’m new and it’s taking a little while to get me in on a job. I’ve got a son to take care of, you know? I need to be working. Soon, though. That’s what CJ said. There’s a raid happening in a week, when he gets back from killing that asshole, Cobra.”
“Oh, yeah,” Max huffed. “I heard about that. What a fucking idiot.” He shook his head. “So where’s this raid happening?”
“You don’t know?” Hector asked, furrowing his brow. “I thought everybody knew.”
“I’m one of Senior’s recruits,” Max said, still lying through his teeth. “You know CJ doesn’t like keeping us in the loop.”
“Right,” Hector said. “Well, we’re supposed to be meeting at CJ’s on Sycamore next weekend. I don’t exactly know who’s the target, but it’s supposed to have a major payoff.” He grinned. “My boy’s getting that tricycle he’s been wanting and a whole lot more.”
Max smiled back. “Good luck with that,” he said. “I’ll see if CJ wants to let me in on that action, but I doubt it.” He held out his fist. “Take care of that boy of yours.”
“You know it,” Hector said, grinning, before hefting the trash bags towards the truck and tossing them into the compacter. Max watched as he hopped on and clapped the side, signaling for the truck to roll away. He nodded and turned, heading back into the building.
*****
Regina
“You smell like trash.”
Max laughed as he attempted to kiss her and she shoved him away, wrinkling her nose and making a disgusted face at him. He laughed harder as she buried herself under the blankets, the mountain of her dark brown hair spilling out over the pillows.
“Aw, come on, Reggie!” he laughed, trying to tug the sheets away from her still blissfully bare body. Her grip was firm. “Are you serious right now?” He smelled his own collar. “It is not that bad!” He tugged again.
“Shower!” Regina said, her hand popping out to point in the general direction of the bathroom. “Now! Or should I just leave?”
“You’ll have to come out from beneath those sheets first,” Max pointed out. “And find your clothes.”
“I will leave naked; don’t think that I won’t,” she warned, pointing again. “Shower.”
“Alright, alright,” Max laughed. “I’m going. I don’t suppose you’d want to join me.”
Regina stuck her head out just far enough so that Max could see her eyes, flashing blue with lust. “Maybe,” she said. “If you get rid of that stench. What is that?” She groaned, pressing the sheets back over her head as Max laughed.
“I think it’s old eggs,” he said, sniffing himself again. “And rotten celery? How many Bloody Mary’s have you made?” She snorted as he headed toward the bathroom and Regina rolled her eyes, waiting for the telltale sound of the bathroom door closing, before she sat up and stretched her sore limbs.
She’d spent the majority of the night (or early morning?) with Max between her legs, giving her orgasm after orgasm until she practically had to shove him away from her and allow her body to finally drift off to sleep, plastered to his chest. Regina had woken up a couple hours later and seriously considered sneaking out for a second time.
But that would have been pointless. Because she would have been back in his bed in another twenty-four hours, moaning and crying out his name, letting him do whatever it was that he wanted to do to her body. She would have plastered herself against his chest again and pressed kisses to his face, to his lips, to his neck, to his chest, trailing down to his waistline and making him forget his own name in the throes of ecstasy.
Besides, it didn’t have to mean more than just sex. She was certain that Max would agree.
Regina clambered off the bed, stretching her back and legs, smiling at the aches and pains all over her body. She shivered as the memories flashed through her mind and padded across the room, slipping into the bathroom and allowing the warm steam to wrap around her in a comforting embrace, before taking a few more steps and hopping into the shower with Max, who welcomed her with literal open arms.
“Hey,” he said, as she joined him under the spray, pressing her body against his. “You look familiar. Do we know each other?” he teased.
“I think we met at the bar,” Regina replied, grinning up at him as she reached down to wrap her hand around his growing hardness. “Ooh, looks like somebody recognizes me, hmm?”
Max chuckled, placing his hands on her ass and pulling her in. “You know,” he said, “I had a fantasy like this once.”
“Oh?” Regina giggled, moaning as he kneaded her ass cheeks and pulled her firmly against him, grinding against her even as she continued to stroke him.
“Yeah,” Max husked. “It was last night, actually.” He leaned in until his lips were right next to her ear. “Right after I ate you out.”
Regina moaned and pressed up, kissing him with everything she had in her. Max grinned against her lips, turning her and pressing her against the wall, feeling the shivers run through her as he pressed himself inside of her, moaning at the feeling of being so intimately connected, once again.
*****
Regina dried her hair with a towel in the bedroom as Max shaved the scruff that had grown in the last couple of days on his jaw. She smiled at him through the crack in the door as he danced along to radio music and spread shaving cream all over his face. Her heart fluttered as she dropped back down to the bed, sighing as she stretched out, wrapped in nothing but a large towel. She sighed, letting her legs hang off the edge of the bed as she closed her eyes and allowed her body to sink into the mattress for the few moments she had to relax before she had to get home to change and return to the bar.
Her rest was interrupted by the shrill ring of a cell phone near her ear and Regina reached blindly for her phone, swiping it open and placing it against her ear, with a sigh. “Hello?”
“Hello?” the voice on the other end sounded unfamiliar. And very confused. “Who’s this?”
“You called me,” Regina reminded her. “Who’s this?”
“This is Carol,” the woman informed her. “I’m calling for my brother. Did he change his number again? I just got this one.”
“You’re Max’s sister?” Regina asked, sitting up and pressing the towel more firmly against her chest, as if Carol could see her through the phone.
“Yes,” Carol replied. “And who are you?”
“I’m his, uh, barmaid,” she said, panicking. “He left his phone at my bar.”
“Dammit!” Carol cursed. “Do you know if he’ll be coming back?”
“Uh, yeah,” Regina replied. “He’s renting a room upstairs; he should be down soon after it opens at four, if you can wait that long.”
“Yeah, sure,” Carol sighed. “Just…let him know I called, okay? It’s very important. It’s about our mother.” Regina could hear the woman on the other line sniffle. �
�Please, just…just tell him.” The line went dead and Regina pulled the phone away from her ear, just staring at the piece of plastic and metal in her hand, her brows furrowed.
“What are you doing with my phone?”
Regina jumped up and looked up at Max. She hadn’t even realized that the music stopped playing or that he’d entered the room. His face was devoid of hair now, the line of his jaw sharp as he frowned down at her in confusion. She cleared her throat and held the phone out towards him. “Your sister called,” she said. “Carol, is it? She, uh, she really needs to speak to you. A-about your mother.”
“What are you doing answering my phone?” Max snapped, snatching it out of her hand.
“I’m sorry,” Regina bristled. “I thought it was mine. I wasn’t really paying attention, I guess.” Max pressed his lips into a thin line, not responding. “Whatever,” she said. “I’ve gotta go. I have to do inventory and get ready to open. I’ll, uh, see you later, I guess?” Still no response. Regina rolled her eyes as she slipped on her shirt and shimmied into her jeans. “Look, it was an accident,” she said. “But I really think you should talk to your sister.” She took a deep breath. “She was crying—if that means anything to you.” Still nothing. “Okay, I’m going. See you later.”
She made her way out of the door, feeling a lump form in her throat as confusion flooded her. She didn’t want to think too much about it, though, as she picked up the basket from the floor and carried it downstairs with her.
*****
Max
As soon as Regina was gone, Max swiped open his phone and went to his recent calls list, searching for the familiar name and number. In ten years, Carol had kept the same phone number, never changing it, just in case somebody needed to reach her in the case of an emergency.
The phone barely rang a second time before he heard his sister’s familiar soprano come over the line. “Max?”
“Hey, sis,” he greeted, sitting down on the bed. “What’s up? Regina said it was important.”
“It is!” He could hear the tears in his sister’s voice, even as she tried to hide them. “Mom’s…she’s not doing well, Max.”
“What do you mean?” He could feel his heart rate spike, could hear it thumping in his ears as his fist clenched around his phone. “What happened?”
“She had a stroke,” Carol whimpered. He could practically see the tears shining in his sister’s eyes. Could track the way they strolled down her cheeks and dripped from her chin. “She can’t even speak now and she…she’s getting so much worse, Max. I don’t…she might not even make it through the night.”
“Shit,” he sighed, rubbing his temple. “What hospital are you at?”
“Mercy General,” Carol told him. “The one near the house. Are you…are you coming home?”
Max took a deep breath and nodded, then remembered that she couldn’t see him. “Yeah,” he said, finally.
“I’m coming home.”
*****
Regina was behind the bar when he walked into the room at half past four, his bags in his hands as he passed through. The bar was not as crowded as he’d been foolishly hoping it would be, so there was no way for Regina to have missed him. The second their eyes met, he saw the confusion in her gaze, as well as something that looked close to hurt and a little bit of anger.
Max sighed and nearly turned around right then and there, made his way back to his room and unpacked.
But his sister needed him. Their mother needed him. And if he left now…well, he might never forgive himself if Carol was correct and she didn’t make it through the night. If that meant hurting this woman he’d just met—but already knew more intimately than most of the women he’d had before her—then he was willing to do that. For Carol and for his mother.
Still, he couldn’t ignore Regina completely and tried to communicated how sorry he was for leaving like that with the simple furrow of his eyebrows as he made his way out the door, to his motorcycle. He placed his things in the saddle bag and sighed when he heard the door to the bar open, allowing the loud, thumping music to filter out for a split second, before disappearing altogether as it closed.
Max turned to see Regina standing there, arms folded over her chest, hair in a messy bun atop her head. She was wearing a blue flannel shirt and a pair of fashionably ripped jeans that hugged all of her curves just right. She looked at the ground for a long moment, before raising her eyes to his, tilting her head to the side and pressing her lips together.
“Where are you going?” she asked, her voice thicker than normal, as if she actually cared about him.
“Why do you care?” he asked, feeling a little bit defensive.
Regina shrugged. “You just seem upset,” she said. “Is it because of what I did earlier? I swear I didn’t mean to answer your phone. I would never have tried to do something that made you so uncomfortable.”
“It’s not that,” Max promised, giving her a small, consoling smile. “I swear.”
“Then where are you going?” Regina asked again. “B-because you still haven’t paid your bill.” She looked away when he chuckled.
“Home,” Max informed her. “To see my mom. She’s not doing too well, you know? I just…I don’t want to miss my chance to say goodbye. I’ll be back in a few days, alright? And I’ll pay for my room in the meantime, so don’t you worry.” He straddled the bike and started up the engine.
“But, what if you don’t come back?” she asked, taking a few steps forward until she was right next to his bike. Max turned to her, saw the tears forming in her eyes, and took a deep breath. He reached out, cupping her cheek with his hand and thumbing the tear away. Regina sniffled and pressed her cheek into his hand, sighing.
“I’ll only be gone a couple days,” he promised. “Trust me. I’m not leaving you for good just yet, okay?”
Regina nodded, finally, and leaned in, pressing her lips to his in a kiss that was filled with sorrow and, once again, almost made Max change his mind completely. Instead, he just kissed her back and took a deep breath as he sat back down on his bike, revving the engine. Regina backed away, her eyes trained on him as he moved away from the curb.
She watched until he disappeared around the bend.
*****
Regina
She couldn’t focus.
Jimmy had to call her name several times to get another glass of whiskey and Brandy had to repeat her drink orders three times each. At one point, she felt overwhelmed and had to excuse herself to the back.
Regina stood over the sink in the laundry room, trying to right herself and slow down her heart rate, steady her breathing, and relax. She didn’t know why she was reacting this way to Max’s departure. It wasn’t like he was leaving for good—at least that’s what he said—and they weren’t anything more than lovers anyway, right? She was just being ridiculous.
Still, she felt the ache inside of her even as she went back to work, trying her hardest to ignore the pain and focus on the task at hand. It wasn’t easy.
*****
Max
It took twelve hours for him to get home.
The house was dark and quiet and there was a key under the mat with a note from Carol.
‘Max. I’m staying at the hospital with Mom. Her condition is stable, but the doctors say she’s not going to last much longer. If you didn’t get a call from me by the time you got here, then she’s still alive, but there’s not much time. Come quickly. Room 405. Love, Carol”
He slipped the note into his pocket and unlocked the door, keeping it open just long enough to slip his things inside. He didn’t turn on the lights or step inside at all, not wanting to see the family photos his mother had kept scattered around the living room. He wondered how many times she had stared at those photos, wondering who those people were.
He wondered if she would even recognize him when he got there to say goodbye. He wondered how much pain she would be in, how much pain he would be in when he saw her laying there in her hospital bed
. He wondered how Carol was doing.
His mother and sister had been close growing up. Rose Stormwell had loved both of her children, but she delighted in being able to braid her daughter’s hair, in shopping with her, in gossiping about boys and celebrities and giggling like little girls when they did each other’s nails. Young Max had rolled his eyes plenty at his female relatives and ran away when Carol would chase him, begging Max to join in on her tea party with their mother. Rose was a strong woman when she was younger and would carry both of her kids on her shoulders when they went through walks through town.
He missed those days and being reminded of them was just not…he didn’t think he could handle it, even as a grown ass man, tattoos and all.
So he backed out of his mother’s house and headed back to his bike, climbing on and making his way, as quickly as he possibly could, towards the hospital. It didn’t take long to reach his mother’s room, outside of which his sister was sitting against the wall, her hands folded in her lap and her head bowed.
“Carol?” She looked up at the sound of his voice and scrambled to her feet, throwing herself into his arms. She was smaller than Max remembered. He’d always thought of her as his “big sister”, the girl that used to tease him about being shorter than the rest of the boys in elementary school. The girl that had her first growth spurt in third grade, bringing her to five feet, and her last in eighth grade, bringing her to 5’8. Now, she fit just beneath his chin, her shoulders shaking with the force of her sobs. Max’s stomach filled with lead and a knot formed in his throat. “Is she…?” he asked, trailing off. He couldn’t even make his mouth form the words.
“No,” Carol sniffled. “Not…not yet. But she’s…” Carol shook her head. “I think she’s holding on for something. For you, probably.”
“She didn’t even remember me the last time I was here, Car,” he sighed.