• • •
“I wasn’t supposed to grow feelings for Max. He was only supposed to be my distraction.” Hiccup.
Maggie smirked. “I knew you were lying when I asked you on Monday if you were falling for him. You oversold the ‘Nah, we’re just having a good time.’ If you had debated my question for thirty-six hours and then answered, I might’ve believed it.”
“But I love Gabriel. I’d decided to marry him.”
“You can love someone but not be in love with them. I love you, but I don’t want to wake up to you every morning.”
“That’s different.”
She shrugged. “Not really. You want to know what I think?”
I pouted. “No.”
“That’s a shame. Because you’re going to hear it anyway. I think you spend so much time analyzing every decision that you’ve forgotten to listen to your heart. Things in your life have changed—and those changes were started by Gabriel. Let’s not forget that.”
I dropped my head into my hands. “I’m so confused. And Max is moving at the end of the summer.”
“So? He’s a professional athlete. He’s probably on the road for most of the hockey season anyway. He has to live near his team to practice and go to work, but why couldn’t he be bicoastal and spend the offseason here, if things worked out? You have a shop in Long Beach, California. You could work out of that, if you wanted, at least for some of the season. You’re self-employed, Georgia. Hell, you could move the entire damn operation to wherever he is.”
“You’re making my head spin.”
Maggie smiled. “I’m not saying you need to do any of those things. I just mean that him leaving doesn’t have to mean the end.”
“But that’s what we agreed to.”
“And Aaron agreed to love me forever and not covet thy neighbor.” She shrugged. “Shit changes.”
“I don’t even know if Max would want more.”
“He hasn’t given you any indication that he might be interested in something longer than a summer fling?”
“Well…on the last morning of our mini vacation, he asked me if I thought things between me and Gabriel would’ve worked out long distance, if he hadn’t broken things off before he left. For some reason, I thought he might be asking because he was moving to California. But that could just have been wishful thinking.”
“Hmmm…” Maggie sipped her wine. “I bet he was. With men, our first instinct is usually right. I know that’s hard for someone like you to believe, because you analyze problems from fifty different angles, but usually our intuition sees things right in front of us pretty clearly.”
“Even if I was right, and somehow we were able to work it out and try the long distance thing. What about Gabriel?”
“What about him?”
“He’s going to come home in six months. What if he comes home and says he wants to be together, that his time away made him realize what he really wants in life?”
“What about what you really want in life? Let me ask you something. Tomorrow morning, you wake up and find out you won the lottery. You grab your cell phone and you call…who? Who are you calling? I mean, after me, of course.”
“I don’t play the lotto.”
Maggie shook her head. “Work with me here. Pretend you played the lotto. Close your eyes for a minute.”
I took a deep breath before shutting them.
“Okay… You climb out of bed. You flick on the news while you’re getting ready, and you hear the anchorman say there was only one winning ticket for the billion-dollar lottery—the largest in history. And it was purchased at the same store you purchased yours. Then he reads the numbers: five, fourteen, one, thirty-one, three, twenty-five. You run and get your ticket to double check, but you know those are the numbers you played because it’s my birthday, your birthday, and your mom’s birthday. Your hand is shaking while you confirm you’re the winner. You grab your cell phone and you call…”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to imagine the entire thing. I could see exactly what she’d described—the TV on, running to my purse to fish out my ticket, even grabbing my cell phone to call someone. But…then I stare down at my phone. I’m not sure who to call first.
I opened my eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t know who I’d call!”
“Welp, that’s what you need to figure out. You know what we need to help us do that?”
“A pros and cons list?”
Maggie guzzled the last of her wine. “Nope. More wine. I’ll be right back.” She pointed to my glass, which was still half full. “Finish that before I return.”
While she was at the bar, my phone started to jump around on the table. I picked it up and smiled seeing Max’s name. Since Maggie was talking to the cute bartender who hadn’t yet filled our glasses, I figured I had a few minutes. So I swiped to answer.
“Hey.”
“What’s up, beautiful? You know what I was thinking about earlier?”
“What?” I sipped my wine.
“Eating you out while you’re sitting at your desk.”
I inhaled sharply. Unfortunately, I hadn’t swallowed the wine all the way yet, so it went down the wrong pipe. I started to cough.
“Are you okay?”
I patted my chest and spoke with a strained voice. “No! You made me choke on my wine.”
“I wish I was there to make you choke on something else.”
I felt my cheeks heat, and it had nothing to do with swallowing down the wrong pipe. “Someone is in a mood today.”
“I can’t help it. I had that meeting with the general manager. He was running a few minutes late, so they showed me into his office. He had this big desk with all these awards hanging on the walls and stuff. It just looked like the office of a guy who was in charge. That got me thinking what you might look like sitting behind your desk—all powerful and sexy. It makes me want to make you beg.”
“Let me get this straight. You envision me being powerful, and that turns you on and makes you want to…make me beg?”
I obviously couldn’t see him, but I heard his smile in just two words. “Fuck yeah.”
I laughed. “You’re bad.”
“Why don’t you go lock the door to your office and let me tell you the things I want to do to you while you slip your hand down into those lacy panties I know you have on.”
Damn, I kind of wished I were still at the office now. “Tempting…but no can do. I’m not at the office.”
“Where are you?”
“At a bar a few blocks away with Maggie. She’s trying to get me drunk.”
“Nice. I’m glad you left the office at a decent hour tonight.”
“I still have a lot of catching up to do.”
“Well, get it done. Because once I’m back, I’ll come carry your ass out if you’re working too late. You promised me a summer, and I’m not taking just weekends.”
I smiled. “I’ll try.”
“Alright. I’ll let you go so you can enjoy your time with your friend.”