The annoying charisma of Max Brown (Now published so sample size only)

Chapter 19

On the way to Max's place, she'd started crying. I don't think she recalled anything but her heartbreak. She didn't see Max manoeuvre that huge couch onto his driveway with ease. He'd sat me down at the cozy table and chairs before he handed Carly an axe.

"Where are we?" Carly asked as she kept glancing around.

"You're looking at where Max lives." I replied and her mouth gaped open.

"Here, we'll start with dehydration and maybe get back to hydration later." Max said as he pressed a wine glass into Carly's hand.

"I've destroyed your driveway." Carly sounded regretful as she accepted the glass.

"Don't worry about it. I'll get someone over to clean it today. The important thing is whether it proved beneficial for you or not." Max enquired.

"Yeah, it did. Thanks." Carly's small smile wasn't anything close to her normal one.

"Good. Come and sit down so we can get on with our day drinking." He clinked his wine glass against hers.

I sat back on the chair I had vacated, and grabbed a glass of the water. Max sat in the chair closest to me, and Carly sat opposite us. We all sat there quietly for a moment. When Max put his hand against the back of my chair, and started playing with a strand of my hair, Carly sat up straighter.

"He won you over." Carly pointed between us with a much more genuine grin.

"What are you talking about?" I rolled my eyes but didn't move away from Max.

"At least something good came out of this day." Carly sounded a lot cheerier as she peered at me.

"Like what?" I tried for denial, but I knew it wouldn't work.

"Don't even try that with me!" Carly chided.

A phone began to ring, and a groan of protest came from the man beside me. I glanced at Max, who seemed to debate whether he would answer the phone or not. After a moment, he sighed, stood and walked into his house.

Realising that left me to answer prying Carly, I scurried to find something to occupy myself. Carly cleared her throat and stared hard at me. I found fascination in the tree that towered over us and ignored her.

"C'mon, Dawn, I've got to have something good in my life today. If it's you accepting Max, then that's a great thing." Carly encouraged.

"He asked me to be his girlfriend." I admitted as I stared into my water.

"You better have said yes." She clapped her hands."

"He said such nice things that I... It amazed me that he saw me that way. I couldn't refuse him, so I agreed." I took off my glasses and cleaned them on my shirt.

"At least that rational side of yours didn't wake up to protest."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I frowned at her as I put my glasses back on.

"Sometimes you don't see the good things that are right in front of your nose. He's the best thing to ever happen to you. The best!" she exclaimed.

"Shouldn't you still be in tears over Ry?" I said and then winced at how horrible I sounded.

She shrugged, took a quick slug of her wine and then faced me, "you've been right about him all along. It took me a stupid long time to see that truth. How could I have been so blind to the way he acted?" she shook her head.

I went to answer, but Max marched out of his house with determined strides. The firmness of his voice emphasised how annoyed he seemed. Both of us stared in his direction.