Bleeding Hearts

James

Max grabbed my hand and led me to a glass door that had some fancy Italian looking words on it, he opened the door for me and guided me to a table in the back were a man sat. The man looked young he had to be close to our age, he had light brown hair and tanned skin, his eyes were ocean blue and memorizing. The man was very well dressed and polite, he stood up when he seen us and immediately pulled out a chair for me to take a seat while Max stopped a waitress and whispered something before taking a seat.

“ thirsty Maximus? I sure hope you got your girlfriend a drink as well" the man said with a mocking smile as he seated himself across from me. His voice was overwhelming to me for some reason, he in a way scared me yet I found him so interesting, his voice was deep and soft all at once. I am so intrigued and have no clue why.

“ very thirsty, best bloody marry in town. Isabella here isn’t much of a drinker so my guess is she will say she wants water or ice tea, she’s a big girl that doesn’t appreciate having men make decisions for her. I dare you to try and order a drink for her, oh how I would enjoy the show” Max responded with the biggest smile I have ever seen on his face since the accident. “also James, my best friend not my girlfriend, Isabella this is James Adams an old friend of mine” max says with a huge grin on his face, eyes never leaving James’s face. I began to feel like there was a game going on or some sort of sibling like mocking, either way I felt it was time for me to add my two cents in on it and make Max proud. 

“ I am perfectly capable of ordering for myself boys, also I’m quite patient and can wait for whomever is to be placing our orders for us to make there way over here. Not everyone is nursing a hangover right now with the hopes the cure for their pain can be found in yet another glass of alcohol” I said mockingly just as a waitress approached with Max’s bloody Mary.

“ good afternoon everyone” she gave Max his drink and froze while taking in his devilishly good looks, a thing that seems to happen to almost all women to cross his path. This annoyed me greatly at times when we hang out due to the fact I would always be forgotten by the waitresses of restaurants or have strange women run me over to get to him, Amy hated it even more, who could blame her though its as if the women would pretend she didn’t exist just to try and steal him from right in front of her. I got sick of waiting for the barely legal lady to catch her breath, Max was so engrossed in his tomato juice that he didn’t notice her fingering her hair and gushing on him.

“ miss…. When your done drooling I think the rest of us at the table would like to place an order for drinks as well, Max here doesn’t play well with others and is especially bad at sharing” the words came out way more snippy than I had meant them to but it did the job. She quickly shifted her eyes from Max who now had a frown on his face, apparently he didn’t like my snide comment but who cares. The waitress turned to James and I and tried to hide her blush and embarrassment.

“ sorry folks, may I take your orders now? Miss what would you like to drink?” totally embarrassed and trying not to look at Max or James apparently she took my order for Ice water with lemon then turned to James which after staring at him and damn near drooling again she scurried of with his order of some fancy whisky drink. Looks like I’m invisible at this table to the rest of the world, Max and James are both goddess like to the waitress I can only imagine what it would be like to be out in the world with these two, I could probably rob a bank and get away with it if the cops where girls, hmmmmm not a bad idea???

“Soooo …. Are you in a bad mood or just out to kill the waitress?” Max asked with a laugh

“ looked to me like she may have been a bit jealous of the attention Maximus, are you sure she’s not your girlfriend?” James added

“ she was drooling like a dog all over herself and damn near had her ass in my face, not a fan of the women who can’t keep their composure. Whatever curse you two place on the girls around you doesn’t work on me sorry boys. I’m in a great mood just don’t feel like waiting all day for a cup of ice water, I have things to do.” My response sent them both into a giggle fit. “ James I have zero interest in dating Max here, we are friends and he is damn lucky to have me. He doesn’t stand a chance to get any more than that and in fact no man on this planet will ever be anything more than a friend to me if you must know" 

“ahhh I see, so your mad she was looking at Max and drooling instead of looking at you?” James asked

“no, definitely not. I prefer men from Mars, they are far less annoying and more intelligent then earth men" I said with the most matter of fact voice I could muster up. He looked at me with his intense blue eyes like he was taking what I said as a dare. Oh God I hope I didn’t just start a game with him. He smiled and laughed just as our drinks showed up.

We ordered food and got down to more serious talk. James is in town for a while because his company is taking over some office building in town, I guess his company is expanding in the area and he is overseeing the work. Apparently Max is a part of this company as well from what I heard they grew it together from something James dad started then passed on. James has a sister who is also in town working for the company and apparently she once had it for Max so James was cracking jokes about max no longer needing to watch his back because she has a man now. Listening to them talk I started putting some puzzle pieces together on Max and it made it easier to understand why he is the way he is this had turned out to be the most interesting lunch I have ever been a part of so far.

After lunch we headed out to the parking area, and James pulled us aside while we waited for the car to be brought around. 

“Max I hope to see you around, I need you to help out with some things at the office when you get time, I can run the business on my own you know.” He hugged him then turned to me “ hopefully this wasn’t the dullest lunch you have attended, I would love to have you join us again sometime when you’re free. I would like to learn more about the woman who has helped to keep this boy out of trouble” he took my hand and kissed it gently before walking off to his car. Our car came around and we headed off back to the shop, my head was spinning with all this knowledge I inadvertently gained and also the mystery that is James.

The second we arrived at the shop I grabbed Max and pulled him into the side office where he occasionally does his business work. He has a messy desk in here and some chairs. I shoved him through the door and locked it behind me then stared at him.

“what?” he asked looking kind of scared 

“ Years I have known you, yet today I realized I don’t really know you at all. All these stories I heard about you and to learn that apparently your like mega rich? Seriously James told me more today about you then you have ever told me” I sit down across from him “ I know our friendship was built around Amy and us all hanging together with me being the third wheel, its ok. After all these years and all I have done for you since she died I think its time you tell me who you are, and who he is and why you do all this when you don’t need to" I wave my hand around the room of unfinished business and look at him with tears in my eyes. “ who are you? What are you? And how did all this start? Tell me what you can, if you really think of me as your best friend which you have called me for at least the last 2 years then I think I have a right to know.” I sit back and cross my arms and wait for him to speak. He looks at me and smiles with a big smile.

“your right, I guess I just assumed Amy told you everything she knew but then again you probably never asked because you are you. You are the girl to never ask any personal questions so of course you wouldn’t know much.” He sat back and put his hands behind his head and for once we sat there and he talked, he just talked. Max let it all out as if reading a book about himself and I was floored, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I finally get to know the man that he is.