Wanting to Remember, Trying to Forget (Meet the Shepards #1) Page 6

  “Danny didn’t invite him,” Charlie said.

  “What?”

  “Amber told me that Danny didn’t invite Richard.”

  Max stopped for a second as the information sank in. It seemed strange that she would have invited him and not Richard. Actually, that didn’t make any sense at all. He wanted to believe that maybe she had wanted to spend the evening with him, but it was very possible that she hadn’t invited Richard because she knew how unreliable he was. Either way he wasn’t going to obsess about that, because right now she was with Richard. That smug, pompous asshole who didn’t deserve to breathe the same air she did.

  “She can’t possibly love him,” Max said, his hands curling into tight fists. “I see her with him…and…and it drives me crazy! What the fuck does she see in him, Charlie?”

  “Just forget about her, man. Move on with your life. It’s been six years. You’ve been there for six years and she keeps dating jerk after jerk. Just forget about her.”

  “I can’t, Charlie. I wish I could.” He clasped his hands together at the back of his head. “It’s just…” He shrugged. “I’m in love with her.”

  “I know, dude, but I want you to think about this logically. You don’t date anyone because you think that one day she’s just gonna wake up and realize that she’s meant to be with you. That in itself is a stupid notion. You’ve stood up to three of her ex-boyfriends and got beat up for it.”

  “Four,” Max corrected.

  “Yeah, four. That, too, was a stupid thing to do. You get stupid when it comes to her and you always end up doing the asshole thing.”

  To Charlie, anything Max did when it came to Danny, whether in words or actions, was considered the asshole thing to do.

  Max sighed. “Stupidity is a thing of the mind and unfortunately when it comes to her, my head has no say.”

  Charlie shook his head. “Did you just grow a fucking vagina? That was incredibly corny, man.”

  Max laughed, though it was not a genuine laugh. “That was pretty corny.”

  “Are you done with your bitch-fit now?”

  “Yeah…” He exhaled a steadying breath. “Yeah, I’m done.” Max sat down again and lifted the controls. “I’m taking Hwoarang this time.”

  “You fight dirty with Hwoarang.” Although Charlie protested, he let Max have his way, giving him time to simmer down before he spoke again. “You know, New Year’s Day was only five weeks ago. It’s not too late for one more New Year’s resolution.”

  “What are you suggesting?”

  “Get out there. Meet new people. Date more chicks. We’ll start working out, start taking care of ourselves. You need to move on with your life.”

  Max gave a disheartened nod. “I guess that’s about all I can do.”

  * * *

  Max stopped typing when his phone beeped beside him and smiled to himself. He had not heard from his sister since he texted her for her birthday over a week ago and he suspected it was going to be something dumber than before.

  The picture she sent him was of the clown from the movie It, sitting in front of a computer, and the caption read: I, too, am an IT guy.

  He chuckled silently.

  Max: LOL. You may be on the path to earning back my respect.

  Jordan: Did you really laugh out loud? I hate being lied to

  Max: No

  Jordan: Damn! Have to try harder next time.

  “Mister Shepard?”

  Max looked up from his phone to see Dorothy, who had popped her head into his office. “Yes.”

  “The boss wants to see you in his office.”

  “Good news or bad?”

  “Good, I think.”

  He smiled, stood up, and walked down the long corridor to Mister Marsden’s office. There were a few people in there so he knocked to announce his presence. “You wanted to see me, Mister Marsden.”

  “Max. Come in. Come in.” His boss led him into the office to stand in front of three other men, but then his eyes shifted and from behind the man, who was roughly the size of King Kong, came…Wow!

  “Max,” Mister Marsden began, “this is Terrence Truman…” Big nose. Floppy hair. Really large teeth. “…Jonathan Abrahams…” Short. Fat. I’m-a-mama’s-boy sort of face. “…Luke…um…Sky Walker…” He was probably tortured as a kid. Which sane mother would give her kid a name like that? But seemingly, Chewbacca was his biological father. The guy was hairy and extremely large, standing a good few feet above everyone.

  “And this,” Mister Marsden said, “is Sofia Panadero.”

  Finally, some eye candy. She was gorgeous. Tall. Slender. Thick, black hair. Enormous blue eyes and light chocolate skin. Dressed in a tight red shirt and an equally tight pair of white pants. The perfect attire for Valentine’s Day.

  Max’s hand went around, giving a firm handshake to all, but when he got to Sofia, suddenly the nerd in him gave instructions to his heart to beat faster and his palms became sweaty. She glanced at him with a look that did not seem professional and he felt the stirrings of a nervous knot developing in his stomach.

  “Everyone, this is Max Shepard. I’ve assigned him to your account.”

  “Glad to meet you,” Luke said, tapping him on the back.

  Max jerked forward on the impact. What felt like a light tap to the man the size of a house actually felt like the Hulk Smash to the puny man on the receiving end. And to look that pathetic in front of such a beautiful woman after the sweaty palm incident was just another small sign of God’s undying love for him. A side order of a thousand watt lightning bolt would hit just the right spot about now.

  “These are the board of directors of Bit-by-Bit,” Mister Marsden continued. “They’re a large tool company and they’re thinking of trading over the Internet. Max here is our best web designer and I trust you will find his work more than adequate.”

  “Sofia will be taking the reins on this one,” Terrence said, handing Max a thin blue booklet. “Here’s a few of our specifications but they’re not final. You and Sofia can make alterations as you deem fit.”

  “I’m really looking forward to working with you, Mister Shepard.”

  She spoke with the slightest hint of a Spanish accent and the way she pronounced each word only drew attention to her luscious mouth. Her tone was so suggestive; it almost convinced Max that they were the only two people in the room. But they weren’t and he needed to say something purely because talking would force him to think about something other than those glossy lips that looked absolutely kissable. “You can…uh…you…and…um…” Great! He was stuttering now. That lightning bolt was starting to seem more and more appealing. “Call me Max. Yeah…just call me Max.”

  “Alright.” She smiled. “Max.”

  He noticed the quick wink of her eye and his throat ran dry. They continued talking to him about their plans and objectives and Max found that he was not listening with the required amount of attention to commit anything to memory. He refrained from talking to save his pride and simply nodded when he was addressed.

  Eventually the conversation began to wind down and he pounced on the opportunity to get out of there as fast as possible. “I’m…uh…I’m gonna get back to work,” he said, using a great amount of effort to keep the wobble out of his voice. “It was nice meeting…all of you.” He risked looking at Sofia again. “Uh…when you’re ready, we can…we can set up a meeting and…yeah.”

  “Sure.”

  “Alright.” He nodded then left the room, sprinted to Charlie’s office, and shut the door. “Charlie, you’ll never guess what happened.”

  “Dorothy agreed to go out with me?”

  “Uh…no.” Max swallowed hard and tried to calm down. “So the boss calls me into his office and tells me I’ve got a new account. Fine. I’m cool with that. So I’m looking at Luke Skywalker and—”

  “Luke Skywalker? Max, have you been drinking?”

  “It’s his name, Charlie. Anyway, she just pops out from behind him and I find out that
we’re gonna be working on this thing together.”

  “Wait a minute. Who’s she?”

  Max sighed and threw his head back. “Sofia Panadero. I don’t know if I can do this. She winked at me. She winked at me.”

  Charlie looked completely dumbfounded. “I don’t get it. Is she ugly or something?”

  “Just the opposite.” He heard Mister Marsden bidding the Bit-by-Bit team farewell outside the office door. “Come here. I’ll show you.”

  Charlie crept to the door, opened it just a crack, and peeped outside.

  “She’s the one with the red shirt,” Max said, moving backwards to the desk.

  “You are shitting me, Max! That’s Sofia?” He cast a quick look back. “She did not wink at you. Chicks like her don’t wink at guys like us.” He closed the door and turned back to Max. “Okay. If what you’re saying is true, you gotta go for it.”

  “Go for what?”

  “It, Max. Go in for the kill. Ask her out.”

  “I can’t do that. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it.”

  Charlie threw his hands up. “I can’t believe you’re making excuses. Anything with testosterone would find any reason to tap that—”

  “Charlie!” Max began pacing the length of the room. “I can’t do it, okay? I won’t.”

  Charlie threw him a dirty look. “This doesn’t have anything to do with hazel eyes, does it? Because you made a resolution last week.”

  Max stopped pacing and glared at him. “When you said to move on with my life, I didn’t think you meant immediately…And I didn’t think you meant with one of our clients.”

  Charlie walked across the room, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him hard. “Get a grip! Would you start thinking with the right part of your anatomy for a change? She’s not going to be a client forever and the chances of you having the opportunity to nail a woman like her is never gonna happen again.”

  “Would you stop speaking about her like she’s just a piece of ass?”

  “Did you see that ass, Max? You could bounce a penny off that ass. Danny’s finished. She’s over. She’s in the past. Okay? Now ask yourself this. Do you want a deranged, devil worshipper who you’re never gonna get or do you want a hot, sophisticated woman? She’s probably rich too, and did I mention that she’s hot?”

  “She’s not a devil worshipper, Charlie.”

  “I say all that and that’s all you heard. You’re not focusing, man! Now—”

  The knock at the door stopped any further conversation and both heads snapped in the direction of the sound.

  “Max,” came Sofia’s voice from the other side.

  Max froze. “Fuck! It’s her!” he whispered frantically. “Charlie, it’s her!”

  “Go talk to her,” Charlie whispered back.

  “I can’t. You go talk to her.”

  Charlie’s lip tightened. “She’s not here to see me.”

  “Tell her I’m not here. Tell her that I’m sick and I had to leave early.”

  “She just saw you five minutes ago. I think she would have noticed if you were sick.”

  “Then tell her I retired. I handed in my resignation forms and she has to find someone else to handle the account.”

  “I’m gonna slap you, man.” Charlie gritted his teeth. “I’m gonna slap you; hit you with a classic Jin Kazama triple power uppercut. Go and talk to her!”

  Max moved around the roller chair and used it as protection to keep Charlie at bay. “You don’t get it! I’m gonna bumble like an idiot and that’s so uncool. She’s gonna think I’m a complete dork.”

  Charlie lifted a stapler and it did not look like an idle threat. “I swear, your nuts are getting stapled to this stack of paper if you don’t go talk to her right now.”

  There was another knock on the door. Charlie lunged himself at Max, toppling the chair shield in the process.

  “Charlie!” Max whisper shouted almost desperately.

  “Now!”

  Max inhaled a heavy breath of courage as he moved towards the door. He took another deep breath before he opened it, but he only opened it halfway so as not to reveal the toppled chair and Charlie behind the door, holding him hostage with a stapler. The left side of his body was still shielded from her view, which made Max feel just a tad less vulnerable because his trembling leg was not exposed. “Sofia…what a…what a surprise. What brings you…to…here…this part…of the office?”

  Way to go, Max, you player, you. Dazzle her with your articulation and witty charm.

  She smiled delicately. “The receptionist told me you were in here. I came to set up that meeting.”

  “Oh…well um…I’ll have to check when I can…slot you in…” Just play it cool, he thought, running a nervous hand through his hair. “’cause uh…I’m al…I’m always doing…some…thing…stuff.” Wow! That was really cool.

  Her smile widened. “How about tonight?”

  The question took him by surprise. People didn’t have business meetings at night. They had dates at night. Was she asking him out on a date? His stomach tightened. His throat ran dry. “Ooh, tonight? Um…tonight is out…Tonight is…bad.”

  “How about tomorrow night?”

  “T-t-tomorrow?” Tomorrow was Saturday. That wasn’t even a working day. This was definitely sounding more and more like a date. “Tomorrow would be…”

  Charlie kicked his left shin from behind the door. Max winced but managed to keep his smile intact. “Great,” he spurted out squeakily. “Tomorrow would be great. You can ask Dorothy for my business card…and you can call and…yeah.”

  “Okay. Great.” She turned and started walking away. “Oh,” she said after a few short steps. She stopped and turned back to him. “I think the bumbling is kinda cute.” She lowered her voice to somewhat of a whisper. “And you’re too young for retirement.” She winked at him again. “Hasta manana, Mister Shepard.” She turned and waved as she strolled away, leaving Max with his mouth hanging open.

  He slowly closed the door and gaped at Charlie. “She heard everything we said.”

  “That’s not so bad,” Charlie assured him. “She thinks it’s cute. You are the man! Not many guys would’ve been able to pull off that what brings you to this part of the office line but you did. You had her eating out of the palm of your hand. And did she speak to you in Spanish? She probably said take me to bed, Mister Shepard.”

  “I think it means see you tomorrow,” Max corrected, still feeling rather shaken.

  “Well, in essence, it means the same thing.” Charlie walked across the room, lifted the chair, and rolled back to its rightful spot in his office. “Why didn’t you wanna go out with her tonight?”

  “It’s Valentine’s Day,” Max replied simply.

  “And you don’t wanna go out with a hot, beautiful wom—Wait a minute.” Charlie narrowed his eyes and looked at him with undeniable scrutiny. “What did you do?”

  Max didn’t respond.

  “You can tell me. I won’t hurt you…severely. What did you do?”

  Max still did not respond.

  “Max, as a friend, I’m begging you to tell me that you didn’t do the asshole thing again. I mean, I know you got it bad for that girl but please…please tell me that you did not do something as idiotic, as assholy, as buying her something for Valentine’s Day.”

  Max dropped his head and nodded slowly. “Charlie, I most definitely did the asshole thing.”

  * * *

  Max sat on the sofa, waiting for Danny to come home. She generally cooked on Friday nights, which had left him with nothing to do to occupy his mind. He knew he had done something indescribably stupid today. He didn’t need Charlie to tell him that, but what Charlie didn’t know was the depth of that stupidity. Buying her something for Valentine’s Day was bad enough, but what he had done took stupidity to the next level.

  Now he was just waiting to reap the rewards of that harebrained idea. Danny was going to come in any second now, bubbling with excitement, and the shitty f
eeling he could feel already building inside him was the price he seemed willing to pay this morning when he had been slapped with a stupid stick. Then again, it was like he told Charlie. Stupidity was a thing of the mind. Those asshole tendencies he spoke so fondly of were very much alive.

  As predicted, Danny came home a few minutes later. “Max,” she called excitedly from the door. “Max, where are you?”

  She would have seen from the door had he not been slouching, had he not been willing the sofa to swallow him whole. He inhaled a deep breath and prepared himself for what was to come. “In the living room.”

  She came rushing in with a big bouquet of red roses and a gigantic white and red teddy bear. “See what Richard sent me. He isn’t even in town and he still went through all the trouble of sending me a gift for Valentine’s Day.”

  He looked at the gifts and simply smiled. He had expected this to happen. Okay. Maybe he hadn’t expected it to hurt quite as much. Maybe he had been holding onto the hope that she would have instinctively known that the gifts were actually from him. After all, Richard wasn’t the type to do things like that and Max was hoping that she would see that. But hope had no place in Danny’s little dream world.

  He had contemplated for twenty minutes who he should sign the card from. If he had sucked up his courage and signed it from himself, she would have given him a thank you and a smile, but it wouldn’t have been the smile that was stretched across her face right now. And after the formalities of the fake smile and half-hearted thank you, she would have gone to her room and cried her eyes out, the same way she did last Christmas when Richard hadn’t even bothered to pick up the fucking phone.

  He therefore decided not to sign the card at all and he knew that by doing so all praises would go to that undeserving bastard, but at least she would be happy, gleaming the way she was now.

  “And listen to what the card says,” Danny said, retrieving the card from the bouquet of roses. She unfolded it and read it aloud. “I searched everywhere trying to find something as beautiful as you, but when I realized that such a thing doesn’t exist, I settled on the roses. Happy Valentine’s Day. Love Always.” She clutched the card to her chest and sighed. “Isn’t that the most romantic thing you’ve ever heard?”