Chapter 92

It had been 4 days since I left my last message for Max. I still hadn't heard from him and I was starting to lose hope. The team was getting ready to leave for a 10 day road trip and I was extremely grumpy for both reasons. The rift between Max and I was beginning to take it's toll on my relationship with Sidney. He refused to talk to me about it anymore and it was really starting to bother me, though I couldn't tell which was annoying me more - the fact that he was giving me no information about Max whatsoever, or that my own boyfriend didn't seem to believe me either. We agreed that today, our last day together for 10, would be just the 4 of us; me, Sid and the boys - and not one word would be said about Max. We were going to pick the boys up from school, cook dinner and watch a movie - The Mighty Ducks of course! Sid had managed to transpose his obsession for those movies on to the boys too. I really needed to find a different hockey movie for these boys to watch! We were just getting ready to head out to get the boys but when I opened the door I was...stunned.

My hands clasped over my mouth and starring into those eyes after so long left me speechless. When I was able to find my words the only thing that came out was "oh my God!"
"Bonjour bijou," was his only response and I had trouble making it out. For about 30 seconds all we could do was stand and stare at each other, feeling awkward until instinct kicked in. We wrapped our arms around each other and held on for dear life. I held him so tight and so close to me I was sure I was suffocating him but at this moment I didn't care - my best friend was in my arms again and I was never letting go.

"I am so, so sorry," we both said in unison through our tears.

"I hate to interrupt but Beks, we have to go," Sidney said quietly. The look on our faces left no room for interpretation and Sid took the hint.
"I'll be back in 20," he said sneaking past us out the door.

I led Max to the couch hand in hand, afraid if I let go he'd slip away again. He looked tired; huge bags had taken up residence under his beautiful blue eyes, and if I wasn't mistaken, I'd swear he'd lost weight.
"Maxie, I am so, so sorry. I was out of line. I never should have..."
"Shhh," was the only thing he said as he pulled me into his chest. I closed my eyes and hoped that would stop the tears from flowing down my cheeks. I seriously didn't think I had any tears left after all the crying I'd been doing over the past month, but these were tears of happiness, so it was different.
"Mon petite bijou," he whispered placing a soft kiss on my forehead. That was all he said. We sat in silence until it was broken by the ringing of the phone.
"I'll let the machine get it," I said as he loosened his grip on me.
"It could be important," he said.
"Just for the record, nothing is more important than this right now," I replied reaching for the phone.

"Hello?"
"Hey, it's just me. I have the boys and I'm going to take them back to Mario's for dinner so you and Max can have some time together okay?"
I was happy, yet sad at the same time. "But this was supposed to be our night together before you left."
"Beks, you need this right now. You need to fix things with Max so we can all be okay. We'll be back right after dinner and we can still do the movie okay?"
"You are seriously the best boyfriend ever. I love you so much."
"I know you do. I do too ya know," he said being careful not to say anything revealing in front of the boys.
"I know. See you soon."
I hung up and turned my attention back to Max.

"Where were we," I said sitting back down next to Max. "I believe I was apologizing."
"Stop. I don't want anymore I'm sorries from you. I need to apologize to you bijou."
"But you didn't do anything. I caused this; me, not you."
"That's not true. I was stubborn and pig headed and stupid. I asked for your opinion and then got pissed off when you gave it to me."
"You had the right to be pissed off. I said awful things that I had no right saying and making judgements I had no right making. I should have trusted you and your judgement. The mere fact that you like her should have been good enough for me. I was scared and I was stupid."
"Scared? What were you scared of?"
"Losing you."
"Losing me? Ah baby, you could never lose me," he said putting his hand on my cheek.
"Really, cause what do you call the last month?"
"Stupid and ancient history. It's done and over with and I don't ever want to talk about it again."
"Just like that? You don't even want to know why?"
"I can be a very forgiving guy," he smiled. "And you just told me why. You were scared, end of story."
"You forgive me?"
"Of course bijou. I love you."
"I love you too," I said wrapping my arms around him again. "I missed you so much Max."
"Not half as much as I missed you," he whispered. "You're my best friend Beks. I need you. I have been miserable this past month and I don't ever want to go through this again."
"Me neither. I've been so miserable, even the boys are afraid to be around me, and Sid; I'm surprised he stuck around."
"The kid is not going anywhere Beks, you can trust me on that one. He loves you way too much."
"Speaking of love...since we wiped the slate clean, how 'bout you tell me how things are going with that girlfriend of yours."
"Seriously?"
"Yes. This is what best friends do."
"Okay, well things are...good I guess."
"You guess?"
"Yeah well, this last month has been tough. I haven't been really in the mood to do much so things have been moving along slowly."
"Slowly?"
"Yeah. we've had dinner a few times, gone to a couple movies, that's about it."
"Has she been to any games?"
"No, doesn't like hockey remember?"
"Right. She could still go to see you though."
"She doesn't feel comfortable going by herself and she doesn't know any of the girlfriends yet."
"Well, maybe we can convince her to come with me."
"You? Alone? With Brittany?"
"Clean slate remember? Seriously Max, I didn't give her a fair chance and if she's important to you, then it's important to me to get to know her."
"Well, yeah sure, why not!"

'Thank god he bought all this crap. And thank god he didn't ask me why I lied about hearing her on the phone. I don't know what I would have done.'

The next hour and a half flew by but over that time period, I found out that Max had not slept with Brittany yet. Some kind of record? Hell yeah. I was thrilled that he hadn't had sex with her, but at the same time, I felt a deep sadness. Max obviously really, really liked this girl if he's been hanging in there for a good two months now and he still hadn't gotten any. It just reassured me that I was right; she didn't really like him so she wasn't giving it up(brownie point for her for not being a complete puck slut I guess). But I felt sad because I knew that if he liked her that much, it was only going to hurt that much more when the truth was revealed. I guess it's a good thing he'd have his best friend there to pick up the pieces of his shattered heart.