These Days

“Now?” Violet asked as soon as Evgeni dropped his bag down next to the door coming home from the away games.

“Shower. Then we go.” Evgeni replied. He kissed the top of her head and patted her belly. Meanwhile Erin received a phone call from Max saying he was home and that she could come over whenever she wanted. She was currently standing in front of her mirror. She was wearing blue jeans and the yellow tank top with the sky blue off the shoulder sweater like Violet told her too.

She kept eying her phone anxiously knowing she would be receiving an important phone call or text message some time soon. She tugged the sweater down a little, shook her hair over her shoulders, and headed out of the house.

She had Jack’s Mannequin playing on the way over but she didn’t hear any of it. She kept looking back at her phone and biting her lip. She arrived at Max’s and put a smile on her face and rang his doorbell. He pulled it back quickly and enveloped her in a bear hug. Erin relaxed into his hug a little bit and hugged him back.

“Good to see you, Max,” Erin said pulled away from him. Max smiled at her.

“Nice to see you too, Erin! I was thinking we could make a pizza?” Max said, leading her toward his kitchen. Erin nodded eagerly.

“That sounds like fun!” Max walked about his kitchen grabbing various items and a ready-made pizza crust and assembled them on his counter and looked back over his shoulder at Erin. Erin walked over to join him at the counter. “What do we have here?”

“Well tomato sauce and cheese,” Max pointed out the obvious ingredients needed to make a pizza while rubbing the back of his head, “and I wasn’t sure what else you would like so I grabbed a bunch of other things at the store," he said sweeping his arm out across the counter. There were tomatoes, peppers, onions, anchovies, bacon, chicken cubes, pineapple, ham, everything else you could think of. Erin grinned and turned to Max.

“How about Hawaiian pizza?” She said holding up the pineapple and the ham to the hockey player. Max chuckled and took the pineapple from her.

“Sounds delicious. Let’s get to work.” They set about putting tomato sauce on the crust and sprinkling cheese. Erin kept pulling her phone out of her back pocket and looking at it for a second before putting it back in. “Something wrong?” Max asked, noticing after the third time Erin stuffed her phone back into her pocket.

“Nope, everything is great!” Erin said cheerfully, laying down a circular slice of pineapple on the pizza. “I think we can put this baby in the oven!”

“Like Violet and Geno!” Max chuckled as he put the pizza in the oven. “Do you want to start a movie while we wait for this to cook?”

“Sure.” Erin said, and followed Max into his living room. He opened up a drawer with all his DVDs and while rifling through it she found one of Matt and Violet’s favorite video games, Mario Kart. She held it up and chuckled. “Max, if we had made macaroni and cheese and played Mario Kart we would’ve been the spitting image of Violet and Matt!”

“Really?”

“They have a standing Tuesday night video game date. She goes back over to her old apartment, sleeps over, and plays video games. Geno wants her to stop sleeping there now because of the baby coming. Which makes sense; I wouldn’t trust my pregnant wife with a bunch of video games and a crazy best friend. She and Matt are loony.” Erin said while unconsciously checking her phone. Max noticed but kept it to himself.

“So what movie do you want to watch?” Max asked. Erin put the video game back in its place and riffled through some of the movies.

“How about this one?” She asked, holding up a copy of Cloverfield. Max smiled and agreed to watch it. They got about fifteen minutes in before the oven timer went off. Max got up to get the pizza and Erin followed him to get plates and drinks. She brought the cups and paper plates out while Max was getting the pizza out of the oven and grabbing a bottle of pop. When he walked back in the room he saw Erin texting quickly on her phone, slipping her phone back into her pocket before turning around.

“It smells so good!” Erin smiled as Max walked to the table.

“Why do you keep looking at your phone? If you don’t want to be here with me you don’t have to be.” Max looked down as he said this. He heard Erin sigh and then felt her hand on his shoulder.

“Max,” She said, “Max, I want to be here.” She reassured him. “It’s just that something important is happening right now and I’m waiting to hear about the outcome. Here, I’ll give you my phone. Just hand it to me when Matt calls.” Erin held her phone out to him. Max stared at it. “C’mon Max, take it. I want to be here. I do.”

Max took her phone and pocketed it. He then put a piece of pizza on both of their plates, sat back, and put one arm around Erin’s shoulders and started eating the pizza with the other hand. They ate their pizza and watched the movie. Midway through they began to kiss.

Max’s hands were in Erin’s hair, pulling at her clip. Hers were on his chest, up under his shirts, running her fingers along the contours abs. He gave new definition to the phrase “French kiss” and Erin was in heaven. And then as quickly as it started it stopped. Matt was calling.

Max grunted and reluctantly pulled her phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. He went to grab hr waist and kiss her neck while she talked. Erin sat up right away and wacked Max’s hands away from her. “THEY DID IT?” She gasped into the phone excitedly.

“OH MY GOD, MATTHEW! I’M COMING OVER RIGHT NOW.” Erin snapped her phone shut and looked into the disgruntled face of Maxim Talbot. “Violet and Evgeni eloped.” She smiled. Max choked and did a double take.

“What?”

“They got married. Violet’s Mrs. Malkin now,” Erin grinned standing up and fixing her hair. Max sat there stunned. “C’mon, Max! We have to go! Matt got a cake and we have to go eat it with them before preggo eats everything in sight!” Max was stunned the entire ride over to the Malkins.

Wow, that's weird to think, Max mused. The Malkins.

“Holy crap,” He muttered when he saw the cake Matt was unwrapping. It was an ice cream cake covered in violet frosting. “What brought on this cake and the marriage?” He looked from Matt to Evgeni.

“Violet is Violet,” Matt answered simply referencing the cing and the blush forming on his best friend's cheeks.

“We need married before baby.” Geno shrugged. His wrapped in arm around his wife who was staring at the cake with wide eyes, “Didn’t want big thing.”

“I want cake.” Violet looked from Geno to Erin to Max and to Matt. “We’ll talk about it after I cut the cake.” Max exchanged a look with Erin who grinned and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. He promptly wrapped one around her waist. It was a good date.

Even if the preggo stole his thunder.