Ache With Me

“Max, I gotta hang up soon.” I said, propping my feet up on the arm of the couch.

“Why?” I was on speaker so it was hard to hear him. He was working on a painting and while I’d offered to hang up and let him concentrate he’d said he wanted to talk to me while he worked.

“My best friend is coming over, we’re gonna have a wine and movie night.”

“How come we don’t have wine and movie nights?”

“Because if I had one with you it would quickly devolve into whiskey and illegal activities night.”

“Having fun is not illegal Lily.”

“No but your idea of fun is.” I laughed. “Are you pouting? I feel like you would be at this point.”

“Maybe.” His speech sounded garbled, probably from his lower lip jutting out.

“Aww cheer up sweetie. How about I take you out to dinner with me? Zina’s sending me to check out this new restaurant downtown.” I was hoping the wheedling tone would help convince him. I hated to go check things out by myself and Eden was swamped this week and couldn’t go with me.

“Are you buying?”

“Actually the paper is buying.” If I had to pay for every cultural event I reported on for the Seattle Times, I would have to get my paycheck and hand it over to get into the event.

“Then I’m in. When do you want to go?” I chewed my lip, trying to remember when the article was due.

“I think the article is due on Wednesday, so let’s go Monday?” I could write the article at work on Tuesday and then do the revisions at home, if it came down to that.

“Sounds good, I’ll make a note of it…once I’m not covered in cornflower blue paint.”

“What the hell are you painting?”

“Shh, it’s a secret.” He laughed and I couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

“You’re a nut, you know that?”

“Are you talking about the testicle or am I crazy?” I sputtered on the sip of wine I’d just taken.

“Max! I meant you’re crazy. I wouldn’t know anything about your testicles.”

“Would you like to?”

I gasped. “You cheeky little fucker. I’m hanging up now.”

“Fare thee well, my lily of the valley.” I suppressed a snort. Sometimes he spoke so strangely. “I’ll pick you up at 7:30 on Monday?”

“Sounds good. See you then.” We said goodbye and I hung up, tossing my phone onto the carpet. Covering my face with a pillow, I let out a short scream of frustration and confusion. I had no idea where this thing with Max was leading me. We spoke on the phone almost every day after I got out of work, sometimes for hours at a time. One night I’d looked over at the clock and realized it was two in the morning and I was still on the phone talking about taco trucks with an annoyingly attractive English artist boy.

He was just so easy to talk to, and so wonderful to be around. We’d gone out for coffee more times than I could count, and I’d ingested ungodly amounts of coffee, enough that I was surprised my eyelids hadn’t rolled back into my head like cartoon blinds from the amount of caffeine in my system. Half the time I wasn’t sure if I was overdosing on caffeine or Max just made me jittery, although it was entirely possible Max gave me the jitters. He was lovely and I couldn’t deny that should he ask me out on a real date, I would say yes in a heartbeat.

A knock on the steel door of my loft broke me out of my thoughts and I hurled myself off the couch. I flung it open, revealing the other important blonde in my life.

“Hey girl.” I hugged Eden tightly. She towered over me at an impressive 5’6; at 5’1 I still got carded for R-rated movies.

“I swear, I’m going to burn those boots one day.” She said, turning a critical eye to my favorite ugly footwear.

“They’re comfortable.” I stuck my tongue out at her.

“I don’t care if they’re comfortable, they’re hideous. It’s like a pair of Uggs had unholy relations with a bead factory and an Eskimo.” I couldn’t help but laugh at her comparison and let her into my loft. She made a beeline for the wine glasses and topped mine off before pouring one for herself.

“So what are we watching?” I asked, plopping down on the couch I’d just vacated.

“What’s that movie you’re always trying to get me to watch?” I racked my brains for a moment.

“Oh! The Crow!” I dug through my movie collection before I found my battered copy of the movie.

“It looks scary.” She looked down at the box in her hands as I popped the disc into the player.

“It’s kinda violent but it’s really good, I promise you’ll love it.” While the previews were rolling, I made the popcorn and settled in to watch it with her. I’d seen the movie maybe a hundred times, but I still teared up at certain parts of the movie.

“That was good.” Eden admitted as the credits began to roll.

“I know, why do you think I’ve been trying to get you to watch it for years?” She laughed and went into the kitchen to throw out the remnants of the popcorn.

“Abashed the Devil stood and felt how awful goodness is.” I heard her mumbling to herself as she dumped the kernels into the trashcan.

“I believe that’s from Paradise Lost.” I called to her. My phone buzzed on the floor and I picked it up.

“Who’s Max?” She asked, peering over my shoulder.

“A friend.” I waited as the picture message loaded on my phone and nearly swooned. The caption of the message was ‘I made a bit of a mess of myself.” The picture itself was of Max standing in what appeared to be his bedroom, with streaks of blue paint in his hair, most likely from running his hand through it. What was currently making me speechless was the fact that he was shirtless and I could see all the ink that decorated his body.

“That is your friend and you haven’t introduced us yet?” She peered closer at his face. “Wait, is that Max Brooks? The artist?”

“Uh, yeah, I interviewed him a while ago for the paper, we started talking after that.” I had to blink several times to focus my eyes again before locking my phone.

“Lily you better date that boy so I can get into galleries for free!” She called after me as I headed into my room to toss my hoodie onto my bed. I paused in my bedroom and opened my phone again to look at the picture. He truly was gorgeous, even with all that paint in his hair. I fluffed my hair anxiously and took a picture of myself and sent it back with a caption saying, ‘I suppose I’ll have to be perfect enough for both of us.’

I received a picture back within a minute, this one of him with that smirk on his face and the words ‘Oh darling I’m always perfect.’

“What are you doing in here?” Eden said, opening the curtains. I’d been standing by my bed trying to think of a response to that.

“How do I respond to this?” I tossed her my phone and waited as she looked through the messages.

“You’re on your own here sweetheart.” She handed it back. I sighed, raised an eyebrow and snapped a picture. I figured that was enough of a message in itself. “So you guys just send each other pictures all the time?”

“Usually only if I had to hang up the phone to do something.” I told her about our late night conversations and she shook her head.

“Girl, just date his ass.”

“His ass is nice but I kind of need the rest of him too.” I laughed harder at my own joke than she did. My phone buzzed in my hand and I opened the message. It was a picture of Max’s laughing face, a sight that made my stomach flutter a little. The text said ‘My hair matches your bra.” I looked down at my chest and realized a little blue lace was peeking out from the edge of my tank top. I flushed bright red and just texted him good night, no picture attached. As it was getting late, Eden and I started pulling the covers back to go to bed, since she didn’t want to drive home and we both had work in the morning. Max responded with a good night of his own and a winky face.

“Well everyone knows a winky face means he wants the V.” Eden shrugged, looking at the text. “I’d say you’ve landed yourself a hot artist boy.” I just laughed and crawled into bed, setting my phone on the nightstand and hoping I wouldn’t wake up with a bruise from one of Eden’s elbows.