Just Business

Max has been very distant these past couple weeks, I haven’t heard from him at all. You would have sworn he just dropped off the face of the earth. He was never home when I went there, and he would come home sometimes at three am according to the door man.

I went there one afternoon to see what was going on with him, he hasn’t offered work it wasn’t like him.

I opened the door and there was a girl standing in Max’s kitchen in one of his shirts She was petite and slim, but she fit the bill of someone Max would be with.

“Oh? Who are you?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

She was snooty, the type of girl who ran their mouth way too much. If she kept it up I was going to give it to her.

“I work for Max, is he home?”

She rolled her eyes and opened a water. “He’s in the study, he’s busy so I wouldn’t go in there.”

I went towards the study rolling my eyes back at her. I opened the door and he was on the phone with whom it sounded like his father. I sat in the chair in front of his desk, it took him a few seconds then he finally made eye-contact with me.

“No Dad, I’m not doing that.” He said pacing behind his desk. He was still in his pajamas and looks like he had over slept. He’s been out partying all night, I could see it on his face.

“Look, I know I missed the meeting and I’m sorry. I had a rough night.”

He pulled the phone away from his ear, his father was screaming at him.

“What? No! absolutely not. Look, just email me the links and I’ll get everything done.”

He hung up the phone and sighed sitting in his chair.

“Well, I could have sworn you died.” I said.

He rolled his eyes at me. “Nice, to see you too Eloise.”

“You haven’t called or texted in weeks. What’s going on with you?”

“I’ve been... occupied.”

I huffed. “Well, I can see that. So, is that your new girlfriend?” I asked.

“No, she’s not. Wait why do you care anyway?” He asked.

He was getting loud with me and I didn’t like it. This was the arrogant Max, the Max I didn’t like in the beginning.

“I don’t but when you keep me in the dark for weeks and are still paying me even though I haven’t worked bothers me, you don’t have to keep putting money in my account.”

He didn’t say anything at first he just rubbed his temples and groaned.

“Look, I really don’t have time for you to lecture me, we aren’t a couple so why don’t you just leave it alone.”

I widened my eyes and got up leaning over the desk. He really was going to get it now.

“Now you listen to me Maxwell, just because you’re entitled doesn’t mean you get to treat me like shit. I’m a human being just like the person out there walking around in your shirt. Look, we may not be a couple but at least I gave a shit and made sure you actually cared about living for crying out loud Max, you never have food in your fridge! I somehow believed you were a decent human being, you’re lazy and arrogant and I can’t stand that. You are nothing like your family, and I know this isn’t what you want.”

He huffed. “Oh yeah? How do you know what I want huh?”

“Because I’ve been around long enough now to know who you really are.” I snapped.

He was quiet at first and his face hardened. He knew he wasn’t winning this battle.

“Look Max, please don’t waste my time.” I took my key to his apartment off my key ring and put it on the desk along with his credit card and my badge to get in the building.

I got up and walked out closing the door behind me. I walked down to the elevator pressing the button Then, I heard Max arguing with the girl in his apartment.

“You need to leave now! just go!”

I shook my head getting into the elevator. To think that Max was different, and to think that I may actually had started to change the way I feel about him. But he was never going to change the lifestyle he grew up in. he was never going to outgrow his playboy life-style.

Only good thing about this was I had money to send down to my parents. Only bad part was, I was out of a job.