Max’s arms around my upper legs were now dangling by his side. “Don’t worry, Ms. Mefferd. It’s locked. I made sure of it.”

“I’m…I mean…I’m not worried.” I struggled to get up, but just before I did, Max twirled his chair and I ended up in his lap with my back toward him, facing the computer, locked between the table and him. How the hell did he do that so fast?

“Don’t bite your finger, Ms. Mefferd.” He guided my finger out of my mouth and kissed it. “Next time, it’s going in my mouth.”

My body stiffened from the small short kiss and the thought of it going inside his mouth.

“Now that we can concentrate better, here is the front cover.”

And there it was, just as beautiful and stunning as I remembered it to be. The model did it justice, and so had Max with the layout.

Chapter 20

It was going to be our last date, so why did I worry so much? Perhaps it was the fact that I was going to break Luke’s heart, or the guilty feeling washing over me…guilt for not telling Luke about Max before, and guilt for going out with Luke and not telling Max. But Max was in New York, and I needed to break up with Luke in person and not over the phone.

Luke picked me up, but this time it was awkward, perhaps from knowing that it would be our last dinner together…well, at least I knew. Instead of dressing up, I wore jeans and a sweater. I guessed it was a way for me to express that this wasn’t a date. However, Luke was dressed a little bit more than casual since he had just gotten off work.

“How was your trip?” he asked, cutting his steak with a knife.

Thinking about Max and what happened, my face felt warm. “It was great. I enjoyed it,” I replied, twirling the linguini with my fork.

“I can tell…I mean…since you didn’t reply back much, I figured you were very busy.”

I gulped guilt down my throat. “Yes…very busy.” Feeling the vibration from my purse, I checked. It was from Max. Max had called and texted me everyday. We flirted a lot on the phone and by text, which made me miss him even more. Though we hadn’t even kissed yet, the powerful, raw emotion he stirred inside me felt like we had, and a lot more.

“Excuse me,” I said, and read his text.

What are you doing?

Thinking of you.

Good. You know what I’m thinking of?

What?

You wearing my T-shirt or the robe.

Keep thinking that.

Not quite sure what that means. I have a surprise for you.

You don’t need to give me another surprise. I love the roses you sent again.

There are a lot of fun things you can do with the rose petals on your naked body.

I’m sure there are…lol! Gotta go.

Feeling hot from his words, my finger went up to my lips then stopped. Giggling inwardly, I thought about how many times Max had to take my finger out of my mouth. Oddly, I never had the urge to put my finger in my mouth with Luke. Placing my phone back, I peered up to see Luke chewing on his steak, staring at me with an irritated expression. “Sorry about that.”

“That’s okay,” he said sharply.

I felt a sting of anger so I took a sip of my water. While playing with my food, my heart pounded from nervousness as I built up the courage to tell Luke it was over.

“Max.”

Oh shoot!

His eyes shot daggers at me and then looked away.

That was just great. I didn’t need that evil eye thrown at me. Flushing redder than his wine, I built up the courage again and continued as if nothing happened. “Luke…there is something we need to talk about.”

“I need to talk to you too,” he said with a full mouth. He didn’t even let me continue, nor did he even look at me. “Listen, I don’t think this is going to work. Don’t get me wrong. I think you’re attractive, but obviously we don’t have much in common.”

Is he kidding me? I wanted to break up with him. He’s breaking up with me? And all this time I was worried about his feelings, and obviously he didn’t care about mine. What the hell? Had I known he was going to do this, I would have told him to meet me here instead, or just done it over the phone. Wait…he should have asked me to meet him here. Why would he pick me up unless this wasn’t planned? He didn’t take me out to break up…he must have sensed it from my lack of attention to him, and by me telling him we needed to talk…and especially since I called him another name.

“We can still be friends,” he continued, cutting his steak a little bit harder than before.

The rest of the dinner was awkward. Still be friends, my butt. I didn’t even want to see him after that. Wanting to be cool about it, and especially since he was my ride home, I just gave him a fake smile. “Sure.”

Awkward silence filled the air on the way home, so I glanced out the window to pass the time. Only a few stars graced us tonight, but it very dim and sad looking, like me. It wasn’t the fact that our short-term relationship was broken, it was the feeling of how strange it would be to run into him again after tonight, if that ever happened. And if we did, would we ignore one another and pretend we never knew each other? That was the saddest part of breaking up.

Sure, we could be friends, but come on. The chances of that happening were slim to none. I’d seen it happen many times with my friends’ relationships. It was almost impossible to be friends afterwards. And here I was, sitting in his car, thinking this was the last time we’d ever see each other, and that was very depressing because in a way, he was my friend.