Page 134 of Dark Love

When he finally opens his eyes, Max asks, “Are you sure you don’t want to marry me?”

A small smile spreads across my face. “Positive.”

“Too bad. I’d give you a huge ring for these alone.” He takes another bite. “Perfection. They’re pure perfection. I wonder if I’ll be able to hide them from everyone else or if Hope has blabbed to the world.”

“Is that really a question?”

He laughs. “So, what’s your question?”

“It’s more of a problem I got myself into, and I don’t know how to fix it. Men don’t like to be cornered, do they?”

“Not even a little bit.”

Vex is going to be so irritated with me.

“Before you start getting all worried. Tell me what you did.”

“So a couple of days ago, I wasn’t feeling well, and I called in sick to work.”

“Are you feeling better? I can go get my mom.”

NO! “Thanks, but I’m fine now.” Well, mostly. The cramps are still there, but not intolerable anymore. “I’d made plans with a friend for after work and messaged him to cancel.”

“That all seems reasonable.” He crosses his legs and sets his ankle on his knee after reaching for another cookie.

Good. The plan is working. But Vex doesn’t do reasonable. “He kept pushing to bring a doctor over, even though I didn’t need one.” Wait, I need to change the thread of this conversation, or Max is going to ask what was wrong with me. “He finally decided to come over and—” Bring me the best period snacks ever isn’t the way to go. “—check on me. Which was incredibly sweet and thoughtful.”

“That does sound thoughtful.” Max has a strange smile on his face.

It must be the bourbon. “He decided to stay and watch a few movies with me.” The fact that we were on my bed isn’t necessary for Max to know, but the best part was cuddling with Vex and falling asleep in his arms.

“What did you watch?”

I don’t know if that is an important detail. “Pride and Prejudice and then some action movies. There were a lot of things blowing up.”

Max’s smile gets even wider. “Not your normal movie type to watch.”

“Not at all.” But it was surprisingly enjoyable with Vex. “Then it all got weird.”

“How so? Did he make unwanted advances?”

Vex? “No. He wouldn’t even kiss me.” I can’t believe I just said that out loud. A blush burns its way up my face. “Not that I wanted him to kiss me… or he even thought about it. We’re just friends.” I think. “I mean, he sort of asked me out, but I don’t think it was a real date. Just a friends’ thing, you know.”

“I know exactly what you mean. You two are just ‘friends’ and he didn’t kiss you. Noted.” That grin of his gets odder and odder. “What was the weird part?”

“My boss showed up at my door and my friend answered.” Vex so wasn’t happy about that.

“Your boss? Why would your boss visit?”

“To bring me a bowl of chicken noodle soup.”

“That does sound odd. Are you very close to your boss?”

Oh. “Um, no. But that wasn’t the odd part.”

“It sounds odd to me. Unless you’re related or dating, bosses don’t usually bring you soup. I’ve never brought any soup to my employees.”

He wouldn’t have time to breathe if he brought soup to his thousands of employees. “It’s a small group of us.”

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