Page 67 of Cream and Punishment
No, no. That would be too merciful. That would imply that the Powers That Be didn’t have a personal vendetta against me, which they clearly did. Because where did my hands land instead?
Right. In. Max’s. Lap.
He curled inward with anoof, as anyone with a crotch would when a hand lands dangerously close to their crown jewels. This, however, only brought the goods closer to my splayed fingers.
I yelled something unintelligible and scrambled backward so fast I smacked into the wall I’d just left. There wasn’t a mode of transportation in the universe that could’ve gotten me out of there fast enough. My only hope was for some merciful soul to invent time travel in the future and come back toblipme out of here before I did anything worse.
Unsurprisingly, that didn’t happen.
Nope. I was left to deal with the fallout of my clumsiness and rotten luck. I couldn’t even flee the room, because then I’d have musty undiesandthe horrible memory of nearly groping Max.
“Oh my—I almost—I didn’t mean—I’m so—” I sputtered nonsensically before settling on a wide-eyed “ahhhhhhh” from the shriveled-up depths of my soul.
Max laughed, blessedly not already on his way to press charges. In fact, he still sat in front of me, though he’d shifted position to have his feet on the ground and knees bent to protect from any other assaults. “Well, that was exciting! Usually I’d say to buy me dinner first, but youdidfeed me lasagna, so…”
I stared at him in dumb shock, the corners of my mouth twitching because my conscience and sense of humor couldn’t decide whether smiling would be inappropriate. “You’relaughing? I ammortified, Max.”
He curbed his amusement down to a faint smile. “It was clearly an accident, Chef.”
“Yeah, anembarrassingaccident.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “For now, maybe, but think of the inside jokes we’ll have later because of it.”
“If that’s the case, we’ll have nothingbutinside jokes at the rate I’m going.” I shook my head, losing the fight against my smile. “I don’t know how you can be so unruffled about everything, but I admire it.”
He dipped his head to the side, one corner of his mouth still dimpling in a smile. “Really? It drives lots of people nuts.”
I narrowed my eyes and searched for the hidden cameras, because clearly I was gettingPunk’dat this point. Who on earth would have a problem with Max’s easy-going nature? Besides how it created such an inequality in his last relationship, I couldn’t see how anyone would get irritated because of it.
Someone entered the laundry room, only the top of their pink-haired head visible as they moved their clothes out of a washer.
I lowered my voice. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope.” He huffed softly, his smile a tad melancholy. “It was an even bigger problem when I was a kid. I was a bit of a loose cannon.”
“You? Really?”
He laughed, possibly misinterpreting my disbelief for sarcasm. “I was, I swear. I wasn’t the oldest of my siblings, so I didn’t have the weight of responsibility, but I wasn’t the youngest who naturally got the most attention, either, so I’d find ways to get it. Usually by getting into trouble.”
I grimaced on behalf of his parents. If Max decided to channel his boundless energy into mischief, he’d be a force to be reckoned with.
“Yeah, exactly.” He pursed his lips in my direction, encompassing my facial expression. “I didn’t ‘see the light,’ so to speak, until the summer of my freshman year atAbuela’s. MytíoSamuel came to stay with her as well.”
When he paused, my curiosity burst out of my mouth. “So what happened? Did you have a come to Jesus moment?”
“I guess you could say that.” He chuckled and cast a backward glance in the direction of the newcomer when they slammed their dryer door shut. “Let’s just say that after he found me sleeping behind the shed when I was supposed to be weeding the garden, he helped me see how I was living beneath my potential and privileges with the name and heritage I was given. There’s a difference between not sweating the small stuff and not caring about anything.”
“Oof.”
“Oh, but it gets worse.” He adjusted his position to rest his elbows on his knees. “He told me I was so focused on going with the flow that I didn’t realize the flow was a riptide taking me out to sea. In this case theseawas indifference about everything and everyone, and I’d drown in it without anyone to save me.”
I blinked hard, meeting his eyes. “Ouch. That’s harsh.”
He snorted. “No kidding. It was harsh enough for me to reevaluate my life, at least, and find the balance between letting go of what didn’t matter and fighting for what did.” He offered a self-deprecating smile. “Obviously I haven’t mastered that quite yet, but I’ve improved a lot.”
My thoughts turned to Max’s friend from high school, the one who’d fallen prey to addiction. How different would Max’s life look if he’d gone along with his friend?
That, I didn’t want to think about.
