Page 6 of Waiting for Her

I have no idea how long it was before I fell asleep after Max left. All I remember is lying on the couch, leaning my head on the armrest and closing my eyes, telling myself that I just need to rest them for a minute. All I wanted was ten minutes of uninterrupted sleep where my bladder doesn’t yell at me to pee every other minute and my heartburn doesn’t flare up to the point where I can’t lie down.

A loud bang startles me awake, my fingers gripping the blanket I know I didn’t pull over myself as my head lifts off the pillow I know I didn’t put there.

“Shit,” Max mutters from the kitchen as the living room slowly comes into focus and I smile, listening to him struggle to do something. After the fifth utterance of the f-word, I know I should at least get up and offer to help.

As I pull myself up into a sitting position, my hands cradling my stomach as I try to take a deep breath, the weight pressing down even more now that I’m upright, I wonder why Max is doing all of this now. Why did it take him so long to show interest? I can’t mistake the look in his eyes when he cradled my stomach in the bathroom. I can’t erase the way his hands felt against me at that moment because I couldn’t escape the tension between us. It’s never been this way and I can’t help but think that he’s only doing all of this for me because he feels sorry for me. Is it because he knows I’m going to be alone and so that savior complex that I know lives deep within his bones is now rushing to the surface? Or is it because he actually feels something for me? The way his eyes lingered on mine before he left for the grocery store gives me some semblance of hope, but I have to push all of that out of my brain because if I don’t, I’ll only be disappointed.

As I make my way into the kitchen, I am not prepared for the disaster that is my island counter. I expected a few bags of food, maybe some takeout for breakfast, but what I’m greeted with makes me both laugh and have a panic attack all at the same time.

“Max? What the hell are you doing?” I whisper-yell, taking in the fact that not only is my island now completely covered in food, but my fridge is wide open, cleared out with Max’s head immersed inside, cleaning.

“Hey!” His smiling face pops up over the door and gives me the sexiest smile, causing my poor pregnancy hormones to go into overdrive. “You’re up.”

I nod, my eyes glancing around and wondering how long I was actually asleep. “What are you doing?” I repeat, still panicking about the mess he’s created.

“I came back in with some food.”

I gave him a look because this is not what I would call “some food.”

“When I went to put everything away, I noticed your fridge had some old takeout and expired stuff in it, so I decided to clean it.”

My head shakes slightly, wondering who this man is that is standing in my kitchen.

“What’s that look for?”

“I’m just wondering what you’ve done with Max because the man I know doesn’t know how to clean anything, especially a fridge that wasn’t really dirty in the first place.”

He chuckles softly as he throws the dirty towel in the sink and leans back against the counter.

“Hey now, I do so clean.”

I raise an eyebrow, wondering who he’s trying to fool here.

“Fine, you win. I’m usually a slob, but for you, I would clean the dirtiest of fridges.” He winks, pushing off the counter just as I shift on my feet, the weight of my belly putting pressure on my lower back causing me to wince. I know if I don’t sit down soon, I’ll pay the price.

“What’s wrong?” Max asks, walking toward me.

I wave him off, slowly making my way to the round table in the corner and sitting in the nearest chair.

“Don’t worry, Max, I’ve been doing this on my own for months now.” I silently curse myself for saying that out loud since I’ve never actually told anyone how bad it got between Brendan and me these last few months.

“What do you mean, you’ve been doing this alone for months?”

I ignore his question, instead, I peer toward the island full of food just as my stomach growls.

“Did you buy the whole store?” I joke, hoping he gets off the topic of my nonexistent love life, and it seems to work because he looks back at the pile of food and smiles.

“I tried, but I didn’t have enough room in the cart. But I did try and get some of everything.”

My eyes scan over all the options and just as I see the bread and cheese next to each other, my stomach growls again, and I’m hit with a craving so intense it almost takes my breath away.

“What on that counter made your stomach make that noise?” he demands, but I wave him off, feeling just a bit uneasy and vulnerable right now.

“It’s nothing. Let me help you put all of this away.”

Max makes a noise of derision and walks toward me, crouching down and placing both his hands on my knees.

“Stop.”

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