Page 30 of Made For Me

I whip my head around to my father and Max. “What the hell are you two doing?” I shout. “Are you just going to sit there and do nothing?” I look at both of them. Max sits at the edge of the couch while my father leans back on it, just staring at me. “You’re going to let her call a union lawyer?” I can’t help but lift my arms, putting my hands behind my head and crossing them. The silence is almost deafening, which makes me even angrier, so I word vomit. “You.” I look at Uncle Max, who now sits back on the couch mimicking my father’s stance. “You’ve always said that she’s like a daughter to you.” My stomach gets tight, the feeling going up my chest and toward my throat. My feet feel as if I’m wearing cement boots and I’m stuck at this spot. “You’re just going to let her hang out to dry? They are suing her for ten million dollars. I don’t know how much she makes a year, but I’m guessing she doesn’t have ten million dollars saved up.” I put my hands on my hips, the nervous energy coming through me like never before. I look around the room, my eyes going to the glass of whiskey she poured herself and then didn’t drink it. The urge to pick up the tumbler and toss it across the room makes my hands tingle. “I can’t believe this.”

“I know what I’m going to do,” my uncle Max says, his voice calm as he puts his elbow on the arm of the couch and leans his face on his fist. “But the question is, what are you going to do about it?” His eyes stare right into mine, neither of us looking away during the stare down.

I look at him, confused at his question. “What does that even mean?” I ask him. “Is this a code thing that only the two of you understand?” They’ve been each other’s sidekicks for as long as anyone can remember. When my uncle Evan came into the picture, he gave them the nickname M&M. They say they don’t depend on each other, but if my father is somewhere, Max is very close by and vice versa.

“I know what that means.” My father gets up off the couch and then stands looking at Max. “Do I need to be here for the next part?”

“No.” Max shakes his head, making my father nod his as he looks at me. He smirks at me right before he walks down the hall toward the bedroom. The only thing going through my head at this moment is,what the fuck is going on?I put my hands on the top of my head, speechless and feeling so helpless that I don’t know what else to do. I want to yell at my father’s retreating back to help me, but all the words stay jumbled inside my throat.

I sit back on the couch, as if someone cut me off at the knees, my eyes never leaving the hallway where my father just disappeared to. “What’s the story with you and Julia?” Max asks and I blink a couple of times before I turn to look at him.

“There is no story.” I say the words and they taste like acid in my mouth. Everything inside me gets even tighter. As if you would take a wet towel and try to wring all the water out, that is exactly how it feels.There is no story, the words replay in my head, making me wonder when it fucking changed.There is a story, my head screams,we just don’t know it yet.

“If there is no story.” He sits forward now, his voice never going high, never going low. Staying steady and tight. “Then you should keep in your own lane.”

I swallow down the lump in my throat and my legs start to shake nervously. “What does that mean?” I stare into his eyes, hoping like hell he doesn’t see the bullshit I’m trying to sell him. I know exactly what he means. I also realize I don’t know the answer to the question. I mean, I know the answer but it’s fucking crazy, right? Like we’ve been friends for forever. We’ve been each other’s wingman when we would go on vacation. We’ve been playing this cat-and-mouse game from day one. We’ve never crossed over that line, but the line is becoming very blurred on my side. Not only is it blurred, it is starting to erase and it feels like I am seeing everything for the first time.

“It means if you don’t want to get into the car with her”—he opens his hands now—“then get the fuck out of the car.” He folds his hands over his chest waiting for my answer. Which even if I wanted to, I can’t answer.

“You hang around with my father way too much.” I try to make a joke out of it, but nothing on his face says this is a joke. I pretend I don’t know what he’s talking about but he couldn’t be clearer, basically shit or get off the pot.

“I’m not joking, Chase.” There is no humor in his tone either. “If you aren’t in this one hundred percent, you need to stop and get out.”

I throw my hands up. “I don’t know what that means.” My voice goes even louder and my father comes from the bedroom.

“What’s going on?” my father asks as he comes down the hallway. He looks at me and then looks at Max, waiting for one of us to answer. Nothing comes out of my mouth; I open it to say something but nothing comes out.

“Just telling Chase that if he’s not in the car with her, he’s got to get out,” Max states and my father nods at him as if this makes perfect sense.

“Okay.” I put my hands up. “I’m going to need you to talk to me not in the language of M&M and in the language of humans.”

My father laughs and shakes his head. “Son, you sat there beside her holding her hand.” I roll my eyes at him. “Then you put your arm around her. Protected her.”

“This isn’t nineteen forty-two where we are going steady because I held her hand.” I roll my eyes at them. “I was comforting her.” I look at Max. “Something you should have done.”

“You were already doing it,” Max points out to me. “Sitting down next to her, listening to her say story.” He chuckles. “A story I think you’ve heard before, I might add. But anyway, it was fun watching the vein on your forehead look like it was going to pop.”

“He gets that from me,” my father says proudly as he smiles at me and all I can do is glare at him.

“Oh, I know.” Max laughs at him. “It came out every time I kissed Allison for the first two years. I used to do it on purpose to see if it would explode.”

“This isn’t a joke,” I declare. “She’s going to lose everything because she wanted to give that girl a chance.” I stand and the beating of my heart is so hard and strong I’m surprised it’s not beating out of my chest. “She needs someone who isn’t a fucking union lawyer, who is just going to treat her like she’s another case file.”

“I think we got our answer,” my father states, looking at Max who just smirks as he gets up.

“And what answer is that?” I ask him, frustrated that no one is taking this seriously.

“The two of you,” my father says. “It was fun watching the both of you.” He smirks. “It’s always been the two of you.” He shrugs. “You just had your head up your ass.” If I thought I was speechless before, I lied, this right here I have no words for.

“Did you call?” Max finally speaks, saving me from saying anything else.

“He’s going to call me right back,” my father tells him and then Max’s phone rings and he grabs it from his pocket.

“Michael,” he tells us as he hits the button.

“Hello.” He puts the phone to his ear and I want to say to put it on speakerphone. “I’m on my way.” He hangs up and then looks at me.

“Julia got a call from Jillian when she was in the lobby,” Max shares, and I swear I feel like someone kicked me in the balls. I was so in my head about these two I forgot she didn’t have her fucking car. “She just got her and she’s going to her house.”

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