Part Two

Friday December 18th 2009

I rolled my eyes at the boxes in front of me. Why on earth did I have to be the one to volunteer for this? Oh, yes, because Carrie asked me… and used those puppy-dog eyes that somehow everyone in this office was susceptible to. I could be such a pushover sometimes. With a sigh, I piled a couple of the boxes into my arms and made my way upstairs to the office with them. It was just after five p.m. and everyone else had already left for the weekend, but of course I had to agree to organise the office Christmas decorations this year, so I was still here and about to embark on a Friday evening of putting up the tree and making the office look festive.

Reaching the top of the stairs, I turned around and pushed against the door with my shoulder, entering the office backwards as I struggled not to drop the heavy boxes in my arms.

"Oof," I gasped as I accidentally knocked into the ancient coat hanger just inside the door. "Shit."

With an annoyed roll of my eyes, I dumped the boxes down on the floor near the water cooler and then, without even a glance around the office, headed back down the stairs for some more. After three trips, I had all of the boxes upstairs and was ready to begin my decorating challenge. However, as I stood over the large pile, contemplating my starting point with my hands on my hips, I suddenly heard a rustling sound behind me. With a startled gasp, I whipped around to find someone sitting at one of the desks along the wall, looking at something on their computer screen.

It was Max Evans.

My eyes locked with his and we simply stared at each other for a moment, before he gave me a slight smile and a nod.

"Hi, Liz."

"Max?" I frowned. "What are you doing here? I thought everyone had gone home already."

He raised an eyebrow and smirked, "I could ask you the same thing."

"Carrie roped me into putting up the Christmas decorations this year," I explained with a roll of my eyes. "Apparently everyone else is out partying on the last Friday night before Christmas."

"And you're not?"

"No," I replied shortly and giving a shrug, not really wishing to get into my personal Christmas issues with him. "What about you? I thought you always got out of here the second the clock struck five… especially on the weekend."

He gave a shrug, before letting his eyes roam across the computer screen in front of him, "I just have some stuff to work on."

"Oh, okay," I murmured, not really knowing what else to say.

He was focused on his screen again now and I was beginning to feel feeling slightly uncomfortable just standing there, so I let out a soft sigh and then turned back to the pile of boxes again. Kneeling down on the floor beside them, I began opening boxes. I found the small office tree in one box, decorations in another and finally the tree lights in a third. Looking around the office space, I quickly decided that the best place for the tree would be over by the window, so one by one, I carried the three boxes across the room and started to get to work.

However, putting up an artificial tree was harder than I expected and ten minutes later, I was still struggling with it. It also didn't help that the office was almost silent, save for the furious clicking of keys on Max's keyboard, and the quiet was making me self-conscious. Eventually, I let out a sigh and stood up, walking over to the small radio on Maria's desk.

"Do you mind if I turn the radio on?" I asked Max, who was frowning at his computer screen.

"What?" he muttered distractedly, barely glancing up from the screen.

"The radio," I clarified, a little puzzled by his serious demeanour; I'd never seen him with anything less than a smirk on his face. "You mind if I turn it on?"

"Oh," he shrugged. "No, go ahead."

"Thanks."

I pressed the 'on' button and the sounds of 'Let It Snow' rang out through the office. There, that was better; something to get me into the Christmas mood. I crossed the room and settled back onto the floor, determined not to let the tree get the better of me this time. I had just about got it standing a few minutes later when a groan came from Max's desk.

"Dammit!"

I turned my head to see what was wrong and found Max with his head in his hands, glaring at his screen in frustration.

"What's wrong?" I couldn't help but ask.

"God damn fucking article," he replied angrily, letting out a heavy sigh before looking over at me. He shook his head, "Sorry, just having some issues with it."

I nodded, "Believe me, I know what that's like. Need any help?"

I didn't really know why I was offering, since it wasn't like we were on good terms with each other normally.

He sighed, "Nah, it's okay. I'm not gonna get any more done tonight anyway."

I nodded, before turning my attention to the box of tree lights, raising an eyebrow at the tangled mess inside. Reaching in and pulling out a knotted bundle, I made a face.

"God, this is gonna take forever."

With a deep breath, I dove in and attempted to begin the untangling process. After five unsuccessful minutes though, I heard a chuckle behind me and I whipped around to see Max watching me, shaking his head in amusement.

"Hey, what's so funny?" I frowned.

"Nothin'" he denied with a smile. "Just… come on, let me help."

He got up from his desk and walked over to where I was sitting on the floor, tangled lights in hand, and planted himself down beside me. Before I had a chance to figure out if he was being nice or just trying to get a rise out of me, he had taken the lights from my hands and was twisting and turning the cord to try to untangle it.

"Okay, we're getting there," he announced a few moments later, after he managed to free a short length of lights.

I couldn't help but watch him as he continued to work on the cord; his expression was concentrated, his tongue peeking out from between his lips as his long fingers gently coaxed at the knotted string of lights. My heart skipped a beat as it struck me how beautiful he really was. Of course, I'd always known he was attractive, but I never really thought of him as a potential love interest before. For a start, his personality— or at least what I'd seen of it so far—wasn't exactly something to be desired. He always seemed to be much more interested in pissing around and making inappropriate jokes with his friends than in actually taking life seriously.

"Hey," his soft voice interrupted my thoughts and my head snapped up from watching his hands to find him looking at me with a small smile. "Can you grab the rest of the lights and lay them out on the floor so I can see what we're dealing with?"

"Oh, um, sure," I nodded, slightly startled at his use of 'we' to refer to my decorating job.

I reached into the box and began pulling out the lights, attempting to lay them out in as untangled a state as I could.

"Man, who put these away last year?" muttered Max as he eyed the mess on the floor. "They could have at least made an effort not to just stuff everything so that it got into such a mess."

I smirked, "I never realised you were a neat freak. I mean, just look at the state of your desk."

"Hey," he frowned. "I'll have you know that my desk is in perfect organisation, thank you very much."

"Right," I murmured, glancing over at the haphazard piles of papers strewn across his workspace with a grimace. "Okay."

Max just smiled and returned to sorting out the lights again. I reached for some of the ones laid out on the floor and we worked together to make them tree-worthy. After plugging them in and checking that none of the bulbs were blown, we began winding them around the tree. The office was mainly dark and apart from the multi-coloured Christmas lights we were holding, the only other light came from Max's desk lamp and from the ceiling light near the door.

"Crap," I muttered, as I tried and failed to position a section of lights high up on the tree. "Being short sucks sometimes."

"Here," murmured Max as he moved to my side and gave me a soft smile that for some reason made my breath catch in my throat. "Let me."

"Oh, thanks," I replied as he reached for the lights in my hand.

But he didn't get any further than that because his hand suddenly brushed against mine and we both froze. I stifled a surprised gasp and my eyes flew back to his only to find him looking right at me. There were several seconds of silence, during which time I found I couldn't tear my eyes away from him; those amber-green eyes of his just drew me in and captured my attention completely and despite the fact that I'd never even looked at Max in a romantic way before, I couldn't deny the warmth that suddenly spread through my body in response to his gaze.

"Sorry," he said, his voice just barely above a whisper.

"S'okay," I managed, finally forcing myself to break eye contact and move my hand away from his.

"Okay, so where do you want these?" he asked a moment later as I stood looking up at the tree.

"Just up here, please," I told him; pointing to the area I was planning to put the lights.

As Max leaned up to wrap the string of lights around the tree, I moved around to the side and glanced out of the window.

"Oh, hey, it's snowing!" I exclaimed suddenly, my eyes widening in surprise as I watched the large flakes swirling outside the window.

"Is it?" came Max's voice from the front of the tree.

I nodded, even though he wasn't looking at me, "Looks like it's coming down fast."

Max fiddled with the lights for a couple of seconds more before he moved round to the side of the tree. I was still looking out of the window, but I could feel his presence as he came to a stop just behind me.

"Makes it even more festive now, huh?" he said. "What with the lights and the snow."

His words struck a chord with me and I frowned slightly as I recalled the conversation I had with Maria at lunch the other day, about wanting my Christmas Storylights and snow moment. A wave of sadness washed over me as I was abruptly reminded that I was in fact nowhere near experiencing a moment like that for myself.

"Yeah," I murmured softly, not trusting my voice to remain steady if I spoke any louder.

I shook my head quickly and stepped away from the window, turning back to the tree again. Together, Max and I finished winding the lights around the tree and then I dove into the remaining boxes to find some tinsel and baubles to further decorate the tree with. Max continued to help me with my task until all the decorations had been put on the tree. I wasn't really sure why he chose to stay and help instead of heading home, especially considering that I'd never been particularly pleasant to him during our time working together, but I wasn't going to complain. The more help I had, the quicker the job would get done.

Once the tree was finished, we hung the last few decorations around the office and then stepped back to admire our handiwork.

"It's looking pretty good," mused Max, nodding in appreciation.

"Yeah, it is," I agreed. "Thank you for helping out. Sorry if I kept you from enjoying your weekend though."

"Hey, don't worry about it," he shook his head and then turned to me, his eyes catching mine as he smiled, "It was my pleasure."

We stood in silence for a few seconds, before I moved across the room to my desk, where my coat and bag were.

"I guess I should be heading home now," I said.

"Yeah," I heard Max's voice from where he was still standing in the middle of the office. "The snow looks pretty heavy now though. Are you gonna be okay getting home?"

"What?" I murmured, moving over towards the window again. "Oh, no, I'm sure I'll be fine…"

As I peered out of the window though, I realised what Max was talking about. The snow was falling fast and beginning to pile up on the streets. It was looking rather deep already, and there was not a soul, nor a cab or bus, to be seen.

"Uh, on second thoughts…" I shook my head. "Maybe not."

"Hey," he said, from behind me. "Why don't I walk you?"

I shook my head and turned to face him, about to protest when he held his hand up to stop me.

"It's no problem, really and honestly, it'll be safer if there's two of us."

"Oh, okay," I had to agree. "That makes sense."

"Great. Let me just grab my stuff and we'll head out."

I perched on the edge of my desk while Max moved over to his and gathered up his things. Five minutes later, we had turned out all the lights and were heading downstairs and out of the office building.


"This snow is crazy," I muttered as I gingerly made my way along the sidewalk outside the office. "I can't believe so much has fallen in such a short amount of time."

"I know," replied Max, falling into step beside me.

We took our time walking slowly along the road, mostly because my work shoes were not really cut out for walking in the snow and I kept tripping over my feet, so Max had to reach out and steady me every couple of minutes. Unfortunately, the snow wasn't showing any signs of letting up and by the time we'd made it four blocks, my teeth were chattering and my extremities were beginning to turn numb. Looking up at Max, I found he wasn't doing much better, his cheeks bright red and his shoulders shaking in the cold wind.

"Okay, maybe this wasn't such a good idea," I admitted, coming to a stop and turning to face him. "It's freezing out here and neither of us are dressed warm enough for trekking through the snow."

"Yeah, you're right," he replied, rubbing his hands together and blowing on them to try and warm up before glancing back down the way we came. "But it's too far to walk back to the office now."

"Yeah," I agreed softly. "I know."

Max glanced around at our surroundings, his eyes roaming the scenery as if he was trying to figure out a solution to our predicament. I watched his face as his gaze stopped on something and a hint of a smile graced his features.

"Hey, there's a café over there," he pointed across the street. "How about we go get a coffee to warm up and see if we can wait out this snow?"

"Sounds good," I replied with a grateful smile, clenching and unclenching my cold fingers in an attempt to warm them up. "Let's go."

Carefully, we trudged over to the café and I let out a sigh of relief as Max opened the door for me and I was assaulted by warm air as I entered the building. He led me over to a small table against the wall and I took a seat, reaching for the small menu as he joined me at the table. The café was mostly empty, so it was only a couple of minutes before the waitress came over to take our orders. I decided on a hot chocolate with whipped cream – the perfect winter-warmer – and a blueberry muffin, while Max just ordered a coffee.

"So…" I started, when the waitress left our table to fill the order.

I was at a loss as to how to act now. Sitting in a café with Max Evans on a Friday night wasn't exactly a situation I'd ever expected to be in.

"So…" he repeated, his lips curling up into an amused smirk.

"Is it me, or is this weird?"

He frowned in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Well, you… me… a café?" I tried to elaborate. "I mean, it just seems, I dunno…"

"You mean it's weird because you've spent the last two years rolling your eyes and glaring at me from your desk across the room?" he clarified.

My eyes widened at his bluntness and I struggled to reply, "No! Well, I–I mean… it wasn't that I…"

He chuckled and I found myself relaxing a little.

"Liz, it's okay," he assured me. "I know what you think of me… and the guys."

"I, uh…" I gulped, feeling my face flush with embarrassment. "I didn't mean…"

"You think we spend all our time messing around and not doing any work," he added, a smile playing on his lips. "And you know, you might well be right."

"Yeah?" I replied sceptically, surprised that he would actually be admitting this to me instead of trying to convince me that he took his job seriously.

"Yeah," he gave a slight chuckle. "I admit it doesn't look like I get that much done in the office, but I assure you that I have never missed a deadline and so far, I haven't turned in a bad article yet."

I had to nod in agreement to that – I'd seen some of his articles before and I had to admit that they were pretty good.

"Only problem is, I find it hard to concentrate in an office full of people – I get easily distracted – so I tend to catch up on the work after hours." He rolled his eyes then, "You have to admit, though, that covering the local amateur sports events isn't exactly the most enthralling career in the world."

Just then, the waitress reappeared with our drinks and my muffin, placing them down on the table in front of us, before disappearing back into the kitchen area again.

"So, what's your motivation?" I couldn't help but ask as I sipped from my mug of hot chocolate. "Why stick with the job if you don't get enjoyment out of it?"

"I didn't say I didn't enjoy it," he countered. "It's just not quite my dream career. But the paper is quite well-known around here and it's a great starting-off point to build up my experience."

"So, what isyour dream job?" I asked, my curiosity piqued now.

He looked out of the window at the falling snow, his expression wistful, "I want to write for Sports Illustrated."

"Wow, Sports Illustrated… that's pretty ambitious," I murmured in awe.

He turned to look at me again, his lips twitching in amusement, "Are you saying I don't stand a chance?"

"No, no…" I sucked in a breath, quickly trying to backtrack on my words. "That's not what I'm saying. I just meant that it's not easy to get a job like that."

He chuckled, presumably at my uncomfortable expression, "I know. As I said, it's my dream job. I have no idea what my chances are of actually getting into that field though."

A thought suddenly occurred to me and I couldn't help but smirk at him, "Hang on, are you sure you don't just want the job for the opportunity to be involved in the swimsuit edition?"

"Oh yeah," he deadpanned with a grin, "that's exactly why I want the job."

I couldn't help but laugh at his expression, "Ah ha, I knew it!"

"I know, best job in the world, right?" he joked. "Seriously, though, it would be an amazing opportunity if I could get there."

"Well, good luck with it," I said encouragingly.

"Thanks," he smiled and his eyes met mine again, holding the gaze for several seconds, before he relaxed against his seat and changed the subject. "So, have you bought your Secret Santa present yet?"

I rolled my eyes and let out a groan, "No. I have absolutely no idea what to buy."

"Who do you have?" he asked curiously.

"I can't tell you," I shook my head. "It's supposed to be a secret."

"Aww, come on," he quirked an eyebrow. "Maybe I can help with present ideas?"

"I don't think…"

"Liz," he said firmly. "Are you, or are you not completely stuck for present ideas?"

I sighed, "Okay, fine. I'm totally stuck."

"Well, last year I had Mavis Young," he made a face as he mentioned the timid forty-year-old accountant who worked in the downstairs office. "And the year before, I got Bob Johnson."

"Really?" I asked, as my heart skipped a beat at the mention of Bob's name. "Well, okay… I kinda have Bob this year."

"Oh, man," he muttered with a smirk, as he took a sip of coffee. "Good luck."

"Hey," I resisted the urge to swat his arm with my hand. "I thought you were going to help me?"

"Okay, fine, I'll help you," he agreed eventually.

I tucked into my muffin as Max began describing what he knew of Bob Johnson and what he'd bought for the man two years ago. Fifteen minutes later, our drinks were finished, the snow was beginning to let up and I had a better idea of what I could buy for my Secret Santa. The waitress brought over our bill and despite my protests, Max insisted on paying. I felt a little awkward about it, but as I prepared to go outside and face the cold once again, I realised there was little I could do about it.

Once outside, Max insisted on walking me all the way home and we made the fairly short journey in relative, but not uncomfortable, silence. As we reached my apartment building and said our goodbyes, I couldn't help but watch his retreating back as he walked down the street away from me, my lower arm tingling slightly from where he'd given it a gentle squeeze before turning to leave. It had been an interesting and enlightening evening, but I had to admit that Max Evans was still something of an enigma to me.

TBC…