Part 7

Michael Guerin parks his bike in his driveway and removing his helmet climbs off. On his way up to his apartment, he hopes that Max has either fallen asleep, or gone home. Having much to think about, he doesn't want to have to deal with Max. Opening the door quietly, he finds Max sitting on the sofa watching television.

"Hey Maxwell.what's up?" says Michael sauntering into the room.

Max answers with a shrug, "Not much, just hanging out, where's Maria?"

"Oh, uh.she's spending the night with Liz?"

"Liz? You saw Liz? How is she? Is she alright?" Max fires the questions at Michael in rapid succession.

"Look, I guess she's fine. Maria wanted to hang out there, so we hung out. It was nothing," Michael says as he crosses the floor towards his room. Suddenly he stops and turns towards Max.

"Maxwell, what was it like when you and Tess had sex?" he asks.

"What? What do you want to know about that for?" Max questions with a look of anger crossing his face.

"Well, I'm just wondering if what Maria and I experience is, well, you know, normal," says Michael with apparent discomfort.

"Michael, I can't just tell you that. It is kind of personal," hedges Max.

Michael paces back and forth across the room clearly uncomfortable with the conversation, but not willing to let it go.

"Look Max, I'm not asking how many times she moaned your name or anything like that. I'm asking about your physical reactions. I just want to make sure that Maria isn't going to get hurt," Michael finished in a rush. He couldn't believe how lame he sounded to himself, but he was hoping Max would fall for it. If his suspicions were right, something was very, very wrong.

"Alright, fine," says Max. "Grab a couple of Snapple's from the fridge and we'll talk."



Morning arrives with Max asleep on the sofa and Michael in his room pouring over the printouts that Alex decoded before his death.

"Damn, there has got to be something here that explains it all," He thinks. Frustrated, he slams the printout on the bed. "Something isn't right. Nothing that Max said happened between him and Tess is anything like what happens with me and Maria. One of us must be doing it wrong, and I hope it's him because we're having too much fun." Michael stops as the pieces began to come together in his mind. "That's it," he says out loud, "It's not that one of us is doing it wrong. One of us didn't do it at all."