Max's POV

The revelation regarding Gazzy's relations with Angel was old news now. Everyone working on Angel's case, so really just Iggy, Fang, and I spent our time at the office shooting paper balls at the trash can, figuring out new methods to solving the rubix cube, pacing the moldy carpeted floors. We were all waiting, either for me to have another memory or for the doc to figure out the origins of Gazzy's deformity.

Because the cold case had been revived due to my presence, I was feeling particularly disappointed… in myself, like I'd let everyone down, especially Fang. I knew the case was a sore spot for him, even though he'd read my mind and tell me to just take my time, that all cases take a long time to solve, that it was miraculous the case was brought back at all. Still, the dead end put all of us in a poor mood.

If I didn't have rent to pay, I might've just quit altogether, and everyone else could've just moved on. The way it was now, it felt like we were just stuck in time, like time wasn't moving at all.

The only exception was Chief, and I had a pretty good idea why.

Iggy eyed the door of Fang's office one day suspiciously. I cocked my head trying to read his mind. "Whatcha doin'?" I asked.

Before he could respond, Chief was knocking on Fang's door. Startled, Fang quickly lowered his feet down from his desk, cleared his throat, and said in a voice that sounded like he'd been pulling all-nighters. "Yes, Chief."

"Actually, can I talk to you for a second?" She was looking at me, a smile on her face, her eyes bright, her cheeks flushing. Iggy and Fang exchanged confused glances like they always did, but I wasn't worried because I knew what she wanted to talk about. For what other reason would a girl need a girl's opinion?

But I waited for her to speak anyways. She was jittery and nervous, obviously barely holding herself together in front of the office men. I shut her door and closed the blinds while she wringed her hands.

She paced and paced for what felt like a lifetime, because when you're waiting and all anxious, time always seems to stretch itself, but then she suddenly faced me and blurted, "Nathan proposed."

So, before Chief and I became gal-pals, I was terrified of her, even though she never gave me any reason to fear her. She was kind and open the moment Fang introduced me, but somewhere in my forgotten past, I must've had bad authority issues, because I always felt the need to bow to Chief and keep my head down in her presence.

I don't do that anymore, because the day the team went to go talk to doc about Gazzy and Angel's DNA matching, I'd showed up at the office early and alone. I hadn't moved out of Fang's house yet at the time, but Lissa was there that morning making Fang brunch.

I woke up to the smell of bacon that day and ran downstairs, practically tripping over the torn bottoms of my pajama pants, and there she was. Stunning. Even to me. With her gorgeous red waves flowing down her back, her flawless lips curving up into a smile, then a soft laugh erupted as she stirred the scrambled eggs. I felt like I was sitting through a romance movie, waiting anxiously for the minute Fang would wrap his arms around the lady from behind and kiss her neck. The two would rock side to side slowly, maybe slow dance to some Norah Jones. Of course he didn't, but I realized in that moment, that I was living a fantasy believing Fang might ever love me back, because any idiot off the street could see that Lissa and Fang fit like perfect puzzle pieces, and I was just a child wanting to be a rockstar when I grew up.

Anyways, I ended up sneaking out of the garage door with a bus ticket and a rotten mood, feeling a desperate need for a distraction, something to stop me from banging my head against the wall, something to stop myself from obsessing over my own stupidity, which is why I brought Chief the coffee that morning. No one else in the office really paid me much attention. I was a temp afterall.

I knocked on Chief's door sheepishly with my elbow, my hands occupied with the hot drinks. She seemed uncertain when she realized I was alone, but wasn't altogether unpleasant, just caught off guard I suppose.

"Coffee?" I offered. She invited me in with a palm of her hand and returned to her seat. "I'm not sure how you like your coffee, so it's black, the way I like mine. Hope you don't mind."

Chief smiled gratefully. "Black is actually just the way I like mine, too. Not that I don't enjoy your plain company, but did you need something, Max?"

I laughed weakly. Where else would I go? "I'm locked out of Fang's office, and he's still on his way."

"He didn't want to come with you?"

I chose my words carefully, "He has a special friend over, so I thought I'd give them some alone time." Did that sound supportive enough? Could she see through my facade?

Chief nodded with understanding as soon as the words "special friend" left my lips, and she laughed. "Oh those special friends just ruin everything don't they?"

I must've looked confused.

"I'm sorry," she chuckled. "It's just that my daughter uses that term… special friend. I think she's having trouble accepting my love life. That might be more than you need to know, but I figured as the only other woman in the office, you'd judge me the least for having a love life at all."

Chief spoke so casually in that moment that I forgot she was my boss, that she was in charge of all the men wearing uniforms and carrying guns. The way she talked to me, with no disguise of authority, oddly reminded me of Nudge, and I pictured Chief curling her hair and putting on mascara on Friday nights, wearing slender black dresses to her dates. That woman might seem like a stark contrast to the lady in buns sitting in front of me right now, but when she smiled, when she wiped the coffee from her bottom lips, I could see that the idea wasn't so crazy.

"Tell me about him," I pursued, feeling so much braver now.

Then she painted a picture of Nathan with her words. Maybe she wasn't so specific, but I imagined a man a head taller than Chief, with glasses and sweater vests, a surgeon who loved reading, who loved reading to Chief, who didn't necessarily understand Chief's career choices but supported her nonetheless, who helped Chief start a savings account for her daughter's college. I was living vicariously through her stories, blissfully, until she said, "He's a wonderful man, who I must end things with."

"What?!" I nearly leaped out of my seat. "Because of Ella?" Her daughter.

She sighed. "You don't know me well enough, but I'll corrupt him, Max. I'll break him, snap him like a stick, emotionally. He's too pure, too good." She sighed again. "Too good for me."

I suddenly wanted to knock my head against hers, and the thought made me smile. "You should tell him," I suggested.

She'd already considered, I could tell. "Wouldn't it be better to just leave him then to give him an opportunity to leave me?"

"If you're scared of him walking away, well, I've never pegged you to be the type to run away from fear. Plus, shouldn't you give Nathan the benefit of the doubt? I don't think it's fair to assume you'll mess him up. I imagine if you told him this, he'd tell you he's stronger than you'd think."

I could see she was considering my words, and I began to feel silly for giving Chief advice, especially when my own love life was as good as dirt, so I shrugged and laughed to lighten the mood. "Then again, what do I know?"

But something changed between Chief and I that day, as if all of our previous conversations had been through the phone with a glass wall between us, like people might do visiting someone in jail, but today, we heard each other's real voice, saw each other's face clearly without the panel for the first time. And Chief was no longer just Chief, but my friend.

So I wasn't surprised at all when she wanted to talk about Nathan. But I was jaw-dropping shocked that Nathan had proposed. We hadn't had an opportunity for any follow-up discussions, which meant I had no idea what my advice meant to her and might've assumed she'd ended things like she originally planned.

"Well, did you say yes?" I must've taken steps towards her because I found myself gripping her hands with excitement.

She was breathing hard, her eyes so wide I thought her eyeballs would roll onto the floor. Then, slowly, she nodded, and I was throwing my arms around her before I could stop myself, and she was squeezing me hard.

"Thank you, Max."

I was breathing hard now, too, amazed at how caught up in the excitement I could be. My heart was hammering my chest with joy.

"For what?" I knew, but I wanted hear it nonetheless.

"For…" she paused, looking for the right words. "Being my friend. For pushing me to do the right thing and not… self-sabotage." She laughed freely. "Max, will you be my bridesmaid?"

I scoffed. "As if I could say no."