Because I Love You – Chapter 10
By MyNameIsCAL
We drove back to what I guess we would now have to call Dylan's house. Max had the car loaded with boxes to fill with all their things. Ari seemed anxious as we pulled into the driveway.
"Your father's not here, don't worry," I told him.
He still stood in front of the door. "You go in first, Uncle Fang."
I let Max unlock the door and then I stepped in. There appeared to be nothing off when I entered the house, but as we went through the kitchen and upstairs, things lay strewn across the floor.
"Go with Ari and help him get his things into boxes," Max said. "I'll start in my bedroom."
I wanted to argue that maybe I should go with her, but she had headed off down the hall already.
Ari led me into his room. I started to put his clothes into a box as he started to put his books and toys in another. There was a picture that sat on top of his tiny dresser of Max, Dylan, and him. In fact, I remembered the picture because I had taken it.
It was last year at one of Dylan's work banquets. That picture was the only time he had spent with them. His file was faked. I remember he was in a rush to go off and talk to different people. It upset Max because she spent the most of the night sitting at the table. Dylan said not a word about her to anyone, and if she hadn't been sitting next to him, people wouldn't have realized that she was his wife.
"Am I going to be living with you, Uncle Fang?" Ari questioned.
I looked away from the picture. "Well, with Uncle Iggy, but I'm staying there too so I guess so. But only for a while. Your mom says she wants to find a new house."
"But I don't want to be away from you."
"You won't be far." I began to close the box. "Don't worry."
"Maybe you can live with us!" he exclaimed.
"That's up to your mom," I replied. "But maybe."
He started to go back to filling his box.
Max had said with the money Dylan had given her, she could get a place. Actually Max said we could get a place. I told her that would be nice, but I had also told myself that I wouldn't overstep my boundaries still. There was a fine line I still had to hold even though our feelings were each other were very clear now. I wasn't sure what she had told Ari, and I didn't want to upset or confuse him.
I brought the boxes to the car once Ari finished and then headed to check on Max. She had boxes filled with clothes. Her room seemed bare, although I had never really been inside of it so maybe it was always like that.
Max sat on the floor, leaning against the bed, a book on her lap.
"It's my wedding album," she said as I sat down next to her. "I had half hoped you would come back, that maybe you had seen the news. But now that I think about that, it didn't really make sense."
"I never even knew, Max. I spent a lot of time just roaming around, ignoring people. Sometimes I would spend weeks flying from cliff to cliff around the desert." I shook my head.
She flipped through the pages, stopping at the last page. Then she slammed it shut, rising off the ground. I watched her place it on top of the dresser and then pull something out of her pocket. I could see it when I stood. It was her wedding ring.
"It's over now," she breathed out, placing it down on top of the scrapbook. There were at least a dozen frames of pictures of Dylan, Ari, and her on the dresser too. "It's over, finally."
And for the first time in a long time, she pulled me into a hug.
Iggy had dinner ready by the time we unloaded all the boxes into his garage. Ari had gone and started eating already, talking to Iggy. Max and I sat, but Iggy still sat, fingers clenched around his spoon and fork.
"Iggy, what's wrong?" Max spoke first.
"Nothing." He started to try to cut his chicken with his spoon.
I opened my mouth to tell him, but Max put her hand around my wrist, shaking her head.
"I've invited everyone for dinner tomorrow," Iggy said, dropping his spoon and grabbing his knife. "I thought it would be nice now that things are starting to settle down."
"That sounds great, Ig."
He gave Max a brief smile. "I was hoping you'd take me to the grocery store tonight so I could start getting things ready."
"Of course," I said.
He only replied with a nod.
When I came back from food shopping with Iggy, I found Max sitting on the couch watching an old movie. I sat next to her and she leaned against me.
"Do you remember this movie?" she asked me.
"Vaguely." I found myself putting my arms around her.
She looked up at me. "It was one of last things we did together before you took off. We spent the whole time making out."
I didn't want to smile, but she was and I couldn't stop myself from smiling back.
"The theater was empty and well, it was a crappy movie from the beginning anyways."
Her arms were around my neck now.
I closed my eyes and leaned in.
Her fingers ran through my hair as I pushed her back against the couch. How long had I been waiting for this?
We broke apart a minute later, her hands still in my hair.
"I'm…I'm sorry," I said, unable to hold back my grin. "I…"
She laughed, flattening out my hair.
"You…" I opened and closed my mouth a few times. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for that."
"I know," she whispered.