Week Twenty Six Words

3M

Premise- Cooper left town on the same day he walked in on Maxie and Logan in bed together. Years later, Maxie still can't forget about Three.

The Good Life

August, 2012

The last thing Maxie Jones needed was for one more person to come along and piss her off. She was having the freaking worse day of her life ever. Well not really ever ever but there was no way she was going there in her mind right now. Today sucked. Case closed. She wanted to go home and die.

But everyone knows she never gets what she wants.

She spit out a curse word at the top of her lungs while standing on a street corner in New York city.

"You can't be smoking in public."

Maxie cut her eyes at the jerk standing next to her but kept puffing away.

"Did you hear me, lady?" he repeated "You can't smoke in this city unless you are in your own apartment. You're breaking all sorts of laws and polluting the air we all have to use. Put it out! You trying to kill yourself or what?"

"Trying," she said, with a little tilt of her head from side to side, "but I'm like the energizer bunny. I just never...die."

"Well, you ain't killing me with that cancer stick. Put it out now or I'm calling a cop."

"All right, all right. Shut up already."

She flicked the cigarette to the ground and smashed it under her heel. The doctors said she was just asking for trouble by smoking with her heart condition. So she didn't smoke that often but today was one of those nothing can go right days and she had desperately needed one.

Not only did she spot her ex- boyfriend, Federico, outside a book store looking all happy -the nerve of that man to smile now that they were broken up- but he was also holding hands with someone else. A male someone else. She had turned him gay! That revelation came right after she was fired from Couture magazine after a debacle at a fashion show. One little backstage fire and her boss went and freaked out. That hardly seemed fair.

Giselle acted like I did it on purpose, Maxie thought to herself. Like I meant to set a rack of gowns on fire. Who knew that cigarette wasn't completely out when I threw it in the trash can? I was in a rush to get Melanie on stage because that skinny heifer was running behind like she always does. She would have missed her cue if not for me. Do I get any recognition for that? Hell no. Kate was totally right about Giselle. She's a first rate biatch.

Maxie headed across the traffic packed street and straight into a high priced hotel. Taking the elevator to the top floor, she found the glitzy bar the hotel was famous for. Since it was mid-afternoon the place was dead. She took a seat on a stool and ordered another drink, wishing the whole time that they still let people smoke wherever they pleased in this country. Talk about unfair.

An hour later she was still sitting there, nursing her third gin and tonic, and thinking about what in the hell she was supposed to do now. Run back to Mac and Port Charles? Her credit cards were maxed out. She couldn't afford to live long in this expensive ass city without some form of income.

The last five years had been rough. But then again, what ever wasn't rough in her life? She had struggled to get a job in the fashion world, struggled to keep her job, struggled to break into the big leagues at Couture and fought like a tiger every day not to get kicked out. And that was just her professional life. Her romantic one? Don't even ask. Yes, it was that bad.

For a moment, right after she took a sip of her drink, she thought back to one of her favorite memories: a rare good day in a lifetime of miserable ever after.

She ripped off his mask. Finally she can see more than just his eyes. She can't help but want him...he looks too good to resist, so she won't even try to. He might be holding her captive but she doesn't give a damn. She wants to be with him and, if she lives through this night, that is exactly what she plans to do- make him hers and to hell with the consequences. But first she will have to learn his real name. Three. She smiles. Maybe she'll just call him Mine and be done with it.

Sitting at the bar, years after that life changing night trapped in the vault, Maxie felt butterflies flutter up her spine at the thought of Cooper Barret. She knew she should hate him for leaving her behind. But she only hated herself for making him do it.

The last day she saw him felt like the last day she was truly real. Losing Coop made her lose that piece of herself that allowed her to trust in love to last forever. That is what ruined things with Logan, with Spinelli, with Matt, with Lucky- the second time around- and finally with Federico, at least on her end since he obviously had secrets of his own that kept him from loving her back.

Maxie had given Cooper her heart on a platter and he held onto it, even when he walked right out of her world. She still remembered how her body shook and the tears fell when she found the note in his room above Kelly's. I love you but...it had started...I just can't do this anymore. I won't be second in your heart.

It hadn't seemed real then. Though she had been doing her damn level best to ruin them she still hadn't thought she would drive him away. She had wanted to prove the exact opposite- that their love was forever, that he would stay no matter what. But he hadn't. Cooper left Port Charles just hours after walking in on her having sex with his best friend.

She had missed him something vicious. Everything was ugly with Cooper gone. The sky was black, the very air she breathed tasted rotten in her mouth, and the worst part was no one else noticed...no one else was dead inside, only her.

Snap out of it, Maxie told herself, No time to sit here and wallow. I'm much too fierce to be all weepy over a long lost boyfriend. Bitch, please. All that hearts and flowers stuff is for losers who need constant stroking of their egos. Not for divas who know they're the cutest thing in high heels this city has ever seen. It doesn't matter that I got fired! I can get a new job. Who wouldn't want me working for them...I just won't use Giselle as a reference. And who cares about my string of messed up relationships. I don't have to mourn Coop forever. I really don't care if I ever see him again. Nope. Don't care a bit.

Lies in the afternoon washes down well with ice cold gin.

(Everybody's got something

they had to leave behind.

One regret from yesterday,

that just seems to

grow with time.


There's no use looking back

or wondering

(wondering)


how it could be now

or might have been

(or might have been).


All this I know

but

still I can't find ways to let you go!)

She gulped down the rest of her drink, and with the glass still touching her lips, she heard a deep rumbling voice that set her body on vibrate, whisper in her ear "Maria Maximiliana Jones, it has been a while."

The glass slipped from her shaking hand and broke on the bar. She never heard it shatter because she was too lost in her head thinking...But it can't be. My dreams don't come true.

Maxie turned around to see six feet of perfect male hard body standing in front of her. The effect was just as visceral as the first time she saw him without his mask on. Her heart beat in triple time. There was life before Cooper, and life after Cooper, but the best times of her life...was life with Cooper.

Looking at the broken glass, he reached out and took her hand, to see if she was bleeding "Are you okay? Did you cut yourself? Looks alright to me."

He let go of her. He wore a dark blue suit and his hair was slicked back- very business man chic. He stuck his hands in his pockets and his lips turned up in a sexy, confident grin. His eyes watched hers, looking for any sort of reaction, but when she didn't say a word he finally asked "You aren't going to slap me? That's good."

She slapped his arm. "What are you doing here?! Oh my God, Coop, I can't even believe this...its you. Why are you in the city? Do you live here now? Where have you been all this time? And why didn't you ever call me? I know when you left Port Charles...you left me...so that's probably a stupid question. Why call the girl who screwed you over, right? Right! But here you are and you look...good. Am I talking too much? It sort of feels like I am. God...just shut up, Maxie. Okay."

She didn't know what this feeling inside of her was called. It was foreign...she'd felt it once a long time ago...happy? It was more than happy. Giddy. That was it. She knew she was smiling from ear to ear, probably looking like a complete fool but she didn't care.

And she was thinking the same thing she did five years before when she pulled off his mask: Mine, mine, mine.

(I never had a dream come true
till the day that I found you


Even though

I pretend that I've moved on
you'll always be my baby.


I never found the words to say
you're the one I think about each day
and I know no matter

where life takes me to
a part of me will always

be with you.)