Chapter Seven
A Neglected Friendship
The Following Week:
"I've been neglecting my girl," Max said from her spot on the counter, where she sat holding a cup of coffee watching Logan make her an omelet.
"You mean Original Cindy?" he asked sliding it onto a plate.
"Do I have another girl?" she asked hopping off the counter to take the plate waiting in his outstretched hand.
"Well what about Kendra?" He said moving over to the fridge to grab the milk and placed it on his lap along with the waiting bowl of waiting dry cereal.
Max made a face, "I can't believe you're eating that, when you could be eating this." She inhaled the scent of Swiss combined with ham.
Logan almost rolled his eyes, "Not all of us eat like you Max. Now what about Kendra?" he said putting his bowl on the table and pouring the milk.
Another face, one of true disgust, "She and Walter…Ugh god the point is she's in her own little world."
Logan laughed, agreeing with what Max was thinking, but hey to each their own. "Mr. Multiples is still going strong I see."
"Ugh" she pushed away her plate, "That is just disgusting, it is 8 am, how could you bring up such a nasty mental image. I didn't feel clean for days after I found out he was Mr. Multiples," she shook her head and pulled back her plate, "and in my apartment too."
He laughed, "So you're gonna hang with Original Cindy tonight?"
"Yea figured I'd actually go home after work," she paused for a moment thinking and then pouted.
"What?"
"Thinking of that crappy shower, I'm just going to Crash dirty."
He laughed, "You're spoiled. Hot food, hot water."
She grinned, "Hot sex"
He gave a cute little smile, "That too."
"So you know," she moved around her food with her fork, "you could come meet me at Crash, ply me booze and take advantage of me."
He shook his head, "No one has ever taken advantage of you, Max."
She grinned, "So what do you say?"
He pretended to think about it for a moment, not like he'd accomplish anything without her here, "What time?"
"Around 10?"
He nodded, "I'll be there."
-o-o-o-
"Okay so tell me about the sex." Original Cindy said dropping onto the sofa with Max
Max's smile suddenly turned shy, "Original Cindy," she scolded
"Oh hunny, you know you wanna spill."
"It's um…Nice," she nodded all while fighting her smile.
"Oh, you got it bad."
"You were the one who told me to step to the real weren't you?"
"I just didn't expect this overnight change. What happened to my little party girl? Revved up super girl, always running away from a commitment? You've gone all June Cleaver on me. Stay home every night, can't even talk about the funny things he does in bed."
Max frowned, "Logan does nothing funny in bed…Okay he does this little tiny half snore every once in awhile, but it's cute not funny."
Cindy's eyes widened and her lower lip fell down "Max, you just said a snore was cute."
She shook her head and defended herself, "It's not really a snore, it's like this loud breathing and it doesn't really happen too often."
"You cuddle with him don't you."
Max turned away, how many times had she'd told Original Cindy that she didn't want to be touched while she slept, they'd had sex, they'd touched, the man needed to move on. "Shut up."
Original Cindy laughed, "Wow that must have been one hell of a belated anniversary."
Max froze; she stopped laughing as she remembered what happened, her and Logan and then Zack, Tinga, Lydecker and then the crow.
"What'd I say?"
Max opened her mouth to speak, but then stopped; the words were frozen in her throat.
"Max, just spit it out, what happened?"
"My sister died that night, she was murdered."
Original Cindy waited a moment for the punch line, but quickly realized none was coming, "Oh my god boo," she pulled her into her arms, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to talk about it; I don't want to think about it. She had a husband and a son…"
"Was it that Lydecker bastard you told me about?"
Max laughed, she couldn't help it, for once Donald Lydecker wasn't the bad guy, "No but he did kidnap me and tried to put a bullet in my brain."
Original Cindy pulled back and looked down at Max, "All this happened on your anniversary?"
Max nodded, "It was a tough day."
"Want to talk to me about it?"
Max shook her head, "There isn't really much to say. Lydecker's replacement killed my sister, he was going to pull a murder/suicide because he didn't want me to fall into enemy hands, next thing I know we're about to break into Manticore and trash their DNA lab so Manticore would be shut down."
"You shut Manticore down?"
Max shook her head, "I couldn't go…I just had this feeling like if I went, I wasn't coming back."
Cindy pulled her close again, not wanting to imagine what it would have been like to lose her sister girl. "You always follow your gut girl," she ordered.
"I did and look at me all June Cleaver because of it."
They both laughed and let the sadness fall away.
