It's Only Love

Max shivered as he shuffled towards the enticing smell of bacon with just a taste of honey wafting from the kitchen in Sadie's apartment. He wasn't quite sure what time it was, having woken disoriented from a golden slumber after a hard day's night, but the delicious scent led him to believe it was morning. Clad in just a loose pair of jeans, the cool fall air stung his bare torso and the icy floor chilled his feet. As the comforting thought struck him that the bacon would indeed be warm, he let out a contented sigh and turned the corner, confronted with an unexpectedly empty room. "Hey, Jude, where is everybody?"

"Good morning, good morning! Here comes the sun." Jude smiled his special crooked smile that, he noted with satisfaction, only Max ever saw. "Everybody's across the universe."

Max groaned. "That means a lot…why is it that whenever you're in an especially good mood, you talk so god damn…." Max let his hands flutter aimlessly about his head as he searched for the right words. Finally, exasperated, he let his hands drop, "Ob-la-di, ob-la-da?"

Jude chuckled as he poked at the bacon in the pan. "Now who's talking 'ob-la-di, ob-la-da?" Max rolled his eyes. "Sadie and Jojo went to Penny Lane for that Carnival of Light or whatever and Luce went to buy some wild honey pie and to go see Maggie Mae. Want some bacon?" Max nodded and sat expectantly at the table.

"Sexy Sadie…" he murmured absently. Jude set a plate of bacon in front of him and sat across the table with his own plate and, Max noted, a little jar of honey. He watched Jude eat for a moment. "She loves you, you know." Jude choked a little on his bacon and honey.

"What?! Who are you talking about mate?"

"Mean Mr. Mustard. Who do you think I'm talking about?"

"Lucy?"

"Yup." Jude grimaced slightly before shoving another strip of sweetened bacon in his mouth and attempting to talk around it.

"No offense, mate, but she's not really someone I'm interested in. In the long term, you know? I thought she knew…" Jude fell silent and for a moment the only sound was that of bacon crunching. Suddenly Jude looked up and Max sensed a beginning of something. "How do you do it?"

Max quirked an eyebrow, "Do what exactly?"

"Well, you get with a girl and she never looks at you or her mate or whomever and says, 'I'm in love.' Just about every time I get with a girl, she wants all my loving, and usually, I'm already looking at another girl! I mean, just from me to you, everybody's trying to be my baby. I thought it was getting better 'cause I wasn't looking at any girls or dating anybody for a while, but now Lucy…its misery!"

Max snorted. "Have you ever thought of guys? 'Cause I hear they aren't quite as fond of commitment as chicks." Jude looked across the table at his disheveled companion and Max quickly continued. "Nah, c'mon man! You gotta let them know right off the bat what you want and you'll be flying, free as a bird. It'll be a nice 'Hello,' 'Goodbye,' y'know? If you've got trouble, though, tell me why and I'll see what I can do. Now, tell Dr. Robert what's been going on with Lucy, every little thing." Max crossed his legs and pretended to prepare a notepad.

Jude rolled his eyes, "Jesus, you're a freak…whatever, mate. It all started when we were picking her up from school, right after we met…I saw her standing there…and I should have known better but…I saw her and I thought, 'I've got to get you into my life.' God, all I could see was Lucy, in the sky, with diamonds and the next thing I knew, she was in New York with us and then…well, she's whispering all these words of love and I just don't…I need your help. I don't want to hurt her." Max raised an eyebrow and sat back in his chair, sighing.

"Alright, man, I'll help you. But only because without me, you'd be nowhere, man. Oh, you have to make me coffee, too." Jude laughed and smiled his special crooked smile. Max felt the heat creep up his neck and his heart beat a little faster, especially when Jude stood up and said:

"Thanks mate, I dunno what I'd do without you; I need you." Although he chuckled as he said it, Max could swear he saw real love in his deep brown eyes.

This was definitely a beginning of something.