Lie Tonight – Chapter 2

By MyNameIsCAL

I got to the restaurant late the next morning. Iggy was sitting at the bar, cup of coffee in hand. The news was on, just a droning noise in the background. He stood and poured me a cup. Before I could sit down to drink, the door opened.

Max walked in.

She gave me a friendly hug and then sat down. "I came to ask both of you something."

"Then ask away," Iggy yawned.

"Ig, will you make the food for the wedding?" she asked.

"Absolutely," he said, grinning. "Will I get paid?"

She hesitated. "Well, yeah I guess so."

He laughed. "I was joking."

"And I was wondering, Fang, if you'd be my maid of honor."

I blinked. "Really?"

"Yes, really. So will you?"

"Of course." I never said no to Max.

"Great," she smiled. "You guys are the best."

I forced a smile back and focused on drinking my coffee.

"We're thinking of getting married in September," Max went on. "You know, his brother will be back from Iraq by then. We figured we better have it when his brother was around. Sam wants him to be his best man…"

Well, it was only June now. At least that was only two months of being tortured with wedding plans. Iggy left me with Max to cook her breakfast. I wanted to run far away and never come back.

Max showed me the ring, describing it to Iggy. It was beautiful, I had to admit. And I thought about the ring I had bought for Max so many years ago, sitting in my drawer. I wondered if Max would have like mine better, but it was a selfish thought, so I pushed it out of my head.

"I think Gazzy is coming around this weekend," I said, trying to steer the conversation away from her wedding plans.

"Oh, I saw that picture of him with Ella," Max said. "The media has a way with blowing things up."

"Yeah." I finished my coffee.

She frowned. "Hey, are you okay?"

I shrugged and lied. "I haven't been getting much sleep. Been here a lot trying to help out."

Iggy saved me from saying anymore as he came out with food.

The weekend came soon enough. I volunteered myself to go pick up Gazzy and Ella from the airport. We were all having dinner at the restaurant to make Max and Sam's engagement official. Mom was supposed to be coming too. Everyone would be there, except Angel. I wondered what she was off to now or if she even knew.

Gazzy came out of the airport with Ella, sunglasses and caps pulled over their faces. There were a couple of people standing around with cameras. They looked like the paparazzi. I got out of the car and opened the trunk, helping them put their suitcases in before we drove off. After exiting the airport, Gazzy pulled off his cap. Usually he greeted me with a joke, but today, it would be an apology.

"I'm sorry to hear about Max and Sam," he said.

I was tired of hearing that now. "Yeah, well, I'll get over it."

He sighed. Gazzy always felt he was responsible for Angel screwing things up for me.

"Have you seen her since she got engaged?" Ella asked from the backseat.

"Yeah, the other day, she asked me to be her maid of honor." I laughed out of spite.

"And what did you tell her?"

I started to focus on the road in front of us. "You know I wouldn't say no to her."

For everyone, besides me, dinner was all laughs and smiles. Not that anyone would notice I had sat there in silence for the last two hours of dinner. It was almost midnight. In total we had consumed two bottles of wine, some beer, and all the food Iggy and I had prepared earlier. Now was the perfect time to make my escape to the kitchen. I picked up some of the empty dishes and shuffled away from the table.

I dropped the dishes into the sink, turning back to the door to get the rest when Sam walked in.

"Hey, can I ask you something, Fang?" He closed the door behind him.

"Sure," I replied.

"Well," Sam fumbled over his words. "I know you went out with Max for a while and I was just wondering what went wrong."

I took a deep breath. Nothing had gone wrong, so I tried to think of something to tell him. I let her go too easily, I thought to myself.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to open old wounds," Sam said nervously.

"Don't worry about doing anything wrong," I told him, shaking my head. "Just keep doing what you're doing. She's happy. Happier than I've ever seen her."

"You really think so?" Sam sounded relieved.

I nodded. "Of course."

"Thanks," he smiled.

And I watched him leave. It took me a while to pull myself together before I could walk out there again. I wish what I had said to him had been a lie, but now that I thought about it, what I said only had truth behind it. Max was happy. Happier than when she was with me. Thinking that hurt a lot.

By one in the morning, everyone was ready to leave. We said our goodbyes. Gazzy would be staying in my apartment and Ella would be going home with Mom.

And Max still hugged me goodbye. "I'll call you in a few days. We gotta get this wedding planning started and I need your help with some stuff."

"Then I'll be seeing you soon," I remarked.

She gave me a tired smile. "Yup."

I got into my car. Gazzy was already waiting in the passenger seat.

"Goodnight, Max."

"Goodnight, Fang."

You know, I can't think or a story where I didn't have a chapter that ended with Max and Fang saying goodnight to each other. I thought I'd keep that going. Anyway, thank you for reading once again!