Lie Tonight – Chapter 4

By MyNameIsCAL

"What about this one?"

Max came out of the dressing room, trying on her tenth dress now. I would have married her in all of them. "Why didn't you bring Ella or Mom?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

I thought for a moment. "I still like the third one better."

Max smiled. "Alright, let me try on one more."

I sat down. It took me two tries to find a tuxedo that Max decided she liked. This was starting to become painful. It wasn't like I knew anything about dresses.

"So, you're the maid of honor?" Maurice, the guy who owned the bridal shop said, putting the other dresses away.

"Yup," I said.

"It's not every day you see a man doing that," he laughed. And then in a whisper, "So tell me, you have feelings for her, don't you, Sir?"

I answered reluctantly. "Yeah, you could say that."

"Ah," Maurice shook his head. "Life is hard. You'll get through it, don't worry. Takes a lot of courage to do this."

I shrugged.

I needed to vent, so I wrote out a speech for Max's wedding. I wouldn't be reading this though:

Max. I only came to say goodbye to you, to everyone I know here. You see, Angel lied to you, and I know you'll never believe me, but we were always meant to be, supposed to be. I cannot stand to watch you with Sam, to watch you sleep through my fingers helplessly. I'm going to go, someplace far enough so you won't come looking for me. I'll stay there long enough for you to forget me. I know you'll promise me you won't, but I know after a while, you'll move on. It's just that you're breaking my heart and I can't take it anymore. The truth is that I still love you. And Sam, I don't hate you. You're a good man. I know you make her happy, and I guess in a way, I'm trusting you to look after her now. I'll be back someday, don't you worry, when you've got a couple of kids and Sam is heading a company of his own. So good luck and thanks for everything.

Now that I read it over, it was full of impulsive emotions. I wasn't sure if I really felt that way. After a while, I crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it across the kitchen, missing the garbage can.

"Angel," I muttered to myself. "I hate you."

Max came over for dinner the next day after we finished looking at color schemes for the wedding. Chinese take-out. Sam was supposed to join us, but he was currently caught up at work. It didn't faze Max, but it made me wonder why Sam hadn't really helped with the wedding plans yet. Max assured me he would be there tomorrow to help, but I had my doubts.

"So where are you going on your honeymoon?" Gazzy asked casually.

"Hawaii," Max responded.

"Ah, that sounds nice." Gazzy was being sarcastic though. He had to do a movie shoot there and got sunburn that the media wouldn't let him forget.

Max laughed. "Unlike you, I'll be reapplying sunscreen."

Gazzy scowled. "I'm sure you won't be in the sun for fourteen plus hours."

I ate my food quietly, listening to them poke fun at each other. Gazzy started to tell us about his upcoming movie projects. He would be voicing a character in some cartoon movie. It would be his first kids' movie too and honestly, Gazzy sounded really excited. Kids. If Max and I had gotten married, maybe we would have had kids by now.

Dinner ended as Gazzy's agent called him. I busied myself with cleaning up the place.

"I should get now," Max told me, helping me put the dishes into the dishwasher. "Sam just left the office."

I led her to the door. "Goodnight Max."

And like always, she gave me a goodbye hug. "Goodnight, Fang."

But she held onto me a little bit longer than usual, her eyes lingering on mine, face inches away from my own. I pushed her up against the door and kissed her, deeply. Instead of pushing me away, she kissed me back, her hands running through my hair. The last time this happened, we ended up in bed together. As much as I wanted that, as much as I wanted Max to be mine, that wasn't going to happen.

When we broke apart, breathless, Max gave me a bittersweet smile and repeated, "Goodnight, Fang."

"I'm sorry," I whispered as I opened the door for her.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

I watched her go down the hall until she turned the corner for the stairs. Closing the door, I leaned against it, wondering if I should feel guiltier than I did.

"One of you is going to end up getting hurt," Gazzy frowned. He stood leaning in the doorway of the room he was staying in.

I let out a heavy sigh. "She…She was kissing me back."

"But she still believes she's protecting you by marrying Sam," Gazzy reminded me. "And unless Angel tells her otherwise, she won't ever marry you. Max, she still has feelings for you, she just doesn't know it."

I trudged towards my room, suddenly feeling lonelier than ever.

My phone rang in the middle of the night. I didn't recognize the number, but something compelled me to answer.

"Fang, it's Angel."

"What do you want?" I growled.

"I wanted to tell you I was sorry."

"In the middle of the night?" I frowned. "Three in the morning! If you're sorry, then go tell Max you lied to her!"

"No, I'm not going to do that," she replied.

"Then don't even bother talking to me unless you can magically fix all of this."

"You're jealous that you're not the one marrying her."

"I should be marrying her!" I exclaimed. "You screwed it up."

"I thought an apology might be nice," Angel snapped. "Obviously, I was wrong."

The line went dead. I threw my phone on the floor and closed my eyes. Whatever happened to you, Angel, I thought to myself. How could you do this to me?

Thanks for reading and all the reviews!

I'm quite excited. I submitted my entry for the Maximum Ride writing contest earlier this week. Did any of you enter?