Although so far these Fax memories are in order, they may not be in the future.

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New York, 1998

Max treated this situation with Fang like she did with those involving feelings. She swept it under the rug.

Fang had no problem with doing so because they were friends. Good friends. Best friends.

This suited both fine until Max saw Fang with that blonde girl, Bridget.

Bridget was smart, attractive, and worst of all, quickly capturing Fang's attention. Their usual daily coffee became weekly coffee. And then, whenever I see you next coffee.

"So you're jealous," Nudge commented nonchalantly. She focused on dipping her cinnamon doughnut into her mocha.

Max made an offended noise. "No. I just would like to see my best friend more if that isn't so much to ask."

Nudge paused in lifting her cup and raised an eyebrow at Max. She said nothing, which was a feat in itself.

Max grumbled and picked up her latte. "I'm not."

"If you say so," Nudge replied, sipping her coffee contently.

Max shook her head. "I'm not," she repeated, lowering her glass to her saucer too quickly, causing them to clash loudly.

Nudge said nothing, but Max was too occupied in her irritation to notice.

"God, she's so annoying," she continued, ripping into her chocolate croissant. "She laughs at everything he says-he's not even that funny. And touches him so much, which is so desperate and embarrassing for her. And her dumb glasses, which are totally fake. She's so fake."

Nudge kept her laughter to herself and cleared at her throat. "Do you hear yourself?"

Max slumped back in her chair and eyed what remained of her croissant. She ground her teeth together before meeting Nudge's knowing look. "Okay."

"Okay," Nudge repeated.

Max gave her a look. "Fine. Maybe I'm jealous. That doesn't mean I love him or anything."

Nudge's look told her otherwise.

*.*.*.*.*

Her laugh was light and bubbly and Max wasn't entirely convinced that it was her real laugh. Fang wasn't that funny.

Max tried to ignore that she was grinding her teeth and her eyes were starting to narrow at the blonde woman and that her arms immediately crossed themselves across her chest.

She also tried to ignore the fact that she spent at least ten minutes more than usual this morning to get ready and wore those black dress pants Nudge bought for her and claimed that her ass would look phenomenal and wore a blouse she tended to avoid because it "accentuated" her chest (at least Nudge claimed so).

She forced her expression to brighten once she reached Fang, though it brightened of its own accord when she saw that Fang straightened slightly and the corner of his lips did that little twitch.

"Max," he nodded at her. Because Fang was too cool for any other normal greeting, Max thought to herself. She almost rolled her eyes but replied with a "hey" and then shifted her gaze to the blonde currently touching his arm.

"This is Brigid," Fang introduced. "She started just a few weeks ago. And this is Max."

Brigid gave her a once over and Max was close to rolling her eyes again but instead forced a polite smile.

"Wonderful to meet you," Brigid told her in an over exaggerated tone that hinted that it wasn't wonderful at all.

"Pleasure," Max replied curtly. She wasn't even going to bother with her, she knew exactly what kind of person Brigid was.

She turned to Fang. "Ready for lunch?"

Fang nodded and grabbed his bag and gave Brigid a quick reply, "See ya later."

"Oh," Brigid replied. "See you."

Max could tell she was hoping to be invited to lunch but was pleased when Fang started walking away with her, not even paying a second glance at the beautiful woman.

Max forced the triumphant smile off her face and looked ahead as she left the building. Though she was really tempted to look back over her shoulder.

*.*.*.*.*

"So now that we've established you're in love with Fang," Nudge began.

"I am not in love with Fang," Max snapped.

Nudge rolled her eyes and corrected herself, "Okay fine. Now that we've established you've got a thing for him to an extent, what are you going to do?"

Max fell back onto her bed. "Nothing."

"Nothing," Nudge repeated.

"Yep," Max replied popping her 'p'.

Nudge rolled her eyes, a motion she found herself continuously doing around Max. Especially she kept up this denial.

It had been a week since Max confessed (read: repressed) her feelings for Fang and Nudge was determined to put both Max and Fang out of their misery. Fang always was holding out for Max. Max was too stubborn for her own good.

As a result, Nudge was forcing both of them to attend one of her fashion 'mingle' events. She was still new to the business and so every network opportunity counted.

Plus, Max could write a piece for her paper and Fang could meet potential customers. It was a win-win-win. Career opportunities and a chance of love. Nudge almost sighed happily at the notion. She was too much of a romantic.

"Nudge, stop planning our wedding," Max told her.

Nudge pointed her nose in the air and refused to meet Max's eyes. "I was not planning your wedding."

"Mm hmm," Max replied, clear disbelief in her tone.

*.*.*.*.*

Somehow, Brigid was conveniently on her way back from lunch when Fang and Max made their way back to his building. Max wouldn't have been surprised if Brigid had waited around the corner until he arrived back. She almost snorted.

"Oh hey Fang, what a coincidence!" Brigid (pretended, Max thought to herself) to exclaim.

Fang nodded at her. "Hey."

"Back to work," she rolled her eyes, but gave him a pretty smile.

Fang just nodded at her again, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Well," Max began, turning towards Fang. She barely gave herself enough time to think through her next action when she was suddenly leaning up and pecked Fang on the lips. "Better let you get back to work. See you tomorrow."

She spun quickly and walked as fast as she could without running in a panic towards the rotating doors. Oh God, she thought to herself.

Fang cleared his throat after watching Max make her hasty exit and jerked head towards the elevators. "Back to work."

Brigid narrowed her eyes at the tall woman rushing away from them.

*.*.*.*.*

"Max," Fang took a seat opposite her at their usual coffee hangout. "We should talk."

He was surprised that she even showed up to their lunch, after how weird she acted the previous day. She had been ignoring his texts and calls too. She's too fucking stubborn for her own good, he thought to himself with slight annoyance.

"I rather we didn't," Max replied, not bothering to look up from her paperwork.

Fang just stared at her, unimpressed with her nonchalance. Typical Max to avoid things.

She continued to ignore him, still reading through the documents she had placed in front of her, slipping her coffee every now and again.

Fang set his jaw. "Max."

He wasn't going to let her ignore the current weirdness between them.

She huffed and dropped her papers. "What Fang? What do you want to talk about?"

He gave her a deadpanned look. "I think you know exactly what."

Max immediately felt irritated. Why did Fang always have to bring these things up? Why couldn't they have chalked it up to one drunken night and move on?

"It was just a drunken night," she told him, trying to keep her anger in check. Logically, she knew she was angry for no reason, but she couldn't help the clench in her fists.

"Just that," Fang repeated.

"Yes," Max spat out, starting to shuffle her sheets into a folder, trying to maintain her cool.

"So, nothing?" Fang asked, starting to feel angry himself.

"What do you want me to say Fang?" Max hissed at him, trying not to draw attention to themselves.

Fang didn't answer her, but Max was ignoring him anyway.

"That what? We're soulmates? That was should get married, have kids?" Max stuffed her folder into her bag, refusing to meet Fang's eyes. "I'm not that girl Fang. I'm not going to throw myself at your feet and marry you and have that white picket fence house and three kids."

Fang tried to stay stoic, he really did. But it hurt, Max's words hurt. And it wasn't until he heard her hard, bitter words, that he realised that she was someone he wanted wake up next to.

"Good to know," he ground out. He felt his jaw lock and his arms crossed across his broad chest and felt the anger build up in his shoulders and arms.

"Good," Max responded, not giving him another look and spun on her heel.

Oh Max.

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- FlowerChild22