fa·vor
noun
an act of kindness beyond what is due or usual.
Sunrise, 6am Saturday Morning
Max jolts awake.
She was sitting up in her over stuffed chair, a blanket over her, a wastebasket in her lap, and a pounding headache causing her to to wince at the morning light.
A copy of "War and Peace" lay face down on her coffee table, and the most god awful chirping noise was coming from the bathroom.
"Michelle?" She groans.
A moan from the bathroom answers.
"Hello?" She hears Michelle say, finally.
It was her phone.
"You've got to be kidding me." Michelle continues. "Alright, just give me a few."
Max hears Michelle moving around and groaning with what sounds to be as bad of a hangover as Max was feeling.
Her head feels like a bowling ball, and her vision was cloudy, but she manages to turn it at the sound of her door knob turning.
In tip toes her neighbor with a drink holder of three coffees, and a bottle of water under each arm.
He looked a little different this morning, now that her beer goggles were gone, but none the less attractive.
"Oh you're awake..." he says quietly as he meets her eyes, "I brought sustenance."
He rolls a water bottle from under his arm on her lap, and picks a coffee from the holder. He hands it to her before sitting the rest on the coffee table.
Michelle stumbles out of the bathroom, last nights high heels in hand, and shielding her eyes from light coming through the large windows.
"Did you stay here last night, officer?" croaks Michelle, leaning on the wall. "Did Max cry about being afraid she would drown in her own vomit again?"
Max groaned.
"Uhhh I mean it was only a few hours," Spencer says.
"You didn't have to do that" Max says, feeling guilty.
"I kinda wanted to see the sunrise from your view." He nods towards the tall windows, "I don't have it on my side" a blush formed across his cheeks.
"Sure thing" Michelle says, rolling her eyes and stumbling to grab one of the coffees, then to her purse to fish out sunglasses.
She puts them on and says, "I gotta bounce. One of our big client's baby girl is in trouble."
Pointing to the bathroom, she says, "Don't go in there," then crosses the living room, kisses Max on the cheek with a loud "muah" and walks out of the door.
Spencer and Max watch her as she leaves.
When the door closes they look back at each other.
"She's like a tornado" Spencer says with a feigned face of fear.
"A hurricane," Max says.
They both laugh, but Max is shot with a wave of pain in her head, and embarrassment in her stomach.
"Hey thanks again for this. You really didn't have to watch us, I get a little... uh..." her eyes flick to his "emotional when I drink." Max says.
She continues, "It's a little fuzzy for me after Michelle locked herself in the bathroom, I hope I didn't say anything too weird."
"Well other than the drowning in your own vomit thing, you did tell me a very animated and drawn out story about your entirely real feelings for the actor who voiced Simon in the live action Alvin and the Chipmunks movie." Spencer says.
Max winces, "Yikes... I guess I really owe you one."
"I think I actually owed you for the badge, besides, the 'dying in your sleep' fear isn't completely irrational. A study showed blood alcohol levels can continue to rise after one stops drinking, and the person can choke, slip into a coma, stop breathing or even die." Spencer says, shrugging.
"Well in that case you gotta at least let me wash your car, pick up your dry cleaning, or sort through your mail." Max says, shielding her eyes as a cloud moves by and lets in a particularly annoying ray of light.
He was unable to respond due to his own phone ringing this time.
He fumbles around taking his phone from his pocket and gives Max an apologetic look as he answers,
"Hey Garcia."
He pauses.
Max became suddenly very aware of her reflection on the windows. Her hair was wild, and last night's make up is smeared and crusted on her face.
"Yeah, I'll be right in." He said, tapping his phone to hang up.
"I've got a case" he says, grabbing the third coffee, and the book from the coffee table.
He crosses the living room, less eagerly than Michelle.
Halfway to the door, he spins around, taking the next few steps backwards so he could look at her when he says, "I'll take a rain check for that favor."
Max watches him leave and is left thinking "what the hell was that."
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"Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait to long, you miss them." William Arthur Ward
