drive (mithzan short story)

Chapter six

Max's POV
I went a whole week without hearing from Lilah, but that doesn't mean I wasn't thinking of her. Tim and I, as editors, had been extremely busy lately and forgot to bring her up to Adam the first couple days, but Tim got around to it. By Thursday, Adam confirmed he'd interview her as a writer.
"I hear you two have a thing?" Adam said, "in which case would you like to tell her?"

"Ugh, not you too. They got you too." I said, referring to Ross and his stupid 'ship'

"Sure did." Adam said laughing. "Lilax is my OTP man,"

I left his office and got back to my editor duties, I hated to admit it, but I was excited to see her, I was excited to tell her the good news, I was excited to see her happy.
She was so cute when she was happy.

I left work early and headed straight to Lilah's house. I parked my car and knocked on the door, she opened it up wearing her pj shorts and her hair in a messy ponytail.
"Hey!" I said,
"H-hey max!" She said, blushing.

"So, I have something to tell you." I said, "do you want to come over in a bit and we can talk about it?"

"Y-yea, I'll be over in ten." She said, smiling.

She closed the door. I got in my car and parked it at my place, before going in and making myself some coffee.

Surely, ten minutes later there was a knock at the door. I made my way down the stairs and opened the door, to reveal Lilah, wearing black jeans and a red Tshirt. I held the door for her and in she walked, slipping her shoes off her feet and stepping on the first stair before turning and looking at me.
I closed the door,
"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," she said, looking down at her feet.
Only was it then that I noticed the apparent height difference, even standing on the stairs she was shorter than me, she must have noticed me looking because it was her turn.

"What?" She questioned.

"Nothing," I said, laughing, holding my hands up as if to say 'I surrender'.

She made her way up the stairs and waited for me to get to the top so she could follow me. We made our way to the living room and sat down on the couch.

"Okay now, what did you have to tell me?" She asked.

"Well," I stood up as if to show her how big the news was. "Adam said you got the interview!" I said.

"Really?" She asked, standing up herself now.
"Really, really." I said.
She almost tackled me in a hug, laughing and almost falling over, I wrapped my arms around her waist. It was a weird feeling, hugging her when she's happy, only had it ever been to comfort her, only had it ever been when things were going wrong.
For a minute we stood there, just hugging in the middle of my living room, until she whispered something into my ear.

"You must just be so glad max," I straightened up and immediately pulled away, but instead of apologizing, she just laughed.

Lilah's POV
He was staring at me and chewing his lip, the way he does when some one is making him annoyed.
"Sorry, you look kinda, mad max." I said, taunting him. He began walking towards me, menacingly though I knew he was kidding around.

"Sorry, of me, that was very, bad max." I took a step back as he took one forward, and so on, until I felt my back hit the wall.
"I can't move back, max."
I laughed still, biting my lip. Max hit his hand against the wall beside my head and kept it there and he lowered his face to mine.

My hands were behind my back, the only place I could look was into his eyes, so I did. My mouth went dry, my face went red and my heart skipped a beat.

Or a couple beats.

For a second I thought he was going to get angry, but instead of yelling at me, or even calmly telling me off, he gently placed his other hand on my cheek.

For seconds or minutes or hours we stayed there, pressed against the wall, looking into each others eyes. Until he kissed me.

And it felt just like finally.

I closed my eyes and was there, the wall at my back, Max directly in front of me. I wrapped my arms around him, feeling happiness for once in a long while.

And then it was over, and he was pulling away from me. I opened my eyes and looked up at him, he was backing away from me, eyes wide, face red as his hair.

"I am so so sorry Lilah." He was saying, "I didn't mean to."

"Max, no it's okay-"

"I just- I don't know what came over me I just I'm so sorry." He was saying. "It was a mistake, it was a mistake." He mumbled.

Taking a few steps to meet him, I took him in my arms for the second hug we shared today.
"Max, max it's okay." I said.

"I don't want you to be afraid of me." He replied. "I don't want you to think I'm going to end up like Derrick."

"I'm not afraid of you Max," I said. "I'm not, don't worry."

Suddenly, the sound of a door opening could be heard, and in walked Tim.

"Well if it isn't Max, leaving work earl- oh," he said when he got to the top of the stairs.
We pulled away from eachother for the third time today.

"I got the interview!" I exclaimed,

"Right! Adam says that is tomorrow afternoon." Tim said, before making his way down a different hallways and disappearing into a different room, I looked at max, who was looking right back at me, face red, just as mine must have been.

"Where do we- go from here?" He asked.

"Let's just... Let's just not go anywhere, we can just, we can just go back to how it was, if that's what you want." I said,
Max nodded, and ran a hand through his hair,

His red hair.