That Summer

22. Best Day of My Life

22. Best Day of My Life

Max steps out of the bathroom, his hair still dripping wet. I smile at how cute he looks, but the text from Maggie starts to eat away at me more than anything.

“Why do you look upset?” he asks, tossing his wet towel into the hamper.

I look down. “You got a text from Maggie.”

His eyes widen a little bit before hurrying over to his phone. He unlocks it and reads it quickly then tosses his phone back onto the bed.

“I’m not going to talk to her,” he finally says, not looking at me.

I sigh and then crawl over to where he’s laying. “You should, though. You need answers, Max, and sitting around here pretending that she isn’t offering to talk isn’t going to help anything.”

“But I don’t want answers, Nell! I got the only answer I need – she cheated on me with Gage.”

“That’s not an answer. That’s what happened.”

He runs his hand down his face and doesn’t say anything for a few moments.

“You need to go talk to her. For both of you.”

Max drops me off at my house later that evening to go and talk to Maggie. When I get inside, Mom isn’t home, which floods me with relief. I really don’t want to talk to her or see her right now. Especially not when I’m freaking out about what Maggie and Max are doing.

I start pacing. It’s literally the only thing I can think of at this point. I want to drive over and see how he’s doing and make sure that he’s okay, but I know that they need to figure out whatever they need to figure out. And they definitely don’t need my interference at this point.

I decide to call Sebastian. I know they’re still in Key West partying it up, but I need someone to talk to.

“Nell?” he greets on the third ring.

I breathe out a sigh of relief. “Hey.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Why would you automatically assume something is wrong?”

“Because you’ve never called me when you’re happy. Now, let me rephrase my question. Tell me what is wrong.”

I roll my eyes and flop down on the couch. “Maggie texted Max this morning and said they needed to talk. So he’s currently over at her house right now talking to her about all the shit that she did.”

He sighs. “Yeah, I forgot to warn you guys that she left earlier this morning. She’s really determined to let him see her side of things.”

“How come she isn’t talking to me?”

He doesn’t respond for a moment. “I don’t know, Nell. I really don’t. She still seems like she’s really upset about you dating Max but that shouldn’t keep her from talking to you. I don’t know. She’s changed so much this summer. I don’t even know who this Maggie is.”

“I feel like she’s the Maggie she’s always been. We just didn’t see it.” He doesn’t respond. “Is Gage still there?”

“Yeah, he’s really upset about what happened yesterday morning. He wants to come and apologize once we get home.”

I tense up. “I don’t think Max wants to see him right now.”

“He knows that apologizing to Max will take time. But he wants to apologize to you.”

“For what?”

“I don’t know. He just said he feels bad about it.”

Suddenly, someone rings the doorbell.