The forgotten groom

Chapter 18

Nik

"Is the jet ready?" I ask on the way to the airport.

We were enroute to the airport with ventura. I got a call from Max and the way he sounded made me get a private jet immediately and grab Ventura to head to the airport.
I didn't even hear what he said. I hope he was fine,my mind was over reacting, I was thinking of the worst case scenarios.

Was he ill? Was Someone threatening his life?

As soon as we reach the private hangar, we get in the jet and head for home. Ventura immediately curls into a ball and falls asleep. I keep pacing up and down waiting for landing. I couldn't stay still.

"Will you at least sit down or get a drink?" Ventura groans

"Sorry Ven, I'm going crazy out of my mind, the way he sounded" I say

She nods in understanding and pulls the blanket tighter around her.

A few hours later,we finally land and I send Ventura to my apartment to sleep as I head straight to Max's.

I knock on his door and I try the lock and its open. I hurry inside and find Max curled on his sofa, I go and kneel at his feet. I slowly pull his hand and hold it.

"What is it Max" I ask.

He shrugs and gets up from the chair.

"Grandfather is trying to take my home away and there's nothing I can do" he says all the fight gone out of him.

I feel my heart drop, Max is a happy soul, he loved his home, he loved the Silver Phoenix, it was his home. His mother gave it to him. It was his mother's home.

"How? What happened? I ask and I slowly run my thumb over his hand.

"He gifted my mum the house but it had a clause that he could take it back anytime. Now's he's going to take it back Nik, my home,I've put so much into it, its my mother's home! The last thing she left me" he says looking so hurt

"And I can't buy it back right now, the price was tripled, they only gave me three days, dad left me some properties but I can't get them sold in three days! All my friends, including Kish, their accounts have been frozen "mysteriously", of course its grandfather showing his power, I don't know what to do anymore!' He says falling back on the sofa.

"Max, look at me" I says..
He turns to look at me, as I pull it him back up.

"I won't let him bring you down, he has already done too much, I'll fix this" I tell him

"He'll make you pay Nik" he says

"Then we'll tangle" I say determined

"So what do we do now?" I ask

"Tonight we rest, I'll call my lawyer first thing tomorrow" I say

"Okay" he says leaning back on the chair

I continue rubbing my thumb over his hand and he doesn't pull it away. I smile to myself and look up at him.

"Wanna eat?" I ask

"Yeah, I can eat" he says as I pull him off the sofa. Any excuse to put my hands on him, he's not protesting either as I put my hand around his shoulder and lead him to the kitchen and sit him on the island stool.

He sits and leans holding his cheek. I pull an apron from the hook and tie it on.
Max bursts out laughing and I turn to him,

"What?" I ask as he pulls out his phone taking photos

"Hey!" I protest

"Nikolas Starlinksy, CEO, cooking! It will go viral" he says

"Did Ventura also get you an Instagram account" I groan

"Yap, doctor Maxy" he says

"Wait, you're the doctor Maxy I hear my staff talking about" I ask shocked as I get bowls and scoop ice cream for him and add some sprinkles for him.

"I didn't know Nik, I just found out about the account " he says laughing as he scoops more ice cream into his mouth.

"I'm going to make us breakfast" he says

"At this time?" He asks
It was already 5:00 o'clock.

"Yeah, just sit there and look pretty" I say

I turn back and notice he's quiet and he's face is flushed as he stares down into his ice cream.

"I'm not pretty" he says .
I chuckle and proceed to make eggs and put bread in the toaster. Then I serve the eggs and bread as I make coffee and get juice from the fridge. I serve him and seat in the stool opposite his.

"Thank you" he says digging in.

We eat in silence and when we are done. We start doing the dishes as i wash and Max dries them.
After we are done, Max asks me,

"Do you want to watch a movie?"

"Yes, what do you have?" I ask

"Just check my stack over there, I'll get the popcorn" I say

I go to the television set and search through his impressive collection that was alphabetically organized.

"I've brought the popcorn" he says as we stare at each other awkwardly not knowing where to sit.

"I'll uh sit on this side"  Max says shuffling past me in his tight fitting sweat pants and sticking himself in the corner of the sofa.

"But how will we share the popcorn if you sit that far?" I ask smirking as he groans and throws himself towards me.

He forgets that he's holding the popcorn bowl and i grab it to steady him but he is also reaching for it at the same time and we end up in a shower of popcorn and Max falls on me as my T-shirt is full of popcorn.
He holds onto my chest to get up and ends up sitting on my laps as he pulls off his shirt and throws out the popcorn. I feel myself getting hard and i try to think of unsexy things, like his grandfather...

Max is busy frowning not knowing how sexy and handsome he looks shirtless and sitting on me.
He then turns and I blush as he swings his legs and gets up to give me a hand. He pulls me up and I grab his waist to steady myself.

"Let's clean this up" he says as I let go if his waist

"Okay" I say stupidly

We clean up the popcorn and finally sit to watch the movie but I can swear I watched nothing. I kept looking at Max and how he ate popcorn, kept sipping popcorn his soda and licking his salt stained fingers. He is so concentrated on the movie, he doesn't realize the popcorn is over. He reaches out for more and there is none.
He looks at me then at my hands and chuckles,

"You didn't eat any of it? He asks

"You were eating and enjoying them so much" I say

"Now you must think I'm a popcorn freedom fighter" he says

"No, I think you're cute" I say without thinking

"What!" He whispers

I flush and look away and I just want to kiss that expression off his face. He just looks so amazing with those brown eyes.

"Sleeping arrangements?" I ask

" Oh, there is a guest bedroom" he says showing it to me.

"Goodnight Max" I say leaning against the doorway to the guest bedroom

"Goodnight Nik" he says turning to go to the main room

Nik + Max huh?