Is he really a bad boy? [English]

~Chapter 62~

While Max was changing I was sitting crossed legged on the bed and watching him. His muscles went haywire while he bowed down to put on his jeans or when he slipped into his shirt.
"I feel watched.", he laughed and looked at me through the mirror. "Is it really okay for you to stay here? You could come with us, I'm sure nobody would have anything against it."
"Expect for Sarah. She probably has something against it.", I replied, "I'd rather stay here. I don't want to cause any arguments in front of the client." He looked at me and nodded appreciatingly.
"You could get some room service or something. Or I could say George to show you some cool places.", he suggested. Maxim reached for his watch and put it on. It occurred to me that he was still wearing the bracelet that Sophie had given him. I couldn't hold back a smile when I saw how he pushed it right, so it fitted the watch perfectly.
"Don't worry. I think I'll just watch something on Netflix.", I said.
"But I'm not here for the chill part.", he said and put on a disappointed expression.
"Well, your loss!", I hit back and leaned back. "I'll have my fun here.", I teased him even more.
"You keep this up and I'm really gonna stay here and then I'll lose my job", he said, "and then we can all fly home and it'll be all your fault."
"It'll be all your fault because can't keep your hands to yourself!", I laughed. He raised a brow and he came up to me.
"Do you know how hard it is to keep my hands to myself when I see you? I don't even want to imagine how many guys would kill to take my place", he came to me and sat down in front of me on the bed, "and not because of my job or because I'm extraordinarily attractive, but because of you." He put his hands into my hair and pulled my face closer to kiss me. "Well...", he said after he quit kissing me, "I think it's because I'm extraordinarily attractive!"
"You are and will remain a cocky idiot!", I said and rolled with my eyes. He laughed and bent down to kiss me, but at the very moment, there was a wild knock on the door.
"Max! We have to go! Max!", one could hear her voice even in the bedroom. Maxim sighed annoyed and gave me one last kiss.
"I have to go.", he said and got up. "I won't be away long.", he promised and smiled. Then he left the room and I could hear him closing the door. I took my laptop out of my bag, ordered some room service and put on a show on Netflix.

I began to notice the tiredness that was rising inside me, but in the middle of the episode, I got a call that made me forget my sleep.
"Hello?", I said.
"Hey.", the voice of my best friend came forward. 
"Mia."
"You weren't in school."
"I know.", I answered and asked myself what the reason behind her call was.
"Are you at home? I wanted to talk to you.", she asked.
"No. I'm in Barcelona."
"Barcelona? The Barcelona in Spain?"
"Yes, it is the only one I know."
"Why are you in Barcelona?", she asked.
"I'm here with Maxim. He has a job here.", I explained and could hear her sigh.
"Of course!", she said and I saw her twisting her eyes.
"You wanted to talk. Then talk!", I asked her to. But she kept quiet. "If you won't talk, I will hang up!"
"Listen", she finally started, "I thought it sucked how we drifted apart, and I understand if you're mad at us. But he's not a saint either!"
"What do mean by that?", I asked her and realized that my heart was starting to beat like crazy.
"We are just trying to protect you from him. From his behavior. You deserve someone better than him, Nica!"
"Here we go again! He's not as bad as you all think. You don't even know him!"
"And you do? You know him?", she gave me something to think about. "Did he tell you that Jacob and I were threath-", she stopped herself and didn't finish her sentence.
"Threatened?! What do you mean with threatened?", I asked her and raised myself up as I was wide awake again and she had my full attention. "Mia!", I said she remained silent.
"He has... erm.. he has threatened me to publish my pictures in the whole school and in the whole city."
"What pictures? And why would he threaten you? Mia, I understand nothing!" I got up and walked into the living space.
"Erm...erm so at the start, I have erm... I know, that it was completely stupid but I have sent Max some pictures of me. In my underwear...and some without."
"You sent your nudes to my boyfriend?! Are you fucking kidding me?!", my pulse rose with the anger.
"He wasn't your boyfriend at the time. You weren't together, yet."
"That doesn't make it any better!"
"Veronica, if you had been together at the time, I would never have done it!", she tried to apologize.
"That didn't stop you with James back then either!", I reminded her and had to think back to the time when she had hit on James and sent him just as revealing pictures of herself. I heard her swallow, she was probably thinking the same. "Anyway. I don't feel like talking about it now.", I said then.
"Maxim threatened to show the pictures everywhere and to everyone if I didn't leave you alone. He did that in Paris and also here at school.", she told.
"And what about Jacob? You've mentioned his name as well.", I asked her to get the whole thing over with.
"Have I?",  she asked and I could feel her insecurity even through the phone.
"Yes, you have. You said: Jacob and I. So what is this all about?" I caught myself chewing my thumbnail, probably because of the nervousness. I let it go immediately and stuffed my hand in the pocket of my shorts.
"Max told Jacob that if he'd try hit on you or if he'd touch you or something like that, he would rip his head off."
"Why would Jacob do something like that?"
"Because he is in love with you!"
"You know that it's Jacob who we are talking about, right?", I asked her and almost had to laugh. As if Jacob was in love with me.
"I'm aware of who we're talking about. But you were too stupid to realize that he is in love with you.", she took a deep breath and continued, "I shouldn't have told you, Jacob would probably kill me if he found out, but I couldn't help it. I had to tell you, Maxim is not a good person and he also has his skeletons in the closet."
"Everyone has his own skeletons in the closet, Mia. Thank you for calling. I have to go now.", I said because I wanted to end this conversation as soon as possible. I had to think about everything and be able to think clearly.
"When will you be back in Miami?", she asked me.
"Wednesday."
"Okay. We'll see each other then."
"Hmm."
"I'm sorry, Nica. I actually wanted to talk to you in person, not on the phone. Sorry!", she apologized, but I wasn't even listening anymore.
"It's fine." I said bye and hung up on her.

Could it really be? Had Maxim really threatened my best friends? Did he really threaten Mia to publish her pictures and Jacob to beat him up if he touched me? But why would he even do it? What reason did he have? I mean, Jacob would never touch me, not in that sense at any rate. And Mia...I don't know what it could do for Maxim if Mia left me alone. Maybe he hadn't threatened anyone and Mia had only made it up to let it come to a fight between Maxim and me. Besides, Maxim would never hurt anyone I love. Or? Would he? Would he? Would he really hurt Jacob? But Jacob was my best friend. What if Maxim saw some kind of competition in Jacob? Was he afraid that I would leave him because of Jacob? How absurd was that?
A knock on the door and a "Room service!", got me out of my head. I went to the door and a hotel employee who had a trolley with my food on it smiled at me.
"Thank you.", I said smiling and he rolled the food trolley in the room.
"Thank you.", I repeated and gave him a tip.
"It was my pleasure.", he said and left the room. I lifted the lid off the plate and smelled the food. It smelled fantastic, but after talking to Mia I had lost my appetite. I put the lid back on the plate and took a water bottle from the fridge. With the bottle, I went out to the balcony. We were in the middle of Barcelona's city and not on the beach as expected, but still, the view was breathtaking. It was very different from Miami, like a completely different world. I sat down on the floor of the balcony, leaned my back against the wall, pulled my legs against my chest and watched the sun say goodbye. How the sky changed from bright blue to orange, then to pink and finally to royal blue.

I didn't realize how long I sat here, how many hours passed, but when Maxim came through the door, you could already see the star patterns in the sky.
"Yes I know, tomorrow morning at 8 am the car will pick us up...yes I understood you the last three times you told me that...yes...good night, Sarah!", Maxim said and closed the door.
"Baby?", I heard his voice saying, "Veronica?". I could feel his steps walking towards the balcony. "What are you doing here outside?", he asked surprised when he discovered me.
"I was watching the sunset.", I answered without taking my eyes off the sky. He reached out his hand to me, but I did not accept it and stood up myself. When he tried to kiss me, I swerved and went to the railing. I put my arms on it and looked into the distance, my back turned to him. He came up to me and stood next to me.
"Did something happen?", he asked, "Have I been away too long? It's been two hours, I know you've been alone here and it's a foreign country and I'm-"
"Is it true you threatened Jacob and Mia?", I just asked him straight out and looked him straight in the eye.
"What? What makes you think that?", he looked at me questioningly and went through his hair.
"Mia called me to talk to me. And she told me that you threatened to release her pictures. Is that true?", I asked him again.  He grabbed my hand and pulled me inside.
"There are too many ears out there.", he said as he closed the door and drew the curtain.
"I expect an answer from you and don't you dare to talk you out of it in any way!", I didn't want to talk the bush any longer, I wanted to speak the plain language. "So, was she telling the truth?"
"Yes.", he said without even thinking about it. At first, I didn't even know if I should be happy now that Maxim had told me the truth, or angry because he had threatened my best friends.
"Why? Why the hell did you do that? You threatened my best friends to hurt them. What even gives you the right to do that?", I tried mute my voice.
"I did it for you."
"For me?"
"Yes, for you. Mia acted like a fucking bitch to you, and I didn't want anyone to treat you like that.", he explained.
"Nevertheless it does not give you the right to publish her pictures. This is illegal and against the law."
"I don't even have those fucking pictures anymore! Fucking shit! I don't understand why you make such a fuss at all. I deleted the pictures immediately after she sent them to me. And I didn't ask her to send them to me, she did it on her own. I didn't want anything from her and I don't want her now either. I only scared her a little, but at that point, I didn't have the pictures anymore. And Jacob. I would tear anyone to pieces who would touch you against your will, not just him. I'm sorry that you think badly of me now and I'm even a little disappointed that you expected me to really publish the pictures, but I wanted to do you a favor, I did it all just for you.",  all this time, he hadn't stopped looking me in the eyes. "If you don't believe me, here's my phone. You can search the thing for the photos or anything else your heart desires. I don't care.", Maxim took his cell phone out of his pocket and put it on the coffee table next to me.

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