Girl Next Door

Winter 2015

Winter 2015

Changing their relationship status from platonic to romantic had been a lot simpler than Max had expected. To Zoey's shock, it seemed no one in their life was all that surprised to hear she'd started dating Max. Maggie confirmed she'd known about Max's feelings for Zoey almost as long as her husband had. Then went on to say that she'd thought of Max as pretty much family for most of his life and was thrilled to consider him truly family now that he was with Zoey. Tobin and Lief had just given Max high fives once they discovered Max had finally 'got the girl.' Even Max's parents were happy about it though not quite as much as Maggie. Max knew Mitch would have been happy for them too.

After graduation, Zoey threw herself into apartment hunting. Rather than make things more complicated Max had just agreed to everything Zoey wanted since in the end all he really cared about was who he lived with, not where.

"By that logic maybe I should just rent us out a cardboard box?" Zoey had snapped back when Max explained why he wasn't really weighing in on the apartment hunting.

"Of course not," Max had replied easily. "You would never be happy in a cardboard box." Zoey had rolled her eyes and called him hopeless.

After a little more back and forth and a couple apartment tours, they managed to find a lovely little one bedroom apartment just a quarter hour drive from the downtown building where they worked.

Having lived up till now in the same house his whole life Max had found moving a bit of a strange concept. Still, moving with Zoey made it all worth it.

Max had believed he'd known everything about Zoey after a lifetime of friendship, but living with her had taught him otherwise. It amazed him how much you could learn about a person simply by sharing the same living space with them. Things like how Zoey never closed the shower curtain all the way or left the lid off the toothpaste. When she made tea she always squeezed out the tea bag before throwing it away and she never ever made the bed. Still learning more about her imperfections just made him all the more in love with her.

Their co-workers however did not see it this way. When the people at work had learned that they not only worked together every day but also lived together, they were quite surprised. Often asking questions such as: "How do you not get sick of each other?"

Max would reply simply that they'd been friends for so long before becoming a couple that they were used to spending all their time together.

Even with gossiping coworkers, his first six months living with Zoey had been the happiest of Max's life so far. When Zoey was with him all the little ways life tried to get ya down never seemed to stick. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed didn't seem to matter anymore so long as she was there. In the end it was a small thing, but having that low-key constant state of peace in his life felt huge to him.

After knowing each other so long and living together for months it was no wonder that Max could read his girlfriend like a book, having made it his life's work to learn to do so. When she was upset he could always tell. Every little thing she did slightly out of the norm would send off alarm bells in his head, telling him something was wrong. The bells were so loud and yet sometimes he was very aware that no one else could hear them.

"Nothings wrong," Zoey replied to his concerned inquiry.

"You see I know you a little better than that," Max said, moving closer to wrap his arms around her from behind. "This is me remember. Please tell me what's wrong."

"It's really nothing," Zoey said again. "Or at least it should be nothing." Max encouraged her to speak by squeezing her into a short but tight hug. "It's just I found out this morning, Simon's getting married."