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“Cologne? Did you already move on? I told you not to…”
“What?! No!” Max blurted out, horrified. “Elana’s got court this morning and…”
“Are you being charged with something?”
“Not this time!”
“Oh mercy… Please tell me it’s not indecent exposure or worse.”
“EILEEN!” both men said in unison before looking at each other.
“I’m not being charged,” Max blurted out. “Elana has a case – and I wanted to take her coffee and support her.”
“Really?”
“And she looks hot in those business suits,” Max grinned.
“And there it is,” Eileen chimed in. “The Carpenter gene that is hidden deep down inside.”
Both men grinned at each other knowingly.
“Now, can I get my hair done before it dries like this?” Max retorted.
“Sure, ‘Ken’…” Reese muttered, walking off and laughing.
“The player has real game, you know?” Max called out. “My boy, Ken, got the hottest girl by looking good…”
“Your ‘boy’ has no groin – so why bother?”
“The doll,” he corrected loudly. “My brother is talking about the doll, Eileen.”
“I really don’t care,” she laughed openly. “You two are hysterical to listen to sometimes, and I needed a good laugh. Here I was thinking it was going to be a boring Thursday, but now I’ll keep picturing my Ken doll from when I was a little girl – and giggling.”
“So long as you aren’t picturing me,” Reese muttered.
“Or me!” Max chimed in, turning on the blow dryer in an attempt to calm his cowlick and glancing at his watch. He needed to hurry if he was going to surprise Elana.
Forty minutes later, Max was pulling in front of the courthouse and tugged at his collar nervously. He’d been here a couple of times as a kid and spent time in juvenile hall once before his father and Reese talked some sense into him. Gosh, that had been a brutally painful talk that he would never forget.
“You’re better than this,” Reese had said – and it struck home. “Pick yourself up, dust your knees off, and pull yourself out of this mess because you could do so much more with your life if you tried, Max. Just try to care about yourself for once and have a little pride.”
“I’m better than this,” Max whispered aloud, hating that he felt nervous just seeing the courthouse and quickly texted Elana.
What courtroom are you in?
Two
Are you here?
Max was taking the stairs, two at a time, and walking into the building quickly. He went through security – and they took the stick pin on the corsage he’d bought Elana for her lapel… and nearly tossed her coffee.
“C’mon, man! I need caffeine for this today,” he’d retorted, pleading, and saw Elana walking up to him in shock.
“Jeff, he’s with me.”
“Miss Cole, you know the rules.”
“I do – and I know that I need coffee to function.”
