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One more sleep.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“This one time in Vegas, was playing a slot machine atone of the casinos and a guy asked me if I "worked" at the casino.”
PEYTON
“You have something on your face,” Max leans over and with a brush of his thumb, he wipes the remnants of my condiments from my double-cheese cheeseburger from the corner of my mouth.
Max ordered his burger without the cheese and when the waiter returned with his meal, with cheese on it, Max bit his tongue and as soon as the waiter left, with a death glare at his meal in front of him he started cursing.
At that point, I grabbed his plate and began to scrape the cheese onto my burger, doubling the cheese happily to my burger. It would be a horrible idea to let a perfectly good slice of cheese go to waste.
“I don’t understand your issue with cheese on a burger. Cheese is the best on meat. I mean there’s so many different variations that you can add and they all have a different taste. Except Bleu cheese, that will never happen. Nope.” I pop the “p” and say.
“I like cheese just fine. I just don’t like the combination together.” He says with a mouthful. “But thank you for doing what is right in the world and putting it on your burger.”
“Anytime, I will promise to always take the cheese off of your burgers.”
“That’s why I think this relationship will work out, just fine,” he grins pulling a French fry off his plate and absent-mindedly feeding it to the dog.
“Oh, that’s why you think it will?” I tease.
“Well, that and the obviousness of how much I’m into you.”
He is into me, and I’m into him.
We’re in love, and that’s not something that I thought would happen.
He moved to Los Angeles a month ago and bought a beautiful craftsman house, which is a bright color of teal, on the top of a small hill you can get to from the street by a cobblestone stairway, or from a driveway on the backside of the property.
I fell in love with his home instantly, from the mahogany framed doorways and windows throughout the house and all the natural light to the wrap around window seat in the den. While I’m still living at my apartment with Quinn, I do spend most of my nights at his house. And slowly, my stuff is landing at his house as well. We haven’t discussed officially moving in together, and I’m not entirely sure I want to just assume that’s what he wants to do, and so soon. Also, I don’t want to leave Quinn in the lurch, but she and I have discussed it, that way, I’m not making the same mistake again, by keeping my friends in the dark.
So, every other night, I sleep over at Max’s place and the other nights, Quinn and myself hang out, sometimes with Hanna.
I look over to Max and smile, wishing that we could stay in this spot forever and bottle up our moment. Happy, healthy and with full tummies.
“I’ve got to head back to the office, but I’ll see you later tonight?” I ask standing.
“Of course, I have an afternoon full of meetings and interviews. Care to pick up dinner on your way over? I still need to get the hang of grocery shopping or delivery.” He stands up and wraps an arm around my waist to pull me close to him as he kisses my temple. I smile and lean into the kiss.
Yeah. I would bottle up this moment in an instant.
MAXWELL
My nerves are at a record level high, and I’m not even sure that I’m breathing properly. I’m sure that I’ve forgotten a few things in the transition between Seattle and Los Angeles, but I have an amazing group of staff who have worked hard the past month to get this location up and running.
Today is officially the first day that we have all staff on board and our doors are open, figuratively. And once I’m finished with the first official business day, I have a full room to decorate to ask Peyton an important question.
But first, the day must begin.
We start with a full company meeting, we announce all key managers and break out in groups for team building activities. The day flies quickly, and I see plenty of happy smiling faces while I walk around. I did what I could to make myself available, to listen with intent and to be an interactive leader since I was virtually a stranger to all of them.
After lunch, we have more discussions, then I release everyone early.
Once I’m home, I walk into the second bedroom that I haven’t started to fill up with furniture and begin opening the boxes and displaying the contents evenly around the room.
I finish in record time and stand back from the doorway and look at everything that I’ve done. Calendars and planners line every inch of the bedroom, including the ceiling. I know that Peyton is obsessed with Calendars and hope that she will not only be shocked when I bring her up here after we eat dinner, but will no doubt say yes to me.
