The Rampage MC #4: Max and Briony

Chapter 26 (Max): Losing Someone You Love

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

Fucking hell. Wendie. Just what I did not need.

My mood, which had been sky-high -- literally -- plummeted to earth. I felt like Briony and I had taken a real step forward today with the skydiving. She'd trusted me to keep her safe when we jumped from the plane, and I had. It was a limited time offer of trust, not a permanent offer, I knew, but I couldn't help feel that I was making progress. She'd let herself be strapped to me and was, once again, entrusting herself to me.

Only this time, I hadn't let her down. I hadn't let anything happen to her. 

With each of her wishes I was helping make come true, I hoped I was showing her that I would be there, that her dreams were important to me, that I wanted to make her happy. That I was someone she could trust. One wish at a time, I was trying to show her she could trust me.

Of course, all these messages were being filtered through the motherfucking ten-ton elephant in the room. The one that said, yeah, you're doing this, but what about that time when she needed you? Where were you then? 

And the answer to that was now standing at our table: I'd been saving Wendie from the side of the road while Gene had slipped onto the MC grounds, broken into my house and tried to kill Briony.

As I'd told Briony before, that knowledge was something we'd both have to live with. It would always be a part of our past, whether we were together or not. If we did get back together, it would only be because Briony had decided to forgive me and live with the memory of what I'd done. I couldn't make her forget, and although I knew Bri had a huge heart, I didn't know if anyone could get past such a betrayal. Could she ever look at me and not see Max the Betrayer but just Max?

I looked at Bri, who was studying Wendie intently. Her face was impassive, which meant I couldn't read what was running through her mind at the moment.

"What have you been up to, Max?" Wendie asked. "I was having lunch here and couldn't believe it when you walked in."

"Why did you come over?" I demanded. "Thought I was pretty clear I didn't want to see you again last time I saw you, and now you're interrupting my lunch."

Her gaze swung to Briony, and Wendie's face worked for a minute. "Are you Max's girlfriend?" she asked.

"Wendie, what the hell?" My voice was louder than it should have been in the restaurant. Fortunately it wasn't crowded since the lunch rush was pretty much over. "It's none of your business. Now leave."

"Max, I promised myself if I ever saw you again after you told me to lose your number, that I'd apologize to you."

"For what?" Briony blurted out, and I wanted to smack my head, hoping this was going to be quick. I had nightmare visions of Wendie pulling a chair up to the table and settling in for a long talk.

"I should have known, Max. I mean, I pretty much suspected, and I should have stopped calling you when I guessed. But I didn't want to face things."

"Known what?" Briony asked. "Suspected what? Face what things?"

Holy fuck this was painful.

"Well, after I broke up with Max, after two weeks he ghosted me. Stopped calling, stopped texting."

"Mmmm, I'm not sure of all the rules of ghosting," Briony said, "but I'm pretty sure if you break up with someone and then he stops talking to you, that's not ghosting. That's just giving you what you asked for when you ended things with him."

"But I didn't think he'd give up after just two weeks of me ignoring him. I thought...I thought he'd come back to me and tell me he'd give up the club once he realized I was serious about choosing between the club and me."