The Rampage MC #4: Max and Briony

Chapter 20 (Max): My Own Rules

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA

I'd look back on that period of friendship with Briony as life-changing. Definitely not in the same way that leaving her that fucking awful night had been, but in an entirely different way. It turned out to be a good way. A necessary way.

After breakfast in the diner, we'd continued on to the tulip festival, stopping another hour into the ride so Bri could stretch her legs again. I didn't want her to get so stiff from riding that she couldn't enjoy the festival. We'd walked for hours, wandering around the fields of tulips, stopping at booths that caught Briony's eye, watching the bands, eating the delicious, artery-clogging food, as Briony called it.

And while her neck was on a permanent swivel with so much to see, I was content watching her enjoy the sights. The day was easy and relaxed, as if we'd both agreed to just put all of the horrible shit I'd caused between us on hold for the day. Sometimes when Bri looked at me, I could see questions bubbling in her head from our breakfast conversation, but she'd shake her head and whisper later.

I was all for later because I'd never seen Briony like this, absorbing absolutely everything around her, indulging in people watching, a delighted smile on her face. I was storing up a lot for later, too. But today was a day just for enjoyment, and I wanted her memory of the festival to be a good, positive one. A happy one.

She'd told me when she was trying an elephant ear for the first time that she'd always wanted to go to a festival but had never been to one. I think she was trying to explain her obsession with all the so-called classic carnival food that she insisted on sampling. I was trying to get her to slow down so she didn't make herself sick, but Briony was a woman on a mission.

"You've never been to a carnival or festival before?" I asked, watching as she devoured some fried pickles. I'd been to several once I started living with the Rampage at fifteen, and I remembered my first experience with carnival food. It wasn't pretty.

She shrugged. "My mom never had the time or money to take me and the guys I dated weren't exactly festival types."

Bri took hundreds of pictures on her phone, wanting to capture the perfect shot, she said, to remember the day. When it came time to leave, I wanted to get her a bouquet of tulips, but after she thought about it, she refused because she didn't think they'd survive three hours in the saddlebags.

"Besides," she said brightly, "I've got so many pictures, I can print a few off, frame them and hang them in my house. A permanent reminder of one of the best days I've ever had."

"You must really like tulips," I teased her.

She took me seriously. "I actually do love tulips. I think they're the prettiest, happiest flowers there are. They always make me smile."

Stopping halfway home to break up the ride, we pulled into another little diner I knew that was friendly to the Rampage and we both ordered breakfast for dinner.

"Scrambled eggs and toast sound good after everything I ate today," Bri said, making a face. "I probably shouldn't have had the loaded nachos and the deep fried s'mores. You should have stopped me."

"I gave up with the warnings after you insisted on the fried mac and cheese bites."

"Stop, Max," she groaned, rubbing her stomach. "Don't remind me of anything I ate at the festival or neither one of us is going to have a fun ride home."

Despite the warning, the rest of the ride home was fine. When I pulled up in front of her house, she got off the bike carefully, so I knew she was probably a little sore from six hours on the Harley. I got off the bike and reached into one of my saddlebags and pulled out a purple and white bag.

"Here are some Epsom salts to help fight some of the soreness from being on the bike so much today," I told her. "Soak in a bath tonight and use these. Do the same thing tomorrow morning. It'll help with any stiffness."

Taking the bag from me, she looked at it curiously. "Lavender scented. This'll help me sleep, too, although I don't think it'll take much since I'm exhausted."

"Thanks for coming with, Bri. I had a great time and hope you did, too."

"I really did, Max. Thank you." She grinned at me. "This was way better than the ride with Beard."

I watched her walk into her house, and then I made two calls so I could get to work. Beard sent a prospect with a loaded truck and some other things I'd asked for, and he helped me unload, but then I sent him back to the clubhouse so I could do this alone. 

Working with your hands in the mostly-dark night -- thank goodness for a streetlight on the corner of her property -- gives you a lot of time to think. And I was thinking I didn't know the first thing about being friends with a woman. I'd always had girlfriends, one after the other, but most of those had been about sex when I was younger -- I still cringed when I thought of the way Beard had given me the talk, right before he'd tossed a box of condoms at me.

"Don't go in bare. Wrap it up or I'll beat the shit out of you. Never let her provide the condoms. Take care of her first. Anything else you want to know, Google that shit. Your junk starts itching, tell me and I'll get you to the doc."

So a female friendship was new territory for me. I didn't know friendship with women, I knew need. In the back of my mind lurked the thought that if I'd been more useful at home, my dad wouldn't have thrown me out when he got married to my step-mother. When Beard had taken me in, I'd made damn sure I was useful so he and the brothers would need me, and I did the same with all the girls I was in a relationship with, and it was constant, back to back girls with no break. 

You need a ride? I'll pick you up.

You need help with homework? I'm good at that subject.

You need money? How much?

You're getting bothered at work? When's your next shift?

Your sink's leaking? I'll be right over.

Briony was the type who'd get her own Uber, figure out the homework herself, never ask for money and handle any work situations if necessary. That scared the shit out of me, that she'd throw me away as soon as Gene was dealt with. That thought had made my blood freeze. I'd been so worried about myself, about being needed, that I'd skipped over Briony and what she needed and focused on myself. It was basically the last thing my father had said to me when I'd pleaded with him to let me stay.

You're selfish, Max. You're thinking about yourself and not about what I need.

That was an important lesson -- not one for a fifteen-year-old, but one for a man. I thought about that, trying to understand it more, figuring out what I needed to fix in myself. You couldn't be selfish in a relationship and that's exactly what I had been. You couldn't hold back, and that's what I had done. We'd talked a lot, but not about the most basic shit we needed to discuss. And most importantly, I hadn't protected Briony in any way -- physically, emotionally, mentally.

Now Briony and I were friends. I'd heard a pilot friend of mine talking about flying blind, and that's what I felt like I was doing here. So while Briony was in the bathroom after breakfast, I'd looked up how to be friends with a woman. Nothing much useful. A lot of it sounded like advice for pretending to be friends with a woman in order to get her to date you, so I wasn't sure how much help that was. In the end, I'd given up in disgust and made my own rules: talk with Bri, listen to her, hang out with her, make her happy.

The last rule was what I was currently working on. I finally finished my project, so exhausted I couldn't think any more. It'd been a long night, but I was satisfied with the way it'd turned out, and I'd been grateful for the pale light from the streetlight so I could work. I stood up, checking to make sure everything looked good, and when I checked the time on my phone, it was about four a.m. I gathered all the recyclables and put them in the bin on the side of her garage. After one last task, I was done. 

Would it make her happy?

I hoped so.

When the sun rose, I headed for home, hoping Briony approved of her surprise.

Copyright © 2024 by GroveltoHEA