All Is Love and War | Maxley |

➳ 20

CHAPTER 20

Bradley

Val and I danced our way through crowds of people.

She paused and I rammed into her, knocking us both forward. She stayed on her feet but I fell forward, getting closer contact to the floor than I had with Max the entire night. She stuck her hand out, giggling softly to herself. "Sorry," she whispered. "Look at that beautiful girl over there."

I looked up, she was certainly beautiful. "What about your girlfriend—

—she is my girlfriend, stupid." We stalked over towards her table.

The woman kissed Val's cheek, "hey, gorgeous," she said softly. "Who's this?" She studied me. "How do you know my girlfriend, Val?"

"I really don't know her at all. We met today."

"His name is Bradley," she smiled sweetly. "Bradley, meet my very beautiful girlfriend, Kate." Kate blushed.

"You flatter me."

I shook Kate's hand gently.

"It's nice to meet you."

She smiled warmly, "it's nice to meet you too." She had a kind smile and dimples to pair with it. I wasn't surprised Val had taken a liking to her. (Max in my opinion was far more gorgeous, but perhaps I was biased). "I'm sorry if I sound rude but was there something you needed?" Val nudged her in the shoulder. "Sorry," she repeated.

"It's fine—I'm looking for my boyfriend, actually. I really need to find him." Both Val and Kate nodded.

"What does he look like," Val questioned.

I absolutely loved that question. I had many great photos of Max, but my all time favorite was the one I took of him at the beach. His hair was clung to his forehead, he was smiling wide, clearly happy, and I fell in love with him again and again every time I looked at the photo. "Here," I said finally.

"Oooh, he's a cutie," Val hummed. Kate shot her a jokingly hurt face which she defended with, "you're cuter." I begged to differ, no offense, of course, to Val and Kate.

"Don't worry, Bradley, we will help you find him." 

— — —

Minutes and minutes of searching. I was beginning to think he had left entirely but the car he drove us here in was still parked outside. Unless, of course, he hitched a ride with someone else. The thought irked me.

"Hey," Val said, grabbing my shoulder. She pointed, "isn't that him?"

I quickly tossed my head around. There in his perfect blue suit was my gorgeous Max, sitting at the bar. "Max," I said to myself. I put a thankful hand across Val's. "Thank you, the both of you." Kate smiled.

"Go get your man," she giggled. She intertwined her and Val's fingers. "Let's hang out later, alright?" I nodded.

I rushed over to Max. He was beyond drunk on the four bottles of beer that sat in front of him. "Max," I whispered. "I'm so sorry—

He put a finger to my mouth. "Sh," he hushed. "I thought I could do what you wanted and just be your friend for tonight, but I can't, Angel. I love you too much to pretend that I don't." He took my hand and kissed up to my knuckles.

"Max, I don't know what possessed me to say that you're just my friend because, fuck, I'm so proud to call you my boyfriend. If I'm not the luckiest man in the world I must be dead. Let's introduce you to Brett the way I should've done earlier."

I dragged him to his feet. Max felt like dead weight behind me. If I had worked out a little more, this wouldn't have been such an issue. I found Brett and Gia sitting alone together. They were laughing and smiling. "Brad, Max, hey," he said coolly. "What's up?"

I wrapped my arm around Max's shoulder. "I lied to you earlier, or, well, I wasn't being completely truthful."

Brett stopped me, "I have a feeling I know where this is going."

Gia slapped his shoulder, "let Bradley finish, babe." She smiled warmly at me, "go ahead, love." I took a refreshing breath.

"Thank you, Gia. Brett, Max is my boyfriend. We've been dating for a bit, and I was terrible to not introduce him as such in the first place."

Brett didn't display his emotions on his face, "I see." I bit my lip. "You were quite silly to not tell me that, I support you through and through. We're brothers, nothing changes that."

I felt my eyes prickle with tears. What had I worried about? Brett was my older brother who despite his nagging was amazing towards me. Deep in my gut I had expected such a reaction but to hear him say it in person was a feeling that was beyond words.

Gia intertwined her arm with Brett's. "I support you, too, Bradley. I'm so happy that you found confidence to tell us this."

"Max gives me all the confidence I need, plus, I'm also so proud to be his boyfriend." I kissed his cheek. "I'll see you two later." Both Brett and Gia nodded, waving goodbye.

I slung my arm around Max again, walking us towards the exit.

He blinked his eyes slowly. "Thank you," he whispered into my ear. "I love you, Angel. You doing that made me so happy. I thought you were embarrassed of our relationship, of me."

"I would never be embarrassed of you, I love you."

He kissed me, then put his head in the space between my shoulder and head. I grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers. I, Bradley Uppercrust III, was the luckiest and happiest man alive, all thanks to Max Goof.