Passion » Max Regnery

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"Woah!" Blake held up an old photograph, something she assumed had to be from when Max was in his twenties. "Is this really you?"

A week had gone by since the incident in Max's office where Blake crossed the line. And for a whole week, she had done her best to keep out of his way. Today, however, as she entered the office to put up her lunch in the mini fridge, she found Max at his desk with his face in his hands and a large brown box unopened on his desk. It was quite clear to her that what was in this box contained painful memories, so instead of helping one of the stable hands with morning chores, she stayed with Max.

"Is it really that hard to believe? he furrowed his brows at her, his blue eyes narrowing into slits that made him look like he was suspicious of her. Then he uncrossed his arms, leaned forward and snatched up the picture she had been holding of a younger Max in a blue shirt and cowboy hat, smiling at the person taking the picture.

"Hard to believe there was a time when your face did not show any ounce of stress and there were no bags under your eyes? Yes." She placed the box down on the floor so that she could sit down while digging through it. This box of painful memories came from his mother's house. It was all that she had of Max. Photos, awards, trophies, just about his whole life.

Blake looked back up at Max to see him holding up the photo to look at it better. "I had my mother then," he said, his blue eyes mirroring his current emotion.

She didn't know his mother well, just from what she had heard from others who knew her. She had discovered the late Mrs. Regnery had been a wonder person filled with all sorts of eye-opening advice. Had Blake arrived at Pine Hollow a year before the elder woman retired and moved to Florida, she would too, would have been feeling down in the dumps, just as the others did when she was mentioned. Or so she assumed.

"You know," Blake felt her cheeks flush as she prepared herself to say what she was just about to say. "You're still just as handsome."

Her gaze quickly dropped back to the box where she now discovered a little fire engine red booklet that had been laying on the very top.

"You think so?" she could hear the doubt visible in his voice.

Blake had lifted the booklet to look through it only to find another picture of Max. "Oh my God!" her eyes widen as she pulled the photograph out of the box to look at it more closely. "There is no way that is your body! Did you workout or something?"

"No," he snapped, reaching down to snatch up the picture and give her a look before looking at it himself. "And yes this is me, I'm not that old!"

"Never said you were," she giggled, looking up at him. She was actually trying to picture this Max with that body. "You just look happier, more alive in these photos than you do now."

"That's because I was," he sighed, crouching down beside the box and looking through it himself to see what else was in there. "Happy and in love..." He pulled out a large, black leather album labeled 'Max and Deborah'.

Blake didn't mind as he suddenly went quiet while sitting down with the album in his lap. She watched as he leaned against the front of his desk and tilted his head back, his eyes now closed.

"You should get a dog," she commented.

"What?" Max opened his eyes and turned to stare at her as if she had magically grown two heads. "Why?"

"Because," she smiled as she recalled her corgi. "Leera was the best thing to ever happen to me. Without her, who's to say you and I would be sitting here having this conversation today?"

"It's times like these," he waved his hand between them to show he meant their current situation. "that I really with my mother was still here to share some words of wisdom."

"I never had anyone to offer me words of wisdom," she said as she placed the booklet back in the box and then turned to lean against the desk, just as Max was. "Perhaps then I wouldn't have been divorced twenty-two."

"You've only been divorced for a year?" he lifted his head up off the desk.

"Married at eighteen too."

"Four years?"

"Seven years, actually," she tilted her head to the right so that she could look at him better. "We were together three years before I was old enough to get married and so we got married the day after I turned eighteen. I told you my life lacked some wisdom knowledge."

"You never talk much about your married life," and then he paused to consider his words. "Or much about your life at all."

"What is there to talk about?" she asked as she sat up against the desk and brought her knees up to her chest.

"I'm sure there had to be some good times, right?"

"In the moment, of course, but now, knowing what I know and looking back, they weren't so good after all." Why the sudden interest in her previous marriage? She thought as she rested her cheek against her knee and studied him.

"I'm sure they can still count, right?"

She laughed, "Not when you realize the motives behind why he was being so nice to me. But I guess I can't truly blame him or hate him for what he did to me, I didn't exactly put a stop to it."

"Even still," he said while leaning back and closing his eyes once again. "No one should ever cheat on the person they're with."