You'll never have me

Chapter 24

Chapter 24

I don’t know if it was me or that it was just a coincidence but when I got off the elevator and walked towards the exit I felt like everyone who was still there, was looking at me.
I tried to walk away as casual as I could.
By the trouble I had getting to his office, I figured no one knew we were seeing each other.
Yet, I had the feeling they knew something was going on.

What the hell had just happened? Why did I act so weird? Should I go back?
For a while I just sat in my car playing the scene that just happened over and over again in my head. Just when I wanted to start my car my phone rang. How weird this may sound I actually was hoping it was Max.
“Hello?”
“Mira, it’s your dad.”
“Oh hi dad. Wha..”
“Don’t you ‘oh hi dad’ me”, he interrupted me. “You haven’t visited your mom in a week. What are you thinking?”
I could hear his voice getting louder with each word he spoke.
“Dad, I’m sorry but I also have a very busy job, remember?”
“Julian told me how you acted when he was at your office.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Why don’t you obey for once? Have you ever thought how this must be for your mother? How she feels?”
He was already shouting again.
“Is it that man you’re seeing? Is he making you do this? You know we didn’t even approve of him. Julian told you to tell that man to stay out of our family!”
“Dad! Max has nothing to do with this. And besides that, it is none of your business who I date!”
I tried to stay calm but I was so done. I was tired, I was confused of what just happened and I was angry about my dad and my brother always thinking to know what was best for me.
“We don’t need no rich white man to tell us how to deal with you.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Wow dad..just wow. Now If you don’t mind I’m gonna hang up now. Bye.”
Great, just great. Just what I needed on my Friday night.

I drove myself home and quickly changed my clothes.
“Hey Eddie.”
“Hi sweetheart.”
“Eddie can I come by the diner? I need to talk to you.”
“Sure, I’m still here anyway. Cleaning up.”
I grabbed my coat and headed out to the diner. It was not far from my apartment so I always walked over there. Plus it gave me the chance to drink something. Eddie always had a little something in his back office.
“Excuse me, Miss?”
A man came walking up to me just as I turned the corner, the diner was already in my eyesight. It was becoming dark so I was very careful to just stop.
“Miss?”
The man now had almost caught up to me.
“Can I ask you something?”, he said blocking my way.
“Well, actually no.”
While walking away my mind did that weird thing, like you have some sort of dejavu. I turned around, my arms crossed in front of my body.
“Do you know where this address is?”
He showed me a piece of paper.
My face turned into a frown, I knew where that was. In fact I had just been there.
“I think they are closed now.”
“Please, I need to get there. It’s very important.”
“Hey, I saw you yesterday! We bumped into each other.” As I said that I pointed at him like he was inevitably guilty.
“Oh, yes”, he laughed awkwardly. “That’s right, we did.”
“What a coincidence, right?”
Again with the awkward laugh.
“That’s Woods inc. Like I said they are closed.”
“Oh…”
“Well I need to go. You should try on Monday.”

“Yeah, I guess I will do that. Thank you. And sorry for bothering you.”
“No problem. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
I quickened my pace to get to the diner. Eddie was standing in front of the door. He opened it to let me in and then closed it when I was inside.
“Was that Max you were talking to?”
“That man? No, why?”
“He really looked like Max. I mean I couldn’t see his face, but his posture was exactly the same as Max.”
He was still looking outside as he turned the keys to lock the door.
I sat down at one of the tables and took off my coat. Eddie walked behind the counter. “Do you want something warm or cold?”
“Let’s go with coffee. I could really use some of that black liquid”, I said heaving a sigh.
“Is it that bad?”, he said as he turned around to brew me a nice cup.
“Ugh, you don’t even wanna know.”
“Well, actually I do.”
He grabbed a plate and started making me a sandwich. “You, girl, need to eat something. You look like you could use a bite.”
“I do. I came straight from work to your place.”
“I know you too well”, he laughed.
“But that man reminded you of Max too right?”, I asked trying to confirm my thoughts.
“He did. I would’ve sworn you were talking to him.”
“Well, it wasn’t him. That’s for sure.”
He brought me the plate and then went back to get our coffee.
“So tell me what’s going on?”, he put down the coffee and took a seat himself.
“You sound like you and Max are having some trouble.”
I cupped my coffee and stared out of the window.
“Well not trouble exactly. I was just in his office a few hours ago.”
I took a bite of my sandwich. Something my stomach very much appreciated. Eddie always knew how to take care of me and more importantly, what I loved to eat.
“Then what is it? And why were you in his office? Is it like the pictures I last saw in that magazine?”
His eyes were almost twinkling. He had a soft spot for fancy decorated offices. Don’t ask.
I laughed. “It is. It’s huge, Ed! And very beautiful and in some weird way very sexy I guess.”
Quickly I looked down and grabbed my cup to take a sip of my coffee.
“Mira! Come on spill the details! Don’t leave me hanging in suspense here!”
So I told him the story of the sexyness that just happened. Not all the details of course, but just enough for him to know that things got well, heated.
“Girl you can’t tell me you don’t want him!”, he almost screamed.
I laughed. “Well duh. But, I don’t know, I just want to..wait I guess.”
“Honey, wait for what? For him to grab you by your hair like a caveman and take you to his cave?”, he rolled his eyes.
Again I laughed. I could picture this. Okay, not a good sight, Max as a caveman.
“I just want to be sure he’s the right one. I don’t want to sleep around any more.” As I said that my voice went from normal to whispering.
Eddie put his hand on my arm and pinched it softly.
“Of course you don’t, but everything tells me that Max is too old to play games, Mira. Yes, he is sexually attracted to you, but he also cares for you. It’s more for him than just a fling.”
I stared at him for a brief moment. Maybe he was right, Eddie was almost never wrong.
“So how are you and Jerry? Did you guys finally finished painting your bedroom?”
Eddie stood up and took our dishes to his dishwasher.
“Well… we are finally.” He sighed. Then he walked to the back and grabbed a bottle of wine. On his way to our table he grabbed two glasses, no wine glasses, he didn’t had those in his diner, and poured us a glass.
“Cheers!”, we said in unison as we clinked our glasses.
“You don’t sound really happy about it.”
“I am, but Jerry can nag so much about small things. I mean he always needs everything to be perfect. Now he wants to repaint the kitchen too.”
I had to suppress a laugh. I could totally picture them getting mad at each other and being annoyed at one another.
“Don’t laugh.”
“I’m not.”
“Are too!”
“Am not!”
We ended up laughing. I loved this, it was really a much needed moment.
I almost forgot what it was like to have fun.
“So Jerry asked me if I knew how your mother was doing.”
“I don’t know to be honest. I have been crazy busy at work and I didn’t really feel the need to go see her.”
I told Eddie everything that happened with my family and how my brother also tried to blame Max.
I didn’t really want to spend too much time talking about them. They weren’t worth it anyway.
“So what are you doing tomorrow? Want to come over and listen to me and Jerry argue about what colour we’re going to paint the kitchen?”
“Hahah, I would love too but I’m gonna meet up with Claire.”
Eddie raised his left eyebrow.
“I haven’t seen her in a long time. I need to catch up with her.”
Again he gave me a look, then took a sip of his wine.
“Do you know something I don’t?”
“It’s just.. I don’t know Mira. I know she’s your friend but I’m getting a weird vibe when I see her.”
I threw the last sip of wine down my throat and stoop up.
“Refill please. I’m going to the ladies room and when I get back you are gonna tell me exactly what you mean.”