“You tired?” he asked as I stumbled climbing off for the last time that day.
“Physically, yeah. Mentally, not at all.”
“We could go see a movie once we check in. If you want.”
“Sure. It’s not that late. And I can take fifteen minutes there and back, or however far we are from town.”
“Let’s drop our stuff off first.”
“Sounds good.”
Max handled check-in while I searched for our location on my phone. As it turned out, the nearest cinema was eight miles away, no problem at all. This time we weren’t around back, so we walked to the room from the office, backpacks over our shoulders. I read off the film choices as Max opened the door.
“The last one... The demon whatever.”
“Horror it is.” I checked the times. “There’s one starting in half an hour. I think we can make it if we take off now.”
Unlike last time, the room only had a queen bed. Part of me wondered if he’d done that on purpose, as there wasn’t even a couch. If we didn’t share tonight, someone would be on the floor. And in a place like this, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
“Bathroom?” he suggested.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
I dodged in, used the facilities and then did what I could with my hair. Fortunately it perked right up with a little water, going from helmet-smashed to spiky with some judicious fiddling. I washed my face and put on lip gloss without letting myself wonder why. This isn’t a date. You’ve been living with him for six months and you’ve gone to the movies fifty times. Max bounced up and headed for the door as I stepped out. He didn’t comment on how I looked, but then, he never did, so it would be weird if he started now.
Before I got on the bike, I mapped our route and memorized it, just as I had from the diner in Providence. “Okay, let’s go. I’ll navigate.”
With Max driving, we got there five minutes before the show started. The Cineplex sat off to the side in a mall parking lot but it was a huge free-standing structure with neon lights outside. Marquee lighting framed the movie posters, but since we knew what we wanted to see, Max strode up to the ticket window.
“Two, please.”
Inside, I tried to give him some money but he grabbed my hands and shook them until I stopped offering. “Fine, but I’m getting the junk food. What sounds good?”
“Nachos.”
“We had nachos yesterday.”
“What’s your point? I wasn’t offering to share.”
I grinned. “Good point.”
At the counter I ordered vitamin water, nachos and popcorn. That should tide us over until dinner.
The lobby had a few other couples ambling around, dropping food on the red carpet, but our theater was nearly empty, only four other people, so Max and I had our pick of seats. He blazed a trail to the second-to-last row and waited for me to precede him. It felt foreign and delicious to settle into the plush seat next to him. Surely we’d gone to the dollar house without Nadia and Angus, but at the moment I couldn’t recall specific instances.
“I’ve heard this is terrible,” he whispered.
“Then why are we watching it?”
“That’s exactly why.”
“Will you let me MST3K it?”
“Unless someone sits down nearby, obviously.”
The movie started strong, but it went south around a quarter of the way in. I lost all sense of dread and paid more attention to Max shifting beside me than the events unfolding on-screen. He kept leaning over to whisper hilarious observations into my ear. It struck me then how much like this it had been with Eli. Never hard, never complicated, just sweet, beautiful and right. The realization startled me so much I dropped the popcorn. Max lunged for it at the same time I did and we cracked skulls so hard that I saw sparks.
“Oh, fuck. Are you all right?”
“Mildly concussed, maybe.”
He cupped my face in hands, trying to see if I was bruised in this dim lighting. “I can’t tell how bad it is. I’ll get you some ice.”
I put my hand on his arm to stop him. “It’s fine. Let’s finish the movie.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep. My head is incredibly hard. I could do trick videos where I break boards with it.”
The producers probably didn’t expect us to leave with our stomachs aching from laughter, but that was the situation when we staggered out an hour later. In the lobby I could tell Max had a contusion forming. I reached up, touching lightly with my fingertips.
“Does it hurt a bunch?”
“You can baby me when we get back.”
I took that to mean yes, Courtney, it hurts, your skull might as well be made of titanium.
Feeling bad, I offered, “I’ll give you a head rub, ice it down, whatever you want.”
“Be careful,” he teased. “I could ask for anything.”
“I’d probably give it to you.” The admission popped out before I could stop it.
Max regarded me steadily for a few seconds, and when he replied, he sounded unusually serious. “Then I’ll make sure not to abuse my power.”
We ate a quick dinner at a Chinese fast-food place nearby, then headed back to the motel. By this point it was dark, just the red taillights of cars ahead and the white beams of other vehicles zooming toward us in the opposite direction. I clung to Max, my arms tight about his waist. His back, God, I’d spent so much time pressed up against it this trip, and now I knew about the Chinese dragon. I could happily strip off his shirt and lick my way down his spine.
The trip had lasted long enough that we had a comfortable bedtime routine worked out now. While waiting for my shot in the bathroom, I filled the ice bucket at the machine at the end of the building. As soon as we were both ready for bed, I propped myself up against the headboard and beckoned to Max.
“One head rub, coming up. This is a limited-time offer, by the way.”
“How do you want me?” The soft sweetness of the question sent a shiver straight through me, and I hid it from him like a cache of pills.
“You can lie sideways with your head in my lap or you can lean back against me, whichever looks more comfortable.” Amazing I could sound so casual when my heart was beating so hard.
His answer came when he crawled between my legs and flipped around, resting his head on my chest. He was heavier in my arms than his lean build suggested, but I’d stashed enough pillows behind me. Max wriggled around a little, getting comfortable. When he stilled, I set my fingertips to his temples.