Chapter 23: Awkward

Maryanne tries to hold back a grumbling sigh as she now sits around the meeting table with her friends and Max. He is sitting straight up with his hands in his lap. Surprising to Maryanne, he is acting very open to the prospect of sitting through an hour long discussion of a classic novel.
“Alright, so where did you ladies want to begin,” Maryanne questions, setting her copy down in front of her. She continuously shifts it around, nervous as Max’s gaze is now on her.
“Max, have you ever read the book?” Jessica glances at him momentarily, scrutinizing his visage.
“Of course he hasn’t. He—”
Max cuts Maryanne off abruptly, “Actually, I have. I find Lizzie’s prejudice against Darcy interesting. She treats him harshly because of his wealth and seemingly obvious pride, but she does not realize that he is not as spoiled and rude as he may first appear. It’s a lesson we can all use in our lives,” he said with a pointed glance towards Maryanne.”
Maryanne is unable to utter a word. Is this really Max? The billionaire playboy that only wanted to party on his downtime?
“Wow,” Jessica breathes out, her shoulders deflating. “A simple yes would’ve sufficed. Now I feel like a failure.”
“Don’t say that,” Max chuckles. “It was one of the only books in my mother’s library that I actually enjoyed.”
“At least you won’t hold us back during our discussion,” Veronica laughs.
“That I definitely won’t do,” he nods.
“Well, from there, I guess we can delve right in,” Maryanne shrugs.
She can feel his eyes on her, causing a blush to build in her cheeks. Why does he have to be there? It’s bad enough that she can barely keep her feelings to herself anymore, much less here in front of her coworkers.
“Or we can just talk about Max,” Shelley forces herself into the conversation. She leans forward, across from Max now, her eyes glittering with interest. “Is it true you have a million dollar penthouse in the city?”
Max shifts awkwardly to the side, glancing at Maryanne before he responds. “Yes, that’s right.”
“That’s amazing. How many bedrooms does it have?”
His brow twitches with irritation, but he remains polite. “It has three bedrooms.”
“Wow, that must be a big place. Are you still using it?”
“Shelley, stop. That’s enough,” Jessica orders. She tosses her book onto the table, irritation obvious in her creased brow.
“It’s okay,” Max reassures. “I am not currently using it at the moment. I mainly stay here every night so that I can watch Riley and help to take care of her.”
Shelley nods for a moment, silent. Her eyes shift to Maryanne before reverting back to Max. “What kind of work does your company do?”
“Oh, you haven’t researched that information as well Shelley?” Jessica rolls her eyes.
“Of course I did, but I didn’t want to be rude,” she huffs, crossing her arms.
“Yes,” Veronica scoffs, “Because you’re not being rude right now.”
Maryanne tries to fight the irritation building in her chest. She knew this was going to be a bad idea. How is she going to divert this conversation back on track? She opens her mouth to speak, say anything, but she is spoken over.
“Isn’t it weird that you were forced to move into a house with Maryanne and Riley?”
Max cocks his head to the side, “What do you mean?”
“It’s unusual, isn’t it, that the court forces you both to live under the same roof, not giving either of you full custody. It’s just odd to me.” Shelley rolls her shoulders, sighing. “To force you to live with her, help take care of the both of them.”
As her anger bubbles up into her features, heat explodes all over Maryanne, causing her temper to snap. She grits her teeth, sitting on the edge of her seat, but Max beats her to the rebuttal.
“Actually, I rarely do anything for Maryanne. She is very capable of taking care of herself. To assume that just because I have more money means I must support her is naïve and crass.”
Jessica releases an ‘ooh’ and leans over to Maryanne, whispering, “I like him.”
She can’t help but to chuckle, causing Shelley to glower at her. She presses her lips together, suppressing her laughter as Max smirks at her softly.
“So, being in such close quarters,” Shelley begins again, “Do you ever find yourself in heated situations?”