Worth the Fall (16 page)

This was going to be great. It felt very sophisticated. I wondered if they served popcorn. What did sophisticated people eat at the movies? I mean, films. Whatever. Should I have brought a snack? Maybe I could still grab some peanut M&Ms to sneak in. Should I grab Max something too? No. No, Max would have to bring his own snacks. Plus, if he didn’t pull out snacks then I’d know this wasn’t a snack type place.

Which, really? Everywhere should be a snack place.
 

About a block down the street, I saw a guy sitting on his stoop, reading his phone. Of course it was Max. Shocker.
 

I pulled to a stop in front of him annoyed he’d obviously been waiting on me even though I’d told him I’d meet him there. This is exactly what I’d been trying to explain to Jenna. He was too much like Jason. Everything had to be his way. He was orchestrating things how he wanted them without necessarily going against what I’d said.

I stood there, watching him, his head still bent over his phone.
 

He finally glanced up, no crease between his eyes this time. But, getting what you want is far more relaxing than not getting what you want.

“I’m not waiting on you. I’m texting my brother. I’ll meet you there.”

And then he went back to his phone.

Seriously.

Was this reverse psychology?

“Okay. I was thinking of stopping at CVS. See you there.”

“’kay.” Type. Type. Type.

I nodded, which of course he didn’t see and headed down the street.

“Kasey.” His deep voice stopped me in my tracks even though, when I turned back, he was still looking at his phone. “Other way.”

I glanced down the street. Yup. I’d headed back toward my place.
 

Trying not to huff, I pivoted and strode past him.

I got about the same distance beyond him the right way, when I heard my name again.

“Could you grab me some Junior Mints while you’re at CVS?”
 

I gave him the sweetest smile I had, knowing at this point he had to be screwing with me.
 

“Sure. Anything else?”

“Nope.” He went back to his phone. “Thanks.”

I fumed the entire way to CVS while trying not to fume at all. What did I care if he wasn’t waiting for me? It was a really nice night out. Who wouldn’t want to sit outside to text a friend? It was obviously someone he was happy to chat with; the phone was dinging every time he stopped. It probably wasn’t even his brother. It was probably a girl. Some really cute girl who didn’t mind that he scowled at her all the time.

Or, maybe he didn’t scowl at her. Maybe he only scowled at me. Not exactly the way I wanted to be special.
 

Not that it mattered. It was good that he was texting some girl. Then Jenna could stop worrying about him finding a nice girl or trying to set us up. Which would be great because then I wouldn’t be distracted by her attempts and could focus on my career.
 

Exactly.

I got to CVS and grabbed my M&Ms and glared at his Junior Mints before breaking and grabbing them too.
 

The theater was on the same block. I headed toward it wondering if Max was still texting his super hot girlfriend and if I should head in to get us a seat. I stood in front of the building checking out the movies playing. Besides the French film, there was some Sundance winner, a blockbuster action movie, and a midnight sing-along for The Sound of Music.
 

Well, that narrowed down what I’d be doing one night. Midnight showing or not, it wasn’t something I’d miss. I was a sucker for that movie. Every year when it was on growing up, I’d watch it with my mom. She used to try to explain to me how hot Christopher Plummer was, but I was too busy reenacting Sixteen Going on Seventeen.

“Ready?” a deep voice asked from behind me.

I guess this was close enough to count as meeting there.
 

“Yup.”

We headed down the building to the box office, side by side.
 

“So, this should be good.” Max tossed a grin my way. He really was excited to see the film. “I’ve been looking forward to this since the actor talked about doing it during his down time. Did you know he spoke fluent French? His father apparently is some French diplomat who had an affair with his super-model mother during a national summit thing.”

Wow.
 

“Nope. Didn’t know that.” I’m not even sure how I would know that.

“How confident are you feeling in your French?” He asked as he pulled the door open for me. “Mine is pretty good, but the Parisian speakers lose me. If you get a little lost, just let me know. Je serai votre guide français.”

I froze, trying not to panic.
 

“The movie is in French?”

“Yeah. Of course. It’s a French film.”

Crud.

Crud, crud, crud.

“Right.” I glanced around as if help would come out of nowhere. “French.”

Max stood there a long moment, watching my panic and probably thinking I was an idiot.
 

“Kasey, I’m kidding.”

“It’s not in French?”

“Oh, it’s in French all right. It is a
French film
. But there are subtitles. You don’t need to know any French to enjoy it.”

“Right. Right. I knew that.”

“Uh-huh.”
 

“I did, but, you know…I thought you were going to some special non-subtitled showing with your fancy French talking self.”

“Nope. Just normal subtitled showing.”

“Good. Because I totally love subtitles.” Kasey, shut up. Stop saying things that weren’t true or that you don’t know are true. Maybe I did love subtitles. I’d know in thirty minutes.
 

Dear universe, please let me love subtitles.

Max just looked at me, what may have been a slight tip up in the corners of his mouth, and shook his head. “Sure, Kasey. Subtitles.”

At the ticket box, Max pulled out his card and offered it to the cashier. “Two for écrit sur la Côte d'Azur , please.”

Um, no. Not a date.

“One.”
 

 
Max looked at me, the crease coming back. “I can get it.”

“I know. But so can I.”

“You got my Junior Mints.”

“Did I?”
 

He squinted at my handbag, his inability to see through leather obviously bothering him. Finally, he nodded as if he’d found what he was looking for.

“Yes. You did. You’re not the kind of person to just blithely decide not to do something you said you would.”

Darn it.

And a compliment.

Double darn it.

“Fine. I got your Junior Mints. But that doesn’t mean you’re paying for my movie.”

“He can pay for my movie,” an annoyed voice said from behind me.

I glanced back, wondering why all of forty-five seconds was bothering this guy.
 

“Really, lady. Let the guy buy your ticket. It’s not like he’s asking for sex.” Annoyed guy swung toward Max. “You’re not expecting sex, right?”

“I’m not even expecting her to walk home with me and we live almost across the street from one another.”

“This is exactly why I said I’d meet you here. I can buy my own ticket.”

“You don’t even have a job.” He all but threw his arms in the air. I swear they twitched like he was going to before he caught himself and anchored them at his sides.

“Yes. I do. I own my own business.”

“Oh, boy.” The guy behind us shook his head.

“You’ve owned your own business for the week since you lost your job.”

“Oh, honey.” Annoyed guy’s wife reached out and laid and hand on my arm. “You lost your job? You should absolutely let this nice young man buy your ticket.”

“I don’t
need
him to buy my ticket.” Why was I explaining myself to strangers now?

“Of course you don’t,” she said with a ridiculously sweet smile that was probably genuine.

Now I was the one fighting not to throw my hands in the air.

“Thank you, sir.”
 

I spun back around as the cashier handed Max two tickets.

“Max!”
 

“You can buy next time.”
 

As if I was going to hang out with him again with all the havoc he was wreaking.

We made our way toward the theater and he veered, changing direction toward the concession stand where there was definitely popcorn. This place wasn’t as schwanky as I’d expected. Apparently foreign films were just like American films only with subtitles…and probably actual plot lines.

“Popcorn?”
 

I turned back to Max, giving up my study of the normal theater with fancier posters.
 

“I’ll get it.” I reached into my purse, to hand the woman my card before Max could out maneuver me again.

He was obviously smarter than I was giving him credit for, because he put his wallet back without a word.

“What size do you want to get?” he asked.

“Whatever size you want.” I wasn’t going to own up to the fact that I didn’t really want popcorn since I’d gotten my M&Ms.

“You’re not one of those girls who’s going to say we can’t have butter, are you?”

“You can have all the butter you want.”

Max’s cop instincts must have kicked in because he leaned against the counter, crossing those arms again. The teen girl behind the counter’s gaze dropped to where his biceps tightened under the hem of his t-shirt.

“You’re not going to have any popcorn, are you?”

“I’ll probably have some.”

“What, like a bite?”

“Probably more than
a bite.”

“I swear, Jeannine. We need to stop coming to this theater.” The voice behind me was already too familiar.

I turned around and sure enough, there was annoyed guy and his wife…Jeannine.

“Just let the man buy your popcorn. Stop being such a controlling woman. If he wants to spoil you a bit, enjoy it now. What is wrong with this generation?”

Next to him, Jeannine rubbed her hand up and down his arm. “I know, Dale. But, not everyone treats each other as well as we do. Maybe he’s the kind of guy who is going to be like, I
just took you to the movies
when she asks him to take out the trash so then she has to do it herself just because they saw a movie.”

“You’re not that kind of jackass, are you, son?” Annoyed Dale was now looking at Max as if he was going to light into him next.

“No, sir.”

“You’re not taking my trash out.” We were going to make that clear right now or he’d be over tomorrow to make sure the moving boxes were on the curb.

“Seriously, girl, whatever your name is. You’re taking this independent woman thing too far.” Annoyed Dale crossed his arms and oddly looked like and older version of Max for a moment.
 

“We’re not even dating. We’re just seeing a movie.”

“Mmm-hm.”

I shook my head and turned back to the counter. “Medium popcorn with butter. Also, a diet Coke.”

“No diet.”

“It’s not for you.”

“You’re not getting me a drink too?”

Oh for the love of stars.

“Fine. And a normal Coke.”

“Thank you.”

“See,” Jeannine chimed in. “That wasn’t so hard. But, honey, if you really don’t have a job, maybe let him pay next time.”

I tried not to grit my teeth as I answered, “I
have
a job.”

“Mmm-hm.”

At this point, Max was actually smiling. Why was it he only smiled when ridiculousness was taking over my world?

Max took the drinks off the counter and waited for me while I got the popcorn and napkins. I followed him into the little theater and waited for him to walk to the front row. I hated the front row and so I
knew
that’s where he’d go. But instead, he turned down the first set of seats and said, “Back’s ok, right?”

“Sure.”

Thank goodness. We finally agreed on something and it was pretty darn important in my view of the world.
 

We sat there, two of the only people in the room, as we snacked on all the junk food we’d brought with us.

I scrambled for something to talk about before the silence got intensely awkward. Kind of like every interaction with Max.

“Do you come to these a lot?” Yeah. Original.
 

“Not a lot. No one likes to come with me and most of these movies are the type you want to talk about with people later. Dane won’t sit still that long and Ben would rather hang with Jenna.”

“You know, you could bring Jenna too.”
 

“She doesn’t like foreign films. She says the subtitles give her eyestrain.”