maxdaniels

[maxdaniels]

maybe that's fair, but i'm a busy guy // @wtfnickk​

Max settled back in her chair, the wooden back digging into her spine in an uncomfortable way, almost as if her body were looking for any excuse to leave, to push herself up out of the chair and run away, out the door and away from this town. It would be a lie to say that the thought hadn’t crossed her mind. It had; almost every morning and every night since that fateful day she ran into Nick at the grocery store. She knew that he had moved away years ago, left town like her fellow peers claimed that they would do but never did. She didn’t know that he had returned nor did she ever think that he would. In that moment, standing there with Ellie at her side, basket in her hand, she felt as if she were staring at a ghost. It was a fair comparison given how pale his skin had grown in mere seconds, his eyes trained on Ellie, taking in the high cheekbones and the bright blue eyes that held mischief in them, much like his own. His expression was fresh in her mind even now. It had been for weeks now and she wished she could forget it. Guilt pooled into her stomach, spreading further and further until it was pressing against the walls of her. Like it wanted the world to know how she hid away her child from her father. Robbed her, failed her-- The sound of her name being called snapped Max back to reality and there he stood, suit jacket draped on his forearm, his free hand resting on the back of the chair opposite of her.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, Max straightened her posture and gestured across the table. She glanced over her shoulder, taking notice of the eyes that were watching. The downfall of living in a small town were the nosey neighbors. “The slower you are, the more they’ll stare, and soon there will be a rumor flying around about us. I can tell you that it won’t be a fun one.” She said, bringing her hands up onto the table to cup her cooling mug of coffee. She told herself that she deserved it after a long day of teaching, waiting around for Nick, but really, Max simply wanted the excuse caffeine would grant her to hide her shaking hands. “How has.. your day been so far?” She asked quietly, grip tightening around the ceramic. “We don’t have to do this bullshit.. the small talk stuff. You wanted to meet up and I’m sure.. you have questions about everything so ask away.” She had avoided him after the run-in at the grocery store. She could hear him chasing after her & Ellie as they ran out of the store but she refused to stop then, opting to drive around town until she was sure that he wasn’t following them. The phone calls came next and then the text messages. There was an unspoken threat laid out once she learned of his profession. It would be her luck to get knocked up by a man who became a lawyer. 

Max pulled her backpack up from the floor and dropped it onto her lap, looking up to Nick with a small, forced smile, “I brought you some photos to look at. I’ve.. kept everything since the day she was born. She’s a May baby, if you wanted to know.” She took out various photos that she was able to grab and laid them out around the table, sliding them closer to him. “Her name is Eleanor Jane, but we..” Max sucked in a breath before letting out in a shaky sigh, “Everyone has always called her Ellie. She likes being called Ellie Elephant too, but she tries to say that she’s too old to be called that now,” She laughed at that, memories flooding her mind of Ellie and her grin, missing front teeth, saying that she’s ‘just Ellie.’ Simpler times that Max missed, especially now. “She’s at my parents house right now but she knows she’s meeting you today. I told her that you were one of my friends from work and that you wanted to come over to say hi.” She shifted in her seat, turning her gaze to the sea of customers that came in a flood, filling the space of the café, “I know that I don’t have any right to ask you to do anything or to not, I guess, but please.. please don’t say anything to Ellie about who you are. She’s only seven, but she’s smart and I know she’d think that I kept her away from you. I can deal with anyone hating me or thinking I’m the biggest bitch in the entire universe, but not her. Please don’t tell her the truth, Nick. Not yet.” Max’s attention fell back to him, glassy eyes and all.

An hour or two had passed before the brunette slid the photos back into her backpack, pulling them around the empty coffee mugs that littered the table. Nick had spent minutes studying each photo, his face changing with each new detail that he noticed, and Max was struggling to dissuade the butterflies in her stomach from taking residency. Her eyes flickered back to him, remembering the way his own had lingered on the photos of Ellie as an infant, fresh from the hospital. Though she told herself that she still felt anger towards him, she couldn’t ignore the pang of guilt that sent itself through her chest, through her heart. “If you’d like.. I could make you a photo album of her. They’d be copies of the photos I have, but I have a few that I wouldn’t mind giving you. The one positive of my parents helping me raise her is how many pictures they’d take of her.” Max stood up, swinging her backpack over her shoulder, tilting her head back to look up to Nick. “So, the plan is to go pick of Ellie at my parents and then we can go back to my place. She’s.. excited to meet you, she already dragged out all of her favorite toys and stuffies to show you.” The duo walked out of the coffee shop, bell ringing overhead as they stepped out. The crisp autumn air rushed around them leaving Max shivering, arms instinctively crossing over her chest at the breeze. She looked to Nick, “Do you want to ride over there together? I can give you directions.” Unless you remember. Max wanted to say those words, to gauge how much he remembered about their nights together, but they stayed hidden away. The fear of rejection and embarrassment stronger than her curiosity.