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“Can it, Rosebud,” Larry said.
I narrowed my eyes and asked Rose, “What are you talking about?”
“He’s not having a heart attack, for Christ’s sake.” She scowled at Larry. “He had an anxiety attack after getting caught making out with the grocery delivery guy in the stairwell.”
“What?”
“Casanova here got caught red-handed—red-lipped, to be more accurate—getting nasty in the stairwell, so he acted like he was code blue to distract Mrs. Ginsburg, the poor dear, who happened upon his stairwell seduction while trying to get in her steps.”
“The stairwell?” I said in disbelief.
“The stairwell,” she repeated. “And then he asked Benny to call you, just to add more drama to his bullshit heart attack.”
“Well—”
“And what kind of an animal—I know you hear me, Larry, ya goddamn animal—is so hot and bothered that they can’t even wait and go at it in a public stairwell?”
I glanced down at Larry, and he winked while waggling his eyebrows before closing his eyes and muttering, “Stairwell.”
“You little shit,” I said, then basically lectured him for an hour about what a dick he was for scaring me.
But after I left the two of them at the hospital, pissed and exhausted from the burst of fear and worry, Larry’s words kept replaying in my head.
And as eccentric as the guy was, he was right about one thing.
Having my heart eventually broken by Max couldn’t feel much worse than it felt to not have him in my life at all, could it?
So what was I supposed to do?
forty-six
Max
“Thanks for theride.”
“Of course,” I said, putting my truck in park as Rose hopped out, with Larry right behind her. I’d raced to the hospital after Sophie’s text, and by the time they let me into his room after not knowing Larry’s last name and not being family, she was already gone.
And since Rose had taken an Uber to the hospital and Larry arrived by ambulance, they both needed a ride home. “Can I walk you guys up?”
I was dying to know if Soph was home or if she’d gone back to work.
Of course, since she’d known I was coming to the hospital and left anyway, she definitely wouldn’t want to see me if she was home.
Rose grinned like she knew I only wanted to see Sophie, and I realized that was the first smile she’d ever given me. “We’re good, Max, but thank you so much.”
“You called me Max,” I said, half to myself, because she usually called me Julian.
“That’s because you don’t remind me of Julian anymore.”
“WhoisJulian?” I asked.
“Famous porn star, very handsome,” Larry said, and then they turned and walked inside the building.
I honestly wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be flattered, insulted, or disgusted.
When I got to my building, I realized in my rush to get to the hospital, I’d left my wallet at work. I didn’t have my garage pass, so I had to find a spot on the street.
Goddamn it.
