040

Max looked into my eyes with a questioning look, as if he was asking if he should continue or not. A tear rolled down the corner of my eye and that was all it took. He sat up on the couch pulling me into his arms. "Max, I am so sorry," I mumbled into his ear. "Avery, don't be sorry. The tension has been high between us since we met, it was bound to happen." I'm so stupid! "Come on let's get you to bed," Max whispered pulling me up into his arms, walking me to my room. I sat on the edge of the bed, still shirtless, looking up at Max. "I lectured him about not hurting me. I couldn't handle getting hurt again, but here I am, hurting him." He walked over and knelt down in front of me holding onto my hands. "He doesn't have to know. No one has to . . . " before Max could finish his mouth crashed on top of mine once again. I was so confused, I had one hand pushing him away while the other was pulling him in closer. I crawled back on the bed, with Max on top of me. "All you have to do is say the word," he whispered before moving his kisses down my neck to my chest. I felt one of his hands go up my skirt, moving my underwear to the side. He rubbed my clit between his fingers for a few seconds before entering two fingers. "Max," I moaned not knowing to tell him to continue or to stop. "All you have to say is stop," he said before splitting my lips apart and flicking at me with his tongue. "Oh fuck," I moaned grabbing onto the sheets around me. I could feel myself climaxing and I reached down and grabbed onto Max's hair. "Stop," I moaned, and I could feel his head lift. "Max I am so sorry," I cried sitting up on the bed. "Don't be, if that's where you want to stop, then we stop. Now, everything that happened in the last hour never happened at all." Except for the guilt. "Avery, why are you crying?" he asked lying next to me. "I love him so much Max, he is my life, we're going to get married." "He finally proposed? About damn time," he laughed. "No he hasn't, but it's only a matter of time, and I might have screwed that up. I might have lost the best thing that has ever happened to me." Max, why are you laughing?!

I stumbled into the living room, putting my tank top back on and poured myself a glass of water in the kitchen. I saw my phone sitting next to the sink and grabbed it. 12:02 AM. I opened it up and sent a text message to Sidney, 'can't sleep, can't wait for you to get home, i miss you and i love you sooo much.' Not thirty seconds later my phone was ringing. "Hi baby," I cried into the phone. "Avery, what's wrong?" he asked with some fear in his voice. "I'm just having a bad day, and I miss you. How's New York?" "It's New York, tell me about your day, why is it bad? Didn't you have the BBQ today?" "I did, and I drank far too much, and Scott showed up out of the blue, and I'm just kind of out of it now," I continued to cry. "Scott, the guy in Russia? What happened when he was there? Are you okay, did he do anything?" Sidney instantly became panicked. "Max was still here when he showed up, he just came to get a box and he left. It was weird," I answered with a calm voice. "Okay, well try and get some sleep okay? I hate hearing you like this. I will see you Sunday night." "Okay Sid, I miss you." "Avery, I love you." "Love you too Sid."

I walked back into the bedroom and Max was passed out cold, still in his pants. I quickly changed into some of Sidney's sweatpants, leaving my tank top on. I leaned against the wall next to my closet and slid down to the floor. What did I do? I sat there for about twenty minutes and I had to get away, the events of the night sobered me up real quick and I headed out to the living room. I scribbled down a quick note for Max, grabbed a blanket, my car keys, my purse and I was out the door. I got in my car and drove to the brewery. It was still filled with people and I got some looks from the patrons as I'm sure my mascara was rolling down my face. Brad made eye contact with me, I just smiled and headed to my office. I curled up on the couch in my office and pulled the blanket over me, but I wasn't tired. I laid there looking up at the ceiling when there was a knock on the door. "Come in!" I shouted knowing that it would be Brad. "What's wrong Avery? Looks like you were hit by a train," he said sitting on the couch looking down at me. "Oh Brad, trust me you don't want to listen to my problems," I laughed throwing my arm over my head. "I'm a bartender, I listen to problems all night long, it's in the job description, come on now, what happened?" I sat up and I knew I could trust Brad, the only other person I would tell what happened would be Colby, but telling him might be a very bad idea. I took a deep breath and then sunk in. "I cheated on Sidney." He gave me a look to continue. "I drank way too much, and it was just Max and I, and something just came over me and I started kissing him. I didn't sleep with him, but he did go down on me, I just feel disgusting. Why did I do that?" "We all make mistakes. Are you going to tell him what happened?" "I don't know, Max said no one needs to know, and I trust Max that he won't tell anyone, but the guilt is already getting to me. I don't know what to do." I looked at him for any sign of advice. "I don't know what to tell you Avery, because this is a really sticky situation. It wasn't just a random guy, it was Max, Sidney's teammate. One of your best friends. If you can look at Max in the eyes when you are both sober and not feel a damn thing, I'm sure you will be okay, but I think it's best if Sidney didn't find out right now. You really need to sit down and talk with Max. Sidney is your life though, he's your soul, yeah you're going to feel like shit about what happened for a while. Sidney loves you so much though, we can all see it. Max doesn't love you, he's sexually attracted to you, that's it. You're strong Avery, everything will turn out alright."

The next morning I woke up with a pounding headache. I looked around my office and saw it was 9:30, I crawled off the couch and reached for my phone in my purse. One new message. I flipped my phone open to see it was from Max. 'I guess we need to talk about last night. Text me when you wake up.' I sat down behind my desk and spun my phone around. 'Meet me at the Starbucks down the street from the brewery, ten minutes.' I pulled open my drawer, happy to see I still had my toothbrush and makeup inside. I headed to the bathroom and cleaned myself up a bit. As I walked down the street I saw Max park his car across the street from Starbucks. I waited outside of the door as he crossed the street. "Hi," he said just above a whisper as he opened the door for me. We sat down at a table with our drinks and the silence was deadly. "I'm sorry Avery, I should have gone home with Colby," he simply said not raising his head from starring at his drink. "Max look at me." He brought his head up and looked into my eyes. Nothing. Not a damn emotion. "I have to tell Sidney, I won't be able to live with myself if I don't. So just be prepared okay?" He nodded his head and nothing else was said.

I drove in silence to the airport, I was in no mood for music, which was unlike me. I parked my car, put on Sid's black and white gongshow hat and headed inside the airport. I sat patiently playing with my thumbs when I saw those legs walk around the corner. He could disguise himself anyway possible, but you always knew it was him by the way he walked. I looked up at him and that huge goofy grin of his climbed over his face. I jumped up and wrapped my arms around his neck. How come I'm not happy? He pulled me up for a kiss and my stomach started doing cartwheels, my fingers got tingly and I knew this was how I was suppose to feel. This was right. "I've missed you. How are you feeling today?" he asked looking down in my eyes. I tried my hardest to fight back the tears. "It's day to day, let's go home," I smiled giving him one more kiss before we left.

I sat down on the couch, crossing my legs looking up at him. "Something's wrong Avery, what's going on?" he asked very concerned sitting down next to me. "I screwed up Sid, I fucked up," the tears I tried so hard to hold back were now flowing. He held on to my hand and looked into my eyes. "I got really drunk Friday. I was stupid. I kissed Max." There it's out, well half of it is out. He hung his head a little bit for a moment then looked back into my eyes. "Is that all that happened?" I took a deep breath and wiped away a few tears. "He went down on me, but I stopped it before anything else could happen. Then I called you, and after I hung up with you I went to the brewery and slept there." I hung my head and I could feel him withdraw his hand from mine. He pulled me up from the couch, pulling me into a hug. "I am so sorry Sid," I whispered. He leaned back and gave me a big kiss before heading into the bedroom. I sat back down on the couch and continued to cry. What's going on in his head? He walked back out a few minutes later with his old hockey bag obviously filled with clothes. "Avery . . .," he went to say something but nothing came out, "I will be at Mario's." With that he was out the door and probably out of my life.