I gasped playfully. “What did you just say?”
“They’re shit movies. All of them. Bruce Willis is a lazy actor.”
I put my hand over my heart. “You wound me with your words, Buckaroo!”
He laughed. “What? I’m just saying there’s no plot substance.”
“And you think Top Gun has plot substance?”
He pointed at me. “Hey. Hey, now. Don't you dare say anything about my Goose.”
I shrugged. “I can’t anyway. I’ve never seen Top Gun.”
I watched as Max’s jaw practically fell onto the table where we were eating.
“You’ve never what?”
I giggled. “I’ve never seen Top Gun.”
“You’ve never see--Bambi. Your life is too plain.”
“I watch the Fast and Furious movies!”
“Of course you do. More explosions with little to no plot.”
“That’s not fair. They have this massive overarching plot strung throughout all the movies.”
“What? That some dude had a baby with some girl while he thought the love of his life was dead or some shit?”
“Shh! Spoilers, Buckaroo. Some guys in here might not have seen the movies.”
And when he smiled at me again, I felt my heart stop in my chest.
“Favorite holiday, Bambi.”
“Christmas. Yours?”
He sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Why not?”
He shrugged. “I guess I’d say Thanksgiving. I like all the food.”
“Not really a holiday kind of person?”
“Holidays are for families. And I don’t really come from a decent one.”
I nodded slowly. “I’m sorry.”
He waved his hand in the air. “It’s fine. It is what it is.”
“Want to talk about it?”
He paused. “No. Not at all.”
“Fair enough.”
As quickly as the conversation kicked up, it dissipated. And I found that Max was more normal than he appeared to be. We went back to eating our food, but there was no way on God’s green earth I’d be able to finish all of it. I mean, I got halfway through my burger and was lucky to eat any of the fries. Which were outstanding, by the way. Max, however, wolfed down his entire meal. And then reached for a few of my fries. He drained another beer into his gut before he settled the tab, and the entire time I wondered what kind of family he came from. What made them so bad in the first place.