It was strange to see someone who looked like Julia glaring at him with such naked loathing in her eyes. Max wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her that he was sorry but he had a feeling if he did Ashley would butt her cigarette out on his arm. “Look, I only came here because I think I’m…I really care about your sister. Tell Julia I’m sorry I hurt her and if she wants to see me, I’ll be at the work party on Sunday.”
He turned to leave.
“Wait a second.”
Hope blossomed inside him. “What?”
“Next time youaccidentallylock yourself in a room with my little sister, you keep that big cowboy dick of yours to yourself, you hear me? I know people. Bad people.”
Max was so shocked he didn’t know what to say.
“Yeah, Julia told me about your little workplace fuck-fest. Nice of you to take such an interest in someone so young and impressionable.”
“It’s not like that,” he said automatically.
“It didn’t have to be but you’ve made it like that acting the way you have. Treating my sister like some booty call. I know your type, I canhandleyour type but Julia’s a fucking desert flower. She deserves better than some indecisive dickhead like you.”
“I know that,” Max muttered.
“Good, now piss off. And if you come sniffing around while you’re wearing a wedding ring again I’m going to sic all these unregistered dogs on you.”
“The ring’s my father’s. He died when I was ten.”
Ash’s face softened and then almost instantly hardened. “So what? You’re just going to wear it forever? That’s pretty fucking stupid.”
“I’m meeting with my ex-wife tomorrow,” Max said through clenched teeth. “I’ll be divorced by ten in the morning.”
Ashley stubbed her cigarette on the doorframe. “I don’t care if you’ll be the King of England by ten in the morning. Get lost.”
“You know, you’re going to burn your goddamn house dow—”
Max saw a slip of brown hair and a bright hazel eye peering out from down the hall. Julia was listening. Julia was close and he was bickering with her sister like an idiot.
“Jules—”
He stepped forward and with unearthly speed Ashley slammed the door in his face.
Max stood on the doorstep for a moment wondering what to do and realized there was nothing he could do. He walked back to his car, angrier and lonelier than he’d ever felt in his life and drove away.
Forty minutes later he was in the suburbs, pulling into the big clean garage of his big clean house with its three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and neat front lawn. Picture perfect, except for the fact his best mate was on the couch where his wife used to be, covered in chips and watching porn. Dean took one look at his face and decided to go to the gym. Ordinarily Max might have gone too, tried to vent his frustration on whatever asshole hogged the weights bench but he didn’t have the energy. He went straight to his bed and lay down.
He woke early on Saturday with a headache. It was the day of his big D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Just the thing he needed to get his mind off his romantic troubles.
The weather was clear enough that he decided to take his bike to Bonnie’s. He donned his leathers, kicked Dean’s bedroom door in farewell, and headed out. Bonnie was living with her new boyfriend in the inner city. Max pulled up out front of her place and chuckled when he saw it was a huge McMansion with rendered walls. When they got a place, Bonnie insisted on red brick. “Something homey, none of this new crap.” Life really was full of little ironies.
He knocked on Bonnie’s freshly painted beige door, feeling not a trace of the nerves he’d felt waiting at Julia’s doorstep. His soon to be ex-wife appeared in blue jeans and a loose cotton T-shirt that probably belonged to Scott. She’d cut her hair short and looked happy in a way he hadn’t seen in years. “Hey, Bon.”
“Hey, Max.” Sparky, their hyperactive bull terrier, came running out to greet him. He dropped to his knees to rub her velvety ears. “Hey, baby girl. How’ve you been?”
“She’s been good, eating whatever she can get her hands on as usual.”
“And how are you?”
“Fine. The weather’s great. Did you ride your bike here?”
“Yep.”
“That’s good.”