Page 100 of Maxim

“You like it?”

“No, I don’t like it. I love it. Thank you.”

“Good. Things will get tougher before they get better, so let’s enjoy this moment. Now come on.”

I understand what he means. We have to live in the moment, otherwise, we will waste our lives. I’ve wasted enough life.

He grabs my hand and pulls me toward the table. He drops my hand and pulls out a chair.

“Thank you,” I say as I sit down.

When he pushes me toward the table, he leans down and kisses the crown of my head. “Be right back.”

I can’t help but watch him as he walks back into the house.

This man…he blows me away. Constantly he’s reminding me that he’s a bad man, but then he goes and does this. Or the bakery. God, the baked goods. When he came home yesterday, he had three bags of freshly baked bread. He got me the banana bread he introduced me to, along with two new-to-me flavors that I also highly enjoyed. He didn’t have to stop on his way home but chose to.

As far as I’m concerned, he’s a damn good man who just isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

When he steps back outside, I can’t help but shake my head.

“Where did that come from?”

“I timed it to be dropped off on the porch when you were getting changed.”

“This is insane,” I tell him as he sets the bottle of wine and a bag on the table.

He sets a container of food in front of me and one in front of the chair across from me. After setting the bag out of the way, he moves on to the wine.

“Does this one meet your standards tonight, miss?” he teases.

I lean forward and pretend to study the label before sitting back and nodding. “It will do. Carry on,” I say, playing along.

It’s unfathomable to me that I wouldn’t have even been able to pretend like this before I came here. Between Thea, Maxim, and all the TV I’ve been watching, I’m starting to understand more. I’m starting to feel like part of society. It’s mind-blowing.

Smirking, he shakes his head as he pours us both a glass. Then he moves to his chair and sits down. Maxim raises his glass, so I pick mine up as well.

“To hopefully the first of many dates together,” he says.

“Salute,” we murmur in unison.

I take a drink and almost wince at the tart flavor of the wine. It’s not bad by any means, but it caught me off guard. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. Slowly I take another sip, and this time it goes a little better.

I’ve always heard that wine is an acquired taste, I just didn’t realize how true that is.

“You know, this isn’t the first date we’ve had, right?”

Maxim’s forehead creases. “Yes, it is.”

I shake my head slowly. “The park.”

“???????, the park wasn’t a date. That was just an outing.”

“Tomato. Tomatoe. It was a date to me. One that I loved.” As soon as the words leave my mouth, his eyes soften.

“Fine, that was our first date, and this is our second.” He reaches across the table and grabs my hand.

“Now that we have that corrected, what did you order for us?”