Page 27 of The Reverse Cinderella

She was exotic, gorgeous, pregnant and hugging Max. Piaget felt a little trepidation.

“This is all your fault,” The woman said as she sat down in Max’s chair and rubbed her stomach. “Hi, I’m Elle.”

“Piaget,” Piaget introduced herself politely. “Nice to meet you”

“Two? Is the doctor sure? Wouldn’t they have found that out before now?” Max asked as he purloined another chair from a table and sat down.

“They say the heartbeats were synced together and he was hiding behind his brother during the first ultrasound. I’m going to be fat!” She eyed Piaget and turned to Max. “She’s very pretty.”

Max grinned. “Yes, she is. You said, ‘his brother’? Two boys?”

“Don’t remind me! One was all it was supposed to be,” Elle wagged a finger under Max’s nose. “Is she the reason you haven’t been here recently? How long have you been dating her?”

“Um, I’m right here…” Piaget weakly waved a hand.

Max took Piaget’s hand in his. “She is the reason I’ve been a bit busy to come by lately.”

Piaget began to wonder if they were in one of those modern open relationship things. Was this Max’s way of introducing her to his pregnant other girlfriend? If so, Elle seemed to be okay with it. Piaget sure wasn’t.

“Um, Max. How do you two know each other?” Piaget asked carefully.

“Elle is my sister in-law,” Max explained. “She married my brother.”

“Okay, I have to ask.” Piaget was relieved. She pointed to Elle’s midsection. “How is the baby Max’s fault?”

Elle laughed. “He introduced me to his brother, Noah.”

“Those are my first nephews in there,” Max grinned and gestured to Elle’s midsection.

“And don’t tell your brother. I just found out.” The owner’s wife came with three plates of food. She set one in front of each of them. Elle smiled at her. “Thank you, Mama!”

The owner’s wife smiled back and chatted something in her language back before continuing with her work behind the counter.

Elle salted her eggs. “Max used to work here during the winters. His brother Noah would come in to bother him and Max introduced us.”

“Noah has a bad habit of following me around which is funny because he’s older than I am,” Max said as he speared some homefries.

“He was worried about you,” Elle said as she sipped some coffee.

“Worried about you?” Piaget asked Max. The food here really was delicious.

“There was nothing to worry about. I was fine.” Max gave Elle a look like he’d wish she weren’t saying so much.

“You were living on the streets. You still are!” She shook her head. “You’re crazy. Noah and I have a spare room that you could use.”

Piaget felt like she was only hearing half of the conversation. “What? Living on the streets?”

Surely, she meant that he just lived in a rough area of town. Besides, Ed and a few others that came and went in the park, Piaget didn’t know anyone who actually lived on the streets. Max really didn’t seem like the type. He was the one who was giving them food and money.

Max looked uncomfortable and Elle dropped her fork. “You haven’t told her?”

“Haven’t told me what?” Piaget’s voice may have been a little sharp. Gary hadn’t told her a lot of things and she did not need a repeat of that.

“We’ve just started dating,” Max set down his cup of coffee. “It hadn’t come up just yet.”

“Tell me what?” Piaget repeated sweetly, looking at Max who looked daggers at Elle who kept shifting her gaze between the two of them.

Elle sighed. “He’s homeless, honey.”