My Life Of Evasion

24. You Hold My Heart In Your Hands...So Don't Clap

***Beware, guys.  This is unedited, so please disregard the mistakes, as there may be a few!***

Chapter 24

You Hold My Heart In Your Hands...So Don't Clap

 

 

I ran. 

I ran back across the street, past all of the police cars with their lights flashing, through the front doors of our hotel room, through the crowd that had formed in the lobby, and up the stairs to our floor.  I swore I was getting my workout in through it.

So when I made it to our room and into the sitting room area, my heart was pounding.  But when I saw Max sitting there with Brielle knelt down in front of him, wiping something across his forehead, I couldn’t help it when a choked out sob passed my lips.  His head immediately swiveled toward the sound and he stood, passing by everyone else who had been around him.  The next thing I knew, I was in his arms and he was holding me so close to him that I felt complete again, unlike just a little while before when I thought that he was still dead. 

“Are you okay?” Max asked.  I was still holding him as tightly as possible, so he couldn’t move to look at me.  “Callie, he didn’t do anything to you, did he?  Are you okay?  Did Turner and Hudson get in there before…?”

I didn’t hear anything else that he asked because, unlike what my heart was telling me to do, which was just hug and kiss him and thank God that he was still with me, I didn’t.  Instead, like the girl I was for thinking that her boyfriend was dead but was just lying to her for who knows how long, I pushed him away from him and slapped him. 

That’s right.  I slapped my amazing boyfriend, who I’d thought had been dead for the last few days, across that pretty face of his.

But he deserved it.  Yes, he totally did. 

“I hate you!” I cried, shoving him again his chest.  “Why did you have to do that to me?  Make me think that you were dead, that you were never going to come back to me?  I love you, but why did you keep secrets from me, huh?”

“Callie…”

“Come on, you guys.  Let’s let these two go at it and get everything out in the open,” Dad said.  I was too busy glaring at Max to even watch as they all left and went to their respective rooms.  No doubt Ben and Drew were going to be listening from behind their door, though. 

“Go on, love,” Max said, holding out his arms to his side.  “Let me have it.  Tell me how much you hate me.”

“I hate that you lied to me.”

“I know.”

“I hate that you went behind my back and created elaborate schemes with both Vince and Agents Turner and Hudson.”

“Yes.”

“I hate that you made me think that you were dead when you really weren’t, that you didn’t even try and contact me in any way to at least let me know you were still alive.”

“I couldn’t.”

I took a few steps toward him, closing the gap between us, and wrapped my arms around him again, pulling his face down to mine.  “And I hate that, after all of this, I’ve already forgiven you.  Because I love you more than anything.”

“Good,” he said, smiling, too, as he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer.  “Because I love you, too.”

I kissed him then, instead of hitting him again.  That seemed a suitable thing at the moment since I got everything off of my chest and threw it in his face…including my fist.  But he didn’t seem to mind that I hit him.  From the smile I could feel forming as I kissed him, I think he kind of found it funny.