M and M

Chapter-23

It has been 2 weeks since that day in the office. Max has been ignoring me from the next day onwards, just stopping to greet me once in a while and then poof', gone. It's as if am not there at all. It was some kind of punishment. 

After spending so much time with him, I have started to get withdrawal symptoms without him now. I miss him soo badly and want to talk to him, but I am afraid after he warned me to stay away. Whenever he is around, my eyes directly go to him. It's like my eyes follow his every move. They are literally stuck on him, lie south pole to north pole of a magnet.

We all still hang out, but now his interactions with me are less. I see him sometimes looking at me and then the next moment he completely ignores my existence. I sometimes thought of falling sick or acting sick so that he would talk to me again but afraid that he would see right through the act, I didn't dare do so.

Ok, let's talk about something that doesn't involve him. I need to get over this. So, after we went to dinner that eventful day, I sat next to D. It was kind of a celebratory dinner for bagging the contract with the Campbell's.

Ross was also there. It was a big coincidence that we met in Max's office that way. Who thought we would meet again? I for sure did not.

And the whole time during the dinner, we were talking, Max was ignoring us. Intentionally ignoring us. Especially me.

At one point during dinner when Ross and I accidentally reached for the same bowl of ice cream, our hands touched for a brief moment, we looked at each other and laughed awkwardly, but Max, oh my god, he got off his chair, angrily, scrapping it across the floor and left without saying anything.

Seeing this I got up as fast as I could without falling, excused myself, and ran after him. As I looked around I saw him standing outside looking up at the sky, his hands in a tight fist.

"Max, are you alright?" I asked in a small voice, so as not to startle him.

"I told you to stay away from me. Did I not?" was his clipped response.

"I... Yes, but you came out like that, I was worried" I whispered back.

"You need to stay the hell away from every guy, do you understand? I don't like it when you are nice to someone else other than me," He burst out finally. He was angry, soo angry, I could see it myself. His face was red like a ripe tomato.

"What do you want me to do? Never come out of my room? I am a nice person and I have to interact with people." I yelled at him, without meaning to. He was being unreasonable right now.

"Yes, that would be awesome." He growled out.

"You were the one who told me to stay away from you, and now every other guy? why? why should I do that?" I hit him with my bag out of anger. I had lost the point of me coming out after him.

"Because I fucking love you and I can't for the love of God see you with somebody else." He shouted at me, snatching my purse from my hand. And I went tumbling on to him because I still had a stronghold on the straps.

Thank god he held me when I fell onto him. I looked up at him with my eyes wide as his revelation had rendered me speechless. I think even he was too because he stood there without saying anything else. Stunned to silence.

 I don't think he wanted to blurt that out. His chest heaving, he opened his mouth to say something but chose to keep quiet.

We stood there for about I don't know how much time, in the same position not knowing what to do. Derek came out looking for us calling our names.

I distanced myself from Max before D could see anything and then start firing his questions.

"Guys is everything alright?." He asked looking at both of us.

"Yes, Derek. Just give us a few minutes, we will be back inside." Max said, telling D to head ahead of us.

When D left, I turned around and started walking towards the entrance, but before I could walk any further, Max grabbed my wrist and stopped me. Coming around so that he was facing me now.

"If you don't want me to punch that guy's face in, stop getting cozy with him. " He ordered me.

"But.." He cut me right off

"NO, either you stop being all nice to him, or -- " I rolled my eyes. This had to stop.

"Ok, ok. Fine, stop being so bossy. Geez," I drawled out.

After going back inside I came and sat back on my original seat and smiled politely at Ross and that was it. We stayed for some time, had our deserts, and left. And that was that. After that, The mighty King started ignoring me. A mere peasant.

Nowadays everyone at the office was soo busy due to new work flowing in every day, that I had started to spend my time with Ross now. I know Max told me to stay away from him, actually, he told me to stay away from all the guys, but what can he do now?. I needed some company. everyone else was busy. And it wasn't as if he cared now.

Ross wasn't bad at all. Whenever he was free, we would meet up or go out for lunch. He loved eating out, especially sweets. It was something we both loved. So every time we went out we tried something new every day. Every day a different place. Lie this we could have opened our food blog.

Eventually, the secret did not last long and Max found out. Every time he saw me with Ross, his happy-go personality would go into the dumpster and an angry, moody Max would appear in an instant. But he still wouldn't talk to me. He was a ticking time bomb, waiting to explode. I knew that. I just wish it is not me who he explodes on.

Being the sweet guy Ross was, he would always pick me up from the apartment, and then we would go out. He told me he liked spending time with me, not in a flirty kind of way. He likes how genuine I am with him so our friendship was mainly platonic. No romantic feelings are involved at all.

If you guys think that I was or am trying to fill the void which Max created by ignoring me then you are wrong. Ross knew about my feelings towards Max, he read me like an open book. He had honestly told me that he wanted to ask me out at first, but after seeing Max and me together, he abandoned that plan.

Now we are just friends and every time we went out, I point out to girls, that I liked. For him. Actually, we both check out girls together and boys as well, just for entertainment. It's nice to appreciate good things when you see one, you know. And we did not check them out like perverts, okay? We were just sightseeing, nothing else.

By now I knew exactly what kind of person he would like. I also had someone in my mind but I just had to wait for the perfect time and opportunity to introduce them. The cupid in me wanted to come out and play.