Moving Forward

Was that... a date? (11)

Days passed and Max heard absolutely nothing from River. In reality, Max knew that he shouldn't have really expected anything. It was only dinner and, despite Rowland - whoever he was - calling them sweethearts...

Oh lord... they'd been called sweethearts. Surely Max hadn't been so obvious. Well shit...

God this was pathetic.

Luckily for him, Lara wasn't working today and had chosen to grace him with her unwanted presence. That was rude. He did like the girl. She just required a lot of energy. And Max, being a fucking jaguar shifter, could be described as being more than a little lazy. In his defence, he was also part lion shifter and those fucks didn't do anything that could be called high-energy during the day.

Lara was being somewhat helpful, in all fairness. She wasn't simply being a pain in his ass. The reason she had come over today was to bring garden furniture with her.

"You're a saint, Lara," Max had huffed when he saw the circular porch chair that he knew would definitely be covered in blankets before the week was over.

"I know," she grinned, and flipped her blonde hair. And then she flopped down onto the sun lounger. "So what's up with you and Kyle?"

Max shrugged. "What do you mean?"

She lifted the sun glasses hiding her glass blue eyes. "You didn't seriously think this was all I came here for did you? Now, tell me everything."

"I take back the saint comment." Max murmured. And then lay back. "I bumped into him in the woods, and we hung out a bit. We... we might have fallen asleep on the porch." With every word, his voice quieted and his cheeks flushed. "And um... when we woke up... we were cuddled together... we didn't move... for hours."

Lara's eyes were wide and bright and a grin was set in stone on her face. "Go on, go on."

Max's blush deepened. "He left in the evening. And then came back... and then asked if I wanted to have dinner with him."

"And o'course you said yes," Lara squeaked. "And the entire Steakhouse watched you two make heart eyes at each other."

"Wait, what?"

Lara nodded. "Yup, heard it straight from Rowland. Said he'd changed the lighting and the music to try an' make it more romantic for you, but neither of you took the cue."

"Huh?"

"Are you sure you're not slow?" Lara frowned, but still appeared incredibly amused with his reactions. "Everyone knows you two went on a date."

Max blinked. "A... date? Are you sure? Because he didn't say it was a date? He only asked me to have dinner with him." His voice was a little louder than usual, and held a slightly panicky tone to it that made him cringe.

Lara laughed. "I'm sure. Even Carter said he's never seen his brother blush like that."

How was Max supposed to react to this? There was a bubbling in his stomach that made him wonder if he was going to be sick. His mind was completely blank, empty of words to reply to his friend with. And there was an odd sensation in his chest, sort of painful, but also sort of amazing.

"Oh." He finally said. "I think I might've just died inside."

"In the good way or the bad way?"

He met her eyes. "In the good way. Definitely the good way." A thought occurred to him. "Do you have River's number?"

Lara shrugged. "I might. Why?" The mischievous gleam said she already knew why.

"So I can spam him with viagra sales. Why do you think?" Max's impatience was beginning to show and he calmed himself down before he could say anything worse.

She still laughed. "Fine, fine, no need to be so rude."

Seconds later, Max was ignoring her as the phone rang.

"Max and Kyle, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G." Lara sang.

Max rolled his eyes, and curled up on his new circular porch chair.

"Hello?" River's voice had him scrambling to sit up. "Hello? Who is this?"

"S-sorry, it's Max, h-hi."

River's voice suddenly took on a much softer tone. "Hey, Max."

"Hi."

He laughed. "Hi. Are you alright?"

Max blinked, nodded, and then remembered he was on the phone. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. So... c-can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

It took Max a moment to work up the courage. "Sorry... this is a lot harder without... without all the body language."

"I know." River's gentle tone pushed Max along.

"Urm... was... was the other night..." he huffed, and then whined. "Wasthatadate?" He blurted the question out as fast as he could without tripping on his tongue.

River was silent for a moment. There was a snort - whether that was amusement or disbelief, Max couldn't tell. But he could hear a slight groan that was either completely indecent or filled with pain.

"I... did... I didn't make it clear did I?" River sounded a little retrospective, more like he was talking to himself than to Max. "If it was a date, would you have still said yes?"

"Well... I mean... yeah..." Max muttered. "Of course I would have."

River hummed. "Then yes, it was a date."

Someone whooped in the background, and River yelled at them to shut it before he... Max didn't get that bit, but he recognised the vaguely threatening tone when he heard it.

"Great." Max grinned. "Perfect. That's... that's perfect."

"It is perfect." River agreed, and Max could practically hear the smile, in spite of the fact that he wasn't really speaking into the phone anymore.

"Ok... bye." Max murmured.

"Bye."

Lara squealed at Max, bouncing on the lounger like some sort of three year old whilst clapping. Words did actually come out of her mouth, but they were difficult to distinguish between the happy squeaks and giggles.

Max glanced between the phone and Lara and back again. What now? He didn't really know what to do with himself, so he just sat there, staring at anything and everything in view and wondering why his cheek muscles were beginning to ache. Smiling. That was a smile on Max's face. And it was probably a very dopey grin, at that. Like the kind teenage girls get when they text their crush and the crush replies with something cute. That kind of dumb grin.

"Are you okay Max?" Lara giggled, still watching him, apparently.

Max nodded emphatically. "I think... I think I'm great. What should I do now?"

Lara shrugged. "Who knows? Just savour the happy feeling of knowing that your feelings are returned."

Who knew Lara could be so wise? Max mentioned the thought to her, earning a swift kick to his shin.