"Chinese, please." She sighed and her stomach growled. "Sweet and sour pork with fried rice and egg drop soup."

"That sounds good." He kissed her on the nose and called in the order.

"Hey Maxwell," she called him over to him softly. "What did you call me for earlier today?"

"It doesn't matter." He looked at her grimly.

"I want to know." She caught his eye and kept it.

"I'll tell you tomorrow. Let's just enjoy the night, okay?" He pulled her towards him and kissed her forehead. "Now let's watch TV."

They settled in front of the TV and watched Chopped. Sophie snuggled up to Maxwell and pictured this being her everyday life.

"Eww, that looks gross." Maxwell's voice jolted her out of her daydream of them as a happy family.

"Yeah. I hate liver." She looked at the screen and smiled. The contestants had to make a desert with liver and white chocolate.

"I know." He smiled down at her and stroked her hair. "I remember that summer you grabbed a big bite and stuffed it in your mouth."

"Only because I thought it was steak." She laughed.

"Only, it wasn't a big juicy filet." He laughed along with her. "It was a nasty piece of liver."

"And I spat it into my serviette when no one was looking."

"And then you threw it into the toilet and clogged it up."

"And you lied for me and said it was you." She smiled up at him. "That was super nice of you, Maxwell."

"Well, I didn't want you to get in trouble." He smiled down at her.

"I know." She grinned. "And then that night, I snuck to your room and shared my Snickers bar with you."

"And scared my girlfriend out of the room."

"You weren't supposed to have girls in your room."

"Well, when you are nineteen, you will sneak in as many girls as you can." He laughed and started tickling her. "I should really get you back for all the girls you scared out of my room by sneaking up in the middle of the night."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have become my confidant." She shrieked with laughter as he tickled under her arms and rolled around on the couch. She felt his hands still and he pulled her towards him.

"Am I still your confidant, Sophie?" He stared into her big green eyes, searching for an answer.

"No." She bit her lip. "Well, kinda."

He sighed. "I want to know something." He played with her hair and tucked it behind her ear.

"Ok."

"So the guy you told me about back in Winterside. Do you still love him?"

She looked at him in confusion. "What guy?"

"The guy you wrote about. The one who made you sad."

"Oh." She looked away and played with the hair on his chest.

"Is that a yes?" His voice sounded sad and she turned to look at him, something in his voice made her heart start racing.

"No." She paused. "Well, yes. I still love the guy I wrote about."

"Oh, okay." He pulled away from her. "He's a fool."

It was in that moment that Sophie did what she should have done that first night. She pulled him towards her and caressed his forehead. "He is a fool, Max. But that fool is you."

He looked at her in confusion and suddenly a light appeared in his eyes as he realized what she had said. "You love me, Sophie?" His voice was disbelieving.

She looked down, embarra.s.sed that her secret was now out. "Yes. Yes. I love you."

She heard his sharp intake of breath and felt him pull away from her. She felt bereft and saddened at his withdrawal from her. He stood up and started pacing back and forth.

"I have to go." He turned to look at her with bleak eyes.

"Whatever." She turned away from him too hurt to pretend anymore.

"Sophie, please." His voice was pleading.

"What?" she screamed at him. "What do you want from me, Maxwell? You sleep with me. Treat me like s.h.i.t. Sleep with me again. Treat me like s.h.i.t again and now you want to leave after I tell you I love you."

He stood there with a scared look on his face. She laughed manically. "Now you think I'm having a breakdown or something right. Well you can f.u.c.k off Maxwell Van Harkel. f.u.c.k off and don't come back." She screamed at him with tears running down her face and she started hitting his chest as he walked towards her and took her into his arms.

"I'm sorry, Sophie. I didn't realize." He looked at her with pain in his eyes. "I didn't want this to happen." He held her close to him and she sobbed into his chest. She felt exhausted and tired and she no longer wanted to deal with all the thoughts in her head.

"It's okay." She finally lifted her weary head and stared at him. "You can go now. I'm okay."

"I'm not going anywhere," he whispered in her ear.

"I don't want this anymore, Max." She sighed. "You make me feel used."

"What?" He looked at her like a wounded deer. "That's never been my intention, Sophie."

"It doesn't matter. Please Max." She yawned and Max felt his heart soften as he stared at the helpless and tired girl he had loved for as long as he could remember.

"No. I'm not going." He picked her up into his arms, his hands resting against her naked p.u.s.s.y and carried her to the bed.

"Max." She squirmed in his arms until his fingers were crushed against her c.l.i.t. She sighed and tried to stop herself from rubbing herself gently against his fingers. The touch of him in her most intimate spot was almost too much to take and she felt herself growing wet.

Max smiled to himself as he carried her to her room. He knew what she was doing but pretended to ignore it. He shifted her in his arms, pretending to get a better balance on her but he was really readjusting his fingers so they were splayed directly against her p.u.s.s.y. The next time she shifted to adjust herself, one of his fingers pushed into her p.u.s.s.y opening and she squealed out. "Max."

"Yes?" He shifted her again and this time he stuck another finger into her so that he was slowly fingering her as he carried her. He could hear her start to moan and he lay her down carefully on the edge of the bed.

"Nothing." She looked up at him wordlessly waiting to see what he was going to do next.

"Close your eyes." He ordered her and stuck his fingers in her again. She obeyed him and spread her legs open. He fingered her and pulled his briefs down, allowing his hardened c.o.c.k out of its cage. He removed his fingers and slid himself into her and her eyes popped open.

"Oh." She mouthed at him as he slowly pushed his c.o.c.k into her deeply and then withdrew it again. She watched as he pulled it out and allowed the tip to rest on her c.l.i.t. He rubbed the tip of his d.i.c.k up and down on her c.l.i.t until he could feel it throbbing and then he slowly entered her again, allowing her p.u.s.s.y lips to tighten around him as he pushed his way into her. He continued entering her slowly and withdrawing from her until she groaned. She reached up and pulled him down on the bed.

She sat on top of him and guided his c.o.c.k into her and then she rode him hard and fast, until this time they both exploded in pa.s.sion together. She collapsed on top of him and kissed his chest as she fell asleep. He waited until she had fallen asleep to wrap his arms around her and hold her close to him.

"I love you too, Sophie." He whispered to her softly. "I love you, too."

Chapter 12.

Sophie kept her eyes closed when she awoke. She had had the most marvelous dream and she didn't want to wake up out of that world. She had been sitting on the front porch of a house in a rocking chair with a baby girl on her lap. In the front garden, there were two young boys throwing a ball with their dad, her husband-Maxwell. After the game, they had all come running up to the porch to beg for cookies and milk and Max had taken the baby from her and kissed her. She had kissed him back with pa.s.sion and seen the love and devotion shining from his eyes before they had walked into the house. And then she had woken up. She wanted to go back to the reality of her dreams. If only, there was a way for her to do that.

She felt an arm snake around her stomach and she stilled as she remembered that Maxwell was here with her. Only the circ.u.mstances were very different from her dream. She wondered how long it would take him to act like a jerk this morning. She could almost laugh at the shock in his face last night after she had told him she loved him. He had looked like a deer in headlights. She would always remember his face the night he broke her heart. She was a fool. She wished she hadn't told him she loved him; at least then, she would still have her self-respect.

As she felt his hand move up to her breast, she jerked away from him and jumped out of the bed. She walked quickly to the bathroom without looking at him and turned on the shower. The dream had made her realize that she didn't want to play this cat and mouse game with Maxwell anymore. It wasn't fair to her. She wasn't going to let him sleep with her and take Alexis to dinner. She deserved better. She vowed to herself that she would be strong from here on out. As she washed her hair, she thought about Ella and wished that she could talk to her. Ella didn't even know that she was pregnant. She had a feeling that Ella wouldn't be shocked. She seemed to be in the middle of her own scandalous affair. Sophie felt positive that Ella was sleeping with Joseph, and it made her immensely sad; her friend was too sweet to be a mistress.

"Sophie." Maxwell banged on the door. "Are you nearly done? I have to leave soon."

"Of course you do," she mumbled as she washed the shampoo out of her hair.

"Sophie." He banged hard again. "Please open up. I have to leave in five minutes."

Sophie ignored him and starting humming to herself. After a few minutes, the banging stopped and the room went silent. A few seconds later, she heard the front door bang shut and she scrubbed her skin until it was a tingling red. She felt the tears running out of her eyes. Tears that she didn't even know she was holding in until they were streaming down her face. She had secretly hoped that Maxwell would try harder, that he would wait for her to get out of the shower so that they could talk. That maybe he would tell her that he loved her too, maybe even propose to her so that they could be a family like in her dream. Her mind flashed back to the headline she had seen the day before that declared that he was in engaged to Alexis.

As she walked back into her empty room, she stared at the tousled sheets and clothes on the floor and she knew that something wasn't adding up. If he loved Alexis so much, why was he coming to spend the night with her? And they hadn't yet had a conversation about the baby, at least not a serious one.

She sighed as her phone started ringing and she saw it was Maxwell. She was going to ignore it but anger got the better of her and she grabbed the phone. "What?" she snarled upset.

"Whoa, what happened to you, Soph?" His voice was soft.

"Nothing. I'm just surprised you are calling me so soon. You normally f.u.c.k me and bail for at least 24 hours."

"What?" He sounded confused.

"After you bed me, you don't talk to me for at least 24 hours." She spoke slowly. "Comprende?"

Maxwell sighed, "Sophie, it's not what you think, wait hold on a second." Maxwell covered the phone with his hand and Sophie could hear a woman's voice in the background. She pressed the phone as hard as she could into her ear so that she could hear the conversation better but all of the words sounded m.u.f.fled.

"Sophie?" Maxwell came back to the phone; this time is tone was brusque. "We need to talk. There are some things we need to sort out."

"Okay." She was pretty sure that the baby talk was about to happen.

"Meet me for lunch?" He sounded distracted and Sophie wondered what was going on. And then she heard the woman's voice say, "Maxwell, come. We have some unfinished business." And then she laughed; a loud silky laugh and Sophie knew that it was Alexis.

"You're with Alexis?" Sophie's voice held disbelief. "You hurried out of my bed to go and see Alexis?"

"It's not like that, Sophie." His voice was urgent. "Please meet me for lunch."

"You can f.u.c.k off, Maxwell." She spoke angrily, the words tripping out of her mouth. "I don't want to see you again."

"Sophie." His voice was strained. "Look, I have to go. I'll pick you up in 3 hours."

"Whatever." Sophie hung up the phone and screamed. She threw the phone at the wall and looked around for other items to throw. She grabbed a brush and threw that and then went and banged her fists against the wall, tears streaming out of her eyes.

"I hate you, I hate you, I hate you." She screamed and shouted as she banged her fists. "I hate you." She collapsed onto the ground and sobbed, unable to keep in her frustration and sadness. A loud bang made her jump and she sat on the ground frozen in fear.

"Sophie?" Ella's voice called out to her and Sophie heard her walk towards her room. "Sophie?" Ella peaked into the room and saw Sophie sitting there, wide-eyed and teary. "OMG Sophie, what happened?" She ran over to her friend in concern, "Are you okay?"

Sophie nodded, unable to talk. She stared at Ella as if she was a stranger she was seeing for the first time. She looked different. She had cut off her long blond hair and now her face was surrounded by a pixie cut. She looked older and sadder. But Sophie was too distraught to ask her what was wrong.

"Oh Sophie." Ella sat down next to her and hugged her. "Are your aunt and uncle okay?"

Sophie nodded once again and cried into her friends shoulder. They sat there for a few minutes before Sophie's phone started ringing. Ella reached over, grabbed it, and handed it to her. Sophie didn't recognize it and so she answered it.

"h.e.l.lo." She spoke slowly so she could regulate her breathing.

"h.e.l.lo, this is Mildred Hubble from The Gottesman Libraries at Teacher's College, Columbia University."

"Okay?" Sophie's voice showed her confusion. "How can I help you?"

"You left a notepad at the desk yesterday. I thought you might need it. You seemed to be very caught up in your research."

"Oh. Thanks." Sophie didn't really care anymore. She didn't care about Maxwell's past or at least she tried to tell herself that. What was the point?

"Also, you didn't shut the computer down properly last night." The old lady sounded miffed.

"Sorry."

"Well, as I was shutting it down for you, I noticed that you had done the search incorrectly and had only accessed certain websites. If you can come in today before 5pm, I can show you how to access all the sites and government files."

"Government files?" Sophie's breath caught.

"Yes." The lady sounded excited. "I can help you access files that people don't even know exist."

"Oh?"

"I think you should come in, Sophie." The lady spoke with urgency. "I don't know why you were looking up this Maxwell Van Harkel, but there is some information I think you should see."

"Oh, ok." Sophie's heart started beating fast. "I'll come in right away."