We can never thank you enough. So glad everyone is liking this story. Emma and I are very much enjoying writing it too.
We hope you'll like this part, which is written by the lovely Emma.
frenchkiss70
Jason's Princess
FSUMSW94
rigel
roswellluver
force Thanks, and welcome to the story!
Thanks for reading.
Part 11
The next day dawned sunny and Liz groaned when she saw it filtering through her windows. She wanted the snow back; she didn’t want to have to face the world yet or the fact that in less than a week it was Christmas and she still had shopping to do, as well as a story to write.
Thinking about her story, Liz’s thoughts turned to the man who was sleeping in her spare room. He had fallen into her life and turned it upside down. She felt things for the first time in a long time and she didn’t know if she liked that or not. She also realised that she couldn’t hide in her bedroom forever and that sooner or later she was going to have to get up and face him. At first she had felt rejected when he had pulled back from her, but in the light of day she knew that he was right. Burying herself in the amazing feelings he evoked in her because of her sadness wasn’t the answer.
The funny thing Liz found is that the truth had been staring her in the face for months now, but it took Max to come into her life and show her to it. But with seeing the truth also came the realisation, and eventually the acceptance of a few things. No longer could she stay in her world of denial that she had built around her to keep her friends and family out. Those walls had come crumbling down yesterday and she felt relieved.
The shrill sound of the phone ringing jerked her from her thoughts.
‘Hello,’ she answered.
‘Hey chica,’ the voice on the other line replied.
‘Hi Ria’ she smiled. She knew Maria wouldn’t be able to wait too long to call.
‘So I thought you were going to call me back?’ she asked her.
‘Oh yeah sorry about that,’ Liz apologised.
‘Well what’s been keeping you so busy? I mean we’ve been snowed in for days,’ she complained. ‘I mean I thought I was going to go insane. I have so much to do before Christmas and I was in this place all by myself and-’
‘Maria,’ Liz laughed, ‘Calm down.’
The phone went silent then. ‘Maria, are you there?’ Liz had to ask.
A couple of blocks away Maria DeLuca stood with the phone in her hand in shock. Did she just hear Liz laugh?
‘Maria,’ Liz called into the phone again, concerned that something had happened to the line.
‘Yeah I’m here,’ she finally answered.
‘What happened?’ Liz asked concerned.
‘Did you just laugh?’ Maria blurted out.
‘Um, just then?’ Liz smiled. She couldn’t believe that a little giggle had made the windbag DeLuca speechless.
‘No before my silence,’ she corrected.
‘Um yeah I guess I did,’ she replied.
‘Wow,’ Maria said.
‘Yeah it feels good,’ she told her best friend.
‘It sounds good from my end too,’ Maria whispered.
‘Okay don’t you want to know the gossip?’ Liz asked her then, still smiling at Maria's reaction. She could tell she was happy to hear her laugh once more.
‘Gossip?’ Maria questioned.
‘Yep’ Liz grinned. She couldn’t wait to tell her best friend all about the gorgeous, wonderfully, sensitive man who had been snowed in with her.
‘Liz, you’ve been snowed in for days with no phone lines for most of that time, so how can you have gossip?’ Maria asked. It had been so long since she had heard Liz laugh, but it had been even longer since she heard her excited about something. Liz’s relationship with Sean Harrison had sucked the life right out of her, literally.
It had been bad enough that he had almost killed Liz with this drunk driving, which ironically resulted in his own death, but he had left behind a shadow of the person Liz used to be. Even before the accident, and his untimely death Sean had somehow managed to crush Liz’s spirit and Maria was curious as to what, or rather who had been able to give it back to her.
‘Well it’s gossip about me,’ she told her.
‘Okay spill chica,’ Maria demanded.
Liz paused for a moment when she heard shuffling in the bedroom next to her. A couple of minutes later Max knocked on her door.
‘Hold on a sec, Maria,’ Liz said into the phone.
‘Come in,’ she called out.
Max poked his head in hesitantly. He wasn’t sure what type of reaction he was going to receive from Liz this morning. He felt as though he was taking one step forward only to take three back sometimes, but he refused to give in.
‘Morning,’ he smiled scratching his ear.
‘Morning,’ she smiled back.
‘I was just going to grab a shower is that ok?’ he asked unsure.
‘Oh course, oh and I washed and dried your clothes if you wanted to put those back on,’ she told him.
‘Thanks,’ he replied.
‘No problem.’
A minute later Max left the room and Liz brought the receiver back to her ear, remembering that she still had Maria on the other line.
‘Ok do you want to tell me who the strange man in your house is that your exchanging good morning's with?’ Maria demanded.
Liz laughed again. ‘Max,’ she told her.
‘Max?’ Maria repeated.
‘Yeah I met him the other week when you dragged me ice-skating, remember?’ she told her.
‘Oh my God!’ Maria squealed, causing a sleeping Michael who was on the couch to jump up in surprise.
‘Shit,’ he cursed, turning his head to see his blonde charge talking a mile a minute, obviously very excited about something.
Time to see what Max is up to, he thought before vanishing.
‘You mean the total hottie?’ she asked.
‘Um yeah. That would be a good way to describe him,’ Liz giggled.
‘How did that happen?’ she asked then somewhat shocked. Even the Liz of four years ago wouldn’t have shacked up with someone she hardly knew, let alone the Liz of the past three months.
‘Well I actually ran into him at the cemetery the other day when the storm started. He was going to call a taxi but I insisted he let me give him a lift because of the weather. Well I was going to drop him in the city but the weather got too bad so we ended up here,’ she explained to Maria, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
‘You're kidding aren’t you?’ Maria asked surprised.
‘Um no,’ Liz answered.
‘Liz you hardly know the guy. Why on earth would you invite him into your home?’ she screeched, all ready her mind being taken over with scenarios where Max murdered and raped her best friend, or at the least robbed her of everything.
‘I don’t know Ria,’ Liz sighed. She had asked herself the same question a thousand times as she drove them towards her house that first night.
‘I just knew that I could trust him. I feel like I’ve known him forever,’ she explained.
Maria was silent. ‘I’m coming over,’ she informed her best friend.
‘What! Why?’ Liz gasped. The last thing she needed was Maria coming over and giving Max the third degree. Playing twenty questions with Maria had never been her idea of fun and she couldn’t imagine Max liking it much either.
‘Because I have to meet this guy.’
‘Maria, no,’ Liz shook her head.
‘Why not?’ Maria asked slightly surprised. ‘Are you hiding something?’
‘What!? No, what would I be hiding?’ she asked.
‘Hmm, well I don’t know Liz, but you don’t want me, your best friend since birth, the woman that is practically your sister, to meet a stranger that you picked up in a cemetery. Do you see where I’m going with this Liz?’
‘Maria,’ Liz groaned. Why did she have to be so dramatic? Liz thought.
‘Unless of course you have feelings for him and you just want to keep him to yourself,’ Maria reasoned, waiting for Liz to jump down her throat immediately. When silence greeted her on the other line Maria gasped.
‘Liz?’ she questioned ‘You have feelings for him don’t you?’ she asked happily.
‘I-I-’ she stammered. ‘No he’s just a friend that’s all,’ she objected.
‘Well then you won't mind me meeting him. Maybe I could ask him out,’ Maria bated.
‘No!’ Liz yelled.
‘Hmm, me thinks you protest too much, Lizzie’ Maria laughed.
‘God, you're impossible’ Liz grumbled.
Maria laughed then. ‘Listen sweetie I’d love to meet him, to thank him, but if you're not ready for me to do that yet, then that’s fine.’
‘Thank him?’ Liz asked confused.
‘Yeah, thank him,’ Maria confirmed.
‘What for?’
‘Well Liz, I haven’t heard you sound this happy or alive in months, and obviously Max has a lot to do with that. So, I want to thank him for bringing my best friend back to me,’ she told her, her voice sounding a little emotional.
‘I’m sorry, Ria’ she said then. It wasn’t enough for what she had put her, Alex and Isabel through in the past months, but she knew it was the best place to start.
Because somehow Max had been able to show her the answer that had been staring her in the face all along.
Sean Harrison wasn’t worth it.
You didn't treat someone you loved the way he'd treated her, and she wasn’t going to waste anymore of her tears and love on a man who couldn’t love her back. Liz Parker was going to take her life back and it all started with her very own Christmas miracle.
TBC...
