@ Natahalie36: Thank you!
@ Sara: Yeah, they really dared to take a second step, huh! The underlined tension between them guided them to a complete new level now Max isn’t so withdrawn anymore because of his origins.
Alex will indeed be the right man for Isabel. This Alex isn’t the class clown or geek anymore. He has lived a very heavy life and isn’t afraid to speak and hit the truth back at Isabel.
@ Eve: Max finds himself at ease with Liz. That’s why he called her and why he is opening up towards her.
Maria & Michael are great together. Maria’s open reaction after his break down changed a lot in Michael’s behaviour. He doesn’t feel the need anymore to pull his shell up.
@Carolyn: You see, you did remember!
In the real time they waited long but here they took that waiting to another level. By pushing her away, Max didn’t let Liz in for a very long time.
@ Roswelllostcause: Liz really did surprise Max!
A/N: The song you will find in this chapter is ‘I alone’ from Anouk and Sara Bettens (from the Belgian band K’s Choice). You can find the video on youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTbbyB34W84
I‘ve put a link in the story too when you see this happy fellow:
Chapter twenty-five
With long strides he entered her music room, stuffed some papers in her hands and whirled around to unpack his bass guitar from its case.
“Hello to you too, Alex!” she greeted him with an ironic smile.
“Yeah, sorry!” He smiled to her. “A very good morning to you too! I had an incredible night! All at once I found the right chord, the right vibe. Every note fell into place and the words just came together with them.” His brilliant mood vibrated in every word he said.
With one eye she quickly checked out the papers. “Are these the music sheets for Emily’s show?”
Alex smiled sheepishly. “Not exactly.”
“What is it then?” She studied them more closely. “This is a love song!” Maria hummed a few lines while striking the matching chords on her piano. “And quite a good one too!”
Impassioned, he came closer. “Actually, it’s a duet. Look, here are your lines and these are mine.” He explained while showing her his remarks in the margin. “I kept the basics that we were working on but took it on another level. Less hard rock, if you know what I mean.”
Maria nodded. “Yeah, I can see the direction you’re heading in. My direction,” she grinned.
“Of course, it’s just a draft at the moment. We’ll need to rub the corners off to make it flawless.” He invited her in his own way to participate.
Open for new songs and projects she was eager to throw herself into it. “Ok, let’s do this!”
Enthusiastic she stood up, picked her old high school guitar from the wall and installed herself on one of the tall chairs in the room. After plucking some strings Maria started playing the first chords. Quickly following her, Alex filled the room with his warm alto voice. His bass guitar followed along.
It's easier not to be wise
and measure these things by your brains
After a couple of lines she set in too and their voices became one. Giving the song the emotion and soul it needed. When the last chords echoed in the room, it stayed quiet for a moment.
“Whoa, Alex, where did you get these?” she whistled approvingly.
He laughed out loud. “Let’s say I stumbled on an angel dressed as a wicked witch last night. Or was it the other way around?”
Maria opened her eyes wide. “Isabel?” she guessed.
He shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, well, in my case misfortune in love seems to be the best recipe to create music. So that’s at least one advantage I took from it.”
“And what was the other advantage?”
“That’ll be my secret for a while.” Alex chuckled when he thought back to the dazzling Isabel he had met last night. And if he was honest, he had to admit it had left him equally puzzled. He still couldn’t place their weird conversation. Or the whole Isabel thing for that matter. She radiated so many contradicting feelings. It had simmered in his head all night until he had grabbed his guitar and started to play.
“Okay,” she slowly answered before giving him a playful pout, “Why are you my best friend again if you keep everything to yourself?”
Her tease provoked a playful poke between her ribs. “Look who’s talking! The girl who’s always poking her nose into my affairs.”
“Hey, you can’t blame me for looking after you.”
“Yeah, right.” He smirked disbelievingly. “I should do that to you once. Let’s see how you’d react.”
“No, thank you very much. I already have a watchdog.” She rolled her eyes.
Ready to pay her back with the same coin, he answered her with a smug face. “Speaking of which, does Kyle already know about you and Michael Guerin?”
He innocently winked at her when he saw her eyes bulge. “I’m just looking after you, you know. As a good friend I should let him know, don’t you think?”
Horrified she held up her hands. “No, no, point taken. Everybody deserves a little secret now and then.”
Her quick change made him throw his head back from laughing. “Nice to see you agree.”
His laughter was contagious and it didn’t talk her long to laugh with him.
***
Michael whistled in tune with the song coming from the main house. It wasn’t exactly his cup of tea but he enjoyed it anyway. Like he had been enjoying lots of small things the last couple of days.
Maria!
It was nuts how many times a day her name popped into his mind. He smirked out loud when he thought at the fierce blond pixie. Not that she was that small, but compared to him she just felt that way.
Yeah, she was quite a piece of work!
The smirk on his face widened when he refocused on the canvas.
Out of a fog of fine and delicate lines his daughter grinned back at him. From memory he had drawn the cute and pretty contours of the apple of his eye.
This was his first free morning after a turbulent week. The last couple of days his hands had itched to begin painting again. Something he hadn’t done since college. So he had bought the supplies and this morning he had just started. The paint brushes and the palette with oils had immediately felt very familiar in his hands. Like he had used them only yesterday instead of years ago.
After he had imprinted his raw emotions with rapid strokes and vivid colours on his first paintings, he had initiated a totally new one. One created with care, harbouring his worship and love in it. His Hannah.
It had liberated him, giving him a chance to say goodbye after that stupid prick of a driver had ripped her from him way too soon. And now the portrait made him smile. Her laugh reminded him off all the fun moments they had shared and it warmed his heart the way he had never pictured. The look on her face seemed to encourage him to move on.
“Hey, squirt, it’s me, Dad. I left you and Mom in the lurch, huh?” he smirked at her image.
“But you’ll be my daughter forever. I promise I won’t run anymore. We’re staying right here. You would’ve loved it here. Playing with Emily, me having more time for you. I’m thinking about taking my work down a notch or two. What do you think?”
At that moment he heard his cell buzzing on Metallica’s Master of Puppets. With an annoyed look on his face he checked the ringer. Mabel! He rolled his eyes at his daughter.
“See, here they are again!”
“Mabel!” he answered the phone after a last wink at Hannah.
“Yes, good morning, Michael. We had arranged to phone each other on Friday, so here I am.” When she didn’t hear a reaction, she let out a sigh: “So, do you still want me to take a holiday?”
The aversion in the question couldn’t be missed, even by Michael, who normally wasn’t very perceptive with such things. He scratched his eyebrow and nodded at the image before him. Here was his moment to change things. So he cleared his throat, “Yeah, well, that actually depends on what you want, Mabel.”
“What I want?” Perplexed, Mabel gazed at the phone in her hands. This was the first time in her long career that a boss inquired as to her wishes.
“Yeah,” Michael confirmed when he realised her astonishment. “You see, I’m going to be honest with you, Mabel. I’m not coming back to L.A. Like, ever.”
Once started, Michael found the pieces of the puzzle falling into place. “I’m going to keep Toy House but it’ll relocate to Roswell. It’s my intention to restart as an architect, but on a smaller and more low profile scale than before. Maybe even on a part-time basis. I’m not sure yet. We’ll see.”
Dumbfounded, Mabel could only nod.
“Mabel? Still there?” Michael demanded in his straightforward way. “I know I’m ambushing you with this. Anyway, this involves you too. So, think about it.”
“What’s to think about?” she eventually got out.
He smirked. “Oh, wasn’t I clear enough? My mistake. Like I said, it’s up to you to choose what you want, Mabel. You can stay in L.A. and search for a new job, maybe even retire. You do deserve some time off. Or you could follow me to Roswell. I can still offer you a part-time job if you want it.”
This time she wasn’t irritated by Michael’s way of thinking that she could read between the lines to understand the things he had forgotten to say out loud. The only thing on her mind flashed through her head like a red neon light, warning her of the potential danger. “Roswell?” To her surprise she had vocalized her concern.
“Yeah, I know it isn’t Hollywood. Outside the tourist trap, the town isn’t the most bubbling place. But it’s where I grew up.” He looked outside the window to the main house and proceeded. “And it’s where I’d like to start over.”
Mabel swallowed.
Roswell, of all places! Her life had ended in Roswell and now Michael wanted to start over there. Normally she wouldn’t even consider going back there, certainly not for a job. But normal wasn’t the word that defined her boss or the working relationship she had with him.
Michael could feel her hesitation. “Look, Mabel, think it through. Don’t feel obligated to come here. Let it be very clear, Mabel. You might as well know I’m going to miss you and your fussing.” He laughed out loud. “And know I cursed that in the beginning like nothing before. But if you choose to remain there, I would write you a warm recommendation so you could find a new position.”
The way he had offered her the job and praised her work in between made her smile faintly. This decision was going to be a hard one to tackle. On one hand she had hoped to stay with Michael’s company until her retirement. His odd way of leading the office, the way he reminded her of her fiancé… She had no family around, nobody to miss. Her job was her life and Michael had become the son she had never had. But on the other hand, Roswell, the town that held too many bad memories. About her beloved Jimmy, her broken dreams of a life she could have had.
Finally she agreed. “I’ll think about it. Promise.”
“Good,” Michael nodded, “and if you come, you can drive the Mercedes. The rest of the details we could figure out together. If you don’t, we’ll do the same thing. Bye, Mabel.”
Mabel could only whisper a goodbye. Even several minutes later, she still sat there, holding the phone in one hand and playing with its cord with the other. Totally lost in thoughts.
The biggest part of her life she had lived in loneliness. It had taken her years to cope with the loss of her Jimmy. And after that she had just worked and worked. Most of the time for rude and completely unpleasant companies. Until she had stepped into Michael’s chaotic office.
Could she find a new job at fifty-nine? She needed the cash. But who would give an old bag like herself another chance? And could she let her job with Michael go? Could she let him go? What did she have to lose?
A determined line appeared on her lips. Afraid to back off, she immediately pushed a pre-programmed button on her telephone set.
“Michael? I’ll do it. Let me rearrange some things and then you can expect me on Monday.”
***
Liz was walking from one patient room to the other when her cell phone started ringing. The ring tone revealed the caller. With a smile she excused her to the nurse and intern who were walking with her. “Excuse me. This one is important.”
She withdrew herself for a moment into the nearby storeroom.
“Hello, Max!” she smiled into the telephone.
Max could hear her radiant mood and couldn’t help smiling back, even though he knew she couldn’t see him. Which was actually a plus this time considering the fact he was calling her in the scrub room in between two operations. “Hi, Liz. How are you?”
“Couldn’t be better after last night,” she admitted.
“I’m not interrupting you?”
“Yeah, well, I was doing my rounds and-”
“I’m already leading you astray.” He finished her sentence. “Same problem here. I can’t stop thinking about yesterday evening.”
His confession made Liz blush. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t bad.”
Max laughed out loud now. “No, it wasn’t. It was so fantastic that I’d like to repeat it this evening. But unfortunately my agenda doesn’t agree. I’m piled under a whole day of surgeries. And while my mind wouldn’t mind, I know from experience that a date isn’t an option tonight. Actually nothing other than getting into bed will be possible. Alone, that is.” Then he chuckled “Although I wouldn’t mind that either.”
“I can come by to fuss over you,” she suggested.
“Tempting.” He mused but then shook his head. “No, no, I’m sorry. I just won’t be pleasant company.”
When a colleague passed by, he stopped briefly before continuing. “Liz, you’re the first person I let in. So I want to do this right, the way it’s supposed to be. I want to take you out on a date.”
Charmed by his romantic proposal she reassured him, “Which I accept with all my heart.”
“You do, huh?” he teased her flirtatiously.
“Uh-huh.”
“Max, we’re ready for the next patient!” The face of Andrew, his colleague and anaesthesiologist, appeared round the corner.
“Ok, give me two minutes.” He waved at him before returning to his phone call. “Liz, what do you think about a picnic? Tomorrow morning I’ve been ordered to a family meeting at Michael’s. But I could pick you up afterwards with a basket of food on the back seat and the whole day before us.”
“Sounds great! I only have one extra suggestion: pick me up before your meeting. I already agreed to visit Maria in the morning. We can go together and leave from there after you’ve spoken with your brother and sister.”
“Well, actually, Isabel will be the one speaking and Michael and I will be listening but other than that it’s a great idea. I’ll pick you up at nine.”
“Nine it is! Have a great day, Max!”
“You too. Love you, Liz!”
***
Holy fuck!
All the pieces of the puzzle were falling together. Or that was at least what she thought. And if what she was assuming was correct, she had to lay her cards on the table. Now! There could be lives at stake if she didn't react quickly.
So Tess took her cell phone out and dialled a number. “Hi, Kyle! Can we meet?”
