Around noon, Max waved me over as Detective Karl was setting up a picnic. I was hungry, so I walked away from my peaceful spot away from them. I sat down, and Max handed me a paper plate with some food on it. It was a quick and boring lunch. To my pleasure, we left after we were done eating.
When Max and I climbed into the car, he asked, “now, was that so bad?”
I was still upset with him, so I glared at him without saying anything.
“What can I do to make you forgive me?”
“I wanna go out on my own.” I answered him knowing he wasn’t going to agree.
“That’s a bit risky considering we don’t know what happened to you. Someone could be looking for you so that they can finish the job.”
“I wouldn’t complain.”
“And why’s that?”
“I can’t remember my past at all, and it seems nobody knows who I am, so nobody would miss me.”
“That’s stupid. I would miss you.”
“Fine. Then I want ice cream.”
“Will you forgive me if I get you some ice cream?”
“No.”
Max shook his head and continued to drive. When we got into the city, he went into the market's confusing parking lot. He got out, and I followed behind him. He went straight to the frozen section and stopped in front of the ice creams.
“Go ahead, get whatever you want.”
I began to look around. Little did Max know, I had forgiven him on the ride to the store. I had calmed down significantly and began to understand that he had to do what his job required him to do.
I looked at all the ice creams thinking about what I wanted. I settled with a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. I pulled it out of the freezer and handed it to Max. Max reached in and grabbed another. He then started walking, and as usual, I followed behind him. Everything was at peace with us again, and I think he could tell.
After the store, we went back home; it didn’t take Max long to begin dinner preparations. Although it was barely past noon, he liked to make sure he had everything he needed or wanted for dinner. While he set out the ingredients for a pasta dish, I was sitting at the table eating straight out of the ice cream container.
Once Max finished setting everything out for dinner, he went into the living room and sat down on the couch. He looked over at me, “you’re a handful. You know that?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Do you really want to be able to walk around by yourself?”
“It would be nice.”
“I’ll consider it, but first you need to take some defense classes, so if something were to happen, you’d be able to somewhat protect yourself.”
“How long would that take?”
“Depends. If you’re a fast learner maybe two months. It could also take a year.”
“That’s no fun.”
“I’d also like to chip you.”
“What!” I exclaimed to him. What he said offended me; it made me feel like he was trying to possess me. Was I a dog to him?
“It’s just so if something does happen to you, I can find you easily. You may not get as lucky as you did last time. If you had been out there any longer, you could have died or been eaten alive.”
“I don’t want to be chipped.”
“We can discuss that later, but for now, I’ll sign you up for some defense classes.”
“Thanks.” I said as I put the lid back on the container of ice cream. I was done with it, so I placed it in the freezer next to the other container of ice cream.
I walked into the living room and sat down next to Max as he surfed the channels on the television. He landed on some show about a group of men trying to knock up a girl so that she would marry one of them. Whoever knocked her up was the winner of some bet.
It was stupid, but for some reason it was interesting to watch. The harder these guys tried the more they messed up. In the end, they all discovered that she was infertile and couldn’t even conceive due to an incident when she was a child. However, the girl had actually fallen in love with one of them and did marry him.
The channel was showing the whole series in order as a way to prepare for the second season. I sat there and finished up the series, but Max had gotten up to prepare dinner. It took him a little over an hour to finish the pasta dish. I wasn’t sure what it was, so I asked Max about it. He said it was called lasagna. It was good, but so was everything else that he cooked. He hadn’t prepared anything that tasted bad; it was as if cooking was his superpower.
The night was pretty uneventful; I showered and got into bed with Max. It was a peaceful night and the following days were peaceful as well. The rest of the week was also uneventful; however, Max did register me for a defense class so that I could work towards going out on my own. He even offered to teach me how to drive his car. I turned down the offer because I liked walking more than I liked being trapped in that metal box.
My classes didn’t begin until the following week on Tuesday; the classes were scheduled for every Tuesday and Thursday. I was excited and couldn’t wait for these classes. I was ready to have a little more freedom away from Max. Over the weekend, Max took me on another trip to the river. This time, I didn’t fall asleep in the river, and I even got Max to join me.
He was resting on the bank like he was last time, and I waved my arm to make a wave of water. It hit Max and he shouted, “hey,” and jumped into the river with me so that he could splash me back. We ended up running around in the water splashing each other. At one point Max lifted me out of the water and threw me into an even deeper part of the river.
I shouted at him, “Hey, that’s not fair.”
He laughed and sarcastically asked, “How?”
“You know how! I can’t pick you up.”
“Are you sure? Have you ever even tried to pick me up.”
“You’re so mean!” I playfully yelled at him as I ran towards him. I jumped out of the water right into him, knocking him over into the water.
We continued our childish play until we tired out. After playing in the water, we sat down on the blanket and had a nice lunch. Max had prepared potato salad and turkey sandwiches. He also packed a couple bags of chips so that we would have some options. The day was beautiful and the birds were all singing.
It was nice being out there, and it was nice sharing this time with Max. The more time I spent with him, the closer I felt to him. Then again, the more time I spent with him, the more I realized that I didn’t know much about him. These thoughts prompted me to ask him questions as we took a break from the water.
“Max?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a family?’
“Well, yes, I do.”
“What are they like?”
“Well, it’s hard to explain. They are always busy, and I never really spent a lot of time with them.”
“I wish I knew my family. I guess I didn’t have a family before though because if I did, I'm sure they’d be looking for me right now.”
“We’ll find out what happened to you. I promise.”
“Thanks. Can I ask why you work as a detective and a therapist? Why both and not just one?"
“Well, I work as a detective because it’s a family trade, and I work as a therapist because it's just what my manager decided to do with me.”
“What do you do outside of work?”
“You live with me. You know the answer to that.”
“How about before I started living with you?”
“Not much. Mostly the same things I do now.”
“Have you ever had a partner?”
"When I first started working as a detective I was assigned as an assistant to someone who had experience in the field so that I could get some hands on training before going out on my own, and now, I have Karl. That’s the closest I’ve had to a partner.”
I laughed at his response and gave him a little push on the shoulder and expanded on what I wanted to know since he missed the point of my question. “Not that kind of Partner. I mean like a woman companion in which you have a relationship with.”
“Oh, no, I’ve never been with anyone. At least not long term.”
“Why not?”
“Well, I don’t like women and finding a male partner is hard.”
“So you’re gay?”
“Well, I’m not straight.”
“So that’s why you’re always turning down girls when they ask for your number?”
He laughed, “Yeah, I don’t want to lead them on, so it’s better to just reject them then and there.”
"I just thought you were heartless." I joked before I came to a realization that made me slightly uncomfortable and brought me to state the obvious, “You sleep in the same bed as me.”
Max quickly picked up on what I was getting at, “it’s not because I’m interested in you. I just don’t want anything to happen to you. Someone could easily break into my house and take you, but it will be much harder for them to take you if you’re always with me.”
“You really worry about me, huh?”
“Well yeah. Someone wanted you dead, and we don’t know who or why. You can’t remember anything from your past, and I feel bad for you. I want to make this right. I couldn’t imagine being in your situation.”
“Have you ever tried to get a boyfriend?” I asked, stirring the conversation away from my troubling situation. It wasn't something I wanted to think about since I was having such a nice day with Max.
“When I was younger, but due to various reasons I gave up.”
“Maybe we should go out and find you a man.”
“Are you trying to get rid of me? I’m hurt!” he said while putting his hand over his heart and pretending to have a heart attack.
“Drama queen.” I rolled my eyes and punched him in the shoulder.
He stood up, grabbed me, and threw me back into the river. As I stood up, he teased, “you’re so mean to me.”
I rushed out of the water and towards him so that I could tackle him, “You’re not much better.”
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