Emerald Fire (Christian Romance) (The Jewel Series) (9 page)

AN
hour later, Maxine sat across from Barry in a little bakery next door to the gym. Her muscles felt rubbery and very tired. As she sat there, she could still feel her thighs burning from that one last repetition. She felt like she’d worked more muscles in her body in the forty-five minutes with Barry than in a week’s worth of aerobic classes.

She took a sip of hazelnut flavored coffee and closed her eyes in ecstasy. “If coffee is disallowed by that diet book, I’m not reading it.”

He wrinkled his nose and dunked his tea bag in the hot water in his cup. “It’s allowed.”

“Yet you obviously disapprove.”

As he shrugged, she wondered if his huge frame would crush the little filigreed café chair in which he sat. “There are too many ways to naturally generate energy without requiring a drug.”

“Man, you are still on that kick. There’s a difference between God-given caffeine in coffee and laboratory made industrial grade steroids, you know.” She sipped.

Barry shrugged again, this time as if to announce that nothing would change his mind in this conversation that was months old between them. “What those men did hurt more than the team. It hurt the League and it hurt every kid in the world who looked up to them as role-models.”

Hoping the little plastic knife wouldn’t break under the weight of the cream cheese, she carefully applied it to her whole grain bagel. “Coffee was put on this earth to provide pleasure and ecstasy, especially hazelnut flavored coffee on cold December mornings.”

Barry reached into that never ending bottomless gym bag that hung on the back of the metal chair and pulled out a plastic drink container. When he opened the lid to take a sip, she caught a glimpse of something thick and gray. He took a long swallow then used a paper napkin to wipe the sludge off his lips. Maxine pushed back any curiosity as to what ingredients might possibly be found in nature to produce a concoction of that particular color for fear he would offer to share. Instead, she took a small bite of bagel and thought she much preferred this focus Barry had on protein, such as this cream cheese, over her usual breakfast of a banana.

Using his drink container, Barry gestured at her shirt. “Catch the game yesterday?”

“Not until I got home last night at seven. I don’t know how I managed to get through the day without hearing anything about it, but I’m so glad I went into that third quarter completely ignorant of just what excitement awaited me.” She took another bite and washed it down with coffee. “I imagined you couldn’t even sit down.”

“I had to pay for my room for Sunday night, too, so that I could stay and watch the game. Worth every single dime.” Barry shook his head while he grinned. “It was crazy. I thought they’d kick me out of the hotel. I kept screaming at the television.”

“It’s really turning out to be a great season.”

Barry took another long pull of the drink then put the lid back on and tossed it in his bag. He picked up his own bagel and ripped it in half, then bit into it and gestured with the remaining piece. “Hey. You want to go to the game with me this Sunday?”

Maxine raised an eyebrow and ran her tongue over her teeth. It took her about a second and a half to grin and agree. “Heck yeah, I want to go.”

“Great.” He glanced at the massive watch that he sported on his left wrist. Maxine couldn’t help noticing that it didn’t look too massive on his arm. It would swamp most men. “I have to go. I have to be at the courthouse at eight-thirty. I’ll be outside the gym at six Wednesday morning if that works for you.”

Maxine raised an eyebrow. “You will?”

“Of course.” Barry stood with a grace a man his size shouldn’t have. “You didn’t think today was it, did you?”

She’d hoped not but didn’t dare ask. “I didn’t think about it, honestly.”

His face became very intense as he put both of his massive hands on the little round table and leaned forward. “We just breached the bare surface. There are so many things that you could do that you don’t, that you should do that you don’t know about. First of all, start eating right today. Maxine, diet is 90 percent of the whole thing. If you’re serious about wanting to get fit and healthy…”

Maxine nodded and interrupted. “Of course I’m serious.”

Barry straightened and pulled a ski cap out of the pocket of his pants. “Then I’ll see you at six on Wednesday.” He slung the bag over his shoulder and started to leave the bakery but paused and turned around. “Thank you.” With eyes turning very serious and very somber, he said it again. “Thank you for Thursday. I needed that.”

Maxi tilted her head and gave a slight nod. “Glad I could help.”

He paused for a long time, two heartbeats, then three, before pushing open the door and walking away. The bell on the door jingled as it shut behind him, sending a draft of cold air toward Maxine’s table. She couldn’t take a sip of her coffee until she quit smiling the ridiculous smile that had somehow taken occupancy on her lips, but she just honestly couldn’t help it.

A
 hard rock “hair band” from several decades earlier beat a frantic rhythm and exclaimed that it had been a long time since they’d rocked and rolled while Maxine played with the background color of the template she had designed on her computer. She lifted a finger to adjust the earbud of her MP3 player while she clicked between a violet and a blue-violet, trying to decide the best interior wall colors for a set for a bedroom furniture commercial that would shoot next month. The white headboard and bedding would really pop in front of purple walls.

She’d used the MP3 player since she’d worked in a cubicle as an intern and needed to isolate herself from the world. For the last year, she’d worked from the privacy of her own office complete with the services of a secretary she shared with three other associates. Even though she could shut the door and play music at a somewhat reasonable level, the habit of total isolation had long been established and she found she worked better with it.

As she reviewed her notes to make sure she had incorporated all of the elements in the original design, the song ended. Before the next one could shuffle forward, her door opened. Maxine popped the earbuds out of her ears before her rather eclectic secretary could wave her bejeweled arms to get her attention.

“Mike Robison is on six,” she said, as the sound of a dozen bracelets clinking together preceded her handing Maxine a stack of messages. “You said to flag you when he called. And your meeting with the design department for that,” she gestured to the computer, “has been pushed back an hour. The director is tied up somewhere else.”

“Thanks, Julie.” As her secretary turned to go, Maxine called her back. “Hey, Julie. Violet or blue violet?” she asked, pointing to the computer monitors on the credenza behind her.

Julie raised a hand to her bangs. “My hair? It’s more like an eggplant, don’t you think?”

With a chuckle, Maxine shook her head. “I like the eggplant. It works well. I’m talking about the walls of the bedroom.”

Julie walked around the side of the desk to peer closer at the monitors. “I’m not seeing a difference,” she said when she straightened.

Maxine laughed as she picked up the phone and hit the flashing light for line six. “No biggie. Thanks.”

“Sure.” With a swoosh of her long fuchsia skirts, Julie left the room.

“Mike,” Maxine said, “thanks for calling me back.”

She could hear the sound of the police station in the background of the phone. “Sure,” he said. “We still on for tonight?”

Opening her desk drawer, she drew out a new pack of raw almonds, recommended by Barry’s book as an in-between meals snack, and used her letter opener to break the seal on the package. “That’s why I called. I have to cancel.”

“Why?”

The incredulous tone had her frowning. She grabbed a handful of nuts and piled them on her desk before putting the package back in her drawer. “Something else came up.”

“What could possibly come up instead of Monday night football at O-Leary’s pub?”

Absolutely nothing could possibly come up. Even the atmosphere at O’Leary’s didn’t appeal to her if she had to go with Mike. She hadn’t enjoyed spending time with him for the last few weeks, and decided that it was time to end it. After a few weeks, every man she’d ever dated wanted to take their relationship to the next level, to the physical level, and Maxine just didn’t do physical. Ever.

She found it best to just end it instead of trying to explain that,
yes I like you
, and
thank you for dinner
, but,
no
, I’m not going to hold your hand or kiss you good night or sleep with you and thank you for
not touching me
. Even thinking about a man’s touch made her stomach crawl and her blood run cold. The two times in her past when she’d actually tried to explain the why’s just didn’t go well, and were experiences she personally never wanted to relive.

Julie cracked open her office door and gestured at the phone, mouthing the word, “Robin,” and held up four fingers. Maxine closed her eyes and sighed. “I have to go, Mike. Have fun tonight.”

Without waiting for a response, she disconnected and hit the button for line four. “Hey.”

Little fingers of anticipation danced up her spine, tightening the muscles on her neck. She wondered if Robin was still really mad at her. “Hey. Can we have lunch?”

“Of course,” Maxine said in a rush, wishing she could read more into the tone. “Where?”

“Hank’s if you can make it out here. If not, tell me where to meet you.”

Closing her eyes and thanking God for the shift in the meeting with the set people, she agreed to meet at Hank’s in an hour. With Monday traffic, Maxine decided she probably needed to start heading in that direction. Her sister’s restaurant was well outside the city limits, closer to one of the colleges, and the spits of snow out there would make traffic beastly.

MAXINE
tapped on the frosted glass of the door leading to Robin’s office. With Hank’s not open on Mondays, Robin would be in there doing whatever she did to manage one of the best family restaurants in the Boston area, if the food critics could be believed.

Robin’s voice beckoned her inside. When she opened the door, she found her older sister standing by the tall bookshelf stretching her lower back, rubbing one hand over her incredibly pregnant belly. An open cardboard box lay at her feet, and a picture of her and Tony on their honeymoon in Italy lay on a piece of newspaper on the corner of her desk.

“Moving day?” Maxine asked.

“It is. Our new manager starts Wednesday. I needed to take a break from working on the computer and move around some.” She gestured at her desk. “Casey made us some hamburgers.”

“That’s awesome. I’m starving.” She couldn’t understand why she was so hungry since she’d been eating every two hours following Barry’s book, but the sight of the hamburger with melting Swiss cheese sitting on two sourdough buns made her mouth water and her stomach grumble with anticipation.

Robin met Tony when he bought Hank’s place back when she worked there as a bartender. He promoted her to manager when they pulled the bar out and added more seating. Maxine knew that Robin didn’t intend to work once the baby came.