The Luckiest Girl In The World

"What's not to like about burgers?" Max asked, filing that 'our boyfriend' thing away and kinda feeling dirty for it. "Look, my dad runs a restaurant and yet here I am for a great lunch, you know?" He looked at Kathy again and smiled. "She's beautiful," he said with real warmth, hoping he didn't sound like a creep. "And loves burgers. That last thing is pretty rare in LA these days."

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And here Dante was, feeling kinda shitty about mentioning the boyfriend at all. Also weirded out by a Max who seemed nice, among other things. But-- yeah.

"There's no stopping her when she gets eating," he said, with a little laugh. "Probably a good thing for her she got away from the west coast when she did." Beat. "No offense, man."

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"Hey, I'd be worried about your girlfriend hearing hearing you, not me," Max said with a laugh. "Braver man than I ever was."

And, not knowing what he was setting himself up for, he leaned to the side and waved at Kathy. "Sorry!" he called. "I ended up distracting Dante here, my fault!"

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Behind Dante came a loud gasp and the clatter of silverware onto the table.

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"Shit," Dante muttered. "... Look, I'm sorry, I need to go talk to her. She and your doppelganger didn't really get along."

And with that, he hurried back to the table. "Kathy, it's fine."

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Kathy had already shot up to her feet, eyes practically blazing. "Oh, I'll show you how fine it is," she snarled. "Is that why we're here? Have you been fucking around again, Max?"

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Max stared at Kathy, mouth an 'o' of surprise. "I, uhh, case of mistaken identity!" he assured her. "Whichever Max did something to make you look like that, it wasn't me!"

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"Kathy," Dante said, subconsciously inserting himself between the two of them physically. "He's not that Max, all right? He's just some perfectly nice guy who wanted a soda."

Please, please notice the lack of tattoos.

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She wasn't close enough to notice his hands or the lack of tattoos on his neck leading down to his shoulders. And he was in long sleeves, which kept his arms from view.

Kathy took a step forward and suddenly Dante was there, blocking her path. She glared up at him. "What do you mean, not that Max?"

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"Totally different Max!" Max declared, helpfully. "Maxwell Hale, not Maxwell Very-Bad-Man from the look of it."

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"No tattoos, if you don't believe the guy on his word," Dante said quickly, since the last name didn't exactly help.

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The ferocity in Kathy's eyes blazed for another long second as she pinned Max with a glare that could have melted flesh, but eventually they flicked back to Dante.

"No tattoos?" she repeated.

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"Errr, I have one?" he said. "But it's just the bridge to the first song I wrote, nothing as offensive as whatever your guy has."

Thanks for that clarification, Max.

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"See, he's a musician," Dante said, putting a subtle emphasis on the 'musi'. "Not the same guy. So no reason to scare the shit out of him, okay?"

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"Can confirm, you're legitimately scary," Max said. "Would not have guessed that, but am very aware of it now."

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Kathy flicked a glance over at him, but relented and sat back down. "Musician, huh?" she asked, voice still a bit frosty.

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"Apparently," Dante said, gaze flicking back to Max. "Look, man, just send your bill over here when you're done, all right? Sorry. It's been a long fuckin' year, that's all."

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Max shook his head and, feeling rather daring, brought over Dante's discarded fountain soda. "No, no, it's fine," he said. "I don't know the half of it, but I don't think I've ever seen anyone go from laughing to that pissed without a damn good reason."

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Kathy gave him a brittle smile. It showed far more teeth than necessary "He kidnapped me," she said with a poisonous kind of sweetness.

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"OhshitIamsosorry."

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Dante took the soda - and winced when Kathy spoke. "Yeah," he said, "So... yeah."

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Just because she wasn't openly bristling any more didn't mean she'd agreed to play nice.

"Did they at least, you know. Get him? Arrest him? Whatever?"

Max knew he shouldn't pry but...look, he was a sucker for learning about stuff, okay?

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"There was a stand-off," Dante said, trying to put this delicately. "He's dead. At least, as far as we know."

He shrugged, trying to take the edge off. "Hence the surprise."

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"Now I feel like I should be buying you lot dinner," Max said, rubbing the back of his neck. "That's some shit just to have spring up on you out of nowhere." He gave Kathy an apologetic glance. "I know I can't apologize for my face but I sorta want to. I didn't mean to bring you back to...I'm really sorry."

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