Maxed Out Read Online Free Page B

hire.
    Jeremy comes back, reminding me that I’m not going to get a
chance to do any of that no matter how much I might want to.
    “Phil loves it,” he says, smiling. “He says I’ll fit right
in here. I can’t thank you enough.”
    I somehow resist the urge to drive my fist through his
skull.

6
     
    Later that night I’m venting at the bar with the girls,
which is a rare occurrence. I don’t think I’ve talked for this long straight
since that time Alice brought her latest fling to our weekly meet up last year,
and that didn’t have the same emotional release I’m experiencing right now.
    Of course, it all comes crashing back down when I finally
finish my tirade and get a look at my friends’ reactions. Alice is looking
bored and making eyes at the new bartender. Tiff looks vaguely concerned, but
it’s a cold, clinical concern that reeks of dead rats and one way mirrors. Renee
is half asleep, trying to hide her phone under the table and use her lidded
eyes as misdirection.
    Assholes, all of them.
    Renee looks up from her phone suddenly – Will must be
momentarily indisposed – and looks concerned for a moment. It’s the best acting
I’ve seen all night. “Wait,” she said. “You don’t even want to talk about Max?”
    “Why would I do that?” I ask.
    “What happened with Max?” Alice says, suddenly interested.
    “Nothing major,” I say.
    Renee scoffs. “They broke up,” she says.
    “What?”
    “Breaking up is nothing major?” Tiff says. “How do you
figure?”
    I shrug. “We’re not like, fighting. We just agreed to break
up.”
    Alice frowns. “Why?”
    “He got promoted,” I say.
    Renee rolls her eyes. “Jeanine feels that if Max is
travelling on weekends they won’t be able to maintain a relationship,” she
says.
    “That makes no sense,” Alice says. “Why—“
    “Our relationship relies on communication and intimacy,” I say,
sighing. “Without those, we’ll drift apart. I have to work late on weekdays a
lot, so if he’s travelling weekends we’ll hardly see each other. I’ll suspect
him of cheating, he’ll be unsatisfied, and then when—“
    “You’re breaking up with him because you think he’ll break
up with you later?” Tiff asks.
    “Can I finish?” I say.
    “I just want to understand what’s going on,” Tiff says.
    “He was the one that brought it up, technically,” I say. “I
think he broke up with me.”
    “But you’re the one that had established that you didn’t
want to be in a long distance relationship,” Tiffany says.
    “I didn’t ask for your psychoanalysis bullshit,” I say. “I
don’t even want to talk about this. We didn’t have a fight. We’re still
friends. We just both decided we wanted to break off the relationship.
Amicably.”
    “If you’re on such good terms why are you sleeping on my
couch?” Renee asks.
    “I just felt like I wanted some space,” I say.
    “Call him,” Tiffany says.
    “What?”
    “Call him,” she repeats. “Right now. If you’re such good
friends, invite him to meet us. He’s a friend, he can join us.”
    “This is our night, though,” I say. “No boyfriends.”
    “You broke up,” Tiffany says. “He’s just a friend now. It’ll
be okay.”
    “Why do we call it girl’s night then?” I ask.
    “We can make an exception this once,” Alice says.
    “I don’t think that’s right,” I say. “It’s been just the
four of us for –“
    “Times change,” Tiffany says. “Call him.”
    “I don’t want to.”
    “Okay,” Tiff says. “I’ll do it. He’s my friend too. Unless
you didn’t break up in that perfectly sanitary way you described and you’re not
on good terms and you still have feelings for him, of course.”
    I don’t say anything. This isn’t fair. Of course I’m still a
wreck so soon after our breakup. Just because we worked it out logically
doesn’t mean we dealt with the emotional attachment.
    “Well?” she says.
    “Don’t call him,” I say. I regret it