"No, Max. I'm extremely busy today. The new staffs need to be taught a lot of things here, steering them is tough job. Also I need to rush to the supermarket like right now to buy some crockery and then to the opposite end of the city to threaten the butcher who supplies me meat. The jerk has sent lower quality items yet again," Sofia said in between mouthfuls of handmade sandwich, holding the phone tightly to her ear with her free hand. "Can't today. Let's go to the Hayden House tomorrow, it's just clothes anyway."

"That means another day of you loitering around in torn clothes," Max said from the other side of the phone. "I don't like it one bit, Sof. You know it would be a hell lot easier and practical if you just let me buy you a couple of dresses, just tell me your damn size, woman!"

"Hey, keep that attitude to yourself. Okay?" Sofia snapped, slamming down the sandwich on her plate and pushing it away. "I don't want you to buy me dresses. I'm perfectly capable of providing for myself."

"Then why aren't you doing it already?" he countered.

"Because I'm saving my money for something far more important than buying pretty dresses for myself—" and she bit her lip, regretting letting it out. She just hoped he wouldn't catch on. But then again, if he did, what the hell would it cause? It wasn't like she was doing anything wrong!

"And what is this something may I ask that you want so badly?"

Pay the debt that's ceaselessly weighing her down. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Something, that is pretty important to me," she chose the path of discretion.

For some reason she was wary of telling him about her decision to pay the debt back to his father—or him. Enough had already transpired because of that ominous money, no wonder the subject always made her sweat.

"You'll know eventually," she added absentmindedly and heard Max sigh, then chuckle.

"Oh, Sof, you just have to be so full of mysteries all the time. It's annoyingly cute, do you know that?" he mused. "Now, stay safe till I see you home later. Have to head out for the court in a minute."

Sofia cut the call with a bye and slumped back into her chair, her fingers lazily traced the cracked line on her phone screen. She sighed at the sight of the water colored cello-tapes she'd pasted over the cracks. There were many other issues in her life as well that she had cello-taped until now, while hoping all the while that no one observed.

But there was someone in her life at the moment who she feared would rip all those cello-tapes off and make her see things exactly how they were. Not just the worsts or the bests, he had the power since forever to bring out all the extremes from her. And he didn't know the teenager Sof had been scared shitless sensing that.

Max had always been her darkness that she fought and her light that she engulfed.

Parking on the curb near the market Sofia was just getting out of her car when she saw a woman who seemed awfully familiar.

The woman was getting out of a black car, at the other side of the road.

Sofia scrunched her brows, browsing her mind to remember who the woman was. And then she remembered.

Mevil's wife.

Recalling the moronic man gave her the creeps but she brushed it off forcefully, she was safe now. It had been a quick and easy task getting a restraint order after she'd filed a report at the station. Mevil was not to get anywhere near her, look at her or try to talk to her, he would be hauled into jail if he did. Sofia was happy with the arrangement, whereas Max was a different and grumbling case of blood-thirst. He wanted more than a restraint order.

Ignoring Mevil's wife, Sofia went on her own way. It was better this way, she thought. Sofia had only seen the woman once in person, it was when she had gone to Mevil's palatial mansion to try and collect her payment, which was a failed attempt by the way. The woman had seemed to be more of a docile kind then. Reserved would be the best word. It was easy to call her posh and proud, but it was the kind sparkle in the woman's eyes that made Sofia come to a different conclusion.

Mrs. Genevieve Mevil was more than what she let on.

Sound of ragged breaths and puking made Sofia halt on her steps again. Instinctively, she whirled around to see Mrs. Genevieve Mevil leaning against a wall pathetically while puking her guts out. Sofia ran towards the woman and held her by the shoulders.

"Are you alright?" she bit her tongue immediately and mumbled, "Of course, you aren't. I will call an ambulance—"

"No!" the woman moaned weakly, there were tears that travelled down her straight nose and dripped down the tip as she stayed hunched over the wall. "I... I'll be fine. Sofia Hayden, right?"

Sofia breathed in relief seeing she'd stopped wrenching. "Yes. You remember?"

Mrs. Mevil nodded and managed to smile feebly.

Sofia helped her walk near the edge of the sidewalk and made her sit there. She scoured in her bag and fished out the small water bottle that she always carried.

Mrs. Mevil smiled at her gratefully after cleaning her mouth with the water and sipping some.

"Thanks."

Sofia smiled and shrugged. "No problem. Are you really feeling alright now?"

She nodded again and then stared at Sofia for a long moment in silence, looking away she mumbled with sadness, "I'm sorry... for... for what he did to you."

Sofia froze. Until this moment whenever she thought about the incident and the unthinkable that would have taken place if Max hadn't come in time, she always felt sad and scared for herself. But right at that moment, she felt the trauma of her own experience very small in front of this woman's sadness and obvious mortification.

"I—" Mrs. Mevil mumbled in a low voice. "I just witnessed him with another woman minutes ago, a... a willing one this time."

Sofia cringed.

That said why she was puking her guts out back there.

She couldn't imagine what she would do if she saw Max with someone else like that.

Huh! Hold on. Stop right there. Where had that come from now?

Sofia mentally slapped herself several times for thinking that way.

Max is not mine, we are not in a real relationship—she chanted again and again.

What felt like after forever, Sofia spoke, "Why don't you leave him then? You certainly know about all his sins."

Mrs. Mevil laughed lightly. Sofia had never heard such a heartbreaking sound before.

"I ask that to myself every single day," she said attempting to weakly stand onto her feet.

"Careful." Sofia held her arms, standing up too.

There was no further word said as Mrs. Mevil sat back inside her car and passed Sofia a small but grateful smile.

Sofia watched the car drove off.

She finally headed towards her own destination. In her mind, whirling were the thoughts of how everyone had some, more or less, twisted angles in their lives, and a common monster that conjoined so many people with each other not knowing it himself.

That night, Sofia had just come out of the shower putting on her comfy pajamas.

She went to stand by the window to gaze out at the night street while combing her wet hair.

A knock on the door made her halt her lazy swipes of comb into her hair.

It was either Debbie coming to say goodnight before heading home or Max who'd probably come back from the office at last. The poor guy had been stuck in one meeting after another till so late. Yes, he had called her earlier to let her know just that and to say that he was going to be late. Other than how husbandly he sounded, Sofia had to agree that it was pretty sweet and thoughtful that he had called her.

In fact, he had been calling her a lot throughout the whole day. One would think that he was missing her.

The thought made funny jitters to erupt in her stomach.

She was pathetic.

"I didn't disturb you, did I?" Max asked, leaning against the doorframe as she opened the door.

Sofia rolled her eyes. "Yes, you did."

"Good." He pushed past her nonchalantly into the room.

Shaking head Sofia closed the door. Turning around, she watched as Max casually plopped down on the edge of her bed.

He was wearing his trousers and a half sleeved t-shirt, his hair was wet as well from taking a shower.

The first thing that popped up in her mind was—she missed his robe. And the sight that peeked out of the gap that robe always created.

Disgusting gutter brain!

Max patted the bed beside him. "Are you going to stand there for hours? Come here, sit."

Sofia raised a brow. "What're you doing in my room so late?" she asked while walking down to sit on the bed but a good distance away from him.

"Way to make a person feel welcome, Sof!"

She smiled. "No need to be so over dramatic."

"Can't I hang out with you a bit?"

Sofia rolled her eyes, propping up her legs and folding them on the bed. She grabbed a pillow and placed it on her lap, resting her elbows on it next. Leaning back against the headboard then she looked at Max.

"Haven't you called me every freaking hour of the day?"

Max smiled cheekily, placing his palms on the bed behind him. His abs pushed out perfectly against his cotton shirt in this position. "I was just... showing my many clients how much I love my wife."

Heart thudded.

Breath stopped.

Kidneys twisted.

Liver lurched.

Why did he have to always say crazy things like that? He was killing her. Slowly and painfully.

"Ha ha ha," she poked her tongue out to cover up her internal turmoil. "Very funny."

Max chuckled, and looked away rubbing the back of his neck. He looked back at her the next moment though. "So, how was your day? Anything interesting happened?"

Her mind immediately zoomed back to the unexpected encounter with Mrs. Genevieve Mevil. She pondered over whether to tell Max or not, at last she decided that it was better not to. It was not that big of a deal but telling Max would just mean an unnecessarily over exaggerated freak out session from him. Even the very name of Mevil had Max turn into a raging bull every time. And she didn't want to diminish that easy smile he had on his face at the moment.

So she said instead, "The usual. Cooking and stuff. What about yours?"

Max took a few seconds to answer, she noticed, and there was this slight shadow that crossed over his face. But like her, he replied the same, "Nothing new. Boring cases, lengthy meetings and critical clients."

All people have walls around them, they are created for different reasons, are to be respected but also to be scared of.

Pushing off the pillow from her lap, Sofia stood from the bed and walked to the window again. She went back to combing her hair, feeling eyes staring at her from the bed.

"You keep your towel over the curtain rail?" Max asked in an amused tone.

Sofia glanced at him through the corner of her eye and then at the towel that was hanging from the curtain rail. "It dries easily there. You see, a hell lot of fresh air comes in through the window all night."

"Sof!" Max chided. "It's not safe to keep the windows open all night. What if a burglar or God forbid a serial killer climbs in? What if someone kidnaps you!"

Sofia grunted. "Don't be a mother hen, Max! Sometimes I feel suffocated waking up from sleep. Don't you remember I always kept my bedroom window open back in Hayden House?"

"You had grills on those ancient windows of Hayden House, which the windows clearly don't have here."

Sofia was getting hell irritated at this point. Spinning around she threw the comb at Max. He caught it in time and gave her a what-the-hell look.

"Are you here in my room, in the middle of night, just to pick a silly argument with me?"

"Of course, not," Max heavily defended.

"Then please, maintain the peace."

Max was quiet after that but clearly didn't look happy by the way he was glaring at the open window. This window was clearly his newest enemy.

Ignoring the sulking man on her bed Sofia stared outside again.

A couple minutes later she heard a set of yawns and shuffling on her bed. She looked back to find Max lying, cuddling his head into a pillow snug to the footboard of her bed where he was sitting a while ago.

"Hey, don't fall asleep here," Sofia warned. "I won't be able to carry you back to your room."

Max snorted from the bed. "And you used to call yourself Sof-the-almighty! Don't worry, I'm just lying down for a minute, not falling asleep or whatever. So relax."

After a couple seconds of silence, they were soon talking about the days they were away from each other. They shared with each other the funny and sad experiences of their college days in two different cities.

Max told her about the first case he had handled all by himself in London and the joy he felt when he won it royally. And then there was the time when he didn't win a handful of cases in those beginning days. Failure was to be valued if one wanted to be successful and Max had done just that to be where he was now.

Sofia felt proud of him. She listened to him attentively, not missing even an ounce of emotion that he expressed through words. People have this sparkle in their eyes when talking of the past, Max had the same, and she soaked it in, living the moments with him, seeing it all in her mind.

Leaning against the window frame, she told him how she felt when she opened Mary's Diner. How hard it was to gather the capital to launch the business and how impossible it was to get customers in the beginning days. Grampa had been her strength throughout it all, encouraging her to be the independent woman she was today.

"And then, I said, no matter how stupid she is—Simmy must be in my restaurant." She had just finished telling the story of how she hired Simmy years ago, was when she sensed the unusual silence in the room.

Max had been lazily humming, commenting and laughing here and there as she talked. But not anymore.

She turned from the window to look at him. A soft smile spread on her lips seeing him sound asleep, snoring softly because of the weird angle his head was tilted off the pillow so that he faced her towards the window.

Shaking her head slowly, she walked to the bed and holding his chin she closed his slightly gaping mouth. Then proceeded on to extra carefully shift his head on the pillow so that he was settled comfortably.

Sofia stood back up straight to look at his entire form. He slept almost curled up into a ball near the footboard. If he were to lie straight, he was so going to slide half his body out the bed.

Right here, right at this moment, as she saw him sleep like this she felt like she was looking at the Max from ten years ago. As though it was not Max the lawyer, but Max the nerd—her nerd. It was surreal.

And she was turning into a pervert freak!

As silently as possible, Sofia covered him with her comforter. Leaning in, she ran her fingers through the mess of hair splattered on his forehead. She sighed at the soothing sight of his face as he slept. Even when he was sleeping he never failed to do terrible things to her heart.

"What am I going to do with you, Max?" she whispered.

When she was climbing up the bed like a sneaky ninja, she heard him sigh. Strangely, she felt like he had heard what she said. But then again, it was possible that she was just extremely tired and sleepy and was feeling weird shit.

Putting her thoughts to a stop she settled onto her pillow, she had to lie curled though for Max was sleeping near her feet and she didn't want to wake him from such a nice sleep. The guy worked like a maniac all day.

Lie!

She just wanted to have him sleeping on the same bed because she was a selfish freak. She had turned into a greedy ogre since sleeping in his arms last night.

Sofia's last thought before slipping off to sleep was mentally slapping herself in the face again and again until sleep overtook all of her senses completely.