Changes

“So tell me more about yourself” he said as we sat down at a table together.

“What do you want to know Maxime? Ask and I shall answer.”

He started with the easy ones ”Ok, I want to know your full name, date of birth and birth city, family members, all of the basics.”

I took a sip of my beer. “Callee Marie Winston, March 17, 1983. Twenty eight years old. Born in the Unites States, spent most of my childhood in Montreal. My dad had a job that had moved there. Moved back to Philly when I decided to get my nursing degree and kind of fell back in love with it. Been a nurse for the last four years in the NICU and love it.” I took another sip and continued. “My mom passed away about five years ago, my Dad still lives in Montreal. My sister Amanda lives in the city with her husband Kyle. They are workaholics who probably should have never had a child. I have Brendan a lot with me, trying to just get him out and doing stuff.” I looked at him. “Ready to do some shots now that you have the low down on me?” I asked.

He ran his fingers along my arm giving me the chills. “Oh I think I’m far from having the low down on you.” He said quietly giving me a wink. We headed towards the bar and toasted to a shot of Patron.

Andrej and Danielle had walked in and recognized me immediately. I let them know I had seen their daughter and we talked for a while about her progress. She had only been home for a short time but was doing extremely well and catching up quickly to babies her age. Claude walked up and handed me a shot and I did it quickly, praying it would not burn my throat. I wasn’t too much of a drinker so I knew I had better take it semi-easy.

Max handed me another beer. “Relax and have a good time. I will make sure you get home safely.”

I laughed as James handed me a shot of a dark colored liquid. “Just throw it back.” I nearly gagged as I tasted it. Max raised his eyebrows at me. “What was it, eww gross” I complained to James.
“Southern Comfort dear, the cheap stuff.” I just threw him a dirty look.

Max handed me gum. “Here, it will kill the taste.”

We sat down for a while with Danny and Raina talking before the music started to pick up. Andrej and Danielle were already on the dance floor along with Claude and some cute little blonde girl who looked rather young. Wayne was too busy ordering shots for everyone and passing them out. Brayden was sitting at the table with three college age girls. I thought the whole table might have been underage but they seemed to be behaving themselves.

A song came on and Raina got excited. “We are so dancing, let’s go” she said grabbing my hand. I could tell by the look on her face it was an excuse to talk to me. “So how do you like Max so far?” she asked with a huge smile on her face.

“He seems nice so far. His reputation kind of precedes him though. Not sure how I feel about that but I’m willing to give him a shot. I haven’t really dated anyone in the last six months or so.”

She seemed overly happy about it. “Awesome, he is a great guy, a little bizarre with taste but will treat you like a princess.”

Within a minute or two he came out and put his arms around me on the dance floor.

“Having fun?” he asked quietly.

“Yeah, the girls are fun, I like them a lot.” Wayne had made his way onto the dance floor with a tray of shots and one of the workers following closely behind.

“I told her just to sell me the whole tray but she insists on following me and counting how many I pass out. I think she likes me.” He said with a sly smile as he passed out shots and she smirked behind him.

The shots were hitting me hard. I grabbed a bottle of water from the bar and sat back down. “You ok” he asked as he sat down next to me.

“Uh huh, just dehydrated. You know your teammates are crazy.” I said watching Danny attempt to dance with Raina and Andrej and Danielle cuddled up in the corner.

“They are the best ” he said, reaching his arm around my waist. I looked up and it was getting close to closing time. “You ready? We can go watch a movie or something at my place. I can’t drink anymore or I won’t be able to function.” We ended up getting a cab back to my apartment.

We got back to my place and I threw on shorts and a tank top as he searched for something to watch. I grabbed two bottles of water from the refrigerator and handed one to him as he clicked play on the Matrix.

I hadn’t seen it in years, so I didn’t have any complaints. I leaned up against him and became engrossed in the movie. About an hour into it, we were both starting to fall asleep.

He let out a long yawn and said “I gotta go” and reached for his phone. I remembered he didn’t drive and grabbed his hand.

“Come one you can stay here. I don’t bite.”

He threw me a surprised glance. “I can’t be responsible for my actions.”

I laughed. "Don’t get too cocky or I will make you sleep on the couch.”

I pulled him towards the bedroom and jumped onto the bed, burying myself under the covers. The windows were open and it was chilly for a late September night.

He slid off his shirt, shoes and pants. I tried to think clean thoughts. His body was amazing and I fought with myself not to comment. “Stop staring at me if you want me to behave Callee.” He said. I tried to contain the blush I could feel climbing up my cheeks. He climbed in next to me and gave me a slow kiss. “Goodnight, sweet dreams.” He said, closing his eyes.



Morning came too early for me. I heard him get up and go into the kitchen. I snuggled back in and ignored the noise. He woke me back up a few minutes later. “Come on screw the cooking, we can grab something. Do you have work today?” I let him know I didn’t. “I gotta go home and get clothes, then we will go do something.”

I groaned. “What time is it?” I asked. “Its after ten, come on lazy” he said ripping the covers off. He smirked at me as I tried to pull my tank top down to cover my stomach.

“Let’s go, in the shower.” I finally gave up and jumped in the shower. I came out in a towel to look for clothes. “God girl you make it hard to behave myself. Get some clothes quick.” I found a pair of jeans and a long sleeved black shirt. I grabbed a bra and a thong and went back into the bathroom to get dressed. Once dressed , I threw my hair up and we walked to the parking garage I stored my car in. “Here, you drive” I said, passing him the keys. Bad idea. He drove rather quickly and I wanted to kill him by the time we hit Jersey.

Claude was still asleep at his place, so I sprawled out on his bed while he showered. Once dressed, he pulled me back towards the door. "Come on, let’s do something fun."

He started driving and I wondered where we were going, but he wouldn’t tell me. About halfway into the drive I realized we were going towards Manhattan. We parked the car and walked around all afternoon long, shopping for clothes and just browsing. I had to laugh at him. He sure did have questionable taste in clothes, I vetoed half the stuff he picked out.

He was no better though, dismissing most of the stuff I tried on as to demure. He picked out two outfits for me that he insisted on buying. I wasn’t sure when I’d actually wear them as both were kind of dressy and rather revealing but he insisted he would find sometime I could wear them. We grabbed dinner at a quaint little restaurant in Soho and then left the city, headed back towards home.

My car was at his place. I headed right for it. I had to work early tomorrow and I knew his camp started tomorrow. He wrapped his arms around my waist. “So I will call you tomorrow, ok. Did you have fun today?” I leaned closer and kissed him.

“I hope that answers your question.” I said and drove home, my stomach flip flopping. Today was great, but I knew he had the reputation of a player and I wasn’t trying to get myself caught up in it. I was too old to waste my time. He had one shot at winning me over. I hoped he wouldn’t screw up. He somehow had captured my attention and I knew he was the type of guy that was easy to fall for and hard to forget.

He stayed on my mind all night. I finally climbed into bed around 11 o’clock, praying my mind would let me sleep. My phone vibrated and I looked at the incoming message. It was from Max. “I can’t get you off my mind.”

Notes