Chapter 21

Thank you so much to everyone who reviews this story! Your comments mean a lot and motivate me to keep going. Anyway, this chapter is all about the interview and I hope that there aren't any holes in the story. I'm really tired and just wanted to get the chapter out of my head before I went to bed.



Eliza's POV:

"Do you really have to go?" Max murmured against my neck as he hugged me in the airport. My hands tightened around his back even though I knew I had to let go and take those steps towards my plane.

"You know I have to" I said leaning back to look into his eyes. He was wearing one of my favorite sweaters and his battered pens hat in an attempt to go unrecognized in the busy airport.

"So you'll call me tonight when you're there?" he asked for the fifth time that morning.

"Yep, it's a short flight so I'll call you probably in about 2 hours. Good luck at your game tomorrow night. I'll be watching in my hotel room" I said leaning up to peck his lips once more in an effort to lighten the mood.

"Then I'll be here Sunday morning to get you" he said reiterating the schedule we had decided on once more.
"Okay, thanks again for driving me" Max nodded and checked his watch and I knew that I really needed to start moving to get through the hassle of security.

"Good luck" he told me giving me one last lingering kiss making my toes curl inside of my new black pumps and giving me a small smile as I turned and walked away. Nothing had even happened yet and it was already hard to walk away. I stopped right before the security line to wave one last time and saw that he was still giving me that smile. Like he knew something that I didn't. It made me nervous which was ridiculous because I should be nervous about my interview. Not some look he's been giving me all morning. Weird.

The morning after our argument had been strange too with Max waking me up with scrambled eggs in bed as if nothing had ever happened the night before. I knew that we had worked things out the night before but he didn't have to act as if he was totally okay with everything when I knew that he actually wasn't. It made me wonder where the sudden and intense mood change had come from and why. I guess he really wanted to prove that he was supportive and I didn't want to start another argument by picking it all apart and overthinking like I normally do. So instead of asking him about it, I let it go and enjoyed my morning in bed with him before contacting my advisor about the best time to schedule the interview. I expected to wait a week or two before being able to go down to D.C. but my advisor and the person I would be meeting with wanted me there as soon as possible. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not but that morning I made my flight for Friday so that I could be in D.C. all day Saturday for a lunch meeting with members from the agency.

I had talked to Mario and alerted some of the senior lawyers that I would be out part of the day on Friday and for the rest of the weekend to go to a friend's "wedding." I hadn't been able to think of a better excuse for why I would be leaving for D.C. for a weekend and knew that none of them would argue with me over a wedding. I had saved a few of the player's asses including their superstar's so I had that as leverage in case they were upset with me for leaving for an afternoon during the regular season.

After finally getting through security I settled down in front of my gate and waited for my plane where I promised myself that I would focus on work and not my personal life while I was in D.C. When I was back on Sunday I could sit down and evaluate everything again before moving forward. For the next 2 hours I focused on some work from the office that I had brought with me and before I knew it, I was back in D.C. walking through the airport to pick up my bag and hail a cab into the city to my hotel.

The last time I had done this I was still a student in law school working an internship and feeling like I could take on anything that the world threw at me. No attachments, no worries, just my drive to achieve my dreams within my career. This time D.C. just felt different- still good but not the same anymore and I wasn't sure what that meant quite yet. After depositing my bags in my room at the hotel, I decided to go catch a cab to Georgetown and visit my old stomping grounds. In the cab I hit Max's speed dial button to let him know that I was here and waited while the phone rang.

"Allo?"

"Hey, I'm here" I said laughing at his quebecois accent when he answered. I loved the way he answered the phone because it made me laugh everytime.

"Good" I heard a voice in the background and Max speaking to someone. "Mrs. Rollins says hi" he added.

"Max! It's a Saturday, you should send her home already!" Knowing him he had probably conned a meal out of her because I wasn't around to make him something and he was too lazy to order in.

"But with you gone and the guys all too busy to go out tonight, she offered to make me some dinner before she left" he said whining slightly. I rolled my eyes amused that I had been right. "So are you ready for tomorrow?" he asked changing the subject.

"I think so. I'm nervous and I have no idea what they're going to ask me or what I'll say" I said paying the cab driver and calculating the tip.

"Lizzy, you always have something to say. Don't worry about that part. You'll be fine." We chatted for another 20 minutes before I heard Mrs. Rollins tell Max that his food was ready.

"I should let you go" I told him glancing at my watch and seeing that it was already 5:30 and I needed to decide what I was going to do for dinner myself.

"Okay, have a good night. I love you" he said hanging up before I could react to that last part. I froze as an automatic response horrified that I almost said it back. Why did he have to do that? We were having such a nice conversation and he ended it like that when he knew that we still needed to take the time to sit down and talk it through. I knew in my heart that even though I went back and forth on the subject everyday, I was dangling on the cliff and pretty sure that I was in love with him too. I wasn't ready to have the discussion with him yet though even when we needed to have it- especially if something did happen with the interview on Saturday. I stared at my phone and the 'your call has ended' screen from when Max hung up before walking into the closest store I could find.

I needed shoes.

Max's POV:

"I love you" I said before ending the call not wanting to have another discussion about the fact that I was saying it aloud to her. I didn't need her to say it back yet but I needed her to hear me say it especially with her interview tomorrow. I set the phone down on the counter and saw Mrs. Rollins watching me with a shocked expression on her face. I thanked her for the food and shooed her out telling her to relax the rest of the weekend instead of coming in on Saturday and Sunday. I knew that she had heard us on the phone and wanted to say something but sensed that I didn't want to talk about it.

"I'll see you sometime next week dear" she said patting my cheek as she gathered her things and left. Now alone in the house I thought about how strange it was to be home with Lizzy away. Normally in relationships with hockey players, it was the other way around and the girl was waiting for the guy. I grabbed some of the food Mrs. Rollins had made resolving to spend the night watching tv on the couch.

With nothing to do and everyone else already busy enjoying their night off, I realized how pathetic I was by myself. Normally a Friday night off would mean partying at Diesel or hanging out at a bar with the guys. Tonight I was settling for a TV movie pathetically alone. I was so used to being around people all of the time and having Lizzy beside me that even sitting on the couch alone seemed weird. Great. I've become one of those guys who can't do anything without their girlfriend.

I texted Marc telling him to come over and play pool with me because Lizzy was gone.

Entertain yourself and watch porn was his response and within minutes I got a text from Vero who must have been reading over his shoulder. Don't listen to Marc. Do something useful and go shop for Lizzy's birthday.

Although the porn suggestion had appealed to a part of me, I decided to take Vero's advice and head out to find Lizzy's birthday gift. I already had an idea of something perfect in mind and with her out of town, I could go out, get it and hide it without her knowing. I wanted the weekend of her birthday to go perfectly in Montreal. Sid had already talked to Mario and convinced him and Shero that we needed a lawyer when we travelled out of the country even if it was just Canada. When she was back to work on Monday they would let her know and then in Montreal I was going to surprise her with a romantic dinner after our game that Friday night and on Saturday I would take her to meet my family and stay at the house where we would stay until Monday morning when we flew back early to Pittsburgh so that I could meet up with the team for our next game and she could head back to work. It would be hectic but great if everything went according to plan. Maybe after a weekend with my family, she would see how well we fit in each other's lives. How will she be able to leave after that?

Eliza's POV:

After a boring Friday night alone in D.C. with nothing to do but shop and watch TV back in my hotel room, I was more than ready for Saturday and to get the stressful interview underway. I paused in the lobby of the fancy restaurant I was told to meet everyone in and took a deep breath ordering myself to calm down. I was directed to a table and spotted my advisor who rose out of her seat to greet me and introduce me to the three men she was sitting with.

"This is Eliza Smith, the young woman I've told you all so much about" I felt her squeeze my hand in support as we sat down and I felt a familiar rush of affection towards her. No matter what happened this afternoon, she had always been fantastic in guiding me for the past three and a half years and I was grateful for her support. I smiled at everyone and greeted them not sure if we were going to switch to Spanish or not for the actual interview part. Instead, they were more interested in my sudden change of heart to move to Pittsburgh after law school instead of staying in D.C. I looked to my advisor uncomfortably and she shrugged nodding at me to go on.

"Well, I needed to return to Pittsburgh for family reasons. I would have liked to stay here but the timing just wasn't right initially." All three of them stared at me as if to say 'and?' Apparently my reasons for returning home weren't good enough. The conversation continued like this for the rest of the meal despite my attempts and my advisor's attempts to turn the conversation into a discussion of the agency and what the job that we were all there meeting about. Didn't they even want to know my thoughts and ideas? While we lingered over coffee I realized how tense I had become with anger over the course of the meal. Yes I had left D.C. after graduation which was a big no no if you wanted to be taken seriously here but I did have reasons! Important reasons too. Apparently these people didn't think that family was important enough. And god forbid I only leave D.C. for a few months- they were making it seem criminal that I had even thought of leaving this city for another one.

Still, I held my own in the conversation deciding that if they wanted to make me feel bad about not immediately throwing myself into a job here after graduation and make me sweat, they were in for a long conversation because it wasn't going to happen. In the lobby of the restaurant I plastered a fake-ass smile on my face and shook each of their hands with enthusiasm before grabbing my coat and leaving with my advisor.

"That was horrible" I said once we had walked a block away from the restaurant in silence.

"They certainly made it difficult for you" she remarked. Difficult? Try impossible.

"Well, what do you think overall?" I asked needing to know her take on what had transpired.

"The lawyer sitting closest to you, the small one with the glasses, he liked you. I could tell because he spent most of the evening frowning at what the other two stuffy ones were saying" she said smiling slightly in amusement. She would never admit it, but I could tell that she didn't like them either which made me feel slightly better.

"I wouldn't worry about it Eliza. When you're really ready to come back here, you will. I just didn't want this opportunity to pass without you knowing about it. On the surface, it seemed like the perfect job for you and I thought of you immediately."

I thought about what she had said realizing that she was exactly right. On the surface it did seem like the perfect job for me. But what about right now? Was it perfect for me now? Would it ever be perfect for me and not just be the job that I should have given how logical it was? I didn't know.

"If I hear anything, I'll let you know. Until then, stay in touch anyway. Do you have time for more coffee? I want to hear more about your job." I smiled and agreed to her invitation never unwilling to drink coffee and talk with a friend. I was grateful to her for the second time that day for being so supportive and understanding how difficult career decisions were especially as a woman with career ambitions in the political world where it was strongly dominated by men. My Mom and I were closer than most mothers and daughters but she and my Dad had married young and she had made sacrifices in her own career so that my Dad's could skyrocket. While she could understand sacrifice, she didn't completely understand my drive and my Dad and I had always been able to understand each other in that way. It felt good to talk to a different woman of experience who understood both sides, the sacrifice and the drive, and could give me guidance. After chatting with her for over an hour in a local Starbucks, I was feeling much better about the horrific dinner that evening. I wasn't expecting anything from the agency and if I did get an offer, I would deal with it then. For now, I was excited to go home to Pittsburgh tomorrow morning and hopefully spend the rest of the day doing nothing with Max. I checked my phone for the first time that evening and saw that I had missed a text message from him.

Call me later to let me know how you did with the suits. xoxo was all that it said. I smiled at the simplicity of the message and decided to call him back during the cab ride back to my hotel. He answered on the second ring sounding groggy.

"How'd it go?" he asked immediately. I couldn't tell if he was anxious and playing it cool or just curious. I knew that I was anxious about it.

"Ugh. They were awful, but I was okay."

"What did they do?" he asked angrily probably assuming the worst.

"Nothing bad, they just focused on the fact that I left D.C. after graduation instead of staying and acted like it was a huge crime. Needless to say, they didn't want to talk about my resumé or anything like that at all" I said feeling my anger from earlier return. He was silent for a minute on the line neither of us sure what to say.

"Well I don't want to tell you that I'm happy about this but I hope this means you won't be leaving Pittsburgh for now."

"Yeah, I am too" I said giggling at his frankness. "I don't know for sure, but I don't think that I'll be hearing from them."

"You don't want to work for such stupid people anyway. At least everyone here knows how smart you are. You are paid to keep the city's superstar out of trouble" he said joking.

"Are you flexing your muscles right now?" I said laughing at him and his ever expanding ego.

"Maybe" he said with a smile in his voice. I was happy that I called him. He always made me laugh when I needed it.

"So are you okay?" he asked once we had both settled down and stopped joking. I wished that I was home right now so that I could cuddle with him while he asked me this. He would probably rub my back too at the same time.

"I guess. I'm just upset that they didn't even give me a chance, you know?" I could have said so much more but I didn't want to have a serious discussion about career choices and our relationship on the phone. That was something that needed to be done in person if and when we did it. We talked some more and even watched part of an old CSI episode together on the phone before hanging up with him promising to be at the airport to pick me up tomorrow. I was exhausted from this entire weekend and just wanted to go back to Max's house to go to bed with him instead of the horrible hotel bed that I had for the night.

I laid back in bed wondering when I had become one of those girls who wanted to be around their boyfriends all of the time. Great.