Chapter 28

You guys are all awesome! The comments on both of my stories right now are very much appreciated! This chapter is a little shorter but I just felt like writing some cute filler for Max and Eliza.

Eliza's POV:

"Seriously Max. I can't fit more of my clothes in here." We had been trying unsuccessfully for the past two hours to combine our clothing and shoes together in his already limited closet space. I wasn't lying before when I said that he was metro and had more clothes than I did.

"Can't you just get rid of more of them?" I whined. Only a third of my stuff was in there already. "Guys are not supposed to have more clothes than girls" I whined already upset that my shoes had yet to be organized and Max had unceremoniously tossed them in the closet amongst all of his on the ground.

"That is surprisingly sexist of you Ms. Feminist" Max joked from his spot on the bedroom floor where he was already sorting through piles of old clothes.

"I'm surprised you even know what that means hockey boy." I tried to push his clothes over onto one side of the big walk-in and come up with a system. Maybe we could each just have half of the closet and keep everything separate. It was logical and would hopefully keep things neat.

"Did you just imply that I'm stupid?" I felt his arms slide around my waist from behind and his teeth nip my earlobe.

I gasped pretending to be horrified by the very idea. "Of course not!"

"You're a brat" he said laughing and pushing me away from him. "Do you want me just to call and have a closet added for you? I could call those closet people that advertise on tv or something."

I was tempted to take him up on his offer but I knew that he would pay for it and it was bound to be super expensive. Besides, where would we construct a new closet anyway? I was going to have to just use a closet in one of the closeby spare bedrooms for some of my more seasonal clothes. I voiced my idea to him and he shrugged and agreed on helping me move some of my stuff into the closest spare bedroom closet.


It had been two weeks since we came back from hanging out with his family and this weekend we both finally had enough time to move my stuff over from my old apartment. It had been complicated and at times nasty as we worked out the details and fought over who would pay what bills because I still refused to let him take care of everything. If we were going to continue dating seriously and now live together, we had to be a partnership. One partner did not do everything for the other partner in a partnership. Finally he had given in and he agreed to accept portions of the paychecks I received twice a month which would be combined with the money he paid the bills with. I would also continue to pay for my own car and phone while his stipulation had been that I would pay for groceries and anything else I bought for the house with a credit card he had given me.

Though we had fought a lot as we worked out all of the details before I moved in, Max had been awake even before me this morning and had gone out to rent a truck and start getting my furniture into the storage room he had in his basement. He didn't really have anything in there except for some holiday decorations Mrs. Rollins kept around so it was the perfect spot for me to keep all of my furniture until I decided if I was going to sell it or not. It was adorable to see him so concerned with all of the details when normally I was the one doing that.

"Do you want me to come with you to sign the papers?" he asked hauling more of my stuff into the room. He was referring to my apartment which I had given up in order to move in here. I didn't own it and paid a monthly rent that didn't make sense for me to keep if I was going to live here. He knew that I was worried about giving up the apartment because that meant that I was really taking the big step with him and was forced to rely on him. It wasn't that I didn't trust and rely on him already, it was just such a big step to actually give up a great apartment and know that I didn't have anything to lean back on just in case. I also hadn't told my Mom that I was giving up my apartment because I knew she would flip out and say that it was a big mistake. She had warned me of this when I told her about our plans and didn't seem entirely happy about it because we were moving so fast.

"Do you mind coming with me?" I asked pulling one of his old sweatshirts on over my favorite yoga stretchy pants.

"Course not" he said pulling me into a hug. "Don't be nervous. This is a good step for us, I promise" he said kissing my forehead and letting his lips linger there.

"Thank you for everything" I said pulling back from his tight hold to look up into his face. I rubbed my hand over his slightly bearded face loving everything about him in that moment. I didn't know why it was so hard for me to tell him what had literally been on the tip of my tongue for weeks but it just wasn't coming out. I knew he was waiting too because he was never shy about telling me the way he felt. Instead of telling him, I did what I could to show him and leaned up to capture his lips in a soft kiss. His lips were ready and waiting for mine as always and I tried my hardest to silently communicate to him that I had gone off of the deep end in love with him.

"Are you ready to go?" he pulled back to look down at me smiling slightly. I knew that he was excited about me finally being at the house 24/7 now instead of our awkward travelling between his house and my apartment. The moving truck this morning at the crack of dawn had sort of been an indication of how ready he was.

"Sure, we just have to be back by 2 so that I can finish making the casserole before we leave tonight."

"Oh yeah" he said brightening. "It's my turn tonight to meet your family." He grinned mischievously and I wasn't sure that I liked that expression.

"Best behavior, Max" I reminded him. He was more excited about tonight than I was mainly because I was a nervous wreck. I had never brought a guy home before and I knew that embarrassing topics were sure to come up. I was trying to stay positive though because the weekend with his family had gone so well. Lucy and I had even talked on the phone twice since I came back. Once because I had asked for her crepe batter recipe and a second time when she had called to let us know that her and Serge would be down for a game in the next few weeks and she wanted to make sure that they could stay with us.

"I'm always on my best behavior" Max insisted as we both got into his car.

"Do you think we could stop at the grocery store on the way home?" I asked remembering that I still needed to pick up a few things for the casserole I had made to take to dinner tonight. My mom's family was fiercely slovak and my aunt was making traditional foods for Max to try. I was still bringing a backup dish just in case he didn't like any of the cabbage based foods because the last thing I needed right now was for him to hate everything that my family ate when we got together.
"Stop stressing and doing your creepy leg jiggling thing" Max said stilling my left thigh from moving as he drove us towards the apartment building office.

"I can't help it!" I sighed turning on music as a distraction. 20 minutes later we pulled in and he cut the engine staring at me for a minute. I knew he was waiting for me to take the initiative and show that this was what I really wanted.


"Let's go" I said opening the car door and getting out. My heart told me that I was doing the right thing here and like it or not, my head was just going to have to catch up. Max met me on my side of the car and pulled me into a searing kiss leaving me feeling a little bit dazed. Right, that's why I'm doing this.

"Let's go" he repeated tucking his arm around my waist and leading me inside.

Signing the papers had been so quick and easy that afterwards it was as if it had never happened. I almost wanted to pinch myself to make sure that it had really happened and that this all wasn't an elaborate dream.

"So, no regrets right?" Max looked almost as antsy as I felt before I signed the papers and I felt bad knowing that he needed reassurance too.
"No regrets" I leaned up to give him a kiss. I pulled back as he attempted to keep me in place.
"Max, no making out in public parking lots" I laughed looking at the wounded expression on his face.

"What about later?" he grinned waggling his eyebrows up and down suggestively. I sighed dramatically enjoying the weird little games we always played with each other. Our banter was kind of hot.

"I don't know, I might have a headache later" I tried to keep my face serious but by the end of it both of us were laughing hysterically and leaning on each other while we caught our breath.

"Okay, seriously. Let's go home now" Max said digging his keys out of his pockets and guiding me toward his car.

"Yeah, our home" I repeated mostly to myself but liking the sound of it all the same.