Once I got home, I fed Chubbs and checked my messages. The same people; my mother, Theresa, Chris, twice and Margot. I decided to call Margot first.

"Margot Daniels."

"Hey Margot, its Max Baker."

"Maxine! I'm so glad you called me back. So the date we're looking at is August 15th and I emailed the cover to you. Is everything okay? You usually call me right back."

I informed her about my last couple of days. She was shocked to say the least.

"Are you for real? Are you okay? Do you need anything sweetie?" I had to contain my laughter when she said that. She and I talked a little bit longer. As I was getting off the phone, she ended our conversation with, "You know; this would make one hell of a story."

I called my mother and Theresa back and was promptly bitched out by both (Theresa took it upon herself to tell my mother what happened). I was about to call Chris when my buzzer went off.

"I guess we got visitors Chubbs. Yeah?"

"Max, its Chris. Let me up." I buzzed him in and waited by the door. He came in like gangbusters.

"Well hello to you too."

"I thought you were going to call me?" I walked into the kitchen with him right on my heels. "Well?"

"I was just about to. Calm down. I'm okay, obviously." I went over to the fridge. "Do you want something to drink?" As I was reaching for a pop, I felt him move closer to me. When I turned around, Chris was standing directly in front of me. He was so close I could feel his breath.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes." I said, more breathy and sultry than necessary. His hand started caressing my face. I could feel myself leaning toward him. He moved slightly, sliding his hand from my face down my arm and took the can of Pepsi I had in it. As he did, he mumbled against my lips, "I'm glad you are" and walked out of my kitchen.  Are you fucking kidding me? He did not just do that. Once I got my bearing, I grabbed another can and tried not to chuck it at his head as I walked into my living room. He looked up at me, smiling at first, but once he saw the look on my face, his smile slowly faded.  I sat down to tell him what I found out.

"I think I know why Claudia was arguing with Angelo yesterday."

"Why?" he asked as he took a sip of his soda.
"He's having an affair with David Neumann." And Chris choked on his drink.

"What?" He asked between coughs, "How could you possibly know that?"

"I was still in the office when the two came back for something and practically made out while they were in there."

"They did that in front of you?"
"Well, not exactly."

"What do you mean ‘not exactly'?" I started playing with the throw pillow on my chair. "Maxie."

"I was hiding. Under Claudia's desk."

"You were what?! Please explain why you were hiding under her desk?"

"I was just looking around. Maybe get an idea who could have done this." I started to pull the note out as Chris rubbed his eyes.

"Maxine please, you have to let the police handle it. It's not your job to find out who killed Claudia, no matter what some dream told you. Just let this go. Look, it's about 8:30. Why don't we go and grab some dinner to take your mind off of this."

I started looking over some things I wrote down. "No, you can go ahead. I'm going to stay and figure this out."

"What is there for you to figure out? What if you do find out who did this? Did you ever stop and think that they might come after you? You don't know what will happen if you keep going down this road!"

I looked up at Chris. "Who's going to stop me? Are you going to do something if I keep down this ‘road'? You and I are journalists. We find the story and tell it. That's what we do. So I'm going to continue doing my job. You got a problem with it; you can leave."

"Wait, Maxie. I didn't mean to-" I got up to open the front door. "Bye Chris."

He looked at me as I gestured to the hallway and walked out defeated. I slammed the door and got back to work. I need to figure out whose handwritten this is. I know I've seen this before.  By the end of the night, I had a list of about 20 people. Damn. While I was trying to shorten the list, I thought about Chris. I shouldn't have been so short with him. He did have a point. Okay, so maybe I'm an asshole. I'll apologize when I see him at work.

All week, people were still talking about what happened, while I was buried in work. On Friday, I came in early so I can be done with the column and go home. I wasn't feeling all that great (and I was trying to avoid Chris, which wasn't hard with all the work I had). Once I got everything done, I went off looking for Eric to let him know I was leaving. I found him in our break room with his head down. Maybe everything is finally getting to him too.

"Hey Eric, I'm not feeling too well so I'm going to go home. Is that cool?" He didn't respond, so I tapped his shoulder lightly. Nothing. I started to shake him awake when his coffee mug fell out of his hands and shattered on the floor.  I lifted his head and noticed white foam around his mouth.
"Eric? ERIC! Help! Somebody help!"

Can I stop with the dead bodies already?

"This is not good for you, Maxie." Chris said as he walked over to me and placed his arms around me. All I could do was lean into him to stop myself from shaking. He continued holding me as Detectives Green and O'Connell walked over to us.

"I'm sorry we keep meeting under these circumstances, Maxine. What happened?" Chris let me go and I started telling them my story. The pair took in what I told them and Green finally spoke up.

"You seem to have a problem with dead bodies."

 Yeah, you think?

 "Finding two in less than a week; that's not good for you."

"Detective, I know that Max had nothing to do with any of this. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Twice? Well, we're going to need you to come with us so we can take your official statement."

"Can I grab my things?"

Detective O'Connell, noticing the way I was holding on to Chris, spoke up. "If you like, Mr. Martinez can come with you."

I got my bag and walked out with the detectives and Chris, giving everyone in the place something else to talk about.

Fucking great.

We were at the police station for three hours, which made me glad I finished my column earlier.  After finally giving a statement, Chris and I walked out to his car to leave.

"You want me to take you home?"

"No", I said as I got inside. "I have to go back for my truck." When he got inside, he didn't start the car right away.

"Maxie, I'm sorry about Tuesday night. I shouldn't have-no." I interjected. "You were right about it being none of my business and I shouldn't have been so short with you pointing that out. I know you were just trying to help." I leaned over to kiss his cheek to say thank you, but he turned his head quickly so the kiss landed on his lips.

"Trying to be sneaky again?" I said as his eyes went from mine to my mouth and back.

"I don't know, is it working?" I kissed him again and we headed back to the office.

"I really don't want to go back up there. I'm sure everyone is thinking I'm killing my way to the top of the food chain." I said as we got out of the car.

He laughed. "Probably, but you would have a lot more people to take out. That seems like too much work to me. Hey, there's this concert I have to go to tonight to review the band. Would you like to go with me?"

I stopped walking. "Is this fabled date number 2? I'd like that. Besides, I need the distraction."

As we headed into the building, Darren Cross was walking out. "Hey Max, Chris." He turned to me.

"Max, can I talk to you for a second?"  Chris stepped closer to me. I put my hand up to stop him.

"Chris, give me a minute okay? It's fine." He nodded and backed off. Darren and I walked back outside.

"So what's up?" Darren shuffled slightly. He's a sweet, quiet guy that I always see doing his job, whatever that is.

"Well, I...um, I wanted...toknowifyouwouldliketogooutwithmetonight."

"What Darren? I missed all that last part."

"I said would you like to go out with me tonight? There's a nice Italian restaurant up north that I heard about."

"Thanks Darren, but I already have plans. I'm sorry, but maybe we can go another time?" As I said that, I noticed his whole demeanor changed. In a second, he went from shy and nice to cold and detached.

"That's fine. Goodbye Maxine" and he stalked off to his bicycle. That was really weird. I brushed it off and went back inside to where Chris was waiting.

"So what was that about?"

I pushed the elevator button. "Oh he was just asking me out." I said as nonchalantly as I could.

"Hopefully, you shot him down nicely." Chris said as we got on the elevator.