The Bucket List Boyfriend (Boston Love #3)

Chapter 11

Maya

MONDAY MORNINGS are usually the worst, but today, I’m still buzzing from the salsa competition over the weekend.

“Morning.” I turn on my computer as I greet Viola and Kate.

Alex is nowhere in sight, which is pretty odd because he usually makes a point of being early on a Monday so he’s the first to hear the weekend gossip.

“Hey. How did the competition go?” Viola asks.

I’m about to answer when Kate stops me and motions towards the break room, where Alex is exiting with a coffee in hand.

Alex’s eyes light up when he sees me.

He leans against my cubicle wall, looking far too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for so early on a Monday morning.

“So, Maya,” he says, drawing out my name, “tell us ’ow did the salsa competition go? And don’t leave out any details.”

I swivel in my chair so that I’m facing them, feeling a little self-conscious but excited to share.

“Well, we didn’t win,” I start, shrugging. “But we didn’t come in last either. We were third. Max was actually pretty good! I was surprised. He really put in the effort. He had some secret one-on-one lessons with Javier to surprise me.”

“Secret lessons, eh? So he wanted to impress you. More importantly, did he put in any effort off the dance floor?” Alex asks, wiggling his eyebrows

He lives for the juicy details. Sadly, for both of us, I’ll have to disappoint. Although not completely, because I still haven’t shared what happened a couple of weeks ago.

“There may have been a moment…after our lesson,” I admit, my voice dropping as I glance around to make sure no one else is listening. “We almost kissed.”

Alex squeals and Viola gasps, clapping her hands together in delight.

“I knew it! I knew something was brewing between you two!”

Kate wheels her chair forward and leans in closer. “Spill. Why just an almost kiss? What happened?”

She’s getting as bad as Alex, but that doesn’t stop me from sharing what happened.

When I finish, Alex looks deflated. Probably not as deflated as I felt afterward.

The three of them exchange knowing looks before Kate says, “We should take bets on how long it’ll take for you two to finally get together.”

She’s still riding high from winning our last bet.

“I’m giving it a month,” Alex says.

Viola chuckles. “A month, tops. That kind of tension can’t last much longer, especially when they’re trying to complete a bucket list.”

Kate grins. “Judging solely based on the way he looked at you during karaoke, I’m going with two weeks. I’ve seen that look before. I bet he can’t hold out much longer.”

I can’t help but laugh at them, even though my heart skips a beat at the thought. “You guys are ridiculous.”

Kate suddenly sits bolt upright. “Oooh. Speaking of ridiculous, you wouldn’t believe the PR crisis I was dealing with over the weekend.”

Alex is all-ears. “Please tell me it has to do with the dastardly duo.”

The nickname is one we gave Kate’s most annoying A-lister clients. The married couple are both actors who think the world revolves around them. They are impulsive and refuse to take any advice from their team.

“It does indeed,” Kate confirms, looking grim.

“Oh no, what happened?” I ask, grateful for the change in topic.

“Well, it involved 911, a trip to the emergency room, fake crying outside the hospital for the pap shots, and one very cowardly husband,” Kate replies, shaking her head. “I’ve been trying to do damage control all morning.”

Alex is delighted by these vague details. I’m sure Kate does it on purpose to intrigue him. It works.

“Oooh. Tell me more.” He rests his chin on his hand.

“Well, it started out with a call on Saturday afternoon from their assistant, saying that the husband had been rushed in an ambulance to the emergency room. While they were following in the car behind, the wife had insisted the assistant call the paps with a ‘tip-off’...before she even knew what kind of state her husband was in! Can you believe it?”

“Knowing her, I can absolutely believe it,” I say.

My parents move in the same celebrity circles, and I’ve heard some first-hand stories about what a nightmare this woman is. She is ruthless and vicious enough to reduce grown men to tears.

“Ten minutes after they arrived at the hospital, there were pictures in the tabloids of her standing outside, crying.” Kate rolls her eyes. “We all know it was just a show.”

“So I assume he’s okay?” Viola asks.

“Yeah, supposedly kidney stones. But that’s only the public story.” Alex is even more intrigued now. “I flew to LA yesterday and discovered the real story. And buckle up darlings, because it’s a doozy.”

Alex squeals again.

“Apparently, the wife had some celebrity brunch event to attend on Saturday. The nanny had the weekend off, and their kid was at a playdate. The husband was supposed to go and fetch him just after lunch, but he never showed up…”

I’m not ashamed to admit that it’s not just Alex who’s invested in this story now. We’re all intrigued.

“So, the playdate mum contacts the wife to ask what’s happening because she can’t get hold of the husband. The wife is furious but she leaves her celebrity event early, fetches the kid, and goes home, all the while making multiple calls to her husband, none of which are being answered. When she gets home, she finds him unconscious on the living room floor and calls 911.”

Alex gasps. “Oh no!”

“Yes!”

Kate’s wide-eyed way of telling the story tells me she’s enjoying the drama just as much as Alex is. Although I can’t really blame him. With her fancy British accent, everything just sounds better.

“Even though he came around while the EMTs were checking him out, they insisted on taking him to the hospital because his pupils were really dilated. He went through a battery of tests that showed there was nothing physically wrong with him, and he was released. The wife doesn’t know anything, but she came up with the kidney stones idea and wants me to arrange a magazine interview so she can talk about how scary it was for her when she thought her husband was dying.”

“Of course she did!” I roll my eyes. She is the most self-absorbed, vile woman.

“Now here’s the juicy bit. When I got the husband alone on Sunday is when the real story came spilling out. Apparently he had been smoking weed all morning, which had made him fall asleep. He slept through all the phone calls from the playdate mum. He woke up when his wife was already on her way home and realized what had happened. He knew he was in serious trouble with her so he thought the only way out would be to fake being unconscious. So that’s what he did. He literally faked a medical emergency to avoid a bollocking from his shrew of a wife!”

At that comment, the three of us burst out laughing.

“Yeah, you know she must be pretty difficult to live with if he’s going to those lengths to avoid getting in trouble with her,” Viola says.

“That’s a very charitable assessment,” I tell her. “I’d say she’s more than just pretty difficult. She’s a nightmare, and he’s just a coward. Sure, he was in the wrong here, but he has no backbone when it comes to standing up to his wife.”

“Did the wife find out what really ’appened?” Alex asks.

“No. I told him I wouldn’t say anything. She doesn’t really care what’s happening with his health. She was mostly mad that she had to leave her event with her celebrity friends early, because of course everything is all about her. But she was thrilled at the pap shots of her crying and was more interested in how we were going to spin this trip to the hospital than anything else. She wants to, in her words, ‘play on the sympathy of the public’ so I’ve been trying to come up with a suitable strategy. It’s difficult to do without outright lying. I suggested just referring to it as a stress-related condition, because that’s pretty close to the truth. But she had already told the paps it was kidney stones. We all know whatever I do is going to be vetoed by the wife and she’ll do her own thing anyway.”

Poor Kate has been on the receiving end of many tongue lashings from this actress who refuses to take advice from anybody but then becomes enraged when things inevitably blow up in her face.

“Good luck with that.”

Kate sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Honestly, I should start charging extra for dealing with this kind of nonsense.”

As the conversation shifts to the rest of our celebrity clientele, I find myself stealing a glance at my phone, wondering if Max is thinking about the weekend as much as I am.

As if Max is reading my mind, my phone vibrates with a text. Seeing Max’s name makes my heart speed up.

How’s it going salsa partner? Thanks for doing it. I had fun.

So did I. I’m so proud of you.

Did you manage to get next week off?

Ah, yes. Next week we’re checking off a bunch of things on the list at the same time: canoeing, camping, and whitewater rafting. It’s all a part of the Wildway Wilderness Adventure.

Yeah. I can’t wait. I can already feel the rush of whitewater and feel the fresh air filling my lungs!

You mean the rush of panic and the river water filling your lungs.

Come on, you’re going to love it.

Sure, as long as I don’t end up sinking to the bottom. Again.

That was ONE time, and that was only because you got a cramp.

Maya, you had to drag me out of the pond like I was a beached whale. My dignity still hasn’t recovered.

You were 13. You were hardly a whale. Besides, I knew exactly what to do thanks to the first-aid course you made all of us do that summer.

It’s called being prepared. You never know when someone might need mouth-to-mouth… or a splint… or a bandage…

He punctuates his text with plenty of medical emojis.

You made Uncle Reggie buy a CPR dummy and had us practice on it every weekend for a month! I still have nightmares about that plastic torso.

Well, just think—if we encounter a bear during our wilderness experience, at least I’ll know how to splint your leg when you try to wrestle it.

That’s hilarious. Max would never let me get anywhere near a bear.

Is that before or after you have a heart attack?

Funny. Don’t worry, I’ll pack the bear spray.

You could always just bring one of your programming textbooks and read to the bear. You could use all that C++ and python language. It would fall asleep in no time and we could make our getaway.

I have no idea what those words actually mean. I’ve just heard Max use them.

I prefer my plan.

That makes me smile, because if there is one thing Max is unmatched at, it’s making a plan.

Once we wrap up our conversation I get back to work. Thankfully, it’s busy, which keeps me distracted for most of the morning.

At lunch time, I squeeze in a quick call with Sophie to tell her how the competition went.

“Third place, huh? Does it sting not to be first at something?”

We both chuckle at her question. I know her well enough to know the question is not malicious. She’s genuinely curious because she knows I’m competitive and I’m used to winning.

“Not at all. I had fun and most importantly, it looked like Max did too. I mean, he won’t be teaching any salsa classes any time soon, but he was pretty good for a beginner.”

“So I’m assuming seeing that you didn’t open with the fact that you laid one on him, that you didn’t actually pluck up the courage to kiss him?”

“No, of course not!”

“Why not? You’re the one with the courage of Braveheart charging into battle. So what happened?”

I sigh. “It’s not about courage, Sophs. It’s about trying to sort out these muddled feelings.”

“So talk it through with me. How are you feeling?”

Maybe talking with Sophie really will help me sort out these confusing emotions, so I let it all spill out.

“Conflicted. That’s how I’m feeling. Doing this bucket list has brought up feelings that I thought I’d dealt with in high school. I thought my teen crush was long gone, but I’m starting to think you were right. Maybe those feelings never went away and I just buried them so deep I could ignore them. Pretend they weren’t there. But now…I’m noticing things I never did before, and every time I see him I just want to kiss him, and based on what’s happened in the past few weeks, I think maybe he might feel something too. But then he acts like regular Max again so I’m not sure.”

“So, assuming he does feel the same, what’s the problem?” Sophie asks.

“Well, I might be able to admit that I feel something, but that doesn’t change anything really. We’re completely incompatible.”

Sophie scoffs. “Says who?”

“Says me! Says common sense. He is way out of my league intellectually, so imagine how bored he would get with me. And what would life look like? He’s too uptight for me. He’s not exactly a fan of the great outdoors, and I like to spend all my free time hiking and sailing and rock climbing and doing all these things.” I wave my hand in the air as I talk, even though Sophie can’t see me. Max always teases me about how I tell a story with my hands. “He is the safety police and I’m the adrenaline-fueled risk-taker. That makes us fundamentally incompatible.”

“One, I don’t think you should be deciding for Max what he can and can’t live with. And two, I think you’re overthinking things. You don’t need to make any decisions yet. Just take a step back and see how things play out.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I sigh.

Sophie is pretty wise, so I should probably listen to her.

“Don’t worry, Maya. I have a feeling that everything will work out in the end.”

I sure hope she’s right.