“It’s been a few weeks since we’ve seen Max,” Meredith casually comments as we order coffee.
Between school, Rashad, and my conversations each night with Conner, I realize I haven’t even noticed his absence.
Three days later we run into Max.
“Hey Max, how’s it going,” Meredith sings out.
He looks at her through red-rimmed eyes, hair that looks like he’s been running his hands through it, a couple days of beard, and a shirt that looks like he’s slept in it.
“Oh, Meredith…Olivia…hello.”
“Max, you look like you’ve been burning the candle at both ends,” I exclaim.
“Yeah, I think I might be close to solving some of my bot’s problems.”
“When was the last time you slept?”
“Oh…I’ve been getting a few hours at night and taking cat naps here and there.”
“Max, you’ve got to take care of yourself. You can’t keep a schedule like that up for too long. You’re going to get nailed by mono.”
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead”
Meredith laughs as she starts singing lyrics to some song.
I shoot her a look, she stops singing. “What?”
“What are you singing?”
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead, it’s a Bon Jovi song.”
“You weren’t even alive in the 80s.”
“Didn’t you grow up with classic rock?”
“Country, I grew up past the millennium. Didn’t modern music ever make it to rural Indiana?”
“Girlfriend, when I visited you in New York City, all I heard was Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen.”
“That wasn’t in Manhattan, it must have been when we stayed with my family in Deal on the Jersey Shore. New Jersey’s definitely not New York City.”
“As scintillating as this conversation is,” Max interrupts. “I’m going to get myself something to eat and get back to my lab.”
“That’s a first,” Meredith comments. “Max usually uses every trick in the book to hang with you. You typically need to peel him off.”
“Either my charms are wearing off or his big head is winning out over the little one for once.”
“When it comes to men, you have an unfathomably big ego.”
“Is it too big or am I confident? You know they say women have issues with confidence.”
“My friend you have no problems in the confidence department…especially when it comes to men. Have you ever lost a guy to a competitor?
“I never compete against other women. That’s a game only dumb women play. The game is to captivate the guy. You need to keep your eye on the ball. Guys want me because they find my focus and energy engrossing. I’ve read, men like women who are a little bit different. I’ve used my Middle Eastern looks as an asset.”
“How can we both be the same age, but you know so much more?”
“You’d know a lot more about men if you didn’t start dating Sam the first week of school.”
“It wasn’t the first week of school.”
“Yeah, okay you waited until Halloween to start dating him. What was that, week five?”
“How could I not, he was so dreamy in his prince costume.”
“I think I just threw up in my mouth.”
She laughs and gives me a friendly punch. “Someday you’ll meet a guy who’ll knock your sox off and then all the drama and games will be a thing of the past.”
“I hope it’s when I’m over thirty. I don’t want to waste my youth on one guy.”
***
It takes a few weeks before I run into Max again. He’s in the coffee shop furiously working on his computer. He looks back to normal. I glide into a chair across from him. It takes a few seconds before he looks up; at first with irritation which morphs into a smile.
“You must have gotten your bot to work if you’re back from the land of the dead.”
“That was a rough couple of weeks. I thought my whole project was dead, a year of work down the drain. Thankfully, the disaster was averted.”
“Last month you thought you might get some investors. How does it look now?”
“The investors are still around, they really like my concept. I don’t think I’m far enough along to get money this quarter. Most likely I’ll have to wait until I get my masters before I get funding. If I don’t get funding this year, I’ll continue working with my advisor on this solution while I work on my Ph.D.”
“Wouldn’t that be a better scenario? You do all the hard work as a grad student, using your advisor's lab, and all the resources we have here at school. Then you use funding to get your solution to market.”
“Maybe, but you need to think big. I’m not going to get the resources to build everything here. If I get funding, I’ll have the money to hire the right type of people.”
“What’s the rush? Are you afraid you’ll become a billionaire in your early thirties instead of your twenties?”
“I wish becoming a billionaire was as easy as having a unique idea, getting funding, and executing it well. Anyway, they’re two German Movies playing tonight over at the Main Quad, Das LeMax der Anderen, it won an academy award and Pan’s Labyrinth. Do you want to go with me? Not a date, just friends. I’ve been so busy in my lab that I’d like to go to a movie with a pretty girl and take her out for a beer afterward.”
“A couple of foreign films followed by a beer…I should be studying but, yeah, I guess I can take one night off.”
Max smiles, no cocky bravado. I don’t know how long this self-deprecating form of Max will last. I also don’t think a simple, uncomplicated Max would interest me for very long. But for one night it sounds like a vacation.