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Where was I going? Was there more Max to discover here? Would I stus? Was the reason he’d always been so a away from his place the fact that it allowed him to have a private space for so footsteps, I quickly ducked into a room at the end of the hall

Inside, away fro in my ears

And then, I looked around

I was in an enore bed in the middle On the bedside table, which held the only lit laraph of ers poised on the button of my shirt, lips parted I looked at once surprised and relieved

I remembered that exact moment He’d just told me he loved me

Whipping around, I looked at the wall behind me More photos: My back as I reached behind me to take offMy face looking up at hi to escape the realization that I had ely That there was more here for me to understand But past another door was an expansive dressing roo with intimacy There were probably thirty pictures of us, all black-and-white, all different sizes, artfully tiered and layered across the simple cream paint

Some were chaste and siainst the top ofacross a small exposed strip of my abdomen as he pushed estive of ahow My teeth biting his earlobe, only asping, close to clax Orinto his shoulders and h to ht filthy My hand wrapped around his erection A blurry shot of hi in me from behind, in the warehouse

But the one that stopped ht at my apartment I didn’t even realize Max had set his cale, with the ca on my bedside table In the picture, Max was over s wound around his thigh He was propped abovedown over me as we kissed Our eyes were closed, faces devoid of any tension whatsoever

It was us, e

And, beside it, a picture of his lips open aroundup at me with nad adoration

"Oh my God," I whispered

"No one ismy eyes, I asked, "Not even me?"

"Especially not you"

I turned around to look at hier breath, prepared ether, unbelievably gorgeous

But at the edges: broken Dark lines circled his uns a hard time out there," I admitted "The room, the couch"

He looked up at me, eyes hard "It was like that for me when I came home from San Francisco, you knoanted to buy all new furniture"

We drowned in a heavy silence after that until he finally looked away I didn’t knohere to start I had to remember that his phone had pictures of other women on it, ones more recent than those of me But here in this room, he see on right now," I admitted

"I don’t needto the pictures on the wall "Believein here uninvited" He glanced up at a picture of oing to leave them up for teeks, and then put them away"

"Max--"

"You told htly; I’d never heard hiry before

I had no idea what to say He’d phrased it in past tense But nothing felt s for him, particularly in his rooht "You had photos of other wo--"

"But if you loved iven me a chance to explain what you saw in the Post"

"By the time explanation is needed, it’s usually too late"

"You’vewrong? Have I ever lied to you, or kept anything from you? I trusted you You assume I’ve never been hurt and that trust co your own heart to realize that maybe I’m not the arsehole people expect me to be"

Any response dissipated when he’d said this He was right After he’d told me about Cecily, and his romantic life after, I’d assumed it had been easy for him, and that he had no experience with the harsher side of love

"You could have let me explain," he said

"I’m here Explain now"

His scowl deepened but he blinked away, nodding "Whoever stole ood folks at Celebritini found a hundred and ninety-eight pictures of you in my briefcase On my SD card, my phone, and a thumb drive Had they been able to decode the password on my laptop, they would have found another couple hundred And yet, they chose to post a picture of your hip, and the picture of a woman I’ve never met before"