Chapter 36: Regrets the next day
Andrew was ready to grovel. He was ready to beg and plead his case. He honestly had no idea how Maxwell was going to forgive him after everything he had done to him, but he had to make it up to him somehow.
When he had woken up, feeling more refreshed than he had in what felt like years, and he had turned over to see Maxwell’s morning face, he had felt like his heart had stopped.
Maxwell had been covered in marks, bruises, everything. It was clear that Andrew had done it, and even if his memory was fuzzy, he had clear recollection of him doing it. He had panicked at first, and gotten up rather quickly to make sure that Maxwell was actually okay. When he’d flipped the sheets off of him, Andrew had covered his mouth in horror. Maxwell was covered. Covered in markings! What was he, some kind of fucking animal?
Such a sense of shame had filled Andrew, he wasn’t sure how he was going to endure it. So, he made sure that Maxwell was in a fresh bed, with fresh sheets since he couldn’t remember changing them the night before, and washed him with a cloth. Maxwell hadn’t woken up, only making soft complaints when Andrew scrubbed a little too hard, but did remain asleep. It was a blessing to Andrew, since he knew he was going to get a strip ripped off of him as soon as he woke up.
So, Andrew set about trying to make sure that there was some reason to keep him around. So that Maxwell wouldn’t kick him out a day after saying that he was his. That would not only be embarrassing, Andrew was pretty sure it would break his heart again, if not more than what Tracey had done to him.
Andrew cleaned up the living room, found out where the washer and dryer were, and set about cleaning the place from top to bottom. He cooked some more, put everything into the freezer in organized, dated plastic bags, and then set about making more food for Maxwell to consume on his own. He had noticed that Maxwell had plenty of precooked meals that he could just warm up and eat. Andrew thought that was rather cute of him, since he didn’t seem like the kind of man who would go out for fast food, and instead had homemade meals made for him and frozen.
It was so out of pocket compared to what Andrew was used to, that he found it adorable.
He kept an ear out for movement from Maxwell, but when time continued to tick on, and Maxwell hadn’t woken up, he began to worry.
It was around 3 pm when Andrew finally heard Maxwell shifting in the bedroom. Freezing at the sound, Andrew wasn’t sure what to do. In the silence, the loud beep from the timer he had set for the bread he had in the oven filled the air. Panicking that it would disturb Maxwell, he rushed to turn it off and then take the bread out. He turned back to the doorway, staring in the direction of Maxwell’s bedroom.