Chapter 143: Together, but not intergrated
"Have we...merged our houses?" Andrew repeated slowly, staring down at the coffee in his hands.
"Yes. You two live together. You must have merged everything together by now." Amir’s grandmother was a little bit brash with his words, but he meant well. Andrew knew that. Andrew chuckled awkwardly.
"Well...no." Andrew said. "I still have my apartment, and most of my things are still there." Maxwell was silent next to him, and Andrew, for some reason, couldn’t look at him. He smiled at Amir’s grandmother, even as the others seemed shocked.
"Max let you keep your apartment? Still? Wow. I’m surprised." Will exclaimed, and Andrew jerked. He hadn’t forgotten that Will was there, he had just been so quiet that he hadn’t focused on him.
His fiance was with him today, but they weren’t touching. Still, the atmosphere around them didn’t seem as tense as Andrew expected, but he didn’t care enough to ask.
"Well, where else would I keep my things?" Andrew joked and flinched when Maxwell’s hand landed on his thigh and squeezed tightly. Andrew jerked, nearly spilling coffee all over him as Maxwell pushed his face into Andrew’s, his gaze alight from within.
"I never said you couldn’t bring your things over." Maxwell declared and Andrew stared at him in shock.
"O-Okay." Andrew said. Maxwell leaned in close.
"You can put whatever you want into the house. I don’t care. You can cancel that stupid rental contract whenever you want. I don’t care if I even have to move our bedroom to the second floor to fit all of your stuff." Maxwell stated, and at first, Andrew didn’t know what was happening. He was too overwhelmed by Maxwell’s sudden behaviour to read into it.
His head was spinning from the information, the forceful way that Maxwell was speaking, and the pain in his thigh to fully look at Maxwell. When he did, he realised that Maxwell was sweating, his lips and eyebrows were twitching, and he looked even paler than he had before.
It clicked for Andrew as he stared at him, Maxwell leaning over the edge of Andrew’s chair, his fingers digging into Andrew’s thigh. Even if Maxwell was hungover and upset, he didn’t normally get this into someone else’s face. Maxwell was feeling...worried? Bothered? Andrew wasn’t quite sure if those words fit the exact feeling that Maxwell was going through, but it was clear that this was something that did bother him.