Chapter 210: An elder’s suggestion
"He found your hotel room?" May repeated and Andrew swallowed, nodding. He rubbed his thumb nervously against the glass of orange juice.
"Yeah. I couldn’t remember the name of it, but he seemed to know where I was after I explained a little bit. I honestly didn’t expect him to show up." Andrew furrowed his brows. "Maxwell...behaved as if nothing had happened. It was...I wasn’t sober, admittedly, and I had ordered more booze to arrive around the time that he came over. I..." Andrew exhaled, finally putting the glass of orange juice onto the table before he covered his face with his hands. They were cold from the orange juice, but it was soothing.
Thinking back to the conversation still hurt him greatly. It was hard to speak past the tension in his throat. It wasn’t even a lump, his body didn’t want to speak about it.
May’s hand touched his shoulder, patting him slowly.
"It’s okay, Andrew. Take your time." She murmured. Andrew shook his head.
"He didn’t apologise. He said he had waited up for me to come home so that we could talk about it. He thought I needed...more space. It felt...how could he know me for so long but not know me?" Andrew finally voiced the part of him that had spiraled after Maxwell had left. "I know what he needs, but how could he not?" Andrew gulped in air, his chest heaving as he got worked up. "He said I was work, that he had to put in work to be with me. I don’t...I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say that he loves me, May. It felt like...it felt like every word out of his mouth was designed to hurt me." Andrew was panting, his breath coming fast and quick.
"Breathe, Andrew. Take a deep breath in, deep breath out." Andrew listened to May, as she guided him through breath regulation. He was working himself up, and he wasn’t sure what the outcome would be if he got too worked up, but appreciated May calming him down.
May looked him over, her expression firm, but not angry as Andrew continued breathing slowly. She was clearly checking to see if he was okay, and Andrew appreciated it. He didn’t feel okay in the slightest.
"Did he say anything else, Andrew, or is that all you remembered?" Andrew’s face screwed up as he tried not to cry.
"He said he didn’t want to break up." Andrew told her quietly and May closed her eyes for a moment, and then exhaled.
"Well, considering how hungover you are, I will take your story with a grain of salt, but to me, Andrew, it sounds like you two have different communication methods, and that you two have different ways to deal with difficult situations." May said slowly, carefully. Andrew sniffed, but didn’t say anything as May stared at him. "To me, it sounds like Maxwell tried to give you space in the same way that he would want if something like this happened but the positions were reversed." Andrew frowned.