Barclay Davis - The Beautiful Truth, Part Two of Three

                                                            Art by Scopedog

Early evening, and Max is heading to the Crow's Bar. The winds were picking up, as a cold front was moving in the area, followed by heavy rains later on. But Max and the Gang would be well sheltered at the bar when it finally passes.

When Max arrives, he heads straight to the table the Gang usually hangs out at to join in. And the table looked bigger than usual. As well as Bob, Mitch, Paul, Sam, Pete, and Carol, there was Sam's brother and sister in law, Mo and Jasmine, Gloria and Al, and, in a surprise, Bob's ex-wife Shontel shows up on Bob's side. And, of course, Victor, standing on the table. When Victor sees him, he gives Max an attitude.

"Bout time ya showed up!" Victor told Max. "Musta been a hell of a piss for you to come at this time!"

"Actually Victor, I deliberately took my time getting here. I wanted to enjoy the silence of you not being there." Max sarcastically shot back at a pissed Victor, as he sat by the end closest to the door and threw in some money for the drinks, as is custom with the Gang. He then told Victor, "You might be interested to know that the fish market, that I picked you up from, will be shutting it's doors for good."

"Well good riddance to bad rubbish, I say!" Victor shot back. "Nothing good ever came of that place!"

"Don't be certain about that, Victor." Max answered. "If it wasn't for me picking you up from that place, you'd have been turned to shit, after someone had eaten you."

"Oh well, thank you very much, my hero!" Victor responded sarcastically.

As he was pouring beer into his glass, Max asked. "So what exactly is the big announcement?"

"Oh not much." Mitch said, as he curled up to Paul. "Paul and I are engaged to be married!"

"Whuuut?" a surprised Max replied, as he managed to spill some beer on his lap after hearing that announcement.

Mitch continued. "Paul proposed to me this morning. I was surprised, at first, it was so sudden. But I quickly accepted."

"Oh wow, I wouldn't have expected that." Max replied while cleaning himself off, and continued with concern. "...You're not going to move out of your apartment after you're both married, are you?"

Mitch turned to Paul and said to him "Awww, look at him. He misses us already!" They both get up to go to Max and give him air kisses near his head and face.

Max was none too thrilled about that, saying "Sorry I asked!" As Mitch and Paul went back to their chairs chuckling. Max then asked them, "So do you two have a wedding day planned?"

"Nothing's been set in stone, yet." Paul told him. "But we're looking into being wed sometime in the late spring, at the earliest."

"Oh, well, congrats to the two of you." Max said. "I've no doubt yours will be a long lasting union."

"Ah, merci Max." Paul told him. "Of course we were hoping you'd have been here earlier. We have something to ask you."

"Oh?" Max said. "And what is that?"

Mitch answered. "Well...we were wondering if you would be our best man at our wedding."

"Me?" Max said surprisingly. "Oh well, I'm flattered, but...wouldn't you want someone who's gay as your best man? I mean, it IS, after all, a gay wedding."

"Who says everyone in the wedding party has to be gay?" Mitch says. "And besides, you've been our friend, for a long time, as well as being Paul's student at his dojo. You were the only one we had in mind for best man."

Max just sat there, taking all this in. Then he tells Mitch and Paul, "Well, in that case, I would be honored to be your best man at your wedding." He then raises his glass of beer and toasts the happily engaged couple.

Soon, Max takes a look around the table and sees most everyone coupled. Apart from Mitch and Paul, there was Pete and Carol, Sam's brother Mo with his wife Jasmine, Gloria with her recently wed husband Al, and now Bob is dating his ex. Max looks at Sam and tells him, "Well Sam, it looks like it's just you and me being the only members of the Lonely Heart's Club left. Should we wager as to who'll be the last man standing?"

Sam just laughed at Max, and told him "Save your money, Max. I think everyone knows that the next person that'll be taken is you with Frida."

Gloria's ears pricked up when she heard that. "REALLY? Max has a gal he's interested in?"

"No Gloria, we're just friends, is all." Max told her.

"Friends with benefits, perhaps?" Bob says humorously. Max wasn't laughing.

"Frida's a high school teacher, like Max, who also works here on weekends cuz of her daughter." Pete told Gloria, as if it was the end of the world for her.

"Oh wow! And you haven't even asked her out yet?" Shontel replied. Max was about to say something when Shontel replied "You know, you really should try and go down on her without her asking. Women love that from their man."

"WHAT?" Max shot back, "Why the sexual advice all of a sudden? We're not even going out!"

Shontel responded, "Not yet, you aren't!"

Max looked pissed at that response. But the others seem quite intrigued by the possible coupling. Gloria's still going on about wanting to meet Frida, while everyone else jokes about what an adorable couple Max and Frida would make. But all this time, Max was staring at his friends as if they were all crazy, and getting a little annoyed at their behavior. So after the rest of the Gang finished up laughing at all that, Max turned to face them in his seat.

"Look." Max told them, with a bit of a smile on his face. "I know you all think Frida and I are going to get together, at some point. But you need to drop it. I'm nothing but a dating curse. I go out with someone, I come back alone and upset. But I've come to accept my fate, and the rest of you should too. Frida's just a friend and a colleague of mine at Danforth. That's all, nothing more, period, end of story!"

Max then grabbed his glass of beer, and continued talking. "Speaking of which, I just realized I haven't seen Frida around since I got here. Anyone knows where she is?"

"That's what I'd like to know!" a familiar voice told Max, rather angrily. Max turned in his chair to look up at Hirsh, who looks to be in a rather foul mood.

Confused by Hirsh's response to him, Max put down his beer, and asked, "Hirsh? What do you want?"

"The same thing we all want!" another familiar voice said, rather angrily as well, as Max sees Gail, who had just said that, and Abigail walking up from behind Hirsh.

Max was surprised by their appearance at the Crow's Bar and asked them. "Gail? Abigail? What are you two doing here?"

"We came here looking for Frida!" Abigail shot back at Max.

Gail: "I had to go babysit Frida's last class today, because she went AWOL all of a sudden!"

Abigail: "We asked the front desk what had happened, but they didn't give us anything because they don't divulge in any private information!

Gail: "So we tried calling Frida on her cell phone, repeatedly, But there was no answer!"

Abigail: "We had no idea where Frida was, where she lived, or who to talk to!"

Gail: "The only option we had left was to go to Frida's second workplace, here!"

Abigail: "And we went up to her boss to ask about Frida!"

Then Hirsh spoke. "And that's when I told them. Frida didn't show up to work tonight. Which I found rather odd, because she's a very punctual employee of mine. So I'm in the dark about her like these two ladies here."

Max was surprised by all that. He turned to stare out into the open and say, "Oh my God! That IS strange. And troubling. I hope she's all right." He's about to finally sip his beer when he noticed Gail, Abigail, and Hirsh still looking at him rather angrily.

Max continued talking, saying "Now what?" But after a moment, Max puts two and two together, and then speaks out. "Wait a minute!" he says as he puts down his beer. "Are you suggesting...I'M the one responsible for Frida's disappearance? Are you all shitting me?" Max said, as his voice reveals some anger in it.

"The last I saw of Frida was at lunchtime today." Max continued. "I spent the rest of the afternoon marking test papers and teaching my final class. I wasn't even thinking of her that entire time, much less seeing her. And quite frankly, I'm rather offended that you all would accuse me of hurting her. I lo...LIKE Frida! The last thing I would ever do is to try and hurt her for any reason! Yet somehow, you all decided to make ME the bad guy in her disappearing act."

Max then turns to pick up his beer, that he still hasn't yet sipped. Before he does, he interjects more. "I-I-I mean...where do you three get this notion that, somehow, Frida's sudden and unexplained disappearance is somehow all MY fault, hmmmm?"

Max then turns to the front and finally starts drinking his beer, when Gail shouts back "BECAUSE, ASSHOLE...SHE'S IN LOVE WITH YOU!!!"

Max upon hearing that:

The shock of that announcement caused Max to swallow some beer down his windpipe, which made him cough up his beer, all over a disgusted Victor. Max continued coughing like crazy, and then he started "eeeeeing" to himself, until, finally, he sprung up out of his chair, went over to Gail, and yelled to her, "WHAAAT???!!!!!"

Gail then told Max, "I said Frida is deeply...MADLY...HOPELESSLY IN LOVE WITH YOU!!!"

Max couldn't believe what he was hearing. His entire face froze up on him in shock with that news, until he finally spoke out. "...No, no, that's...THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!"

"It's more than possible." Abigail quickly responded. "Frida told us that herself!"

Gail: "We found Frida sitting alone in the women's washroom stall, this afternoon, crying bitterly because you weren't paying any attention to her!"

Abigail: "So we gave her a quickie makeover and told her to go see you and charm you!"

Gail: "But the next thing we knew, I was looking after her last class without a reason!"

Abigail: "And then, we saw you leaving the school on your own without any fucks to give!"

Gail: "So we came to the conclusion that you had callously rejected Frida's advances at you!"

Abigail: "And that she had lost her mind over the rejection and ran as far away as possible!

Gail: "So now she's vanished into thin air!"

Abigail: "And you're just sitting there getting all shitfaced and stupid!"

Max just stood there without moving. He had the dumbest of looks from what Gail and Abigail were telling him about Frida. Then, after what seemed like forever, Max started making a big, dumb grin, and started chuckling at the three of them with a stupid laugh, and started saying "Huh-huh-huh, that's a good one! Huh-huh-huh, you telling me Frida's in love with me. Huh-huh-huh, Frida. Of all people! Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh, oh that's a real knee slapper, that one, huh-huh-huh." Gail, Abigail, and Hirsh were all quite annoyed at Max's response.

Max then turned to the Gang, and, with his thumb pointing at the three of them, told them, "Didya hear that, Gang? They all say Frida is madly in love with me." But no one was laughing with Max.

Max continued, "Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh!" Literally slapping his knees, then going up to the three of them, saying "Oh you three really know how to kid around!" Max then went back to the table, with his hands on it and his head down, saying "Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh, Frida Olsen in love with me! Huh-huh-huh-huh!"

No one was laughing. In fact, everyone was quite pissed at Max for carrying on the way he was. None more so than Victor, who got so mad at Max, he went up and pinched his left pinky finger, with both claws, hard. Max immediately screamed in agony, as he lifted his hand up with Victor still holding a vice like grip of Max's pinky. Max then started bouncing around the bar, knocking things and people over.

Hirsh quickly looked at the Gang, and screamed at them, "Hey now, BREAK 'EM UP, BEFORE THEY BREAK THIS PLACE UP!" The Gang quickly went up to them to try and pry Victor's claws off Max's finger. After removing Victor from him, Max, was left with a damaged pinky finger. Max then got furious at Victor.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Max screamed at Victor. "YOU TRIED TO TAKE MY FINGER OFF!"

"YOU JUST BE GRATEFUL I DON'T TRY AND TAKE YOUR DICK OFF!" Victor responded. "It's not like you're using it, or anything!"

"What's it matter to you, Shellface?" Max shot back at Victor. "What's it matter how I go on with my business with Frida? I already told everyone we're just friends."

"Oh yeah, you're just friends alright!" Victor replied "Friends without any of the benefits you're looking for!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Max asked.

"It means that you're secretly in love with Frida, and you're afraid to admit it!" Victor answered back.

"WHAT?!!" Max said, objectively. "I am NOT in love with Frida!"

"Is that why you keep staring at her backside, everywhere she goes in here?" Victor told him.

"I AM NOT DOING THAT!" Max protests. "I'm just...looking out for her well being here, is all." No one's buying it.

"Suuure you are!" Victor sarcastically tells him. "You're looking out for her because you want her, but can't because you're a fucking coward!"

"I AM NOT A COWARD!!!" Max yells at Victor.

"Then why don't you ask Frida out then, if your not a coward?" Victor asks him.

"Why? It's because..." Max says, struggling to come up with an answer.

"Why is it because?" Victor chides him.

"It's because...because, because, BECAUSE, because, beCAAAUUUSE..." Max says, struggling to come up with an answer, until he spots Mitch and Paul standing together and says "...BECAUSE I'M GAY (yeah, that's it!), I'M HERE, I'M QUEER, GET USED TO IT!!!" while going up to the two of them with his arms around both.

Everyone just rolled their eyes at Max over his pathetic excuse. None moreso than Mitch and Paul, who were none too pleased about Max trivializing their sexuality like that.

"So, you're coming out of the closet, after all these years, huh Max?" a rather suspicious Mitch tells him.

"Yup, that's right, fellow...gay person" Max says very unconvincingly.

"Ok then," Mitch tells him "...kiss me!"

"Whuuut?" Max says, not expecting that answer.

"You heard me!" Mitch tells him. "If you're comfortable with your sexuality, you shouldn't have a problem puckering up to us now."

"Uhhhh..." Max says very hesitantly, realizing he's being put on the spot.

"Perhaps a mere kiss would not suffice." Paul says, jumping in. "If he is really gay, then maybe he's willing to provide oral services. The ultimate kiss, as it were!"

Max keeps looking back and forth between Mitch and Paul, wondering what kind of mess he's gotten himself into. Finally, he turns to Hirsh, and tells him, "Uhhh, HIRSH! You're not going to allow this to happen in your own establishment, are you?"

"Hey now, don't drag me into your little love triangle!" Hirsh tells Max.

Max was at a loss with what to do next. Mitch finally asks "So, are you going to officially confirm your homosexuality with a kiss to us, or what, Max?"

Max was hummina-hummina-humina for a bit, until Mitch points his finger at him and tells him "THAT...was a rhetorical question! You can't, because you're NOT! The only reason for you to say something like that is because you don't want to admit Victor's right about you!"

Max just stares at Victor for a moment, and starts protesting. "What, that thing?" Max says about Victor and starts laughing. "Why he's so small, his tiny brain is too close to his asshole. What kind of knowledge can he hold?"

"Afraid of finding out, coward?" Victor asks Max.

"Don't talk to me like that!" Max shouts back. "It's all complicated between me and Frida."

"Yeah, you're a boy, she's a girl, letting nature take it's course. How complicated is that?." Victor answers.

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" Max snaps back. "Frida has a child, she works two jobs, and has very little time for herself! What time would any guy have with her?"

"Lotsa guys would try and find time with her!" Victor answers. "Frida would gladly make time with you, if you'd just open up to her more, instead of hiding like the big wuss that you've become! Your sad, non existent, loser love life has reduced you to a fucking wimp that's scared of its own shadow, and you'd rather remain so rather than try and step out of it!"

Max just stood there for a moment, not saying anything. He then tells Victor, "...Well even if all that were true, what about it? You know how things have gone for me! Getting stood up on my dates, being used to make their significant others jealous, having other guys pick up my dates while I'm right in the middle of one!"

"LYDIA!" Max shouts out. "Have you completely forgotten the hell she put me through? Each and every time I go out with someone, it ALWAYS ends up a disaster for me! So why would I expect Frida to be different from all the other women in my past?"

"Because Frida IS different from all the other women, you asshole!!!" Victor yells at him. "We have witnesses here that can testify she loves you, badly, unlike all the other women you went out with! Yet you'd rather find solace in loneliness and misery, rather than take a chance on love and happiness! You're a FOOL who loves PAIN!"

Max was out of responses. He just stood there for the longest of times saying nothing. Then, he blurted out, "What would you know about love? You're just a crab! Your idea of love is to keep procreating so that your entire species doesn't get eaten into extinction! What would you know about romance and heartbreak and love between humans? Huh?"

"WHAT THE FUCK WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT ANY OF THAT?!!" He finally screamed.

After a moment of silence, Pete spoke out. "A lot more than you, it seems."

Max looked at Pete, then he looked at the rest of the Gang. Then he looked at Hirsh, Gail, Abigail, and then everyone else in the bar. Max soon realized no one was backing him up. He was all alone with his opinions.

Realizing he's all by himself, Max does a slow boil until he finally erupts, screaming "GAAAAA, FINE!!! If that's the way you all feel about it, well then...FINE!!!" Max then grabs his hat off the table, and stomps right out of the Crow's Bar. Everyone started resuming their affairs, when Max returned, screaming "But I just want you all to know one thing!"

"EACH - and every last one of you," Max screamed and pointed, "has sided with a bottom feeding crustacean over your fellow human being!" as Max was pointing at a pissed off Victor. "THAT...does not bode well for all mankind!" Max then puts his hat on and leaves the Crow's Bar for good that evening.

Victor, furious over Max behavior and looking like he's ready to blow up, reacts by grabbing a glass of booze that was near him, gulping it all down, and then, heaving the glass off the table. Slowly sinking to the ground, Victor mumbles, "I SOOOOO needed that!"

***

After leaving the Crow's Bar, Max was walking east on Barclay Avenue, away from his place. He didn't care about the storm that was going to pass through. Max needed to walk off his anger and frustrations after what had happened earlier. He turned north to enter Broadview Park, where he'd figure there'd be less traffic.

Inside the park, Max was looking at all the couples walking around. Some were young, some were old. There was a lesbian couple, where one proposed to the other, and then happily kissing each other.

But Max always ended up seeing himself and Frida in each couple he saw. Which left him frustrated, as he can't seem to shake her out of his mind. Max kept on walking through the park until he sat down on one of the benches to look up at the approaching storm.

Sitting there, Max kept thinking about all the heartache he had to endure over the years. The tears he shed from every failed date. Then thoughts of Frida came up, and all the stuff he and Victor said to one another earlier. How Max was a fool who loves pain, and how he understands less about love than a lowly crab. And then, there was what McGilligan had told him earlier in the day:

"Edwards. I just hope, for your well being, you choose wisely. I don't want you to spend the rest of your life filled with regret."

And through it all, Max was just looking up at the sky, where even all the clouds look like Frida to him.

One side of Max tells him he knows what to do. The other side tells him don't be a fool! You know what'll happen.

But Max thinks of nothing. He's still confused, and instead decides to head back to his apartment. Head down, still confused and upset. Max just wants to sit in the dark when he arrives back home. Which perfectly explains how he's seeing things right now.

***

After leaving Broadview Park, Max was walking west on Barclay Avenue, heading back to his apartment. The rain was just starting, but Max figures he'll be home in time to miss the worst of it. Besides, he really doesn't care if gets wet or not.

He walked past the Crow's Bar, from the other side of the street - he had no intent of returning there for the night. He then got to the corner of Barclay and Davis and turned right to head up north. He crossed Davis Road and, as he was near the apartment, Max turned left to go inside.

But Max got a quarter of the way up his walkway, when he stopped, dead in his tracks, to notice something at the building entrance. It looked like Frida, sitting on the left side of one of the two small brick walled entrances to the building. She was sitting there, like a human ball, leaning up against the building, with her legs up together, her feet tucked inside, and her head on her knees with her ratted hair covering her face up, She looked as if she was crying.

After just standing there and looking at her, as the rain started coming down on him, Max spoke.

"Frida?" he asked.

She raised her head up to look at Max. Frida's face was covered in mascara from all the crying she did, and the red lipstick that was applied to her earlier had a nasty smear across Frida's face.

"Oh my God!" Max said, as he was taken aback by Frida's appearance.

Frida then got up and ran to Max, where she fell into his arms and started crying again, saying "Oh Max, it's all so awful, so horrible!"

Max pulled Frida off him so that he could talk to her. "Frida, what is going on?" Max asked her. "You have everyone worried sick about you. You just up and vanished into thin air!"

Frida cried to Max, "It's Angela, Max! She's been taken from me!"

"WHAT?!!" Max screamed in disbelief. "HOW? How is that possible?"

"It was Archie who's behind this, Max!" Frida explained. "He and his family got a friendly judge of theirs to grant full custody of Angela to him! Then he went to Gerald and Marie's, with a couple of thugs of his, to take Angela away!" Frida then cried some more into Max's shoulder.

Max was still in disbelief over what Frida had told him. "How? How can he get away with this? HOW?!!" Max asked.

Frida continued, "And not only that, he got a restraining order put on me. I'm not to go within 50 feet of AngelaaaAAAHHhuh-huh-huhhhh..." Frida couldn't stop crying to Max, and continued. "Oh Max! I'm so beside myself! I can't stop crying!"

Max pulled Frida close to him, so that he could hug and comfort her, telling her "SHHHHH, don't cry, Frida, don't cry. SHHHHH! Everything's going to be alright, Frida. SHHHHH! Everything's going to be al..."

"NO!!!" Frida cried out to Max. "Everything's NOT alright! Angela was my entire life, Max! She was what kept me alive, kept me sane!" Frida cried some more, as Max just stood there with a blank look on his face, taking everything in. "And now, I don't have her with me, because some judge decided I'm a bad mother!"

Frida just kept on crying hard into Max, as Max continued staring out into space like a blank.

"I don't know what I'm gonna do, Max!" Frida continued. "I can't take it like this!...I wish I was..."

As Frida was talking, Max just stood there like a mannequin, with the rain coming down heavy on both of them. But something was building up inside him, due to Frida's anguish. And it came out, right at that point where Max bowed his head down and whispered into Frida, "I love you."

Frida quickly broke away from Max and started yelling at him. "WHAAAT? What did you say?"

Max got nervous, all of a sudden, and he started hemming and hawing. "WHAT? Oh, did I say something? Heh-heh, musta just..."

"NO! DON'T YOU DO THAT!" Frida yelled at Max, while pointing her finger at him. "You just said something to me, and I want you to tell me what it is, right now!" she demanded.

Max was stuttering, afraid of what to tell her. Frida quickly grabs Max by his collar, yanks him close to her, and demands from him. "TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK YOU JUST SAID TO ME!!!"

"I...I..." Max was having difficulty telling a furious looking Frida. But then, he meekly lets out "...I love you, Frida!"

Frida's face slowly went from angry to stunned after Max told her. Max continued.

"I...I didn't think I would. But...all this time we've been together...I fell for you, Frida." Max told her, while trying to keep it together. "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever met in my life. Everything about you is beautiful. Your hair, your eyes, your lips. The way you smile at me makes me weak all over...But your just as beautiful on the inside, Frida. You're sweet and caring. Your tending to those that need help. Your forgiving nature." Max was telling Frida, as his voice was cracking.

"I tried all I could to remain friends...because I was scared that if I fell for you...I'd end up losing you and our friendship...But all this time...I was fooling myself. I've been hiding my true feelings for you, Frida. But my fears and self doubts overwhelmed me into silence." Max said as he wiped a tear from his face. "But I'm through with hiding...I love you and need you, Frida."

Frida didn't say a word. Nor did she move a muscle, even as the rain started intensifying. She just stood there with her mouth open, listening to what Max was telling her, as he continued. "And yes, I know that it's a...really, really bad time to be bringing this up and all, but...the reason I'm telling you all this Frida, is because...no matter how lonely you may feel, right now...you're not alone, Frida...and you don't ever have to be alone."

Max never said another word. He was waiting for Frida to respond to him. Frida was still standing and unmoved. But then she started breathing. And her breathing got deeper and deeper. Until finally, she speaks out to Max.

"...You bastard!" Frida tells Max. "...You God...damned...bastard!" Frida was shaking and her face was growing angrier at Max. She continued, with her voice all in a rage "...I just had...the one person, who gave my entire life meaning and purpose, TAKEN from me in the most cruelest, cynical manner possible, and this is how you react?...WHY? So that you can look like the fucking hero?...The knight in shinny armor come to save the damsel in distress? HUH?" Max had lowered his head so as to not look at Frida as she was screaming at him.

"...You big...STUPID...JERRRRRRRRRK!!!" Frida finished as the tears started rolling down her already dirty face again.

Max was silent the entire time. He then lifted his head up to reveal a sad, wounded face staring at Frida. And then, Max just walked away from her.

Max walked up to his apartment in the most sad and depressing mood he's ever had. He thought Frida was in love with him, as the others have told him. But it was all just another cruel joke for Max, he thought. This hurt him far worse than Lydia. Max was doing all he could to hold it together. But as he pulled his keys from out of his right jacket pocket, he was about to break down and cry.

Until a hand grabbed his wrist. The move spooked Max out completely.

He turned to see where it came from. It was Frida, who, with a desperate look on her face, had grabbed Max. Then, in the next move, Frida grabbed Max by the collar with one hand, pulled him hard towards her, and started kissing him passionately. She then looked into Max's eyes and told him...

"I love you too...Maaaax." Fighting the tears, she continued. "I love you so much...you big, stupid jerk." she finally said with a smile

Max couldn't believe what he was hearing. He just stared at Frida with the biggest expression he's ever had. Frida still had dirty tears falling from her eyes, but there was that sweet smile of hers, staring right at Max.

Finally, Max cups Frida's face with his hands and tells her "Oh Frida..." Then, Frida pulls Max towards her to resume kissing him. She was leaning into him, until Max grabbed her around her waist with his arms and picked her up, just as the lightning crashed and the rains were at their heaviest.

They stood there getting drenched in the downpour, kissing each other, until Max finally got both of them out of the rain by moving under the canopy of the entrance of Max's apartment, where Max pinned Frida up against the wall next to the left side of the door, while Frida rests one leg on top of the small wall, and wraps the other around Max's waist. They were safe and dry from the torrential rains coming down, as they continued kissing each other, passionately and hungrily. Then, Max breaks the kiss from Frida and starts talking to her.

"Frida...listen to me!" Max tells her, sounding desperate. "I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't know how I'm going to do it. But, I swear to God, I promise that I will do whatever I can to get Angela BACK in her mother's arms where she belongs!" He continues desperately, "I WON'T LET YOU DOWN, FRIDA!!! I PROMISE..." But Frida, smiling at him, presses her fingers on Max's lips and told him, "Shhhhhh..." and resumed kissing him passionately.

The storm outside was raging. But Max and Frida were safe from the elements. Not that it mattered to them. All they cared about, at that moment, was the other. Their kissing was deep and wild, as if it were their last time together.

But that won't happen.

In the rubble of tragedy, two hard luck losers of love - Max and Frida - have finally found each others angels!

Coming up: Barclay Davis - The Beautiful Truth, The Conclusion