Crashing into an Old Flame
Chapter 307: Her gift

Chapter 307: Her gift

Maxim blinked as he rubbed his aching chest. The waves of dizziness in his head making him unable to focus on Ryle.

’’You can sleep with them. You can have fun with them and you can provide them pleasure. That’s the only relationship a man should ever share with a woman. But no,’’ Ryle rolled his eyes.

’’You just had to go ahead and have complicated emotional attachments with them. How pathetic. I would never,’’ Ryle arched a brow as he continued speaking, disappointment lacing his tone.

’’She...’’ Maxim clutched his head as he massaged his gently. His cloudy eyes flickered with little bits of consciousness in between as he looked at Ryle and pressed a finger on his chest and pushed him back, ’’Don’t badmouth her.’’

’’Seeing that you still are sane enough to defend that woman, I have no remaining business here,’’ Ryle gave him a side-eye before he walked off to his car, ’’Don’t go over to her place to cry in the middle of the night. I would refuse to acknowledge you as my friend.’’

As Maxim slowly walked off to his car, he leaned back on it before he gradually squatted on the ground, his head leaning back against the car trunk. Maxim raked his fingers through his hair, clutching his head harder.

’’Boss has left me here to drive you home safely. Where are we going?" Ryle’s driver approached the man respectfully.

Maxim narrowed his eyes, ’’Nowhere. Go back and drive him to hell,’’ his voice trailed off.

The man shivered. There the poor man thought that his boss’s friend would be less scary than his boss but his enlightenment came too quick.

He looked at Maxim cautiously for a moment before he scooted to stand a little far from the man while gazing forward, not daring to look his way again.

Cars passed by and every time the headlights flashed Maxim’s way, he could feel a throbbing pain in his head accompanied with the lingering bitterness caused by his argument with Diana.

The drunkenness seemed to be disappearing with every passing minute and the more he became conscious, the further he hated it.

The reminder of her words, of her detachment gnawed at his chest till his eyes reddened.

Maxim clutched at his chest, feeling the strange twisting of his heart that agonized him.

Unknowingly, more than one hour passed as he stayed in that position.

When he tried to stand up, he staggered a few steps, feeling a lingering numbness in legs.

Ryle’s driver was still standing at the very spot that he had been standing at an hour ago.

’’You can leave,’’ Maxim approached the man.

Although his body felt a bit slower but his head was clear and the alcohol seemed to have been flushed out of his system because of the hangover pills.

The driver glanced at Maxim hesitatingly.

Maxim patted the man’s shoulder, ’’I will talk to Ryle if there is a need but you can leave for now.’’

Even though Maxim’s tone was polite and calm, compared to how it had been some time ago, but it still did not leave any room for negotiations for the driver.

’’Take care, sir,’’ After the driver left, Maxim took steady steps towards his car.

He opened the door to car backseat and plopped on the seat, his legs cramped in the small space as his blank gaze settled on the roof of the car.

The images of the whole day passed through his mind once again and helpless, he let them. He knew it well that for once, he could stop breathing, but he could never stop her thoughts from invading him.

’Crash’

Maxim’s gaze followed the source of the noise.

As he angled his head, he noticed a box that had fallen down the car seat.

The sight of it was not unfamiliar to him.

’I have something for you. A gift.’

He remembered the flush on Diana’s face when she had gone to her place to get the gift for him on his birthday. As if it was a last moment decision for her to give it to him.

And regardless of how much he had wanted to open it right there and then, he had held himself back, knowing well enough that she wanted him to open it in her absence.

’Click’

Maxim’s fingers fiddled over with the box as he opened it.

The sight of a diary entered his sight.

He was not unfamiliar with it.

When Diana had moved out, he had accidentally found it in her wardrobe and guilty as he was, he had read an old entry of hers that she had written about him after his graduation.

Maxim’s flipped the pages to one of the recent entries.

It was dated somewhere around the time when he had taken Diana on a beach date and she had revealed about her circumstances that led her to run from Beijing.

’There is something else. I kissed Warner today...’

The first line on the page had Maxim’s thoughts wandering off to that night.

One thing led to another and they kissed. It was brief but Maxim had felt his whole world freezing in that moment just the way it did right now.

Diana Chen mentioned him in the sacred space of her diary and the thought of it had his heart racing as he continued reading.

’Don’t be shocked, diary. You know most of my entries are about us being such pure friends that it is shocking, not just to you, to me too. But this is not the first time I kissed him. This is not going to be the last time. It happened a few times in my dreams and looking at the sleeplessness clouding me right now, I can assure you that my dreams are not going to stop... unless I do something about them.

I can’t stop myself from fantasizing about him and I don’t even know when it started. It’s probably the body’s physical reaction.’