No strings attached (yeah, right.)

Max knew she was acting weird. She knew it. But, in her defense, her brain was currently a war zone. Half of it was screaming “Just forget about it, she doesn’t remember, it doesn’t matter.” The other half? That one was busy rewinding every second of last night in HD. Every touch, every moan, every time Caroline—NOPE. Nope nope nope.

Caroline, meanwhile, was also acting weird. She kept stealing these long, suspicious glances at Max like she was trying to crack a case on Dateline. Like at any second, she was gonna whip out a notepad and go, “Now, tell me, Miss Black, where were you on the night of—oh right, MY BED.”

She hadn’t straight-up asked again, but Max could feel it. The gears turning. The gut feeling that something was off.

And just as Max was about to lose her mind—

“SURPRISE!”

Sophie burst into the diner, glowing like a goddamn disco ball in a fur coat. Oleg trailed behind her, grinning like he had just committed a minor crime.

Max squinted. “Oh, great. Either you’re pregnant again, or you’re here to make my life worse.”

Sophie beamed. “Close! We want you girls to babysit Barbra tonight!”

Caroline perked up. “Aww, Barbra! Of course! We’d love to—”

“Absolutely not,” Max cut in.

Sophie ignored her completely, turning to Caroline. “Oleg and I have a very special date night planned.”

Oleg wiggled his eyebrows. “It involves a motel, a roll of plastic wrap, and three gallons of—”

“NOPE!” Max threw up a hand. “No more words, we’re already on three health code violations just from that sentence.”

Caroline, despite still being weirdly flustered about something, clasped her hands together. “Oh, Max, come on! It’ll be fun!”

Max shot her a look. “Fun? Caroline, babysitting is not ‘fun.’ Babysitting is just keeping a tiny drunk person alive until their real parents come back.”

Sophie pouted. “Pleeeease? We promise we’ll be back before midnight!”

Max snorted. “Midnight? Yeah, right. You two are gonna stumble back at 3 AM wearing each other’s underwear.”

Sophie gasped dramatically. “That was ONE time!”

Caroline sighed, then turned to Max with her rich girl puppy eyes. “Please?”

Max groaned, rubbing her face. “Fine. But if that kid pukes on me, I’m sending you the dry cleaning bill.”

Sophie squealed, clapping her hands. “Great! She’s already in the car, so we’ll just drop her off—BYE!” She grabbed Oleg’s arm and practically sprinted out the door before Max could change her mind.

Max exhaled. “I hate everything.”

Caroline nudged her. “Oh, relax. It’s just one night.”

Max side-eyed her. “That’s what I said last night, and now my life is RUINED.”

Caroline blinked. “Huh?”

“NOTHING. Forget it. Let’s go get the kid.”

Later in the apartment, Barbra was sitting in the middle of their couch, staring at them with her big, creepy baby eyes.

Max stared back. “So… what do we do with it?”

Caroline gasped. “Max, she’s not an it, she’s a baby! We take care of her! We nurture her! We—”

Max tossed a plastic spoon at Barbra. “Here, entertain yourself.”

Barbra picked it up. Then immediately threw it on the floor.

Max sighed. “This is gonna be a long night.”

Caroline scooped up Barbra and bounced her on her hip. “She’s so cute.”

Max smirked. “Yeah, she takes after her real dad.”

Caroline groaned. “Oleg is her real dad.”

“Exactly.”

Caroline rolled her eyes, then noticed Max’s expression had shifted—just for a second. Like she wasn’t fully there. Like she was thinking about something she really didn’t want to be thinking about.

Caroline chewed her lip. “Hey… are we good?”

Max blinked. “Huh?”

Caroline hesitated. “I don’t know, you just—” She exhaled. “Nevermind.”

Max nodded, too fast. “Cool. Yeah. Everything’s cool.”

Then Barbra sneezed directly into Max’s mouth, and she screamed.

And just like that, the tension snapped.

Caroline doubled over laughing as Max wiped her face with a curtain. “THIS IS WHY I DON’T LIKE KIDS.”

Barbra giggled.

And for now, Max was safe.

But Caroline still felt like something wasn’t adding up.

And sooner or later? She was gonna figure it out.

Babysitting Barbra turned out to be less about “taking care of a baby” and more about “desperately trying to convince a tiny human not to eat dust bunnies off the floor.”

Max groaned as she pried a questionable-looking Cheerio out of Barbra’s chubby little hand. “I swear to God, I get why parents are tired all the time. Babies are like little drunks who don’t pay rent.”

Caroline, rocking Barbra back and forth in her arms, smiled. “But she’s so cute.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t trust ‘cute.’ Cute things always end up ruining your life. Puppies, boyfriends, people with dimples—”

Caroline’s brow furrowed. “Are you… okay?”

Max froze for half a second too long. “Yeah. Why?”

Caroline gave her a look. “Because ever since last night, you’ve been acting like I ran over your cat.”

“Caroline, if you ran over nancy, you would be dead.”

“Max.”

Max flopped onto the couch and sighed. “I’m fine. Just—y’know. Thinking about life. My horrible, tragic life.”

Caroline sat down next to her, shifting Barbra onto her lap. “Well, do you wanna talk about it?”

Max scoffed. “What is this, The View? No, I don’t wanna talk about it. Feelings are disgusting.”

Caroline smirked. “Uh-huh. And yet you’re still making that I have a lot of feelings and they’re all terrible face.”

Max groaned. “Oh my God, fine. Let’s talk about your feelings instead.”

Caroline blinked. “My feelings?”

“Yeah. You and relationships. Go.”

Caroline scoffed. “There’s nothing to talk about. My last real relationship was with Andy, and we all know how that ended.”

Max snorted. “Yeah, you got your heart broken, then immediately continued the cupcake business with me. Pretty sure I’m the rebound.”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “You’re not a rebound, Max.”

Max shrugged. “Dunno. We do live together, work together, eat together, and have seen each other naked—”

“That was ONE TIME! Well, maybe not one time, but YOU GET THE POINT--”

“Still counts.”

Caroline sighed. “I don’t know. I guess… relationships just don’t work for me. I give everything, and then it’s never enough.”

Max glanced at her. “What do you mean?”

Caroline hesitated, looking down at Barbra, who was now gnawing on her own hand. “Like… I try so hard to be the perfect girlfriend. The perfect everything. But at the end of the day, guys just… leave.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “Okay, first of all, I think the only person you ever needed to be perfect for was your father’s lawyer. Second of all—Caroline, you’re great.”

Caroline gave a sad little smile. “Tell that to my exes.”

Max nudged her. “Caroline, your exes were trash. You’re like… a Chanel bag, and they were all fanny packs.”

Caroline snorted. “A Chanel bag with a bankruptcy notice.”

Max grinned. “Yeah, but still expensive. And you don’t smell like sweat."

Caroline laughed, but there was something off about it. Like she didn’t fully believe what Max was saying.

Max sighed. “Look. I get it. It sucks feeling like you’re not enough for people.”

Caroline glanced at her. “Yeah?”

Max shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, every time I think I’ve got something good, it turns out I was the idiot for believing in it.”

Caroline frowned. “Like… with Randy?”

Max gave a humorless laugh. “Oh, please. Randy was just the last one. There was also Johnny. And Deke. And like, half a dozen other guys who made me think, ‘Hey, maybe I’m actually worth something.’ And then? Poof.”

Caroline bit her lip. “Max…”

Max forced a smirk. “Oh, don’t get all sympathetic on me. It’s fine. It’s just how it goes. Some people get the fairy tale—and some people get the ‘hot guy disappears and you’re left with a bottle of vodka and a disappointing text message.’”

Caroline’s chest ached.

She had never really thought about it like that. Max always acted like she didn’t care. Like nothing could touch her. But maybe—just maybe—she was way more hurt than she let on.

Caroline hesitated. “I don’t think it’s about you not being enough.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really? You got some kind of rich-girl wisdom to drop on me?”

Caroline smiled softly. “Just that… maybe they weren’t enough for you.”

Max froze.

For once, she had nothing to say.

Caroline reached out, squeezing Max’s hand. “I know I joke about being your ‘rich best friend,’ but Max… you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Max blinked. “Okay, I’m definitely dying. Am I dying? Is there carbon monoxide in here?”

Caroline laughed. “Shut up. I’m serious.”

Max tried to play it off with a smirk. “You sure you’re not just saying that because we got drunk and—”

Caroline stiffened.

Max realized too late what she had just said.

And now Caroline was looking at her like a storm was rolling in behind her eyes.

“…Max.”

Max’s mouth went dry. “What?”

Caroline narrowed her eyes. “What did you just say?”

Max panicked. “Nothing! Absolutely nothing! I—LOOK, A BABY!”

She shoved Barbra into Caroline’s arms and bolted for the kitchen.

Caroline sat there, stunned, heart racing.

Max had definitely just said something she wasn’t supposed to.

And suddenly?

Caroline was very sure that something did happen last night.

The next morning, Max woke up feeling like her brain had been run over by a very aggressive food truck.

It wasn’t a hangover. It was worse. It was emotional repercussions.

She groaned into her pillow. “Kill me.”

No one did.

Instead, Caroline was already up, brushing her hair in the tiny, cracked mirror by the bathroom. She was being suspiciously normal, which was already setting off alarm bells.

Max sat up and got out of her room, then went to the bathroom. “Morning.”

Caroline turned, giving her a weird look. Like she knew something.

Max tensed. “What?”

Caroline shrugged. “Nothing.”

Max narrowed her eyes. “No, see, that’s not nothing. That’s a very specific something disguised as nothing.”

Caroline just smiled. “I’m fine.”

Max squinted. “No one fine ever says ‘I’m fine’ in that tone.”

Before she could push further, there was a knock at the door.

Max groaned. “Unless that’s someone dropping off a million dollars and a burrito, I don’t wanna answer it.”

Caroline, unfazed, opened the door.

And there stood Andrew.

Tall. Put-together. That weirdly smug-yet-charming thing that rich guys who know they look good always have going on.

Max scowled. “Oh. It’s you.”

Andrew smirked. “Good morning, sunshine.”

Max crossed her arms. “Yeah, yeah, what do you want?”

Andrew ignored her and turned to Caroline. “I was thinking we could go grab coffee. Catch up.”

Caroline blinked. “Oh. Uh—” She glanced at Max.

Max immediately turned away, staring at the fridge. She wasn’t gonna ask Caroline to stay. She wasn’t some clingy, desperate, feelings-having idiot.

Caroline hesitated for a second. Then, she nodded. “Yeah. Sure. Let me grab my coat.”

Andrew leaned against the doorframe, clearly pleased with himself.

Max ignored him.

Within a minute, Caroline was ready, and they were out the door.

And just like that, Max was alone.

She stood there, staring at nothing, hands pressed against the couch.

Her fingers were shaking.

Like—actual, physical shaking.

“What the hell,” she muttered.

She curled her hands into fists, trying to make it stop. It didn’t.

Her body was betraying her.

Because something wasn’t right.

Something felt off.

Caroline was gone, Andrew was with her, and Max was standing here like a nervous wreck over what?

Nothing had happened.

Except—except something had happened.

And now, Max was alone with her own thoughts.

And that was never good.