“Well,” Maria said, “I thought we could maybe hang with each other this afternoon, just me and you, Liz, while the guys did their thing. Maybe we could go shopping or something.”

Liz looked at Max questioningly. “Max, what do you think?”

“I don’t want to go shopping.”

“Duh! I’m talking about you hooking up with Michael and me hooking up with Maria.”

Max shrugged. “Sounds like a plan. What about tonight?”

From the backseat, Michael clapped his hand onto Max’s shoulder. “No offense, but from the evening on, that’s my time, Bubba.”

Max laughed, catching Michael’s drift. He cast Liz a sexy look and she blushed. “Believe me, Michael, I know exactly what you mean.”

**********

At breakfast they chose a booth nearest a window. Liz and Max took one side while Michael and Maria shared the other. “This is great!” Liz exclaimed, just giddy to be sitting beside Max, his arm draped around her, “I always wanted us to do stuff together.”

“Yeah,” Maria agreed, “it like totally makes sense. I mean we’re best friends, they’re best friends. . . . It’s so, so. . . .friendly!”

Michael snickered at how ridiculous they both sounded. “Gee, you girls are really hyper. No coffee for you.”

“I guess they should get laid more often,” Max cracked and received a kick in his shin from Maria for his trouble. Maria and Liz were saved from further ribald jokes when the waitress finally approached their tables.

“Ok, what can I get you kids,” she asked them tiredly, holding her pad at the ready.

“We’ll just have four cherry cokes for now,” Max said, smiling down at Liz, “We haven’t had a chance to look at the menus yet.”

The waitress gave him a sarcastic “I wonder why” look, which Max didn’t catch.

“Hey,” Maria protested from across the booth, “who says I want cherry cola, huh? Maybe I want a Sprite! I might just feel like a Pepsi. I mean how chauvinistic-“ Michael cut off the rest of her tirade with a kiss.

They went at it hot and heavy in the booth before they finally broke apart. “Cherry cola’s good,” Maria sighed, her eyes glassy.

“Ok then,” the waitress said, plainly annoyed with them, “I’ll get your cokes.”

They all snickered when she left the table. “You guys keep that up and she just might spit in our drinks,” Max laughed.

“Eeeewwww, gross,” Maria and Liz sang in unison.

After breakfast the four headed off to the local mall, splitting up from there. Maria and Liz both gave their guys lengthy kisses good-bye before reluctantly leaving the forlorn pair to watch them walk away. Liz felt a little guilty leaving Max. She knew that while she was with Maria they would actually shop and have fun. For the guys it would be pure torture. The guilt came and went. They’d be ok, Liz decided with a shrug, it wasn’t as if Max were going to go insane without her.

**********

“I’m gonna go insane,” Max said, “What could they possibly be buying that takes two hours?”

“Get a grip, Maxwell,” Michael said, perching himself on the back of a bench, “Are you henpecked already?”

They were in the middle of the mall, seated on one of the wooden benches beside a giant water fountain. Max slouched down in his seat. “I’m not henpecked, Michael. I just want them to hurry it up, that’s all,” Max, said in irritation as he looked down at his watch.

Michael tossed him a smug look. “Yeah, whatever. I know exactly what you want, Maxwell.”

The glare Max leveled on him could have crumbled stone. “Shut it,” he snapped.

“Feeling a little sexually frustrated, are we?” Max shot him the finger. “Hey, no need to get testy. I feel your pain.”

Max looked at Michael doubtfully. “Oh yeah,” Max said sarcastically, “You feel my pain? If that’s so then how are you managing to sit here so calmly?”

“I’m thinking about tonight. . .”

“What about it?”

***********

“Liz, I’m gonna give Michael the night of his sexual fantasies! He more than deserves it after last night,” Maria confided to her friend as they perused lingerie at Victoria’s Secret, “I don’t want to get something that’s too kinky, but I want something that says, “Spank me, daddy!”

“Whoa, Maria-“ Liz interrupted. The conversation was causing her to blush.

“Oh, Liz, come on! Earlier we couldn’t talk about it because, well, my stomach had the priority, but now there’s nothing to stop us!”

“Maria, uh, maybe that’s not such a good idea.”

“Are you kidding me?” Maria demanded, doing a double take.

“It’s hardly fair to the guys to be talking about their. . .you know. I doubt they’re doing it to us.”

**********

“Maxwell, it was incredible! I mean, I’ve never felt anything like it. It was so good. I can’t describe it. It was like I wanted it to go on and I wanted it to stop cause I couldn’t take it, you know?”

“Yeah,” Max agreed, caught up in his own memories, “I know.”

**********

“Oh, Liz, it was like he was on fire! Like I was on fire. He was soooo fierce. . .and wild. Oh god, I’m getting flashes just thinking about it. Hot flashes, that is. Not the glowing hickies, see into your past flashes! I didn’t have any of them, thank God! Cause that would have been waaaaaaay too weird for me.”

Liz grabbed Maria by the shoulders. “Maria, focus!” she ordered as much for her own benefit as she did for Maria’s. A sudden image of a naked Max began parading through her head. She saw him kissing her thighs, licking her. . .oh goodness!

**********

“I’m telling you, Maxwell, it was like Maria was on fire! And she was soooo tight! It was unbelievable.”

“Way too much information there, Michael,” Max said, his brain overloaded with images of a naked Liz.

**********

“And Liz, he was huge. My god, I don’t know how he fit inside without snapping my legs off!”

“Whoo-hoo! Maria, information overload!” Liz exclaimed. But she was feeling feverish herself, remembering just how huge Max had felt inside her. Suddenly, she didn’t feel like shopping anymore. Liz looked at Maria. Maria looked at Liz.

“You know,” Maria said, abruptly overcome with an intense and undeniable desire for Michael, “I think we’ve done enough shopping for the day.”