“Hey Michael,” Maria greeted.

He kissed her check. “How’s it going?” he asked sitting down.

“Good, you?” she replied.

“Alright. I just left Max’s. He’s a mess. Kyle talked to him today,” he explained.

“Really,” Maria said more as an observation than a question.

“Yeah,” Michael nodded absentmindedly, he was studying the menu.

“What did they talk about?” Maria asked trying to be casual, but in reality she was worried. She knew that Max wasn’t supposed to find out what REALLY happened that night.

“Oh, just this b.s. about how Kyle thought Max and Liz would get back together. It sounds like he was just being a jerk and rubbing it in that Max and Liz...weren’t together. It’s funny, I thought maybe Kyle was turning out decent, but I was wrong. Why are you so interested anyway?” Michael asked curiously.

“Oh, you know me. I love to be in everybody’s business, and Max and I are friends. I feel really bad about the whole thing,” she said, hiding her real motives. “So, what’s good here anyway?” she asked, now looking over her own menu.

“You mean other than you?” Michael asked, smiling.

Maria smiled, “I knew there was charm in there somewhere.”