“I don’t know! I don’t know what to do here! She doesn’t want anything to do with me, what the fuck am I supposed to do?”

Wes was silent for a moment.

“Do you agree with her that the two of you could never be happy together?” he asked.

Max threw his hands in the air.

“No! I was happier with her than I’d been in years. I might have been happier with her than I’ve ever been! I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her! I know she had hesitations because of my job, and the media, and the storm she’s been through, but I tried to support her through that, I thought I supported her through that. I wish she’d told me that she needed more from me; I would have given it. I know I fucked up, but good God, I’m miserable without her.”

God, he sounded so pathetic. But to be fair, he felt as pathetic as he sounded.

Wes nodded.

“Okay, but I asked you if the two of you could be happy together. You just told me about you and your happiness. Can Olivia be happy? With you?”

Fuck.

“Did I really …” Max dropped his head in his hands. “Of course I did. I’m a selfish jerk, that’s why she broke up with me in the first place, isn’t it?”

Wes smacked his shoulder after a few moments and Max looked up.

“Okay, enough wallowing. How are you going to try to get her back?” Wes asked.

Max knocked his beer bottle onto the floor.

“If I knew that, don’t you think I would have done it already?” he yelled. Then he looked at the bottle, aghast.

“I can’t believe I’m throwing things. I’m an asshole, what’s wrong with me?”

Wes picked up his phone.

“I’m ordering some food. Like my momma always says, you can’t have important conversations on an empty stomach. This is why toddlers have so many tantrums; they get hungry and lose it. You probably haven’t eaten all day, have you?” Wes looked him over. “Actually, from the looks of you, you probably haven’t eaten all week.”

Max tried to remember the last time he’d eaten.

“I think there were crackers on the airplane. And yesterday I had a few Girl Scout Cookies for dinner; there were some Thin Mints left in my freezer.”

Wes clicked a few buttons on his phone, then went to the kitchen and tossed Max a bag of potato chips.

“First of all, pizza is on its way. Second, eat those. Third, drink this.” He put a glass of water in front of Max. “After all of that, we can talk. Chips are the wrong thing, you need an apple, or some vegetables, but it’s all we’ve got, so make the best of it.”