Max awoke on Saturday morning with a smile on his face. The sun was shining through the window. Wisps of white clouds floated across a clear, blue sky. It was a perfect day even by Southern California standards.

Max rolled out of the bed with a bounce in his step. He pulled out his clippers to buzz the sides of his head, sharpening his fade. Then, he shaved. He purposely left a little scruff around his mouth and jawline. Girls seemed to like it for some reason. He jumped in the shower. Afterward, he fluffed up his mop of golden-brown curls and ran some gel through to give it more volume and shape. He put on his favorite teal-colored mid-length board shorts and a light blue gradient-styled muscle tee that made his eyes pop.

By 9:00 am, he was ready to go. He spent the rest of the morning counting down to 11:00 am. His date, wait, no, friendly lunch with Nina couldn't seem to start fast enough.

At 10:55 am, his phone chimed. It was a text from Nina: Sorry! Can you give me 15 more minutes? I need to take a call.

Max sighed. Girls usually took forever to get ready. He texted back: sure np take ur time.

Twenty minutes later, Max heard a knock on his door. Instead of rushing over, he forced himself to wait a few seconds before answering it. Five, four, three, two, one...

He opened the door.

Nina stood on the other side. She smiled apologetically. "Hi, Max."

"Hey, Nina."

Max frowned slightly. The girl didn't look like she had taken any extra time to get ready. Nina wore a large plain white tee and a pair of faded jean shorts. He assumed she had her swimsuit on underneath. Her long hair was tied up in another haphazard-looking bun, and she wore next to little or no makeup. The most obvious thing on Nina's face was her troubled expression.

"I'm really sorry! I'm usually never late for anything, but my roommate just called, and she said that she may not be able to move in, after all. She got a job offer in Chicago, and she wants to take it."

Max eyes widened. "Oh, shit. What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know yet," Nina said glumly. "I was really counting on her to cover half of the rent. Otherwise, I would've never signed the lease. This place is expensive, you know?"

He tensed up slightly.

Was Nina planning to leave?

"Are you gonna try looking for a new roommate?" Max suggested.

Nina blew out a puff of air from her cheeks. "Yeah, looks like I have no choice. Either I find someone else to move in, or I may need to move out. Anyway, enough about me! I'll deal with this later. You ready to go?"

Max nodded. He grabbed his keys, his wallet, and his surfboard. "Yeah, I'll drive."

They took off in Max's truck toward Mariscos Enseneda, his favorite seafood taco shop, on Machado Drive and Lincoln Boulevard. It was a small family-owned cafe-style restaurant that specialized in shrimp and calamari ceviches and smoked fish tacos.

They parked on the side of the street and went inside. Max led Nina to the front counter to check out the menu. She wanted one of each of the seafood tacos. Max added on a large side of ceviche for them to share and a few more tacos for himself.

He attempted to place their order in his broken Spanish. "¿Puedo... obtener uno de cada taco... dos tacos de camarones más... dos tacos de pescado... y un ceviche de calamares? Grande, por favor."

Max handed over his credit card. The surly-looking teen boy behind the counter wasn't at all impressed by Max's efforts, but the kid's snarky attitude immediately flipped one-eighty the moment he recognized Max from his Wilder Ones days.

The kid's eyes grew round with excitement. "¿Eres Max Weiser?"

Max nodded. "Sí."

"¡Me encantan tus vídeos!"

"Gracias."

With a grin, the boy pulled out his cell phone. "¿Puedo tomarme una selfie contigo?"

Max shrugged and nodded again as though it was no big deal. Secretly, though, he was pretty pumped that Nina was witnessing this whole scene play out. Max leaned over the counter as the boy moved closer to him. He struck a pose with the kid as the phone's camera clicked.

As Max ushered Nina to an empty booth, he wore a smug look on his face and waggled his eyebrows at her.

She laughed. "Don't look so pleased with yourself, Mr. YouTube Star. You're impressive... but not that impressive!"

Max winked at her. "Don't pretend like you didn't want to get in on that selfie action!"

She flashed him a lopsided grin. "It takes a little more than that to dazzle me."

"I'm curious. What would a guy have to do to dazzle a girl like you, Nina?"

Nina paused. She seemed to consider his question seriously. "It's not so much what a guy does, I guess."

"What do you mean?"

"I guess... I care more about how someone makes me feel. I want a guy with real heart, no BS, so we can be ourselves around each other."

Max groaned and pretended to gag. "Ugh, so cringy!"

"Don't ask, then, if you're not man enough to handle the truth!"

She picked up a straw and blew the paper wrapper at him in retaliation. It bounced off his nose.

Max glared at her in mock indignation. Then, he smiled. "I'm man enough to handle anything you throw at me, babygirl."

"Now, who's being cringy?" she countered.

He laughed sheepishly. "Definitely not me."

Nina smirked. "I'm curious to know. Do lines like that actually work for you?"

"Most of the time, yeah."

Nina chuckled. "What about you? What kind of girl are you looking for?"

You.

The thought crossed Max's mind before he even had time to process it. He quickly brushed it aside.

"I... don't know what I want, exactly," he answered haltingly. "To be honest, most of my relationships end in disaster. I guess that's why I'm more of a go-with-the-flow kind of guy now. If something happens, it happens. If not... oh, well."

"Makes sense. Going with the flow is usually the best thing we can do. Sometimes, it's the only thing we can do."

Max eyed her curiously. "You think so?"

Her expression darkened. "I think... it's impossible to force two people to stay together if they're not meant to be."

Nina seemed to be speaking from experience. Curiosity spiked in Max again.

"What about you?" he inquired. "What's your take on relationships?"

Nina's brow wrinkled. "I dunno if I'm the best person to ask about this subject."

Max leaned towards her. "Why would you say that?"

She shrugged. "In general, I'm pretty clueless about guys and dating. Growing up, I didn't have much time for boys between school and the restaurant. Then, in college, I ended up with the same guy for three years, so my entire dating experience revolved around him. Things didn't end well for us. I wonder if I should've branched out a little more instead of locking myself down with one person."

"Three years sounds pretty serious."

"Yeah," Nina replied in earnest, "it was very serious. At the time, I thought he was perfect. He was supposed to be the love of my life. But we broke up after my grandpa's funeral."

The love of her life?

An uncomfortable feeling pricked Max's heart, it felt a lot like jealousy, but he tried to remain sympathetic, "Shit, I'm so sorry."

"It's fine. It's probably better this way."

Trying not to show how much he cared about her ex, Max probed, "Do you still have feelings for him?"

Nina fell silent for a moment before answering, "Yes... and no. I mean, we were engaged at one point, so it's hard to stop caring about someone like that completely. Yet, I also know that I don't want to spend the rest of my life with him anymore. We're not a good fit."

One word, in particular, stuck out to Max: Engaged.

Nina had been planning to marry this clown?

Max's heart dropped. Another spike of jealousy flared up against his will.

Who the hell was this fucker?

And what would he have to do to help Nina forget him?