At last, it was moving day.

Max spent most of the week packing up his belongings into large brown boxes. He was only relocating across the hallway, but the effort it had taken to sort through the stuff he actually planned to bring over to Nina's apartment was far more time-consuming than expected. Everything else would be going into the dumpster and donation piles.

He was only one person.

How did he manage to accumulate so much shit over the past few months?

Nina knocked on his door at 9:00 am on the dot. Max opened up and grinned at her sloppy, sleepy-looking getup. Her honey-brown eyes were still glazed over from slumber, and she hadn't changed out of her oversized Harvard sleeping shirt or white ruffled pajama shorts. Max suspected that Nina had literally just rolled out of bed and tossed her hair into a bun before plodding over to his place.

He couldn't resist teasing her. "I hope you brushed your teeth before you came here, you stinker."

Nina slapped him lightly on the arm as she entered his doorway. "I'll have you know that I not only brushed my teeth, but I also washed my face just for you... punk."

She stopped in the middle of his studio to scan the piles of boxes and disassembled furniture that awaited them. Nina let out a low whistle. "Not bad, Max. I think we can do this. I was afraid that you'd have way more stuff, but this isn't bad at all!"

Max grimaced. "Oh, trust me, I had way more shit, but I cleared it out to make things easier for us."

She winked at him. "You're my hero."

He puffed out his chest. "I know, loser. I know."

Nina rolled her eyes good-naturedly as she pushed past him. She immediately got to work on some of the medium-sized boxes. Max grabbed a few of the heftier, heavier ones. For the next hour or so, they shuffled back and forth between Max's studio and Nina's two-bedroom apartment like busy worker ants.

Max and Nina took a break right before lunchtime even though they only had four of the larger bed frame pieces left to haul over. Max's stomach had begun to growl since he skipped breakfast that morning. Nina made them some instant ramen with an egg to refuel.

As Max slurped away happily at his noodles, a hesitant look suddenly came across Nina's face. She seemed to have something on her mind. "Hey, Max?"

He glanced up in mid-chew. "What's up?"

Guilt flashed in Nina's eyes. "I hate to spring this on you today of all days since, technically, we haven't even started living together as roommates, but one of my friends from Columbia messaged me last night. Her name is Carson, and she's flying out to LA later this month for a conference. She wants to set up a girls' trip with some of our other friends. They all wanna come visit me."

Max swallowed his noodles. He had a sneaking suspicion about where this conversation was headed. "Did they need a place to stay or something?"

Nina nodded apologetically. "Kind of, yeah. Carson and her girlfriend plan to get a hotel closer to the LA Convention Center, so they'll only be dropping by during the day, but I'd love for Connie, my old dormmate from Columbia, and Shalani, my best friend from middle school, to stay with me, erm, sorry, I meant, with us. It would only be for the weekend, of course, and I haven't agreed to anything. I wanted to check in with you first. If you're not cool with it, then I'll tell them to get an Airbnb. I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

This news didn't excite Max at all, but he gave her a relenting smile. "Just for the weekend, you say?"

"Yes! I promise we'll stay out of your hair. Honestly, we'll probably only come back here to pass out and shower. Shalani has been to California before, but the rest of my friends are really excited to explore the area and check out the LA nightlife. I mean, you're welcome to join us, but feel free to do your own thing if you already have plans."

Max's eyes widened at Nina's offer. He wasn't about to give up an opportunity to spend a whole weekend with her, even if it meant hanging out with a bunch of girls that he didn't know. Hell, maybe if he made a good impression on her friends, they might even put in a good word for him behind the scenes...

He shrugged in a casual, offhand way, as though it wasn't a big deal. "Sure, sounds fun. Count me in."

Nina laughed incredulously. "Really?"

"Really."

"Are you sure you wanna watch me get wasted and act like an idiot in front of all my idiot friends?"

Max's brow raised in amusement. "Dude. When you put it that way, now I know I definitely don't wanna miss out! Come to think of it, I've never seen you let loose before, Nina."

Nina chuckled. "Better hold onto your socks, then, Max, because my friends are crazy, and they bring out the crazy in me. In a good way, though. It's gonna be a blast. I can't wait!"

A thought suddenly crossed his mind. "So, like, am I gonna be the guy there?"

"No, don't worry, I think Shalani's boyfriend might tag along. He has family out here, though, so I think he's gonna stay with his parents in Encino."

"Oh, gotcha. Cool, cool. I look forward to meeting everyone."

Nina smiled fondly at him. "They're gonna love you, Max. I think you'll like them a lot, too. I have really good taste in picking out friends. In case you haven't noticed."

Max scoffed playfully. "Nah, loser, your judgment is suspect. You just got lucky with me."

She poked him in the chest with her finger. "Be nice! Or else I'm uninviting you to my awesome weekend of depravity."

"You can't," he reminded her smugly. "I live here now."

Nina laughed. "Touché, loser. Touché."

Shortly after Max and Nina finished eating, they cleaned up their dishes and proceeded to move the rest of Max's bedframe into his new bedroom in Nina's apartment. They worked on reassembling the frame so he wouldn't have to sleep with his mattress on the floor. Afterward, Nina left him alone to sort through his boxes and unpack some essentials.

As they said goodnight to each other and wandered off to their own rooms, Max released a sigh of happiness. The day hadn't been particularly eventful or exciting, but it passed by in a blur for Max. Hours spent with Nina always seemed to move faster than hours he spent without her.

That night, Max passed out in bed right away. Knowing that Nina was close by seemed to calm the barrage of negative thoughts that usually kept him up at night. Oddly, this new apartment already felt more like a home than any other place he'd ever lived.

Max's childhood house had been a cross between a war zone when his dad still lived with them and a graveyard after his dad left. The apartment he shared with Jake had constantly been filled with Everly's drama. Even before she cheated on him. The Wilder Ones mansion had been one big chaotic mess with too many personalities and egos under one roof. The studio he just left behind had been little more than a cave of loneliness and misery during one of the darkest times in his life.

That night, Max dreamed of the future, of good things to come, of new beginnings, and of the prettiest, most perfect girl in the world with honey-brown eyes.