"Max! Max!"

Nina's voice sounded muffled to his ears, as though she was shouting from a faraway place, before his mind snapped back to reality.

Max gasped several times as his consciousness snapped back to the parking lot of the Rothamsted Mystery House. Max's breaths continued to fall out fast and hard for another minute or two. Gradually, though, the chaos inside him faded. The ground beneath his feet grew steady once more. He was in the present. Not the past. His eyes sprang open. Rows of cars reappeared. People wearing costumes in all shapes and sizes walked around them. They were completely oblivious to the panic attack that Max had just endured right in front of them.

Max let his hands drop to his sides. Earlier, he had been clutching onto his ears very tightly. Shame and distress shot through him. Nothing like this had ever happened before to him. Max hated that Nina saw him in such a pussy-like, vulnerable state. He kept trying to dodge her gaze.

Ever so slowly, Nina raised her hands to his cheeks. Her fingers guided his face down until their eyes locked. Her face was furrowed with concern. She looked spooked as well, and her anxiety no longer seemed to have anything to do with their walk through the haunted house.

"Hey," she whispered. "It's okay. You're okay now. I'm right here. I got you, Max."

He didn't know quite how to respond. His hands clenched in desperation. A part of him wanted to fall apart in Nina's arms right then and there. But he held back since they were in public. Another part of him, however, wished to hide, to pretend as though nothing ever happened so he could reset. Forget. Carry on as he had been doing for the past twenty-five years of his stupid, miserable life. Max didn't want Nina to think less of him because of this moment of weakness.

"Max?" she prompted again.

"Yeah?" he whispered. His voice sounded hollow and strained.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing," he lied, "everything is fine. I'm fine."

Nina didn't look convinced at all. Yet, she seemed to be okay with the fact that he wasn't ready to open up. Her brown eyes never left his blue-green ones, but she didn't press him to talk. After a moment, her hands slipped away from his face.

Quietly, she asked, "Do you want me to drive us home?"

Max jerked his chin in a nod. He dug inside his pocket to retrieve his car keys. He handed them to her. Together, Nina and Max drove back to their apartment in silence.

Nina tried to talk to him again once they got home, but Max excused himself to use the bathroom. Afterward, he hurried straight to his room and locked his door. A few minutes later, she knocked on his door to check up on him. Max pretended to be asleep even though he wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed with Nina and cling to her for dear life. Pride kept him from reaching out to her. Fear paralyzed him. Fear over the fact that he could no longer pretend as though he was even in the same league as someone as amazing as her.

There was no fucking way a perfect ten like Nina would want anything to do with a loser like him. Not after the way he just completely lost his sanity in front of her, anyway. She was a college graduate from Colombia with a promising career at a top performing company. She was also young, hot, smart, and one of the most genuine people he had ever met.

Meanwhile, he was a nobody who couldn't even manage to get through high school in one piece. A nobody who was still living in fear of his bullies from adolescence like some traumatized noob. He even managed to fuck up his career after the Wilders handed him success on a silver platter. He had no future. Max didn't even know why he was trying to launch a new channel. It would probably flop as well.

After Max met Nina, he thought he could change. He hoped he could become a better version of himself, but he was wrong. His flashbacks from tonight proved it. Deep down, he was still that same scared shithead kid from Temecula.

Nina deserved better. She deserved the best man in the world. He needed to get the hell out of her way. Nina was destined for greatness, she was entitled to happiness, and he was nothing but a roadblock in her life. As much as it destroyed him to think about letting her go, Max knew he didn't deserve someone like Nina.

He was shit. His life was shit. And everything he touched turned to shit.