Work Text:
"And how are we this evening?"
Cody looked up from his date to find Max walking up to their table, smiling wide. He flashed a smile at her in return. "Just great tonight, Max."
Max closed the remaining distance between them and rested her fingertips regally on the backs of both their chairs, "And who is this lovely woman?"
Cody's date blushed and giggled softly. Cody's smile widened, "Max, this is Trixie. Trixie, this is Max, she runs this fine establishment."
Max held out a hand and Cody had to suppress a sigh when Trixie did little more then rest her fingertips in Max's palm in an imitation of a handshake. He knew Max wouldn't take it personally (he doubted it was meant that way), but it was still not a great move. Max didn't look as if anything had happened, just shook the fingertips and kept her smile wide. "You must be their new client."
Trixie giggled, tossing her blond hair over her shoulder, "Well I was." She batted her eyelashes at Cody, "Until they finished up my case this afternoon." She looked back to Max and gave her a very serious look, "It turns out John really was embezzling from Daddy, just like Daddy thought."
"Oh, now that's just too bad." Max gave her a slow, sorrowful nod. Cody suppressed a sigh. Max then turned and gave them both overly cheerful grins, "So let me guess, you were so sad," another understanding and commiserating nod and pout to Trixie before the smile came back, "that our dear, sweet Cody here said he just had to cheer you up." She swung an arm wide to indicate the restaurant, "And what do you know, his favorite restaurant is literally right around the corner from the boat." She smiled widely at Cody, as if it were a stroke of genius. "How lucky is that."
"Oh, I know!" Trixie nodded enthusiastically. "It was an absolutely great idea." She gave Max another sad nod, "I was not looking froward to going home to Daddy saying 'I told you so' about Johnny. Daddy never liked him." She confided.
Max gave another sympathetic nod and touched her fingertips to Trixie's shoulder in consolation. "Oh isn't that always the way?" The smile she gave Cody was sharp now. "And he's such a good boy, offering to take you out, saving you from that dreadful conversation."
Cody wanted to slump a little deeper into his chair. He had a bad feeling about this.
"It's a good thing Straightaways is right here for you."
"Oh it is!" Trixie brightened immediately. "He's so lucky."
"Yes, aren't we all. We do love having our boys so close to home."
"Yeah, Straightaways really is like our home away from home." Cody agreed, trying to seem bright. He paused, "After the Mimi, of course." he added, flashing a quick grin at Max, "Nick would never forgive me if I didn't count the Mimi first."
Max turned her full attentions back onto him, her smile going slightly tighter. "And where is Nick tonight?"
"Oh, you know, Nick." Cody shrugged, really wanting this to end, "Probably still back on the boat with Boz."
"He didn't want to join you in cheering up Trixie, here?" Max's smile was going sharkish.
"No." Cody nearly stuttered it, he wasn't sure what was going on, but the bad feeling was getting worse. "No, he thought I'd do a better job alone. Just Trixie and I." He gave her a stern look. She ignored it.
"Well wasn't that sweet of him, stepping aside so you could give Trixie your full attention like that."
"Yeah, really sweet of him." Cody agreed, gloomily.
The slap upside the head hit him hard and fast, nearly sending him face first into his plate of appetizers. "OW!" His eyes went wide, "Max, what the hell?"
Max had both her fists balled up on her hips and was glaring at him now. "Just what in the damned hell are you thinking, Boy? Sometimes I can't believe you, you know that?"
"What the hell did I do?"
That earned him another slap upside the head. "You know damned well what you're doing, and so does the entire pier. Honestly, I don't know how that boy puts up with you sometimes, Cody Allen. Get your sorry ass up."
Cody pushed away from the table, his anger rising, "Now wait just one minute here, I haven't done a thing wrong, and you have no right--"
Another slap to the back of his head, "Boy, you are just digging yourself in deeper and deeper. You turn around and get your sorry ass back to that boat and you treat your husband right, or so help me, you will never get so much as another french fry from me."
"Husband?" Trixie's gasp was high pitched and confused.
"Husband?" Cody's wasn't much better.
"I am not going to sit here and watch that poor man of yours mope for a week just because you need to get in your bi-monthly look at breasts!" She snapped, grabbing both his shoulders and turning him around, giving him a push off the dais that separated their nook from the rest of the restaurant and around the outer edge of the building.
"What? Max!" Cody tried to twist around, but Max was having none of it, continuing to push him with shoves and jabs in the middle of his back. They weren't being loud, and going along the edges though the dimmest of the lights they weren't drawing much attention, but they were still getting odd looks from the tables they passed. In other circumstances, Cody would be red with embarrassment, but he was so confused, he didn't know what what to feel as Max pushed him along.
"I honestly don't know how that man puts up with you, Cody Allen, lord knows I would have kicked your sorry ass out the door months ago. How he puts up with you for years on end continues to baffle me." Another sharp push to the center of his back. "I'll never know what that boy sees in you to stay with you though this every time."
"Max! I don't know what you're talking about!" She ignored him with another shove. He was halfway across the room by now, and twisting to look back the way he'd come. He saw Trixie now getting up from the table, eyes wide, and hurrying to catch up to them. They were nearly to the door, now. "I can't just leave, what about--"
"I'll make sure that the girl gets home, never you mind her." Max settled a hand out to keep Trixie from going to Cody, in full the Mother Hen Mode that she got with all the female staff in her care, and Trixie obeyed instantly, looking like a rather lost puppy. "You just go back to that boat of yours and make damned sure that boy hasn't smartened up and kicked you out yet."
"Now that's enough." Cody took a stand, spinning around, bracing himself before she could get him out the doors. "I really don't think you know what you're talking about, Max, and it's hardly your place to--"
He was cut off by another slap to the back of his head and a shove across his back. By the time he stopped stumbling, the doors of Straightaways were shush-ing closed behind him. He considered for a moment pushing his way back in, but thought better of it and decided the better part of valor in this case might lie in running away as far and as fast as he could.
Confused, and with a bit of a headache, Cody rubbed the side of his head and started wandering back to the Riptide. By the time he made it on board, the whole event hadn't made itself any clearer in his mind.
"You're back early." Nick noticed as Cody made his way into the salon.
"Yeah." Cody turned to look back the way he'd come, seeing only the door onto the Riptide.
"You okay?" He looked over his shoulder to see Murray, looking concerned, sitting in his chair in the corner with a large text book or manual of some kind spread out across his knees.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think so." Cody shook his head again and came to sit down next to Nick at the table. "I just had the weirdest conversation with Max at Straightaways."
"With Max?" Nick gave him an odd look, "What about?"
"You know, I'm really not sure?" He looked at Nick, and finally shook his head. "I think we maybe should find somewhere else to eat for a few days, though."
Nick raised one eyebrow and gave a shrug to Murray, who shrugged back. "Sure, Cody." He shook his head. "Whatever you say, man."