When she backed up, he breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe she had finally seen reason. Maybe she would just leave him alone, and he could get the hell out of there while she was feeling generous. Primarily, Max hated pain. But secondarily, he didn't want to wake up with a bruise that Brian would have to explain. The less this guy knew, the better. And right now, he needed to get the hell away from this girl before she did something stupid.
"Well, life is pretty funny, and you know-" He never got to finish his thought. There was a fist in his face preventing that.
He let out an "oof" of pain as his head snapped backwards, slamming into the mailboxes behind him. The blow landed on his left cheek, just shy of his nose, and even then he could tell that it would leave a mark. Shit. He groaned, sinking slightly as his eyes rolled up to the ceiling. This bitch was pissed, and he had to get out of there before she did more damage to Brian's body.
"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath and straightening up. "I deserved that." He took a step to the side, trying to sneak around her. "And now that you've gotten it out of your system, we can just go back to not knowing each other, okay?" Maybe she'd see reason. Maybe she'd leave it alone.