Max and Cherry, before dinner
"Well," Cherry said, her gaze kept carefully on his as she tried to determine the best possible phrasing. Her nerves were probably silly: Max would support her dreams, of course! That was the kind of guy he was! But then again, what if he didn't? There was always a chance, no matter what she expected. "I'm thinking about going back to school. That was always super important to my family, and… It's about time, I guess, considering how close I was back then. It's just that they don't really have journalism degrees here, and I was thinking about… Chicago. And applying this month, to start in August."
Max’s mouth hung open in quiet surprise. He hadn’t had a clue that Cherry had been considering going back to school but when he thought about it, maybe he should have. She found so much satisfaction in her work at the department of vital communications and was a natural at it. Why wouldn’t she want to go back to school and finish what she started all those years ago? Sure, Chicago was far away but if that’s where Cherry needed to go to fulfill her dream, Max would support her, no matter, no matter where they both were.
“Babe, that’s…” He trailed off and pulled her to his chest, hugging her tight; she curled up happily against him, letting out a sigh of relief as she rested her head on his shoulder. Max buried his face in her hair and murmured, “Amazing. It’s an awesome, amazing idea.” He pulled back, smiling a wide, enthusiastic grin. Any worries he had about the distance it would put between them was so ginormously overshadowed by how proud and happy for her he was.
“I support you and your decision a gajillion percent,” Max nodded, reaching up to swipe his thumb softly across her cheek and he stared at her for a moment, drinking her in. The thought that he wouldn’t be able to do this, just reach out and touch her and gaze at her beautiful face, for very much longer flitted across his brain and even though the thought made him sad, Max squashed it out. It wasn’t helpful or fair to think that way.
"Thank you. I mean --" She felt foolish for thinking he possibly wouldn't be anything but the supportive man he always was, and even more grateful that she was so lucky to have him in her life. "It is. Amazing, I mean. I never thought I'd want this, but apparently I do." Cherry didn't regret the life she'd led after the apocalypse, but she did regret the way she'd behaved before it.
He lifted his hand from her face to steeple his fingers under his chin thoughtfully.
“Okay, so what can I do to help make this happen?” Max knew Cherry could (and would) get into college without any input from anyone but that didn’t stop him from wanting to lend a hand. “I have some money squared away, we could go visit the campus? Or we could go over some of your interviews and put them together in a cool, online portfolio?"