I Don't Know You Anymore

I Don’t Know You Anymore

Max Evans made his way down the narrow street looking at each one of the picturesque white houses to find the address he was looking for. He had never been here before and was afraid he was already lost. Finally, at the end of the road, he saw the house he was looking for.

It had been nearly 10 years since Max had last seen Liz Parker, the only person who knew and understood him. She was also the only person who he ever truly loved. Unfortunately, all that changed the day destiny tore them apart. Liz had moved on, away from Roswell and to Chicago, where she met Jackson McKain, a lawyer, fell in love with him, and got married.

Max still kept in touch with Liz even though they hadn’t seen each other in a while. They called each other a few time to catch up, but nothing did them any good because she wasn’t the same. It was the night before that Max decided to get out of Roswell and see Liz for the first time in years. He called her to tell he that he was coming, and she invited him over for lunch.

“I would like to visit you for a while
Get away and out of this city
Maybe I shouldn't have called but
Someone had to be the first to break”

As Max pulled up to the long driveway, he could see that the garage door was open and a man appearing to be in his late 20’s was standing beside a blue 1973 Jaguar XK-E convertible. He was polishing the surface with a white cloth as Max stepped out of his car.

The man looked up as Max walked towards him. He had deep blue eyes with dark brown hair, and was wearing an old pair of jeans with an old white t-shirt.

“You must be Max Evans,” he said stepping closer and extending his right hand. He was short and thin, not the type of guy Max would have pictured Liz with. “I’m Jack.”

Max shook his hand and responded, “Pleased to meet you.” He was trying hard to be polite even though he was already beginning to hate Jack. There was just something about him that Max found off balance.

“Liz is waiting for you outside on the back porch,” Jack said as he went back to polishing his car.

“Nice car,” Max added as he made his way to the back of the house through the side gate without looking back at Jack. As he reached the back porch, Max could see Liz sitting on the swing under the patio roof. She was turned away from him reading a book. Beside her was a table with 2 glasses of cold lemonade.

“Hey, Liz,” Max said softly as he walked up to her. Liz turned her head to see him standing behind her.

“Max!” she exclaimed as she stood up slowly to walk up to him and hug him. Max could see that she had definitely changed. Liz was even more beautiful that he could remember. He scanned her body to see that she was expecting.

“Wow, having a baby, huh?” he quietly asked in a near depressed tone. Max lowered his eyes so not to make any eye contact with Liz.

“Yeah,” she replied, “I’m due in a month. Oh, please, sit down. Let’s talk.”

Max sat down across from Liz on an empty lawn chair. “Are you thirsty?” she asked, handing him the glass of lemonade even if he said no.

“Yeah,” Max hesitated. He took if from her and had a sip.

“So, what’s going on with you?” Liz started the conversation. “Why did you come all the way out here?”

“I wanted to see you,” he answered. “And I wanted to say I was sorry.”

Liz looked at him with sad eyes. She wasn’t ready to forgive him, not after all that had happened between them. Even though she had moved on, nothing was going to change the fact that Max belonged with Tess Harding and not with her.

“We can go sit on your back porch
Relax
Talk about anything
It don't matter
I'll be courageous if you can pretend
That you've forgiven me”

Liz finally nodded in acceptance and just watched as he sat across from her looking down. There was something about Max that had changed since the last time she had seen him. He kept his head down as if to say that he was ashamed to be around her. Liz reached over and put her hand under his chin to life his head up. She could finally look into those deep brown eyes of his that she had fallen in love with.

Max pulled away from her, but Liz kept her hand locked on his chin. She watched as the tears welled up in his eyes. Max finally pulled away and wiped his eyes with the sleeves of his shirt.

“Because I don't know you anymore
I don't recognize this place
The picture frames have changed
And so has your name
We don't talk much anymore
We keep running from the pain
But what I wouldn't give to see your face again”

“Oh, Max, don’t cry. You’re gonna make me cry if you do,” Liz said softly as she reached up to wipe the tears that had already fallen down his face.

“I’m sorry,” Max apologized again. He sat up and looked Liz in the eyes. They were so beautiful and so clear he could almost see into what she was thinking. It was her turn to shift the gaze into the trees of the back yard. The springtime was already coming to a close, and the buds on the branches were beginning to grow.

“So, how’s Tess?” Liz forcefully asked. She couldn’t stand to hear what Max had to say about her, but she had to know.

“She’s alright, I guess,” Max answered. “I haven’t seen her in a long time. We decided that whatever was supposed to happen already happened, and we split. We went our own separate ways.”

Liz smiled as she heard the words come out of his mouth. Even though this is what she had wanted to hear for the last ten years, she hadn’t counted on being happily married to someone else with a child on the way.

“Liz, are you happy with Jack?” Max asked out of the blue. He was dying inside to hear what she had to say about her husband.

Liz looked at his as if he were a stranger. He sudden happiness changed to anger at Max’s question. “How could you ask me that? Of course I’m happy with Jack,” she snapped.

Max stood up knowing that he wasn’t welcome anymore. Liz could see the hurt expression on his face that brought back so many memories of her own life, especially those that she had kept secret from Max. It seemed as if she was reliving the day that her whole life had changed, except she was on the other side looking through Max’s eyes.

“Springtime in the city
Always such relief from the winter freeze
The snow was more lonely than cold if you know what I mean
Everyone's got an agenda
Don't stop keep that chin up you'll be alright
Can you believe what a year it's been
Are you still the same?
Has your opinion changed?”

“Max, I’m sorry I just blew up at you,” Liz quickly apologized as she stood up to stop him from leaving. She took his hand and led him back to the porch. “It’s just that when you asked me that question, I wasn’t ready to answer it. I’m very happy with what I have now. Jack is a wonderful guy. If he weren’t, I wouldn’t have married him. Please, Max, accept the path that I chose like I’ve accepted the path that you chose.”

Max looked at Liz to see if she was telling the truth. Her brown eyes told everything. She was in love with Jack and Max was out of the picture. He could begin to feel the pain well up inside his already smashed heart.

Max swallowed hard, still trying to digest what he had just heard. Everything seemed so messed up now that he had truly lost what he came to take back. He sat down on the chair and closed his eyes. His whole world had crashed and burned in a matter of seconds.

“Max, you’re crying again,” Liz observed as she put her hand to his cheek to wipe the tears from his face.

“You know why I really came here today? I though I had a chance to tell you that I still loved you, I still needed you. There’s no one in this world that could mean as much to me as you do. But knowing that it’s over between us and that there’s no chance of there ever being us again, I just can’t believe that everything had to happen this way. I never wanted to have my destiny laid out on the table like it was. I never wanted to hurt you so badly that it made you stop loving me. If I had the chance, I would take everything back just to be with you,” Max explained as tears fell from his eyes like a waterfall. “But now I have to live with this decision for the rest of my life.”

“I know I let you down
Again and again
I know I never really treated you right
I've paid the price
I'm still paying for it every day”

“Max,” Liz whispered in disbelief. “I didn’t know you felt that way about me still. I thought you loved Tess.”

“You know I’d never love anyone like I love you,” Max said as he stood up again. He was ready to leave and regretting that he had stopped by in the first place.

“Max, don’t go. If it means anything to you, I still have feelings for you, for us. I just lost base with them when I fell in love with Jack. I’m sorry that it had to happen this way. I just couldn’t sit around in Roswell all my life when there was a world out there waiting for me,” Liz tried to reason. She opened her mouth too soon and knew that it was a mistake.

“I couldn’t sit around in Roswell all my life either, but I did because I had to finish something that had already been pre-determined for me the day I was born,” he spat, ending the conversation for good.

“So maybe I shouldn't have called
Was it too soon to tell?
Oh what the hell
It doesn't really matter
How do you redefine something that never really had a name?
Has your opinion changed?”

Max wished that he hadn’t come to Chicago to see Liz. It had all backfired on him. There was nothing in the world that could bring Liz back to him. He didn’t know her anymore. She was completely different from the way he remembered her. Everything had changed for him and he knew that Liz was never going to be his again.

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