I'm a fan of clean stories, which this definitely is. Max is likeable, Valerie comes across way too crass when interacting with him. There's not enough romance to balance the adversity though. I enjoyed reading how they met and he seems driven to want more but without much success, they just couldn't communicate like adults and the continuous individual revisiting the reasons why not makes the story just loop, no clean chemistry just a plethora of doubt. HEA, in the end, which is sweet but it's unbelievable that they even really have any romantic feelings toward one another because they didn't build a friendship let alone a relationship.