Chapter Nine
Stomping angrily, Chris practically ran up the stairs and went towards the master bedroom at the end of the hall, flinging open the door hard enough to make it bounce against the wall. The woman on the bed wasn’t even fazed, as she continued to look through the papers that were covering almost every inch of the bed. “Whatever it is, I plead the Fifth,” Brooklyn said, pulling her pen from out of her mouth.
With a groan, he walked over to the bed and fell down on it, looking at her upside down. “Brooke, I’ve given you so much advice over the years...year, actually. I’ve helped you through so much. I think it’s time that you return the favor. Please?”
Her eyes, covered with her reading glasses, turned towards him for a moment. “You’ve got the song that I’m looking for under your butt. Kindly remove it and hand it over, please.” He rolled off to the side and picked up the paper, handing it to her. “Are you sure this is sanitary?”
“I’m serious here. As much as people don’t believe that I can be serious, I’m being damned serious.”
Reaching over, her eyes scoured the paper as she patted him on the head. “I know you can, Chris. You’re a very serious person, which, frankly, would surprise a lot of people. However, if you just keep reiterating yourself over and over and not tell me what’s wrong, there’s nothing that I can do to help.”
Pouting for a moment, he looked back up at her. “Well, the first thing you could do is put down the paper and pay a little ATTENTION to me.” Rolling her eyes, she put down the paper and turned so that she could see his face. “Thank you. Was that so hard?”
“Harder than you can imagine, because now I have to look at you. What’s up?”
Spreading his arms dramatically, he sighed. “I, Chris Kirkpatrick, have a big problem.”
She nodded slowly. “We’ve known that for awhile now, sweetie.” When he didn’t take her little joke too kindly, she leaned down to look at him better. “Okay, what’s her name and should I go kick the Ice Queen’s ass?”
Forcing himself to sit up, he groaned when his head ran into hers. “Damn, I’m seeing stars.”
“And I’m seeing birds that are telling me to just kill you and get it over with. Ow, I am so killing you if I end up with a bruise there.” Groaning one more time in pain, she forced him to turn around and face her. “You’ve got a problem with Alexandra, that much I can see. Did she tell you to shove something up your ass again?”
His head shook. “No, but it’s...I don’t know. I mean, she called here, asked me over, and wanted to talk to me. The MILLISECOND that I get in the door, she starts in on me, like she just couldn’t help herself, but you could sort of tell that her heart really wasn’t into it.” He frowned and looked down at his hands. “Which is pretty strange when you consider how civil she was being on Thanksgiving.”
Brooklyn took off her glasses and put them on the table beside her. “Well, I...WHAT did you just say? You were with Alexandra for Thanksgiving? Well, you’ve completed your charity work for the year,” she said sarcastically. “I thought that you were alone.”
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, he nodded. “I was, for all of about fifteen minutes. I thought that I would be nice and go over there, just to say hi. I ended up staying until early in the morning. But that’s just the thing, Brooke. She was so nice the entire time. I’m not talking half nice, but REALLY nice. Hell, she said ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ sometimes. I never thought I’d ever hear those words come out of her mouth.”
She snapped her fingers in dismay. “And I missed it. Anyway, go on. This is getting interesting.”
“Well, it’s just...what do you do when you like someone that you don’t like?”
The room fell silent, besides the crackling of the fire as they stared at each other blankly. Brooklyn bit down on her bottom lip and looked away. “Okay, again, in English this time. I don’t know if it’s possible to like someone that you don’t like. That doesn’t make sense at all, and I thought that I was the screwed up one in the house.”
“You’re coming a close second, if that’s any consolation, because I’m officially the screwed up one. Just listen to me, for Christ’s sake,” he said quietly, before rolling his eyes. “This is what I meant. I like Alex when she’s being nice, but then there are those times when she’s being a complete...well...bitch, to tell the truth. That’s when I don’t like her. So how does this all fit together?”
Her head shook as she tucked a piece of curly hair behind her ear. “This all fits together like warped pieces of a puzzle. It doesn’t, Chris. I don’t think you can like someone, but not like them at the same time.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, never mind. I guess you can. Flashbacks are never fun.”
He nodded knowingly. “World War Three, huh?”
“No, I was thinking more along the lines of Turner versus Croft. Those were some classic battles. They should have been taped and aired on television, to tell the truth.” Shaking her head, she sighed. “Okay, out of the depressive thoughts, into the confusing ones. Tell me the truth, Chris. What do you really think about Alexandra?”
He shrugged. “I’m not sure. I mean, what assumptions CAN you come to when you’re talking about Alex. She’s...she’s different. At first, she reminded me of Mia, only Alex means to inflict pain with her words. And then, the other night, she reminded me of you. All sweet, nice, funny...but it was real, you know?” She nodded but didn’t dare interrupt. She was having too much fun listening to his ramblings and ranting. “And then, again today, she does a complete one eighty, and she’s back to the evil side of Mia.”
Brooklyn took a deep breath. “She confuses the hell out of you.”
“Exactly. I knew you’d understand.”
“And that’s what you like about her.”
“Okay, maybe you don’t understand.”
With a laugh, she leaned back and reached for a pillow to put in her lap, playing with the edge of the covering. “Face it, Chris, you like mysteries. You’re obsessed with them. Most of what you read are mystery novels. You like mystery shows and movies. Alexandra just happens to be another mystery, just like how I was to you.”
He shook his head. “You were never a mystery to me. You were...Brooke. That’s all.”
“Nice try, but I know the truth. You like being a modern day Nancy Drew...only with a penis. See, you look at things from a different perspective than how I do, or any of the guys downstairs. We see the world at face value. You, on the other hand, can see deeper than that. You see what WE think isn’t there, but you KNOW is there.” She let out a frustrated sigh. “I’m not explaining myself too well, am I?”
Shaking his head, he pushed a few papers out of the way and stretched out. “Not at all, but please, continue. I like to see you get all riled up like this. It gives me so much joy.”
Sitting there for a moment, she tried to explain what she was saying. “Okay, here we go. Look over there for me,” she said, pointing with her finger. “What do you see?”
“Fire,” he said plainly, looking at the small inferno.
“Okay, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word, or see a fire?”
He shrugged his shoulders, and looked up at her, almost like he was afraid to answer the question wrong. “Anger. What does it matter, though? You see the exact same thing, as does millions of other people in the world.”
Brooklyn shook her head and put her arm down, pushing back her hair from her face. “That’s just it, Chris. When I see fire, I think fire. When you see fire, you think anger. You don’t see it as something that just sits there, looks pretty, keeps you warm, and is a bitch to keep going during the night. You see it as an emotion. You could go and ask everyone downstairs what they think when they look at fire, and they’ll tell you the same thing I did. They see fire. We see things for what they are. You see things for what they could be, and you try to see what everyone’s hiding underneath.”
Throwing herself down beside him on the bed, she pushed the pillow she had been holding under her head and sighed. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. You’re different. Not necessarily worse or better off than we are. Then again, you’re older and wiser than I am. I may have experienced more than you, but you are light years ahead of me.”
He chuckled. “It’s a great explanation, and I finally caught on, but Brooke, that doesn’t help with what’s been happening lately.”
She shrugged, looking up at the ceiling. “I’m just as clueless as you are when it comes to this sort of stuff. The truth is, Chris, you know Alexandra a hell of a lot better than I do. You’ve had prolonged exposure with her. You spent a whole holiday night with her. I, on the other hand, barely know the woman. And what I’ve seen so far doesn’t impress me all that much. First impressions are a bitch, and making a second impression is damned near impossible when it comes to me. From the way that I see it, she’s an evil bitch that likes to cause trouble...but I could be wrong, and I hope I am. I’ve been wrong before.”
“You always try to see the best in people, don’t you, Brooke? You did it with Jace, you did it with me...you did it with the whole damned circus downstairs.”
“Including the bearded lady. She and I are pretty tight right now.” She stopped when both of them laughed, before shaking her head against the pillows. “You’re right, I do try, but it’s hard when I don’t know her. I know, if I don’t know her, I shouldn’t have an opinion, but damn it, every one has opinions. I just...don’t want you to get your hopes up, only to have them crash into the ground.”
Looking over at her, he frowned again. It wasn’t a good look for him, and it was something that he had been doing a lot of recently, she had noticed. “I don’t get it. What do you think I’m doing?”
Cursing herself, she sat up. “It’s just...you’re not yourself. I know that you and I had that talk a little while back, but still, I can’t help thinking that...oh, I don’t know what I’m thinking anymore. You said that you were lonely. I can understand that perfectly well, as you know. You wanted to know when you were going to find that someone, if ever. I think that you might just be throwing all your attention at the first woman that you see.” She raised her hand to stop him from saying anything. “No, don’t get me wrong. I’m actually glad that you’re doing something like this, because it seems more like you. I miss the old ‘flirty yet still a gentleman’ Chris. But...”
“But I’m rushing into something headfirst? I’ll be the first to admit that Alex is attractive, there’s no doubt about that. That’s just the outside, though. It’s like...those Kinder Surprise eggs. Sure, the outside is real nice, but everyone’s dying to know what toy they got inside. No one knows what toy Alex has inside of her.”
Her eyes widened momentarily before she laughed, dipping her head forward. “Did I ever tell you that I have a very sick and perverted mind? Chris, you’re just proving the point that I made earlier. YOU are the one that’s obsessed with finding out what...toy...she has inside of her. My Lord, did I just say that?”
Chris grinned, stretching his arms above his head. “Oh, yeah. And it sounded dirtier for some reason when it comes out of your mouth.”
“Yeah, okay. The first thing you should do when you get back to Orlando is call and have your Playboy channel canceled, because you’re getting into it a little much, I’m beginning to think.” Shaking her head, she smiled gently. “I said before that you’re obsessed with mysteries. Alexandra is just another mystery to you, isn’t she?”
His hand flew up into the air as he let a long string of curses out. “How the hell do I know? I can barely remember my own middle name at this point.”
Brooklyn leaned over to rest her hand on his. “I don’t want you to take this as an insult, but you remind me of Tim quite a bit when it comes to romance and relationships.” An almost frightened look overcame his face. “He was notorious for playing with something until the batteries died. I know you well enough to know now that if you do ever unravel this mystery that surrounds Alexandra...that’s it. There’s no excitement left. There’s nothing for you to conquer or discover anymore, and you’re going to move onto the next mystery. Oh, I know that you won’t beat her up or kick the crap out of her. But the thing is...when it’s all said and done and you go on your merry way, you don’t know how much that’s going to hurt her.”
“If there are so many rules about dating and so many lessons to be learned, how did you and JC make it this far?” he asked. That was one thing he always wanted to know. He thought he knew the answer, but she was about to prove him wrong, not that it was a big surprise or anything.
“It doesn’t have all that much to do with love, to tell you the truth. JC and I...we never put any expectations on each other. We let things happen, but we didn’t question them or try and figure out the answers to questions that are better left alone. We played ignorant. Everyone says that love can conquer all. That’s not true. It takes a strong person and a clear mind to conquer all of that. Love just messes it up in the end.”
He pulled his hand out from under hers and rubbed his eyes. “How can you be so smart about this? I mean, you said that I’m the older and wiser one, but how come I’ve never come to these conclusions? It’s like you have all of life’s answers in your hands.”
Shrugging, she sighed lightly. “I don’t. Both love and life are like walking through a mine field. You have to pick your path carefully. Sure, once in awhile, you take a wrong step, and something blows up underneath you, but you can always pick yourself back up again and try to get back on the right path. For a lot of years, things weren’t just blowing up underneath me. They were blowing up left, right, and center. Because I kept trying again, I’ve been on the right path for awhile. Nothing’s blown up lately.”
“So, what? Is this like a little explosion for me, then?”
She shook her head sadly. “Christopher, as much as I don’t want to admit it, you’re not even near the mine field yet. You’re still on the plane to South Korea.” When he gave her a look, she smiled sheepishly. “I caught a rerun of M*A*S*H last night. So sue me.” Pausing, she looked at him carefully. “You’re at a standstill in life. All you have to choose now is whether you stay where you are, on the plane, circling for years upon years, or if you want to chance it and step into the mine field. It’s not always pleasant, but some parts of the journey can be.”
“Thanks, Ghandi.”
“I’m trying, and surprisingly, it’s succeeding. Haven’t tripped over a mine yet. But, you have to understand something before you get near the mine field. Not all the mines are going to go off. Sometimes, you stumble on one, and it turns out to be a dud.”
His head shook as he looked back towards the fire. “So where does Alex fit into all of this? We’ve somehow taken the subject from the girl down the street to classic television shows and strange analogies.”
Brooklyn wasn’t sure how to answer, because she didn’t know the answer. It wasn’t coming to her as easily as all the others had. “I think...I think Alexandra might end up being one of the mines in the field. I don’t know if she’s going to explode under you or if she’s just going to lay there peacefully, but I’m damned sure that she’s one of them. But, it’s not really my place to say.”
He looked at her, astounded for a moment. Thought were racing through his head faster than they ever had before, and he was finding it hard to catch up, let alone keep one thought with him for more than a fraction of a second. “Wait...you give me this whole speech about mines and life, and then you tell me that it’s not your place to say?”
“Sometimes, you have the find the answers to the questions you have all by yourself. I can’t give you the answers, Chris. That’s what life’s all about. Trial and error. If something happens, you go on with your life and try something else.”
“Are you telling me that I should be gay? Come out of the closet or something?”
With a growl deep in her throat, she rolled her eyes again. “Unless you’ve been hiding it surprisingly well, I know that you’re not gay. You’re having a hell of time understanding me this afternoon. I think you might have left your brain back at her place. What I’ve been trying to get through to you is that Alexandra might be the girl that you’ve been searching for all your life. And, she might not be. You don’t know that yet, and I most certainly don’t. Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. I can’t, because it’s not my place.” Taking a deep breath, she looked away from him. “If you want to know the truth, I’ve been the president of the ‘Let’s Get Chris and Alexandra Together’ fan club. I thought that it might have done you some good. Now, I’m not so sure.”
“Why?” he asked her with a shrug. What else could he say at that moment? Brooklyn was sending him a lot of mixed messages and hidden meanings in her words, whether she was meaning to or not.
“I don’t know why. Just one of those feelings, I guess. I told you earlier that I could be wrong about her. Well, I could be wrong about this feeling, too. I don’t have a crystal ball, and I most certainly can’t see your future in Tarot cards. All I know is that you have to make a decision about where you want to go in life. I’m not telling you to go after her, but I’m not telling you not to.” She stopped, turning her head to the side as she thought about something. Chris almost swore that he could see the different thoughts running through her eyes, as plain and clearly as they usually were. “Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe she acts the way she does towards you because she doesn’t like you? Maybe you have to get used to the fact that there are some people out there that just don’t like you. I don’t understand why, because I honestly can’t imagine what my life would be like without you now.”
Standing up, he ran a hand through his hair, before letting out one last sigh of frustration. The whole situation was not only confusing him, but beginning to piss him off. Just like Brooklyn, he liked to be in control of his life and what happened in it. He didn’t have much control at the moment. “Thanks for the compliment, but I see where you’re coming from. This feels like high school again. Wondering if I should ask out the pretty junior and wonder if she’ll turn me down. I don’t think I could take a let down right now, Brooke. I really don’t.”
A smile landed on her face, encouraging and friendly. “Well...then just do what you do best, sweetie. Become friends with her. From there, maybe it’ll go somewhere. You never know. Just...and I can’t believe I’m busting out with this phrase, but I’m from Tennessee, so I’m allowed. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
With a grin, his hand landed on the cool door knob to let himself out. “Is that like not counting my chickens before they hatch?”
She nodded once. “Exactly. Oh, Chris,” she called out to him, making him turn. “One more thing. If she just sees fire, I think your chances with her are even more slim.”
“Thanks, Brooke. That actually made sense.”
With a parting smile, the door shut behind him, and she reached for her reading glasses again, looking up at the ceiling. “God help him, because I can’t do anything else now.”
Maybe she shouldn’t have had that talk with Chris that afternoon, she thought as she pulled up the top blanket on the bed. For the rest of the day, he had been thoughtful...almost too thoughtful. He couldn’t keep track of the simplest conversation around him, and rarely answered when they asked him a question directly. Hell, even when he did, his voice had that dreamy tone to it, a tell tale sign that he was thinking too much.
But at the same time, it might have done him some good. Usually, for the eldest in the house, thinking led to action, and action was something that he needed. She snickered to herself when she realized how that sounded, and looked towards JC beside her, hoping that she hadn’t woken him up.
“Not that anything could,” she whispered to herself. “He’d probably sleep through a hurricane.” She was right, he didn’t even stir. Her eyes rolled as she slammed her head back even farther into the pillow, staring at the ceiling above her. Something just wasn’t sitting right with her, and she believed heavily in the hype about women’s intuition. There was just something inside of her that didn’t feel right, and she knew the answer, she just couldn’t put her finger on it.
Her eyes suddenly widened, and she jerked up in the bed, until she was sitting up. “Oh my dear Lord. He can’t!” she exclaimed as quietly as possible before rolling over and looking at her boyfriend again. He looked so peaceful and so young when he slept. Most nights, when he fell asleep before her, she would watch him and marvel at how he looked. Now, she was feeling guilty as her hands landed on his shoulders, shaking him lightly. “JC, wake up,” she hissed.
He let out a small groan and tried to turn over onto his side. “Joshua, I’m not kidding here,” she said a little louder, shaking him just a little stronger.
“Not tonight, honey. I have a headache,” he grumbled, causing her mouth to drop open. Laughter started to bubble up inside of her before she had to let go of him and lean forward, covering her mouth as she let it go. Rocking back and forth on the bed, she laughed loud and long, not even caring if she woke up anyone in the cabin. That phrase, coming out of his mouth of all mouths, was priceless.
And, as a bonus, the laughing made him open his eyes. “New York, you know I love you to death, but it’s...one in the morning. Why in the world are you busting a gut at one in the freaking morning,” he asked, his voice rough from sleep.
Immediately, the laughter stopped, and she looked towards him, her eyebrows raised. “Well, good morning, sexy. Say something else for me, please?” she asked, poking him with her finger. He batted it away and stared at her angrily. “Right, I forgot that you have the proverbial stick up your ass when you get woken up. Sorry about that, but if you could have heard yourself, you would have been laughing right along with me.”
His head shook as he laid back down on the pillows. “Whatever. Good night, New York,” he said, trying to get the point across to her.
“Oh, hell no, you don’t,” she said, grabbing him by the wrist. “I’m sorry, I really am. I don’t want to keep you up, but I just can’t hold this back for much longer. I remembered why I don’t like Alexandra, and you have to hear this. You told me to buzz off the last time, so this time, you’re going to be forced to listen, if I have to get that far with you.”
Sitting up, he rolled his eyes and looked at her. “Fine, then. For the love of God, get it out quick so that I can sleep again. If you let me go back to sleep right now, I’ll bring you your coffee in the morning, so that you don’t have to get out of bed.”
Smiling, she shook her head. “However sweet and however tempting that may be...no. This is far too important. You were right, before, about my stupid plan to bring Chris and Alexandra together. We are definitely not having a version of Operation: New York here, because I just can’t do that.”
“I’m glad you finally see it my way, honey. Now why is it that you don’t like her?” he asked, yawning loudly. “I admit, the woman isn’t one that I’d like to spend the rest of my life with, but I don’t think she sacrifices furry little barn animals.”
Her eyes rolled. “I wouldn’t be surprised. JC, I knew that there was always something strange about her, and I knew that she was lying about ninety percent of the stuff she told us. She SO doesn’t edit manuscripts. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s going to WRITE one sometime soon.”
He shook his head desperately. “We’re not getting back to the eavesdropping...wait, why would you say that? Screw all the ‘eavesdropping is bad/inadmissible in court’ stuff that I told you before. I’m interested now.”
“Face it, we live in a soap opera. When I was listening to her, I heard her mention three names on the phone that really got to me. Chris, of course. But the other two were Mia Michelle Coltrain Turner and Austin Turner. She was getting information from someone about us. I swear by this.”
His blue eyes widened slowly. “What kind of information?”
Leaning back, she tried to delve deep into her memory for the incident and shook her head when she remembered some of what Alex had been talking about. “She mentioned something about the owner of this cabin. Mia bought the cabin, and then sold it to me, privately, and my name is protected, but we weren’t sure if the owner would have kept his mouth shut about ME buying it. Then, when she found out that Mia and my brother are married, she asked about who owned the restaurant back home. She found out that Austin and the same mysterious person that owns this cabin owns the restaurant. Once again, me.”
“Anything else? I mean, my God, if she IS a reporter, we’ve said a hell of a lot of stuff to her that wouldn’t look that great in the papers. Not only that, but think of the story she’d have on Chris then. All the names he’s called her, all the words they’ve passed between them...even your master covering up wouldn’t cover this up.”
“I know, I know,” she groaned. “I think she knows about you, too. She had an article faxed to her, about the wedding. I’m sure about that, but I don’t know what article. She said that it was a little too blurry to read, but she knows that NSYNC was at the wedding. I remember her saying that. Then, she asked for more information and hung up. But that’s just the thing, Jace. We’re on vacation here. Now, we’ve got a reporter following our every move, we’ve made ourselves out to look like fools, and there’s nothing that we can do about it now.”
He fell down beside her, looking up as he thought, a huge feat for that early in the morning, when it came to JC. “In that case, how did she find out that we were going to be here? I mean, we all SAID that we were going on vacation, but no one knows about your cabin, and no one knows where we were going. We were really careful with that, considering that we don’t have security of any kind with us, and both of our publicists are in their respective home towns.”
She shrugged her shoulders and rolled over until her head was laying on his chest, his arm wrapping around her. “I don’t know. Either someone tipped her off and she followed us here or...the accident! Of course! Chris wrote down his full name on the piece of paper with all his information. A little checking, and she would find out that he’s part of NSYNC. A little more checking, and she would find out that I’m dating one of the members of NSYNC. It all ties together. How could we be so stupid?”
“Like you said, there’s nothing that we can do about it now, New York. We’re stuck. All we can really do is try and not let any more information leak out. And we should probably warn Chris,” he finished slowly, closing his eyes.
“Warn...why would we have to warn him? I’ll just ask him to stay away from her, but we don’t have to give everyone the full story, do we? Especially Justin. You know how he’s like when he doesn’t want the press around.”
JC nodded. “Yeah, he’s worse than you when it comes to throwing a temper tantrum, and I never thought that was possible. But Chris, we do have to tell him. He’s planning on going over there to talk to her tomorrow morning, and pretty damned early, from what I understand. He said that he needed to ask her about fire or something like that?”
Her eyes widened and she whimpered into his shirt. “No, not about fire. Oh, God. Jace, I really screwed up this time. I’m the one that put the whole idea about fire and mine field into his head, and he’s going to hate me when he finds out,” she whispered, afraid of what was going to become of her friendship with him. This could be the ultimate test, she thought. Screw what happened before, this might be a little bigger.
“Fire and mine fields? You didn’t give him that talk, did you?” he asked softly, his eyes opening again.
Nodding lightly, she slammed her eyes shut. “Just hold me and make it go away.”
Neither of them had the chance to warn him, though. Chris was the first one up in the morning, while everyone else slept in. He sat at the kitchen table by himself, drinking his coffee and listening to the news on the radio as he thought about what he was going to say.
It was amazing how everything had hit him so quickly, and just like that. The truth was, Alex hadn’t been out of his mind since Thanksgiving night. All the assumptions and thoughts he had about her were completely blown out the window after the first hour with her. He had managed to get a glimpse of who she really was, even if she didn’t notice that he had. And he had seen that she could be a very warm, very genuine person, but she used the anger and bitterness as a shield. Oh, he had seen right through that once he had pulled back a little and stopped attacking her.
It wasn’t a gradual thing, either. One minute, he had been laying in bed, wondering if he could convince everyone to go to town and see the Avalanche play a home game, and the next minute, he realized that he had fallen for the smart-mouthed, bitchy woman down the street. He didn’t even know how it came about, but it did, and he could admit it to himself.
Everything that Brooklyn had said to him was beginning to make more and more sense, that much he had noticed. Now, there was only one thing left for him to do.
Leaving half a cup of coffee sitting at the table, he stood up and went for his jacket and boots, putting them on as quickly as possible. He had to know the answer to the question, and he had to know it that very moment, not a few days or weeks down the road. Hell, they weren’t going to be there that long. The guys were all leaving a few days before Christmas, and Brooklyn was the one that was staying there to spend the holiday with her brother and her sister-in-law. After Christmas, the guys had to finish up a few dates that had been canceled previously on their tour, and she was going back in the studio. For those selfish reasons, he had to know what she thought before he had to leave Colorado.
After all, Brooklyn and JC made a long distance relationship work quite well, even though they both had finicky schedules.
But there he was, counting his chickens before they hatched, and most likely putting all of his eggs into one basket at the same time. He shook his head as he stepped outside and hurried towards her house, looking to see if there was a light on. Alex was already awake, and in the kitchen, typing on her computer.
Breathing a sigh of relief, he walked up the stairs and knocked on the door, waiting for her to come and open it. It took a little while, but she let him in wordlessly, and waited until he had taken off his shoes and jacket before questioning him. “Chris? What are you doing over here at eight thirty in the morning?”
He shrugged and followed her into the kitchen. “I was the only one up, so I thought I would see what you’re up to.” He gave her laptop a passing glance as he walked by. “Working on something?”
Her eyes widened for a moment as she pushed back her light brown hair. “Uh...yeah. Just some corrections on a new manuscript. I figured that I might as well get it over and done with, rather than let it collect dust.” Smiling as he sat down, she walked towards the coffee maker. “Did you want some coffee?”
“Sure, why not.” They waited to speak until she put a mug down in front of him. Already, she knew how he liked his coffee. Did that mean something, other than the fact that she had a good memory, or was he just trying to convince himself that it meant something. “So, how are you this fine morning?” he asked with a smile.
Alex shook her head and sipped her coffee. “Tired. Incredibly tired. All the coffee in the world couldn’t make me way up at this point.” That was because she had been up all night, writing a little more of her new Demers novel. It was very slowly taking shape, but she couldn’t ask for anything more. At least she was writing at this point. “Chris, I’d just like to...apologize for yesterday,” she said quietly, trying to force out the word that she never used. Like hell she wanted to apologize, she thought, but she could only get him to make her mad every now and then so that she could actually write. “I’ll come right out and say it. PMS is a bitch.”
A small smile appeared on his face. “You know, you women have to start learning that you can’t use that as an excuse every time something goes wrong, but I’ll let you get away with it this time. After all, I practically lived with Brooke before. I know what it’s like, and I’m sort of used to it at this point.”
They didn’t talk much over the coffee, but rather listened to the radio, the same station that had been playing in his kitchen, and occasionally discussed a news story. There wasn’t really much for either of them to say.
That is, until he busted out with the question that he wanted to know the answer to.
“Hey, Alex, can I ask you something weird?” he started, crossing his fingers under the table. For some reason, all of a sudden, her answer and opinion meant so much more to him than it had earlier that morning. Maybe because he hadn’t been around her yet. She nodded her head and motioned for him to go on as she saved her document and closed down her computer. “When I say the word ‘fire’, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?”
Surprisingly, her cheeks flushed slightly, and she looked down. “I know it sounds strange, but I always think of anger for some reason. Wrong answer, huh?”
He shook his head with a grin. “Nope, right answer all the way. I had a feeling that you were going to say that.” And for that moment, all of his questions about her were answered, because nothing else mattered at that point.
Chapter Ten
pepsicolagurl@shaw.ca