“How was the drive here?” Oh, good question, Paul. Awesome question, and I think I’ll let Alexis answer that one.
You wanna know how the drive over here was? Well, I think that it’s pretty safe to say that traveling in an uncomfortable silence for three hours straight was kinda mind-numbing. To add to that, Alexis was driving, oh, and the stereo wasn’t working. Yeah, you could assume that I didn’t have a whole lot of fun during the ride out here.
“Where do you want me to put these?” I ask Alexis as soon as we step inside the hallway. “Just over here or—?” I tilt my head to the right, gesturing over to the wall behind me.
“Dinner won’t be ready for another hour,” her father interrupts me. “You look tired, sweetheart.” Yeah, now that he mentions it, she does look kinda pale. He wraps his arm around her shoulders, and ushers her through one of the doors a little further down.
“Come on, I’ll show you where to put those,” Diane smiles, nodding toward our bags. “You didn’t get as far as the ground floor the last time you visited. I’ll show you where everything is.”
She’s right, I didn’t. The only time I’ve been here before was when we came out here to try and find the … to find the diary, and the only place we looked around was in the garage, “It’s a nice place,” I say when we reach the first floor. “So, are you living here now or do you just sneak over from next door when you need some kicks?” I wink when she slaps my arm, but I already know that I’ve won her over. She seems nice, and I’m really glad that Alexis decided to give her a chance.
“The one right at the end is the bathroom … this one over on the right is mine and Pa—I mean, Paul’s room,” she stumbles on her words, and I chuckle, earning myself another slap in the process. “This one right here is yours.” She twists the handle and pushes the white wooden door open.
I take a peek inside, and then it suddenly dawns on me. My room is Alexis’ room. Right, of course. We’re gonna be sleeping together because they still think that … huh. Well, this is sure gonna be a fun weekend if it’s gonna be anything like the drive over here was. I take a step inside and place the cases down just behind the door.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Diane smiles. “I’m sure Alex will be on her way up here as soon as her father stops making a fuss over her.” She pulls the door closed on her way out, leaving me standing in here on my own.
This room is pretty nice. It’s not overly huge, but there’s still plenty of space to move around. Well, will you look at that. She’s even got a window seat right by the bookcase. There’s a noticeboard pinned up on the wall by her desk and, well, I guess you could say that curiosity is starting to get the better of me.
Sliding my hands in the back of my pants pockets, I walk over to take a closer look. I wouldn’t necessarily call this snooping, I mean, it’s not like I’m rummaging through any closed drawers or her closet or anything. It’s on display so she obviously doesn’t mind if people wanna take a look.
I immediately smile when I see a photograph, and I recognize the little girl smiling back at me right away. She’s wearing a pink leotard and her hair is in braids. I’m guessing she must’ve been around maybe six or seven when this was taken. She looked carefree, I guess like most kids do that age, “What are you doing?” I glance over and see Alexis walking into the room.
“Nothing, I um … you were a little cutie, huh?” I take a step back and wave my hand toward the board, scratching the back of my head and feeling a little embarrassed she caught me snooping. Right. Yeah. It’s not snooping. She walks over to me, and I see her pull a tight smile while wrapping her arms around herself.
“Yeah, I guess …” her voice trails and she keeps her gaze focused on the wall. “I was only six in this one.” See? I told you. It’s pretty cool seeing this kinda stuff. Being in the place she lived before we met, seeing things from her childhood. Knowing that kinda stuff about people never used to interest me all that much, but I’m interested. I wanna know things. I wanna learn everything there is to know about her.
“Do you have any other pictures?”
“Yeah, I think so,” she nods and then turns until she’s fully facing me. “Why?” She’s watching me with a questioning look entering her eyes.
I shrug my shoulders and laugh a little, “I just wanna see them, that’s all.”
“What? No. Listen, you don’t need to pretend that you’re interested in all that stuff. Anyway, it was a long time ago.” She breaks our gaze, but immediately brings it back to mine when I take a step toward her.
“Are you insinuating that you know me better than I know myself?” I ask her. “Because if you are then go ahead and tell me what you think I’m thinking about right this second.” I take another step closer, her eyes staying on mine as I lean in some more. “Well?” I see her swallow, her lips parting, and her eyes start searching mine.
She’s not pushing me away. Yeah, I thought so, beautiful. My eyes stay right on hers, and I run my tongue slowly across my lips until we’re—“Alex! Dinner’s almost ready!”—interrupted.
***
“Are you sure you’ve had enough to eat?” I hear Diane ask Alexis from the other side of the dining table. “You’ve hardly touched a thing.” I lift my gaze and see the look of concern spreading over her face.
“I’m fine,” Alexis answers while pushing her plate further toward the center of the table. Well, Diane’s right. She’s had approximately five forkfuls, tops. How do I know this? Because I’ve been watching her, that’s why. She’s spent most of her time stabbing the pieces of chicken with her fork and chasing it around the plate than she has eating any of it. “You said there was something you wanted to talk about this weekend?” She raises her head while directing her question over to her father.
Oh, well this is news to me. I thought we were simply here so we could pretend to be a happy family. I wasn’t aware there was any other purpose to this trip other than playing a game or two of cat and mouse. And, no. I’m not talking about the way she was playing around with her food.
You know what? I think I just lost my appetite. I saw what she did back at my place, and I saw the look in her eyes when I almost kissed her back in her room. If I didn’t like Diane so much then I’d be pretty tempted to throw her my best death glare for the remainder of the weekend for disturbing us.
“Is everything okay?” Paul sits forward in his seat, places his elbows on the table, and then rests his chin on his hands. “Have you two had a disagreement about something?” Here we go.
Alexis shakes her head, but I can see the worry that’s etching over her entire face, “No, of course not. I’m just tired, that’s all.” Tired. She’s tired? Well, so am I. I’m tired of the way she keeps denying the fact that she wants to be with me. I’m exhausted from all of the mixed signals she’s been throwing my way. And, I’m just as exhausted from knowing that I’m always gonna keep trying when I know she’s just gonna keep pushing me away.
I throw my napkin down on the table and go to stand, “Where are you going?” Alexis looks afraid, and I notice her eyes widen. It’s almost as though she thinks I’m gonna say something. Spill what’s really going on. She should know me better than that. Am I gonna tell them? No. No, I’m not because if I do then it means that I’ll hurt her. I meant every goddamn word I’ve said and promised before. I’m never gonna hurt her again. It’s not an option for me. Ever.
“Clearing the dishes,” I smile around at the three of them, and notice the instant relief crossing into her eyes. I grab my plate, then head around and grab the rest before making my way through to the kitchen.
This isn’t working. I thought that we’d be able to pull this off, but they’re already starting to ask questions, and that’s with us only being here for a couple of hours. We still have two full days here before we go back to how we were before. I really don’t want us to go back to how we were. Alexis alone in her dorm; me alone in the apartment. I get it. I know I screwed up, but how many more times do I need
to explain how much I know I truly fucked everything up before she gives me another chance? Well, at this rate, it seems like it’s gonna take a very long time, if not forever.
“Here, let me take those,” Paul makes his way over and takes the dishes from out of my hands. “Diane and I have a proposition for you and Alex, but it can wait until tomorrow now. Alex looks exhausted, and you don’t look so far behind. Let me handle clearing these away and you two go and get some sleep.”
“If you’re sure because I don’t min—”
“No arguing. Go and get yourself to bed,” Diane interrupts me as she comes over to join the two of us. “Alex has already gone up.”
“Yes, mom!” I laugh out, and yep, this time she slapped my ass. “Someone’s feeling feisty! Maybe you guys should be the ones getting an early night in, huh?” I laugh harder, but stop almost abruptly when I see Paul’s eyes widening up, and a deep frown etching over his face. Actually, they’re opening up so wide that I think I need to leave the room now before they pop right out of his head and he tries to sue me for damages or something. “Night!”
Yep. I’m outta here.
Once I make it up to the bedroom, I open up the door and see Alexis picking a few items out from her case, “Hey,” I say, offering her a small smile as I head toward her. “So, dinner was nice.”
“Yeah,” she briefly glances over to me, closes the case back up, and then turns to face me, not quite managing to make full eye contact. “I’m just going to get changed.” She holds up her pajamas and goes to walk by me, but I put my hand out to block her.
“What? You can’t even get ready for bed in front of me now?” Wow. Things are much worse than I initially thought they were. “I hate this, Alexis.”
“Me too. But, it is what it is,” she shrugs her shoulders, and I let my arm drop so she can get by. “I’ll be right back.” I hear the door click closed, and run a hand through my hair twice. Yep. It just got that bad.
Searching through my bag, I pull out some grey joggers and a black tank. Well, it seems highly inappropriate if I sleep in nothing but my shorts. Especially seeing as though Alexis went out of her way to purchase some new nightwear just for this trip. How do I know this? Well, firstly, Alexis likes to wear short nightdresses, either those or nothing at all. And, secondly, they still had the price tags attached to them.
I pull my shirt over my head, and step out of my pants before folding them and placing them on the window seat. Switching on the table lamps on either side of the bed, I head over and turn the main light off before walking back over to grab the items I chose to wear to bed.
I hear the door click open behind me, and glance over my shoulder to see Alexis walking back in the room, her eyes roaming over me. She’s never been able to hide it well, “You checking me out again?” I smirk, but I wasn’t expecting what I just said to make her cry. Shit. “Hey, I was kidding.”
She shakes her head, and I can see that she’s trying not to let the tears fall. I don’t understand. She always used to laugh when I said those words to her. Yeah, no. It’s gotta be something else that’s bothering her. I take a couple of steps toward her as she takes a seat by the window. She’s gazing out over the backyard, and I scratch my head while wondering how best to approach this. Do I pull her in my arms, or do I keep my distance? Yeah, since when have I been able to keep away from her?
I take a seat on the opposite side, resting my legs up and beside hers while keeping my eyes on her, “You wanna talk about it?”
She rests her head back and closes her eyes, “This is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I always thought that when I had children I’d be set up for life. A good job, a nice house a wonderful husband right there beside me. But, look at me. I’m living in a college dorm, I’m nowhere near graduating, I have no job, and I have no…” Her voice trails, but I don’t think I really need her to finish what she was gonna say.
“I’ve completely fucked up your life.”
“No,” she looks right at me, her eyes red. She’s lying. She can’t lie, and she knows that I know this. “Okay, maybe a little bit, but only the part where you—”
“Please don’t.” I wince because I don’t need her to remind me of what I did. Have I tried to forget that I betrayed her in one of the worst ways possible? Yep. But, it’s never gonna go away, not until she forgives me. I need her to forgive me for what I did to her. Earlier, I thought that she already had, but now? Not so much. “You look exhausted … um … you should try and get some sleep.” I stand back up and offer my arm out to her, but she breathes a heavy sigh and shakes her head again.
I watch her as she gazes back out the window, and then I turn away to grab my clothes from off of the bed. Once I’m dressed, I walk around her room a few times before heading over to take a look at her book collection. There’s gotta be at least two hundred books here, “Was this before the Kindle was invented or something?” I tilt my head toward the ceiling to floor bookcase, and smile when I hear her laugh lightly.
“I always used to buy my favorites in hardback or paperback.”
“What? All of them?” Wow, she likes her books. I let out a small, low whistle and take a step closer. “You don’t have a specific favorite?” I slide my hands into the side pockets of my joggers and roll back and forth on my heel a couple of times.
When she stands up, her arm brushes with mine as she steps beside me, “Did you want to read one or something?” she asks, and she’s holding a quizzical look in her eyes. “I didn’t know you were into books. Okay … here. This one is pretty great.”
She reaches over, and I see her take one from off of the middle shelf before passing it over to me, “The Whole Ten Inches of … wait a second. You have porn?” This shocks me. Alexis stashes porn.
“What? No! Do you need glasses?” her voice is filled with shock, and she snatches the book back from me, hits me across the chest with it, and then holds it out in front of me until it’s only a couple of inches away from my face. “The Wonder that is Love, by Jodi Knight and Molly Booth.”
Yep, I was right, “So, it’s trashy then.” I hear her breathe out an exasperated sigh, and see her starting to shake her head from what I just said.
“Trashy? Are you kidding me? It’s one of the most romantic novels that’s ever been written.” You know what’s good? This. Alexis holding a gleam of excitement within her eyes, and the smile that she’s now wearing across her face. I haven’t seen her this passionate over something for a while. A very long while. “What? Why are you smiling at me like that?”
“It’s just good to see you smiling again, that’s all,” I tell her. Hey, I’m just being honest. “So, do you mind if I take a look?” She eyes me curiously for a second, and then passes it back over to me. I can feel her gaze burning into my back as I take a seat back at the window. Resting my legs across the cushions, I move closer to the glass while opening up the first pages.
“Are you seriously going to read it?” she sounds surprised. Wow, anyone would think that I couldn’t read or something from the way she’s acting. I nod while keeping my eyes focused on the pages. “Okay …” I wanna laugh from the way she just reacted, but I won’t. Not this time.
She comes to take a seat beside me, bringing her legs up and wrapping her arms around her knees. Leaning over to see the pages, I feel her warm breaths breeze over the right side of my face, “Do you want me to read you a bedtime story?” I muse, but she doesn’t laugh, and instead, she nods her head while letting out a long yawn. “Alright.”
I get through at least three chapters before I feel her head resting on my shoulder, and when I glance down, I see that she’s already fallen asleep. I bring my right arm up, wrap it around her shoulders, and smile when she nestles into me. By the time I reach the fourth chapter, her eyes are fully closed and her arm is wrapped tightly around my waist.
Closing the book, I place it down beside me and go to move her, but she huddles in some more. If I move her now then I’ll most likely di
sturb her sleep, so I decide to keep her here in my arms for the rest of the night, holding her by my side, wishing, hoping, and praying to God that this isn’t gonna be the last time we’re this close to each other.
Chapter Thirty-One
Alexis’ dad’s proposition?
He bought us a house. Yeah, I know. I didn’t quite believe it myself. In fact, you can hardly even call it a proposition considering he already has the house keys within his possession.
When we went downstairs for breakfast this morning. there were two sets already placed in the center of the table. Haven’t they figured out that we’re not together anymore? Nope. It seems that I’m quite good at this whole acting thing myself.
“This is it,” Alexis draws my attention back as she parks the car by the side of the street. I glance up, see that we’re in the suburbs of Seattle, and sitting back from the roadside is a three-story house with a huge front yard.
Honestly? I don’t even know why I’m here. Yeah, they still think we’re a couple, but when he told us about the house then we should’ve fessed up and told the both of them. And, things just got a whole lot more complicated, because at this very moment, they’re parking up behind us.
Both he and Diane insisted that they wanna see our faces when we step inside our new home for the first time. What they don’t yet understand is that it’s not gonna be my home, so the only thing they’re gonna see over my face is a deep frown, and all I’ll be thinking about while we’re taking the tour is ‘what if?’
“Alexis, I’m not so sure about this,” I admit and twist in my seat until I’m fully facing her. “We should tell them.” I immediately feel bad when I see the sorrow in her eyes, and my shoulders slouch down in defeat. “Soon then.”
Misguided Truths: Part Two (Misjudged #4) Page 33