Opposites Attract

by Michelle M. Pillow

  ‘It’s not like that,’ Alexis said softly. Was it? Ethan said he cared for her, but what of love? He never said he loved her. Was she a fool to throw everything away on him when he didn’t care for her? Was she a conquest? Her heart said no, but her mind wasn’t so sure. ‘He knows me better than you do. I . . . I love him.’

  Francine shook her head, giving her daughter a pitying look. ‘If that’s true, darling, then let him go. Face it. You’re too much like me. I wasn’t cut out for PTO meetings and play dates. Do you really want to be a soccer mom clipping coupons?’

  ‘Who said anything about having children?’ Alexis’s mouth was dry. She lifted her glass to sip the red wine.

  Francine laughed. ‘You are so naive sometimes. Where do you think these things lead? That’s what those people do. They get married, have children and die miserable. Now, I’ve worked too hard and too long moulding you into a lady to throw you away on some piece of trash who draws on people for a living. I’ve already compensated him for his trouble in driving you across country.’

  ‘You paid him off?’ Alexis shook her head in disbelief.

  ‘Yes, quite nicely, too,’ Francine said. ‘It’ll give him a pretty good start at opening his business. What? You look shocked. Yes, I know all about his plan to open a tattoo shop. Really, Alexis, sometimes I think you underestimate me.’

  Alexis looked down at her lap.

  ‘I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice.’ Francine leaned forwards, catching her daughter’s eye. She arched a brow and said, ‘It would be really easy for me to make a few phone calls to make sure that man never works as an artist again. By the time I’m done with him, he’ll be working in a mine shaft, digging coal.’

  Alexis didn’t move. Her mother was serious. The scary thing was that she could probably hold true to the threat. The waiter came back with dinner salads. Francine picked up her chilled salad fork and stabbed a piece of lettuce in obvious irritation.

  ‘The vacation is over, Alexis,’ Francine said, piercing her daughter with a pointed look. ‘It’s time to remember who you are. It’s time to come home. A limo will take us to the airport in one hour. You’re not to see him again.’

  Ethan stared at his hands. Alexis had left. She’d really left. He’d searched everywhere for her, every swank hotel on the strip. In the end it was Susan who told him the news. Alexis had gotten on a private jet and flown out of his life. Just like that. It was like her mother had said to him. Alexis couldn’t possibly care for a man so beneath her social standing. Grabbing his bag, he slung it over his shoulder. It was time for him to move on with his life. It was time for this cross-country trip to end.

  Alexis stared out of the window of the jet. The ground grew smaller the higher they got. She watched the runway, waiting for Ethan to run onto the pavement, screaming her name like the ending of a movie. He didn’t come. Closing the plastic blind, she sat back in her seat. She told herself it was better for everyone that he didn’t come. A tear slipped over her cheek and she gently swiped it away. She refused to cry, though the heartache stung so badly she could barely breathe.

  ‘Drink this,’ Francine said, thrusting a glass of wine at her. ‘You’ll feel better once we get to New York. We’ll redecorate your apartment. You’ll not think of what’s his name ever again.’

  Alexis automatically lifted the glass to her lips. At the last second she looked down at the glass, watching it fizz. Slowly, she lowered it and handed it back to her mother. ‘You first.’

  ‘Don’t be silly. I don’t feel like wine.’

  ‘Drink the wine, Mother,’ Alexis said. When Francine didn’t move, she asked, ‘What? Not in the mood for a little nap?’

  ‘I would never.’

  Alexis rolled her eyes. ‘The flight to Scotland when I was seven. I was scared because I just watched a movie with a plane crash in it. I didn’t wake up for two days.’

  Francine actually paled. Alexis rolled her eyes and unbuckled her seat belt. ‘Where are you going?’

  Alexis didn’t answer. She walked up to the cockpit, went inside with the pilot and locked the door behind her.

  ‘Miss Alexis,’ Captain Tom said, nodding.

  ‘Captain,’ Alexis said, taking the co-pilot seat. The man was back in the bathroom. ‘I forgot something back in Vegas. We need to turn around.’

  ‘Oh, yeah?’

  Alexis nodded. ‘Yeah. I forgot my heart. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to get it back.’

  Tom grinned. ‘Happy to oblige, Miss Alexis.’

  16

  Bright lights shone over the busy strip. Ethan waited for his car. He’d tried one last casino where Francine Grant had been staying, hoping against hope that Alexis would be there waiting for him. She wasn’t. What did he expect? Susan said she went with her mother back to New York. He’d been a fool to dream. Pulling out the twenty thousand dollar cheque, he sighed. He wouldn’t keep it. How could he? He didn’t need Francine Grant’s money. He didn’t need anything from her but her daughter and it looked like that was the one thing she wouldn’t let him have.

  Suddenly, his heart stopped as he looked up. He stopped walking. No, it couldn’t be. He closed his eyes and didn’t move. He tried to stay indifferent but it was hard. His body wanted to go to her, to hold her close, pull her into his arms and never let go. But, he was scared. She’d broken his heart when she left him. He didn’t want to risk it again. He couldn’t survive it a second time – not in the same day, not in the same life.

  Alexis was standing before him, dressed like the princess she was. She looked prim and proper, like the Alexis he’d picked up in New York. It was like his best dream and worst nightmare rolled into one. The rich, pampered Alexis wasn’t the woman he loved. He wanted the woman who showed herself to him – all of herself. He wanted the woman who kissed him and laughed at his jokes. By the looks of her, that woman no longer existed.

  ‘Ethan?’ Alexis fidgeted nervously as she waited for him to speak.

  ‘What are you doing here, Alexis?’

  ‘Well, you know, I was in the neighbourhood.’ OK, bad joke. She shook terribly. A day had passed, but it felt like an eternity.

  ‘Yeah, some neighbourhood.’ He glanced at the rich hotel. The valet pulled his car up and got out.

  ‘Oh, are you leaving?’

  ‘I’ve got a life to get on with.’ Ethan started to go. Then, stopping, he reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. ‘Tell your mother that I don’t need her money.’

  ‘Won’t you look at me?’ she asked, wanting to read his face, wanting a hint of what he was feeling, thinking. Nerves bunched in her stomach. ‘Won’t you talk to me, Ethan?’

  ‘What do you want, Alexis?’ he asked, still not moving to look at her. She slowly took the envelope, clutching it in her hands.

  A few passers-by looked at her curiously as she stared at Ethan’s back. A male couple stopped to watch, one of them dressed like a showgirl. Alexis ignored them, as she peeked inside the envelope. It was the cheque from her mother – a very generous cheque. Others stopped to watch them as well.

  ‘I just want to talk to you,’ she said, stepping closer. She didn’t care who heard her, just so long as Ethan did. ‘I want to tell you something.’

  ‘Then tell me.’

  ‘Here?’ she asked.

  ‘Tell him, honey,’ the drag queen yelled, flicking her long nails, laughing. ‘Don’t be shy.’

  ‘I . . .’ Alexis looked around, feeling helpless. There was so much she needed to say. Every carefully planned word left her. She didn’t know what to do. The crowd only seemed to grow. She didn’t want to do this with an audience. The man who laughed nodded his head eagerly at her, motioning that she should speak.

  ‘I see,’ Ethan said, making a move to get into his car. ‘Even now, you’re ashamed.’

  ‘Wait,’ she demanded, taking a step towards him. She looked around the crowd – some rich, some poor, some glittering with feather boas. ‘I was lo
oking at my photographs the other day and most of them are of you, Ethan.’

  That was so not how she wanted to say that. She held her breath, waiting.

  ‘Photographs,’ he repeated softly, giving a short, humourless chuckle. He finally turned to her. His eyes travelled over her face. She held still, watching as he stared at her face before moving down her clothing. ‘You left me this morning without so much as a word. Now, you show up telling me you have pictures of me?’

  ‘You tell her!’ someone yelled.

  Ethan frowned. ‘What am I supposed to do with that, Alexis?’

  She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

  ‘Well?’ a woman asked from the crowd. ‘Why’d you leave him?’

  ‘Yeah, what he do to you?’ someone added.

  ‘My father, he told me to look at life like a photograph and . . .’ Alexis glanced at the crowd in annoyance. She fidgeted before the prying eyes, feeling like she was on trial. Maybe she was. Maybe she deserved this humiliation. ‘I had to go. If I stayed it would’ve been bad.’

  ‘Why?’ a man’s voice asked.

  ‘Yeah, why?’ a woman added.

  ‘Did you leave him at the altar?’ a third person cried. ‘Tell us what happened.’

  Alexis looked helplessly at Ethan. He frowned. He pulled open the door to the passenger seat. ‘Come on. Let’s go somewhere private.’

  The onlookers sighed with a collective, ‘Ahh!’

  Alexis climbed in. Some of the crowd followed them and were looking in the car window. Ethan started the car and she was glad that they were finally in private. Maybe now she could concentrate. Ethan navigated the busy streets, driving aimlessly. She glanced in the back seat, seeing his suitcase.

  ‘You’re leaving Vegas?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘Oh.’ Alexis frowned. He’d been on his way to leave. Only the fact that she’d found him outside her mother’s hotel gave her hope. Maybe he’d been trying to see her. She’d only gone there to try and bribe the concierge into letting her use a limo under her mother’s account to look for him.

  ‘Well, you wanted to talk. So talk.’

  He looked so angry. She didn’t expect him to be angry. ‘Maybe this was a bad idea. It’s just, I thought . . .’

  ‘What?’ his voice softened, but not his expression.

  ‘I wanted to explain about this morning. I had to go. You don’t know my mother.’ Alexis took a deep breath.

  ‘You’re a grown woman, Alexis. You don’t have to do what your mother says.’

  ‘She paid you off.’

  ‘Don’t change the subject.’

  Alexis shook her head. She didn’t want to start a fight. ‘It’s the same subject. You took the cheque she gave you this morning. What was I supposed to think?’

  ‘That I’m not a fool. It’s not like you asked me to stay with you, to give it back. In fact, I seem to recall you just walking out on me when she told you it was time to go. You didn’t fight her. You didn’t try. You let her treat me like dirt, like I was some family embarrassment you had to hide from the world. Do you know what it’s like to be treated like you’re not good enough? You didn’t even say goodbye. I figured you wanted your mother to pay me off. You didn’t lift a finger to stop her from doing it. Besides, I wasn’t raised to throw a good thing away when it comes along, unlike some people. Such noble pursuits are a luxury of the rich.’

  ‘Ethan, I didn’t throw you away. My mother is a very influential, powerful person. With just a few phone calls she could . . . She still could . . .’ Alexis stopped talking. She took a deep breath and tried to give him the envelope in her hand. ‘I’m not mad about the money. I want you to have it. You deserve it and she could well afford to give it to you.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ Ethan said. ‘I don’t want it.’

  She tried not to cry. ‘I can see you don’t want me here. I’ll go. Just pull over.’

  He took a deep breath, pulling the car into the hotel parking lot where they’d stayed the night before. Alexis glanced up, wondering if Susan and Ted were still inside. At least he dropped her off by friends. Slowly, she nodded and weakly moved to get out of the car.

  ‘Wait.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said at the same time. She looked at him, her eyes boring into his. ‘Please, I’m babbling and not explaining this very well. I’ve never had to grovel before.’

  Ethan didn’t move.

  ‘If I would’ve stayed, she would’ve caused a scene. She would’ve done something. I know her. She’d call the police and claim you tried to mug her. She’d have your car towed. In fact, she still might call in a few favours and make sure you didn’t get a shop at all once you get to California.’

  ‘I’m not afraid of her,’ he said.

  ‘Please, let me get this out. I know that you were paying my way on the last part of the trip and I didn’t want to be some helpless girl that you had to take care of. I’ve been that helpless girl my whole life.’ Alexis moved closer to him, so close he could touch her if he wanted to. He didn’t. ‘I shouldn’t have left like that, but I was confused. I wanted to do the right thing. No, that’s a lie. I wanted to do the safe thing. I was scared. I saw my old world and I saw what I had become with you and I got scared. I never felt for anyone the way I feel about you. And I’m not trying to blame my mother, because it’s my fault for believing her when she told me you wouldn’t want anything to do with me. You said you cared for me and I should’ve believed that. But I couldn’t see why you would care for me. Before, the only thing I had to offer anyone was money and a good family name. You liked me without any of that. You’re so . . .’ Alexis sniffed, tears coming to her eyes. ‘. . . and I’m so . . .’

  ‘You should’ve known better than listen to that woman,’ Ethan said. She wanted to touch him so badly. Her body craved him, always craved him.

  ‘I did, I do, it’s just she said that you would never want a person like me and I believed her.’ Alexis shrugged. A lone tear slipped down her cheek. ‘I could understand why it would be true. I’m no prize. I’m bad with money. I’m judgemental and arrogant. I’ve never kept a job more than a few weeks. All I could think of was what would happen when we got to California and the vacation ended and you realised your girlfriend was just some spoiled rich girl. You’re so perfect and I’m just not.’

  She stared at his mouth, wanting the feel of her lips against his. It made it hard to concentrate. Her body was heating with his nearness, the virile smell of him.

  ‘You could’ve talked to me last night about this,’ he said. ‘You could’ve trusted me.’

  ‘What could I say?’ Alexis sighed. ‘I had to regroup. I had to make sure that I could change, that this new life I was living was what I wanted. You didn’t need to be there while I worked out my neurotic childhood. But, most of all, I needed to have a plan to change myself into someone you not only cared for, but could maybe love. Someday.’

  Ethan didn’t move.

  ‘I know you don’t like me very much right now, Ethan.’ Alexis lifted her hand, letting it hover near his cheek. The city lights added an odd contrast to his features. She didn’t touch him. ‘But I’m going to prove to you that I’m changing. I’ll get an apartment in San Francisco. It might be horrible and small and even have a funny smell. I might really hate it, but that’s all right, because it’ll be mine.’

  ‘Alexis,’ he whispered with an incorrigible look on his handsome face, ‘would you just say whatever it is you’re getting at?’

  ‘Haven’t you been listening to me? I’m here to win you back. I’m here because I’m madly and completely, hopelessly in love with you.’

  Ethan smiled.

  ‘I’ve missed you. It was only one day and I missed you. I can’t go back to that life. I don’t want it. Things like these,’ she motioned down her dress, ‘designer dresses don’t matter. They’re not what’s important.’

  ‘So,’ he said, sounding suddenly very rakish, ‘just how far are
you willing to go to get me back?’

  Alexis smiled, hope unravelling inside her as she leaned closer to him. She touched his chest. ‘Well, what exactly did you have in mind?’

  ‘You grovelled really well,’ he said, his voice dipping. ‘But I think maybe there should be some begging.’

  ‘Begging,’ she repeated, the word husky. Her lids fell low over her eyes and he knew she’d missed him as he had her. He glanced at the hotel behind them.

  ‘And screaming.’ He leaned over, closing some of the distance between their lips.

  ‘Screaming.’

  ‘Yes, definitely screaming.’ He leaned closer. ‘And perhaps a little wrestling.’

  ‘Nude wrestling?’

  ‘Mm, I know how particular you are about your clothes.’ Their lips brushed, but he didn’t kiss her. ‘Susan has your bags upstairs. We can get another room and pick this trip up where we left off. There’s still one more state to go.’

  ‘Does this mean you forgive me?’ she asked. ‘And that you’ll maybe take me back?’

  ‘Do you promise that from now on, if you’re feeling scared or there’s a problem, you’ll come to me first and not run away?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Then I’d say this means you’ll not be moving into your little, horrible, smelly apartment but into my big, horribly decorated apartment.’ Ethan chuckled at the look of shock on her face. He tilted his head the other way, drawing back each time her lips dipped closer to his. ‘And I think it’s only fair that you be forced to help me run my shop. I mean, you’ve come this far.’

  ‘A tattoo shop?’ Alexis asked, grinning. ‘I can work with that.’

  Ethan laughed with pleasure. Happiness coursed through her at the sound. She couldn’t resist any longer. Alexis had to touch him. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she drew her mouth to his, kissing him passionately.

  Alexis moaned as he rolled his tongue into her mouth. She knew there was a lot that they still needed to talk about, but he was forgiving her and that was all that mattered. She squealed with happiness against his kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck. Ethan hugged her tight. She felt the press of his muscles and she needed him. Now. For ever.