Topsy Turvy Ch. 06

Trying to look like she had taken in what he had been saying, she nodded, not knowing how to respond. She watched him greedily as he sat on the sofa next to her, leaning forward to put the coffee mugs down on the mahogany coffee table in front of them. She raked her eyes over his back and bit her lip. He really was very well put together. He settled back on the sofa, taking up quite a bit of space and Alanna had to admit to herself if no one else that she was feeling, intimidated; no that wasn't the word, probably more crowded by his presence. She was also taken aback by just how much she liked it. Taking advantage of his closeness she inhaled his aftershave again with her eyes closed and winced when she heard,

"Um Alanna, are you sniffing me?"

Opening her eyes and realising that not only was she openly smelling him, but that she was leaning very close into his body space to do so, she recoiled, picked up her coffee and sipped it quickly failing to realise just how hot it actually was. She spit the coffee across the room and all over the one remaining photo of Veronica and Michael -- their wedding photo.

Silence ensued. Alanna kept her face straight ahead watching the droplets of coffee slide down the shining silver frame and over Veronica's beautiful face which beamed at her from behind the glass. She closed her eyes and curled her toes within her boots wondering if she could get away with making a run for it. Only problem being, there was furniture everywhere in the room, and luck being what it was, she'd probably fall and make even more of a fool of herself. The silence continued so Alanna decided to brave it and opened one eye to check on Mike's reaction. His eyes seemed pinned to the now desecrated photograph, with the coffee drips which were now dripping from the table and down the table leg.

Oh God, if those drops hit the cream carpet, I'm out of here, she thought to herself.

She turned to him,

"Mike, I'm so --"

"It's fine."

"No seriously, I'm so embarrassed, can I clean it, do you have a washcloth or something?"

"I said, it's fine." His tone brooked no argument, but she couldn't help herself,

She jumped up from the sofa, "No seriously, I would feel awful if I didn't -- where's the kitchen, through here?"

"No! I mean, there's no need -- "

Ignoring him, she made her way out of the room and headed for what looked like it could be the kitchen and which was confirmed when she set foot through the door and was hit by the smell of burning plastic.

She looked over her shoulder to find a sheepish Michael close behind her scratching his head. Somehow, this put her at her ease. As the kitchen was her domain, she suddenly felt very comfortable.

"What happened here?" she asked, smiling at him

Mike bit his bottom lip between his teeth trying to decide if he should tell her. He figured that between Alanna seeing him drunk, and her locking him half naked in her cupboard, and then her boyfriend trying to beat him up, and him bleeding all over her best friend's floor - they were very close to being considered friends. He had shared more with her in the few weeks that they had known each other, than he had with his life long friends for the duration of their friendship.

He looked at her properly, fascinated by the fact that she wasn't in four inch heels or a great deal of make up as his wife had been prone. He was entranced by the dimple in her left cheek as she smiled at him reassuringly. He ached to smooth her very short hair which had been mussed when she'd taken off her hat, because he had a feeling that this would annoy her. But he figured he'd be able to kiss away her annoyance.

Kiss away her -! Where had that come from? He shook himself out of his stupor and fought to remember the question she had asked. Turning his attention back to her, he noticed she was frowning at him,

"Huh?"

"The burning?"

"Eh? Oh yeah -- um I was a tad distracted and burnt the mother out of the pot. It was only the smell of burnt plastic that alerted me otherwise you might have found me being rescued by a fireman carrying me out of this place."

She scoffed, "Carrying you? Blimey, he'd have to be a massive one."

He looked at her wide eyed, "Did you just make a joke about my size? I didn't know you had it in you?"

She laughed at him, "Ha! You have no idea of what I am capable of having in me."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realised just what she had said, and judging by the heated look in his eyes, he had heard, processed and was now visualising just what it was that she was capable of.

There's something here -- between me and him, I can feel it. There's something and it's lovely but it's awful because my best friend wants to date him, my boyfriend wants to kill him and yet here I am laughing with him and what I want more than anything is for him just to take a step forward and --

She was knocked out of her thoughts as she noticed Mike drawing closer to her and closed her eyes as she felt his lips touch hers gently.

****** He kept his eyes open for the first few seconds worried that the violence that her boyfriend had displayed a few weeks earlier had rubbed off onto her and that he would be pinned against his kitchen counter with a knife through his hand or something. However, when Mike noticed that her eyes were closed and that her arms had slid up his chest to link around his neck, and that she was stroking the back of his neck gently, he relaxed and started to enjoy himself.

He pulled her closer to him by her waist, and took the opportunity to stroke down her mussed hair which was as soft to the touch as he had expected. Pushing her gently against the counter, he took the time to kiss her thoroughly, exploring down to her neck and nipping her collarbone, making her gasp. He smiled against her skin delighted to have provoked a reaction out of her and made his way back to her lips again, answering her as she tugged him hurriedly towards her and vowed to kiss her until he had no breath left in his body.

****** Alanna only opened her eyes when she realised she wasn't being kissed anymore. She felt the warmth that had surrounded her leave and she stumbled when she realised just how badly she had behaved. She took a step back from him, backing into the counter, and touched her fingers to her lips trying to keep the memory of that lovely kiss. He was watching her warily wondering what her reaction would be. She laughed to herself. Poor thing, he probably thought she was going to hit him. She bit her lip as she realised that actually that was what she probably should be doing, and yet she didn't want to. She widened her eyes at him as the full reality of what they had just done became quite apparent to her.

"Oh!" she gestured at him with trembling fingers,

He held up his hands in defence,

"Please don't freak out - I'm sorry, it was my fault entirely. However, I'm not going to apologise for it because it felt like the right thing to do."

She took a breath, but he continued,

"I'll completely understand if you need to tell Simon-"

Her look of incredulity set him straight on that one. He raised his hands again,

"Ok, ok. But whatever you want. We can forget this ever happened or -- "

"Or what? Actually, forget that - I should go."

These were her first words and the ones which she felt would steer her back into the normal path of reality. God, what had she been thinking? Bloody feet, she knew they had steered her in the wrong direction. Should have gone to the bloody French film! His voice interrupted her harried thoughts,

"Please don't go. Not like this. Somehow it always seems that we are always running out on one another. Can't we just be normal, have a cup of coffee with one another, get to know one another without histrionics or any kind of nonsense?"

Alanna turned to him to tell him that no this would not be possible, but once her eyes caught his, she just couldn't. Deep in her gut she had to admit to herself that she didn't want to leave. She wanted to sit with him and have some coffee and get to know him. She wanted to know what made him laugh and how he was handling his divorce. She wanted to know if he still loved his wife and if he had any room in his heart for love again and then maybe she wanted to get up the guts to sit on his lap and kiss him to kingdom come so she could try and make him feel the way he seemed to make her feel every time they ran into one another. That was what she wanted to do. And then once she realised what she wanted to do, she wanted to beat herself over the head with one of the cast iron pans hanging over his cooker.

It seemed though, that despite her need for self flagellation, he could sense her acquiescence because when she dared to look at him again, he was holding out the chair to the kitchen table, asking her to sit. Which she did.

******* Looking over at the clock he wasn't really sure where three hours had gone. He didn't know when it had become dark and he really didn't understand why he had been sobbing on a sofa a mere few hours ago. His evening with Alanna had been great. She'd listened while he'd told her about the wreck that was his marriage, his fears about raising his children alone and his bewilderment at just how badly his marriage had failed. She'd laughed at the story of Greg and Tori getting together and had admonished him when he admitted that he hadn't faced or confronted his wife since she had left them. Sitting back in his chair and watching her getting up to load the dishwasher with their used cups and the plates which had housed the pizza they had shared, Mike thought to himself that he could get used to her being around.

However, he quickly quelled that thought because he was aware that he presented a not particularly attractive prospect. To her he was probably a depressed, desperate single father on the rebound from his bitch of a wife and let's be honest, what woman would want that? To complicate matters further, she already had a boyfriend who hated him and who was well aware of his attraction to her. And lastly, he couldn't help but feel that his confidence had taken enough of a beating over the past few months, he wasn't about to risk his sanity again, nor was he ready to disrupt the kids again.

And yet, as he got up from the table with the intention of helping her, he couldn't help taking the bowl from her hand gently and placing it on the counter. He cupped her face in his hands looking at her, this time asking her permission. Sensing no objection, he kissed her properly leaving all of his fears aside and threw himself into the moment.

********* Alanna had to face the very ugly facts. She had spent a great portion of her evening on a date, because frankly that's what it was, with the man that her best friend had every intention of dating. She was essentially cheating on her boyfriend who was a man who didn't trust her, and now it felt as though he had cause to. To add to the ridiculousness of the situation, she was desperately attracted to this man who had no cause to trust anyone and yet it seemed trusted her completely. And he was hot, which did not help in the slightest.

And now, here she was, kissing up on him like a teenager at a party and she figured that of the two of them, one would have to be the responsible adult. She opened her eyes and pushed against his chest signalling to him they should stop. He pulled away from her mouth and looked down on her wondering at the interruption. When he noticed her taking shallow breaths, he smiled and started to bite on her earlobe giving her a bit of time. However, it seemed that this brought her back to reality.

"Stop!"

He stopped, startled by her loud shout.

"Sorry, but I think I should go."

She watched as his face dropped in sadness and felt her heart break a little.

"I shouldn't be here. This shouldn't be happening, regardless of how lovely it is."

This seemed to restore his spirits a little. "You could stay for a little while?"

"I have to go. I don't know what I was thinking. What we were thinking!"

She said this as she sat back at the table and was pulling her boots back onto her feet. She didn't even remember taking them off, such had been her comfort with him.

"Where's my bag?"

He shrugged, "Probably in the living room I suppose."

She nodded decisively and made her way back to the room and felt him follow her. As she entered, her eyes caught sight of the offended wedding photo that was now stained with coffee. She bit her lip and made to apologise again. However, as she turned to him, she noticed that his gaze was focused solely on her. She wanted to say something to him, but she didn't know what. She wanted to make him feel better, but she didn't know how. This was not how she lived her life. Drama was for other people. She was straight down the line. She always tried to be honest and fair and to be good to those she loved. And while she felt something indescribable for Michael Collins, her responsibility was to her friend and to her boyfriend, both of whom didn't deserve any kind of betrayal in the slightest.

Finding everything she needed, she nodded decisively, comfortable with the fact that she had made the right decision, regardless of how that decision impacted her, she looked up at him and said softly,

"I really should go."

He nodded saying nothing and left the room leading her to the front door. A knot formed in her stomach and started to tighten and she felt awful that she was having to say goodbye to him, but she was sure it was the right thing to do.

He stopped just short of the front door and tugged on her coat buttons, pulling her closer to him,

"I had a lovely evening, thanks for coming by."

She looked down at her boots, she just knew that if she looked at him, she would weaken. He tugged on the buttons again, and this time she was brave enough to raise her head but kept her eyes closed,

He smiled and whispered, "Coward."

She could feel him getting closer to her, his aftershave enveloping her senses and just as she felt him pull on her hips to pull her within kissing distance, the doorbell rang.

Her eyes snapped open and she stepped past him. See, it was a sign. She shouldn't be doing this. She looked up at him,

"Saved by the bell! I really should go."

She pulled open the door as she felt his hand on her waist pulling her back and both were greeted by the sight of Helena standing on his doorstep.

She took in Alanna's guilty gasp and Mike's puzzled face and said coolly,

"Hello, I seem to have disturbed something?"