To Be The Last Ch. 02

Alex looked at her reflection in the mirror, wondering if she had overdone it. She had called Clara last minute to get some tips at applying makeup. Alex thought she looked pretty good if she did say so herself. Getting up, Alex smoothed down the curve clinging dress and let out a breath. She couldn't believe she was nervous. Well yes, this was the first time she was going out with someone so good looking, but Alex didn't think she would be such a nervous wreck.

It was 4:30PM and Blake would be calling her in about half an hour to say he was there to pick her up. So Alex took a seat and decided to wait for his call. She turned on the TV and flicked through the channels. She stopped on the news channel. She watched and listened as they talked about some political figure or another coming from Russia. Bored, Alex flicked to the next channel and decided to watch the Discovery channel instead. As she sat there watching, she could have sworn her clock was broken. The minutes were passing by so excruciatingly slow.

Alex checked her cell at least half a dozen times to see if she might have missed Blake's call or if her phone wasn't on loud. But nope. No call. When 5:10 rolled around Alex was afraid something might have happened to Blake. She finally decided to call him at 5:45, but she instantly got his voicemail.

"Hey Blake...um, it's me, Alexia Whitt. Well it's almost 6 and I was just hoping that everything is alright. Call me when you get the chance so I know that you're safe. Thanks." Alex hung up the phone and nibbled on her lower lip. No doubt she'd have to reapply her lipstick. Heaving a sigh when the clock read 6:30, Alex wondered if Blake stood her up.

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"Damn it." Blake cussed under his breath as he looked at his watch. Alex was going to kill him. Well probably not. She was too nice for that. But he wouldn't doubt she probably wouldn't speak to him Monday at work.

Just his luck there would be an unexpected visit from a Russian delegate. Blake was disguised as one of the waiters at the high class restaurant the meeting would be held at. Seemingly this man, Mr. Lev Petrov, was a player in the black market arms deal that was associated with the case Blake got kicked off of. Seeing as Blake was the closest operative on such short notice, he was ordered to go. No questions asked, Blake went to do his job.

He left everything back at his apartment, picking up his new identity at a disclosed location. As Blake got dressed in his waiter get up, he was being briefed about his job by Matt. When he was told about this inside job, it had been about 4AM and Blake had all but forgotten the plans he made with Alex the night before. By the time he remembered, he didn't have his cell with him and had no time to call her and cancel.

Blake was only at the meeting to make sure everything went over well. If any of the men messed things up tonight, the men in the black market arms deal would disband and then Blake's organization would never catch them. The meeting would take two days and Blake was grateful that it fell on the two days of the week that Blake didn't work. He glanced at his watch again and groaned. The play would be starting about now.

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Alex glanced at her phone again. Since she didn't know whether or not he was safe, she couldn't be upset with him. Right now he could be lying in a hospital bed, fighting for his life because he got into a car accident. Well that would be believable if Alex didn't check the traffic reports and saw that there weren't any terrible car accidents. The play had already started and Alex was disappointed that instead of going alone and one of the tickets going to waste, both of the tickets went to waste.

If Alex didn't have such an aversion to alcohol, she would be out getting drunk tonight. When 8:30 came by, Alex washed off her make up and ordered in some Italian. She took off the form fitting dress that honestly was painful to wear and put on a tank top and sweats. Taking out her contacts, Alex put on her glasses and sat in front of the TV. She watched Sleepless in Seattle for the hundredth time. It was silly, but Alex was eating her spaghetti and bawling her eyes out at the same time. She barely caught the middle of the movie because she was crying and choking on her food. Alex really didn't know why she was so emotional about being stood up. She really shouldn't have expected so much. But how awkward would Monday be?

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The weekend meeting went well. No one dropped dead at the table, so that was a plus. Of course it did get a little tense when one of the American representatives for the illegal bargain made a comment about one of the African representatives. Blake thought the men would come to blows if not pull out their hidden guns and shoot some shit up. The weekend kept Blake in constant tension. When the last foreign representative finally boarded his private jet back to where he came from, Blake's mission was done.

By the time Blake got back to his apartment, it was nearly 1AM and he had to go to work in about seven hours. Alexia now had both Saturday and Sunday off, but Blake went into work on Sundays. Not too many people were scheduled to work on Sundays which meant privacy for Blake to do some snooping. But seeing as he was busy for the weekend, he'd have to snoop some other time.

Blake checked his cell and listened to the one message left by Alex. It made him feel even worse than he already had. There she thought something bad must have happened to him when in the simplest terms, he stood her up. Trying not to dwell, Blake undressed and took a shower. When he finished writing his report, it was close to 3AM and Blake was exhausted. He slid under the sheets and fell sleep.

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Alex walked into the office at 7:30AM. She overslept, but wasn't expecting anyone to notice she came in about half an hour later than she usually did. It wasn't until that morning that Alex realized how exhausting crying could be. She had wasted her entire weekend being lazy and depressed. Her tears weren't provoked by the fact that she was stood up, more so because she realized she couldn't have a normal relationship. When Alex got older, she pushed away her parents. They wanted so much to reconcile, but Alex just kept pushing them away. On one of their anniversaries, her parents went on a trip to Hawaii and died on one of those helicopter tours.

There was a knock on her door and Alex jumped. When her door opened, she was at least pleased that Blake looked like shit. "I'm really glad to see that you're not bleeding to death in a hospital bed or anything." Alex meant it as a joke, but somehow, it didn't quite come out that way.

Blake looked as though he cringed. "Alexia...I'm really sorry about the other night and not calling you yesterday. Something came up and I couldn't make it to the dinner or opera." Obviously. "I know I should have called you and I'm not trying to make excuses, but it was just really hectic and our date slipped my mind until it was too late for me to do anything about it. I didn't have my cell with me and I didn't know your number off the top of my head."

Alex straightened things out on her desk, refusing to meet Blake eye-to-eye. "It's fine." Alex said coolly. "Really, don't worry about it." Gods, Alex thought, was it just her or did she sound not only bitchy, but fake too?

"No, it's not fine." Blake interjected. "I really feel horrible about it. And if you'd let me, I'd like to take you out to dinner tomorrow night. I would have loved to take you out tonight, but the first directors have a board meeting until 8 and it wouldn't be fair to make you wait so long." Blake put on his best pleading look. "Please, Alexia. Go out with me tomorrow night and let me make it up to you."

Looking up from straightening her paper work, Alex sighed. How could she tell him no? She nodded. "Alright, Mr. Xander. Dinner tomorrow night at what time?"

"I'd like to make it up to you that you missed the opera also. So dinner at five like we originally planned at Jean Georges. Then we'll go see Madame B at seven-thirty."

Alex blinked a couple times, surprised at how quickly that was over. "So dinner at five tomorrow at Jean Georges and Madame Butterfly at seven-thirty." Alex scribbled down on a post-it. As if she could forget.

With a nod, Blake told Alex to have a good day and he left her office.

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The board meeting was so boring that Blake was glad he perfected the look of interest when there was nothing of the sort going on in his head. The directors had decided that since their deal with the Japanese company just went through, they should throw a party to celebrate. Seeing as the party would be the very next day, they were all trying to put off responsibility of coordinating everything to someone else. Blake figured that the only reason the meeting was taking so long was because no one wanted the responsibility of throwing a party on such short-notice.

Blake raised his hand. "I'll take care of all the preps. I just need the company's budget and I'll make sure to have everything ready by tomorrow." And that was how fast the meeting ended. He picked up the binder with the budget and other information and took a cab back to his apartment. He had told his driver to just go home since Blake knew he'd be staying late.

When Blake got to his apartment, he threw the binder on the coffee table as Blake sat down on his plush couch. He took out his cell and held down speed dial 2. After two rings, Matt picked up.

"What the hell do you want?" Matt demanded.

"I need to call in a favor." Blake spoke carefully as he inspected the high ceiling. "There's a party that needs to be organized tomorrow with a budget of $8,000. I really just need a catering company that can deliver on such short notice for roughly two hundred fifty people at Richardson Corp., eighth floor in the Charleston Ballroom at 11AM. Which I'll leave up to you. I have no idea what the hell is going on, but I'm going to play along. Maybe this will be the perfect distraction for me to do some research. Have a good night, Matt." Blake hung up the phone just as Matt began to shout that he wasn't going to do it.

But Blake knew Matt. And Matt was serious about what they did. If what Blake needed pertained to the mission, Matt would see it done. Nothing to worry about. Besides, Blake had enough to worry about tomorrow night.

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"What are you doing?" Clara asked as she watched Alex digging through her drawers.

"I'm looking for my 'Cherry Pie' lipstick. I could have sworn I left it in this drawer." Alex replied as she continued to look through her drawers. She wanted to wear that lipstick for her date that night with Blake.

"Ohhh, someone is getting all serious about something they called 'just dinner and an opera'. Though I have to say, Blake must like you a lot if he's going to suffer through two and a half hours of Madame Boring for you."

"Thanks, I guess." Alex said, with her head practically in her drawer. She gave up after five more minutes and looked at the clock. "Ack, it's almost 11. Can you believe this company? Some of us have deadlines. And then they announced a technology department soiree? Weird. That's all I have to say on the matter. Everyone was so uninformed and this is honestly so last minute." Alex sighed, pushing her hair out of her face.

"You're just upset that you didn't get to coordinate the party, Miss Control Freak." Clara laughed from the doorway.

"That's not true!" Alex shot back as she pushed away from her desk and put on her heels. "Pish, I'm very proud of Blake. Being able to put together this party on such short notice. Poor guy. He's the newbie, I bet they tricked him into doing this." Clara just laughed as she and Alex made their way to the elevator to get to the eighth floor.

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The day progressed and the party was going along pretty well. Blake sent a silent thank you to Matt for having done everything so quickly. He saw Clara walking towards him and Blake immediately wondered if Alex was with her. Unfortunately, she wasn't.

Clara gave him a coy smile as she realized who he was looking for. "You make it so obvious that you want to see Alex. She ran off to the storage room to get more plastic utensils. I think she has issues with feeling useful." Clara paused then smiled widely. "Do you know Mr. Gavin Bailey?"

Blake nodded, not knowing why Clara was bringing up that man's name. He was the first director of the third technology department. He had met the man awhile ago at a meeting, but seeing as they worked on different floors, the two hardly saw each other. Looking around bored, Blake wondered if now was a good time to do some sneaking.

"Well...he followed Alex to the storage room. It's an infamous make-out spot and notorious for the door getting jammed. See, he's always had a crush on Alex, but she told him she wasn't interested last year at our New Year's party. I overheard him saying that he wants to get locked in a room with Alex for a couple hours or so just to convince her that they'd be good together. It's actually quite funny." Clara laughed a little to herself as she scanned the room.

With an arched brow, Blake spoke. "You don't sound too worried about your friend being subjected to some man's advances."

Clara shrugged. "Alex can take care of herself. Plus, Gavin would never try anything too dramatic anyways. Do you know how strict this company is about scandals?"

"As much as I enjoyed your company, I have some business to attend to. I hope you have a good rest of the day and please make up excuses for me if anyone asks to where I am." Blake was thinking he would go investigate.

Laughing, Clara nodded playfully. "Walk down the hallway and take the last left then the last door on the right is the storage room."

Blake lowered his voice. "That's not where I'm going." Without waiting for a reply, Blake started to make his way down the hall and took at left at the end.

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"No, Gavin." Alex said for what she believed was the one billionth time. "I'm sorry, but I don't believe we'd make a good couple. Please stop asking me out on a date. I'm not interested."

Gavin narrowed his eyes at Alex. He made six-digits a year, was attractive and everyone found him charming. All the office women flirted with him and he couldn't understand why Alex wouldn't go out with him once.

"Why not?" He demanded.

Alex kept her back turned, looking through the shelves for the plastic forks. "Honestly?" She asked and stopped searching. She turned around with her hands on her hips, extremely annoyed. "I think you're presumptuous and over-confident. The way you ask me out to dinner is like the answer couldn't possibly be no. And I'm telling you no and you kept asking the same question with the same attitude."

"Are you playing hard to get?" Gavin had a gleam in his eyes like he'd enjoy the challenge.

Good gods, Alex screamed in her head, what the hell is wrong with this guy? "I am not playing hard to get. I'm not playing your game at all. I already told you no. So leave me alone." She turned back to her disposable utensil hunt.

Now that just pissed Gavin off. She thought he was a conceited, little prick. He was tempted to show her just how demanding he could be. He kicked the door jam out of the way and let the door shut.

Alex faced Gavin, her eyes growing large. "You did not just lock us in here together."

"Look Alex...I'm sure you're just confused right now. But I believe we'd be great together. All you need is a little convincing." He walked closer with an arrogant swagger.

"Come any closer and you will regret it." Still he advanced towards her.

In a heartbeat, Alex had flipped Gavin onto his back with a technique she learned from defensive class. Gavin was on his back wheezing. When he rolled over to his side, he was no longer in the mood to play nice. Gavin got up and jumped for Alex. Just then the door was yanked open as Alex connected her foot to his groin. Gavin howled in pain, falling to his knees as he cupped himself before he was pulled by the collar and thrown out to the hallway.

"Mr. Bailey," Blake began. "I can overlook this incident if you promise to never attack Ms. Whitt-or any woman-in such a manner again. Now, I'm going to give you ten seconds to make yourself scarce or my fist will slip into your pretty face." Gavin limped away quickly.

"Blake!" Alex gasped. "What are you doing here?" She asked him as if she hadn't just kicked a man so hard that he'd probably need testicular retrieval surgery.

"You were gone for awhile. Clara was getting worried so she sent me over." Blake explained as he stepped into the storage room. "What are you looking for? Maybe I can help."

"Sure. Plastic utensils. We're running out so I thought to grab some." Alex turned to see the door shutting. "Oh! Don't let the door close!" She shouted a bit too late for Blake to have reacted. "Darn...now we're stuck in here together until someone comes to get us. I'm sure Clara will come get us shortly. Do you have your cell phone? I left mine in my office."

Blake shook his head. "I did the same with mine."

"Well this sucks." She breathed. "Not that I'm saying being stuck here with you sucks. Just the whole being trapped in here sucks." Blake nodded as Alex tried to amend her earlier words.

Blake rattled the door, but it didn't budge. "I suppose we'll just wait for Clara then." He took a seat on the ground, not seeming too bothered by the situation.

Taking a seat beside him, Alex let out a sigh. "The party is very enjoyable. Kudos on preparing on such short notice."

With a shrug, Blake went about looking through the boxes of supplies near him. "Why doesn't anyone get the door fixed?"

"I don't really know...we all just kind of used the door stopper and never bothered to make a big deal about it." Alex adjusted her skirt and sat down beside Blake. "Seeing as we'll be stuck here for awhile, we may as well get to know each other." Alex paused. "Shall I start or shall you?"

"I have to warn you that I'm not a very talkative person and I don't like to divulge personal information." Blake said smoothly.

Alex pouted. "Then what would we have talked about at dinner? Alright, I'll go first. But I warn you that I can be pretty persistent." She gave him a playful look before clearing her throat to recite him the memoir of her life thus far.

"My mother, Anna Maria, was half Spanish, half German. My father, Devlin, was three-fourths Italian, one-fourth Brazilian. I was born in Italy, but I grew up between Spain and America mostly. My parents met in America when they were both in college. Being an orphan, my father came to America to start a new life. My mother came from a good family and my father came from nothing. That was something my grandfather never let my father forget. My maternal grandmother died when my mother was a young girl, so grandpa was really protective about my mother since she was an only child. He was a bit overbearing, then again, my mother said most German men are." Alex laughed a little and then continued.

"Well, my parents fell in love and my grandfather wouldn't allow that. Eventually my mother ran off with my father and they got married in Spain, moved to Italy and I was born a little later. At this point my mother didn't know whether or not she was disowned. But grandpa really missed his daughter so they reconciled. My father had become a very rich businessman by this point and he and my mother traveled all around the world. Some places weren't safe to bring a child so I stayed with my grandfather while my parents were on their business trips. See, my grandfather's idea of babysitting is an army of bodyguards and nannies. Eventually, I saw less and less of my parents and then one day they suddenly appeared back in my life while I was in med school and wanted to make up for all the time they missed while I was growing up. I don't know why I said such cruel things to them. I guess I really was upset that they'd left me for so long. I ended up pushing them away. Grandpa told them not to stress me and my parents retired to Maui in Hawaii where they died a little later in a helicopter accident." Inhaling a shaky breath, Alex finished off.