Chapter 1 - Trouble on Cloud Number Nine
The silent knock on the door startled him, a knock so shy and humble that he knew who it was without opening the door. Claire. He walked across the hotel room with a towel in his hand, wet hair and nothing but his pants on. Leaving his muscles on his upper body free of sight. He opened the door with a slow movement and his intuition was right - he smiled as he saw Claire in front of him but something was wrong. She was supposed to be talking things over with Peter, not that he understood why. Peter was a man that had stumped on her feelings, lied to her - to everyone, and still she felt the urge to talk with him, make things right between them. Alex took in a deep breath as he focused his eyes at Claire. A knob like Peter didn't deserve the slightest attention from a woman like her.
"It was a mistake coming here" Claire said and made her way inside, ignoring the fact Alex was standing in front of her without a shirt on. "I don't know what I was thinking" she continued and placed herself on the couch at the end of the bed with a sigh. She thought things would be different if she saw him, she thought she could forgive what he had done and try and mend things with him. She loved him or she used to, at one point - he even used to make her happy. She thought he was the one but what a fool she had been. "Don't give me that look" she said as she saw how Alex looked at her - like he wanted to say "I told you so" but she didn't need to hear it, she knew too well now that he had been right in everything. She had lost the man she loved, the man she thought she should spend the rest of her life with. How she had allowed Peter to pull her in as he had was a big question to her. For once in her life she took the jump and she ended up at the bottom of the cliff, instead of flying high above on cloud number nine.
"I told you to let him go when you found out he was married" Alex said and took a short break before he continued "What happened?" he silently asked, not wanting to know anything about their business. It ached his heart knowing Claire would have anything to do with him and it ached his heart that she still wanted to fix things between them after she had found out he was married. Peter had promised her so many things after she had found out, saying Claire was the only one for him but Alex didn't buy it - so coming here with Claire wasn't easy but he did it, as a friend to Claire, it was his way of making things right between them. He had been hurt when she first got together with Peter but he saw how much she loved him, so he ignored it. Ignored it until the day he was told Peter was already married, that he had been fooling Claire - many bad things were said back there, many bad things had happened. There was too much bad blood between Alex and Peter, and he constantly regretted not being there for Claire so he had to do this for her, he had to come with her on her mission to fix things with Peter.
"She was there. His wife - he told me he had left her, it was the only reason why I wanted to meet him. I have been the stupidest person in the whole world" Claire said with tears in her eyes. "I only got to his house and that's when I saw them, through the window, together .. What a fool I've been" Claire continued with a tearful voice. Alex took in a deep breath and took a seat next to her, he was so angry with Peter - how could he do this to her? First he came in and swept Claire of her feet right in front of him and it had placed him in a position he didn't know a thing about - how to be a friend to the woman he really loved. For the first time in his life he had realised Claire was the one he was missing in his life but with Peter around, it all got ruined.
"He's a knob" was all Alex had to say
"Hmpfh, what does that make me then?" Claire said, trying to gather her tears. She wasn't one to cry in front of others and she never cried in front of Alex. She realised as he was sitting beside her, that he had nothing on but his pants. His hair was still wet and small drops of water splashed from his hair onto his chest. Something stirred inside of Claire, a feeling she hadn't had for a long time, a feeling she thought was gone - a feeling she buried when she met Peter, because she knew acting on that feeling was out of the question but seeing him in front of her like that brought the feeling back to life. Being in his presence made her feel shy, small and out of place.
"Well, a bit stupid" Alex said with a cheeky smile on his mouth and pushed to her leg with his. Claire smiled at his comment. This was the reason they got on so well, he knew exactly what to say to make her laugh, he understood her in a way no other did and he was Alex. Alex, Alex, Alex .. His name kept running on repeat in her thoughts. She shook her head with a smile and placed her arms on her knees, resting her head in her hands. Her life had been so easy before Peter walked into it and now it was a huge mess, leaving her with mixed feelings about absolutely everything. "Urgh, why was I this stupid .. " she said out in the room without expecting an answer. "Of all the stupid things I have done, I could have done, I chose him" she stopped, the hurting she had felt moments before was slowly on return and she got more and more angry, thinking of Peter. "Next time you'll might listen to me, aigh?" Alex said with his focus on Claire. He couldn't help but look at her, she was beautiful, even in tears and with redness on her skin from her anger. She had a vague scent of sweetness every time she moved, a scent he could recognize everywhere, his favorite smell in the entire world. His eyes suddenly met hers, even though they were watery they were still sparkling bright as the ocean on a warm summer day, they hit him like a soft wave, splashing through his body. She looked at him, beginning to feel shy as she noticed how he gazed at her, keeping eye contact and smiling. "Maybe next time I will" she answered, feeling her body pulling itself closer to him. They were playing a dangerous game and none of them knew where it would take them, both unaware of the feelings they both were holding on to, unaware about the consequences the next couple of seconds could have.
"You think it was a stupid idea coming here?" she heard herself say with a low voice just inches away from Alex. She could almost feel his nose against hers and the warmth his body produced was hitting Claire like small missiles of lust and desire. She didn't know what she was doing but she felt drawn to him, her heart screamed out to him in a way she had never experienced before, not even with Peter. It begged her to fill in the distance between them, begged her to kiss him. "No" He quickly said and played with a lock of her hair, still gazing at her "but I think I'm about to do something very stupid" Alex said with just a few inches between him and Claire. The warm of her breath danced on his face as tiny suns, reheating everything in their path from a long frosty winter. His desire for her was untamed and unleashed and maybe he would regret doing what he was about to do, but it was something he had to do, a chance he simply had to take - she was his chance.
