A/n: My life really is getting quite sad, a 17 year old girl posting 4 chapters of a fic in 3 days :/ *Raises Hand* Social life here please! ;)
From the 'requests', if they can be called that, I've had from reviewers and stuff, I've tried to please everyone.
This chapter is supposed to be funny, so let me know what you think. I don't consider myself that hilarious in real life (my sense of humour is an aquired taste), so the response to this could be interesting.
Again, I'm still having trouble with my Alex mission, so if you're feeling creative, tell me in a review and you can help me fill in the holes of my plan.
Other than that, on with the chapter, I guess. It's a little short, but I think all was said that needed to be, so hope you guys like it!
Of the Male Persuasion
I stared at Cooper from across the room, his hand still holding the diner door open. He was gawping at me, waiting for a reply.
I tried to keep my face straight as I smiled towards him and gesticulated for him to come over. "I'm just talking to an old friend." Ha! I would hardly call Alex just that, but for Cooper's sake…
He strode over, the door crashing behind him. His bound was by no means graceful, but the confusion on his face made my grin slightly wider. I could tell he'd not woken up much since this morning. Turning back to Alex, I mouthed a silent apology and he nodded, waiting patiently.
Cooper took my shoulder in his hands as he got to my side. "Here's the house key." He said, crouching beside me and dropping our apartment key ring on the table.
"Did you lock up properly this time?" I asked, smiling sarcastically down at him. It'd happened only once, him not locking the door quite right and we'd gone home to no electronic equipment. Luckily, we didn't have much worth stealing, so it didn't cost us much to replace it all – it just cost us more in home insurance each year. I'd never let him forget it though.
He shook his head, exasperated. "Yeah, the same way I do every day." He craned his head up to kiss my cheek. "So, who's your friend?" He turned with purposeful slowness and peered at Alex with such a fake-Cooper smile that Alex had to realise.
I, honest to God, almost burst out laughing. He'd never had much trouble with my hanging around other men, mainly because my friends were his friends and he was usually there, but it didn't take a genius to work out what wad going through his head right now. He may not be a lot of things, but he was still a man. I managed to compose myself, about to answer, when Alex interrupted me.
"Hi, I'm Alex Collins." He reached his hand across the table and Cooper took it, his grin lopsided on the left. Alex Collins? My only guess was that he didn't want to be traced here, so was using a made up name. "I'm a friend of Sabina's from back in England. Sorry if I'm causing some sort of inconvenience." I smiled to myself; he was good… even his accent sounded innocent!
Cooper obviously couldn't think through any kind of snide retort, so just went for the original. "Great to meet you, mate." He threw an arm around my neck and continued. "Yeah, she's a great girl, right?"
I knew Alex's face well enough to see the amused look cross his eyes; I didn't think it would register with my lovely boyfriend though. He wasn't always the sharpest tool in the box.
"Cooper, honey," I tried to be gentle with him; his head was clearly quite a strange place right now. "I'm back on in quarter of an hour and me and Alex just have a few more things we need to talk about. I'll come find you when I'm back from my break, ok?"
He looked at me as if I were stupid. "Aren't you even gonna introduce me?"
To be frank, I'd not even thought about it. Alex and I would probably never see each other again therefore I didn't see much point in familiarising him with my significant other – but hey, if Cooper wanted that, then sure. "I can, I guess." I shrugged his arm from my neck. "Alex, this is Cooper, my boyfriend." I noticed in my peripheral vision that Cooper's chest puffed out as I mentioned his relationship to me. What did he expect me to do, deny I even knew him? Silly boy. I spun my head to face him. "Happy now?" I opened my eyes slightly wider, politely asking him to leave us alone. "Can we have some privacy?"
He nodded, a huge grin spread from ear to ear. "Sure. Just come find me when you're back cause I think I've broken the toaster and you'll wanna know what I've been doing with it before you go home – it ain't pretty."
I blushed – I couldn't believe he'd just admitted to that in the presence of witnesses. "Are you positive I'll want to know how you appear to have killed our toaster?" He didn't reply, however his expression told me what I already knew: we needed a new toaster. "Right, fine." I waved my hand to the air, sighing. "I'll speak to you soon, ok?" He stretched his lips up to mine, bid Alex farewell with more enthusiasm than was necessary and sauntered away, an extra spring in his step. Sometimes, I was genuinely curious what had attracted me to him in the first place. I watched him walk away for a second getting a perfect view of his flawlessly toned backside; Ahhh, that was it. Hey, I'm only human.
I smiled, turning back to Alex. "I actually apologise for that." I tried to make light of it. "I've been told in the past that he needs a lead."
Alex laughed. "He seems nice. Definitely your type."
I opened my mouth, shocked. "And just what do you mean by that, Mr Collins?"
"Well, he's obviously insane – I guess that's a start."
I nodded. "Yeah, he sure isn't normal." I sighed again, looking down at the table. After a silence, Alex sprang the conversation back up.
"Was there anything else you wanted to say?" I glanced up to his face and found him staring calculatingly at me.
"No, why?"
"You just sent your boyfriend away so we could finish our chat, but I don't know what there is left to talk about." His eyes were almost too intense for me to form coherent thoughts.
I leant forwards, hoping to get some truth out of him. "Where are you going from here, Alex?" I whispered.
He mirrored my pose, lowering his tone too. "I wish I could tell you, seriously, I do." He looked around again, checking for eavesdroppers. "Anyone could be listening and I can't take that chance."
His voice was just so bleeding soothing that I momentarily forgot what the hell I was doing. "Sure." I tried not to make my words too snappy. "Here." I pushed my apartment key towards his hand on the table but pulled my own fingers away quickly; God knows what I'd do. My boyfriend was probably watching our every movement – there was no need to give him any reason to become suspicious. "Take this; I'll give you the directions. I finish at seven pm tonight, be there by the time I get home." I attempted to hold his eye contact, but it was proving difficult. "If you've got no where to hang low for today, feel free to go back there now and make yourself at home."
"Why are you doing this?" His features almost appeared pained and it hurt to think it was my words that were doing that to him.
"Alex, you've just listened to me bang on about my past for what seemed well over ten minutes, and all the way through you looked so vulnerable. You need someone neutral to confide in and I just elected myself."
"Sab, you don't have to do that for me. I've been a lone soldier for at least a decade, and I've been ok. I don't want to talk about my life, it's just too much."
"What about Jack?" I was surprised I'd not thought about her earlier.
He glared down at the cheap white table cloth and thought. "She… Ah…" He was quiet, reserved and oh so cute as he sat, looking uncomfortable as the conversation turned to him. After a moment, he pushed back from the table and stood up, taking the key ring between his fingers. "Fine. Where do you live?"
