Here I am, you don't have to worry, I love this story too much to abandon it.
Starting to write again has been very hard but now I am here and I promise you I won't make you wait so long anymore for an update.
So, this is going to be a kind of filler chapter, the wedding is coming and Lexie wants to do everything she can to stop it.
And, ladies and gentlemen… The Mark Sloan will be in this chapter as well. I loved writing his interaction with Lexie, they are going to argue and build up a lot of tension.
I hope you'll like it and as always let me know what you think about it.
Thank you for your always kind support.
Lexie should never have relaxed. She should never have gone on holiday. She should have realized that Meredith wouldn't resist till she'd found something to channel all her hurt energy into. And it's this. A marriage. By the time Lexie gets to U-Village, her heart is thumping and she has a head full of questions. Meredith, on the other hand, has a basket full of Victoria's secrets underwear.
As Meredith sees Lexie, she holds the tiniest lace thong in the world.
"What do you think?"
Lexie eyes the stuff in her basket. She's clearly been at the Agent Provocateur concession. There's lots of black see-through lace. And is it an eye mask?
"What do you think? It's quite expensive, indeed. Maybe shall I try it on?"
Isn't there a slightly bigger question we should be discussing? Lexie wants to yell. Like: Who is this Derek and why are you marrying him?
But if Lexie knows one thing about her sister, it's that she needs to play things carefully with her. Lexie needs to talk her down.
"Well!" She says as brightly as she can. "You're getting married. To someone I've never met!"
"You'll meet him at the wedding. You'll love him, Lexie." Her eyes are shiny as she tosses the thong into her basket and adds a matching bra. "I can't believe everything's worked out so perfectly. I'm so happy!"
"Right. Wonderful! Me too!" Lexie leaves a little pause before adding: "Although – just a thought- do you need to get married so soon? Couldn't you have a long engagement and plan everything properly?"
"There's nothing to plan! It's all going to be so easy. City Hall. Dinner at some lovely place. Simple and romantic. You're going to be the bridesmaid, I hope. I'd love to have Molly too here, but I guess she can't manage to come to Seattle within tomorrow."
There's something weird about her. Lexie surveys Meredith, trying to work out what's different. She's got that post-breakup manic air about her – but even more than usual. Her eyes are over-bright. She's hyper. Is Derek a dealer? Is she on something?
"So, Derek just contacted you out of the blue?"
"He got in touch and we had dinner. And it was as though we'd never been apart. We were so tune with each other." Meredith sighs blissfully. "He'd been in love with me for fifteen years. Fifteen years. And I'd be in love with him too. That's why we want to get married quickly. We've wasted enough time already, Lexie." Her voice throbs dramatically, as though she's in a TV true-life movie.
"We want to get on with the rest of our life."
What? Okay, this is bullocks. Meredith has not been in love with someone called Derek for the last fifteen years. She thinks she might know if Meredith had.
"You've been in love with him the last fifteen years?" Lexie can't help challenging her. "Funny that you never mentioned him. At all."
"I loved him inside." Meredith claps a hand to her side. "Here. Maybe I didn't tell you about it. Maybe I don't tell you everything." She defiantly throws a garter belt into her basket.
"Have you got a photo of him?"
"Not on me. But he's gorgeous. I want you to give a speech, by the way." Meredith adds blithely.
"You're chief-bridesmaid-slash-best-woman. And Derek's best man is his friend Mark. It'll just be the four of us at the ceremony."
Lexie stares at her in exasperation. She was planning to be tactful and go softly, softly, but she can't. This is too crazy.
"Meredith." She plants a hand on the packet of stockings she was about to pick up. "Stop. And listen a moment. I know you don't want to hear this, but you have to." Lexie waits until she reluctantly turns her eyes toward her. "You split up from Finn about five minutes ago. You were about to commit to him. You said you loved him. Now, you're rushing off with some guy you barely know? Is this really a good idea?"
"Well, it's a good thing I did split up form Finn! A very good thing!" Meredith is suddenly bristling like a cat. "I've done a lot of thinking, Lexie. And I've realized Finn was all wrong for me. All wrong! I need someone romantic. Someone who can feel and, above all, who can make me feel. Finn is a nice guy and I thought I loved him. But now I realize the truth: he's limited."
Meredith spits out "limited" as though it's the worst insult she can say.
"What do you mean?" Lexie can't help but feel a bit defensive on Finn's behalf.
"He's narrow. He has no style. He'd never make some huge, reckless, wonderful gesture. He'd never come and find a girl after fifteen years and tell her that life was darkness without her and now he wants to turn on the switch with her." Her chin juts defiantly and Lexie gives an inward grimace. Was that Derek's line?
It's not Lexie doesn't sympathize, because she does. She had a couple of terrible, misjudged rebound flings after Jackson and she separated. But she didn't marry one of them!
"Look, Meredith." She tries a different tack. "I do understand. I know what it's like. You're hurt. You're confused. And old boyfriend comes along out of the blue… Of course you are going to fall into bed with him. It's natural. But why do you have to get married?"
"You're wrong," Meredith retorts with a triumphant look. "You are so, so wrong, Lexie. I didn't fall into bed with him. And I'm not going to. I'm saving myself for the honeymoon."
What?
Of all the things Lexie was expecting to hear, it wasn't this. She stares at Meredith blankly, widening her eyes, unable to find an answer.
"You are saving yourself? But… why?" Lexie suddenly fears the worst. "is he from some kind of cult? Did he promise you enlightenment?"
"Of course not!"
"So… Why?"
"So I'll have the hottest, dirtiest sex ever on my honeymoon night. We know we are good together, so why not save up for the moment? It's our wedding night. It should be special! As special as it can possibly be." Meredith gives a sudden wriggle, as though she can't contain herself.
"And believe me, it will be. God, Lexie, he's so hot! We can hardly keep our hands off each other. It's like we're eighteen again."
Lexie stares at her, all the pieces falling into place. Her shiny eyes make sense. The basket of underwear makes sense. She's raring to go. This engagement is one great session of foreplay. Meredith is drugged up on lust. Teenage lust. She has the same look about her as teenagers making out at the bus stop, as though the rest of the world doesn't exist. For a moment, Lexie feels a stab of envy. She wouldn't mind disappearing into a bubble of teenage lust, quite frankly. But she has to stay rational, as always. She has to be the voice of reason.
"Meredith, listen. You don't have to get married. You could just take a hotel suite somewhere."
"But I want to get married!" Humming to herself, Meredith grabs another expensive negligee and Lexie suppresses the desire to scream. It's all very well. But if Meredith took off the lust goggles for one bloody moment, maybe she'd see how much this escapade is potentially going to end up costing her. A shed-load of expensive underwear. A marriage. A honeymoon. A divorce. All for one epic night of shagging? Which she could have for free?
"I know what you are thinking." Meredith looks up at Lexie resentfully. "You could be happy for me."
"I am trying to be. I really am." She rubs her head. "But it makes no sense. You're doing everything the wrong way round."
"Am I? who says so? Isn't this the traditional way?"
"Meredith you're being ludicrous!" Lexie is starting to feel angry. "This is no way to start a marriage, okay? A marriage is serious, a legal thing-"
"I know!" Meredith cuts her sister off. "And I want to make it work, and this is the way. I am not stupid, Lexie." She folds her arms. "I have thought about this, you know. My love life has been a disaster, it's followed the same old pattern, man after man. Sex. Love. No marriage. Over and over. Well, now I have the chance to do it differently! I'm reversing the strategy! Love. Marriage. Sex."
"But it's nuts!" Lexie can't help but erupting. "The whole thing is nuts! You must see that!"
"No, I don't!" Meredith retorts hotly. "I see a brilliant answer to the whole problem. It's retro! It's tried and tested. Did Romeo and Juliet have sex before they got married?"
Lexie snorts.
"Did Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy have sex before they got married?" Her eyes flash at Lexie as though this proves everything.
Oh, please. Meredith knows well that if she's going to use Mr. Darcy to prop up her arguments, Lexie will give up.
"Fair enough." She says at last, indeed. "You got me there. You know, Mr. Darcy."
Lexie needs to back off for now and come up with a different angle.
"So, who's this Mark?" A new idea has come to her. "Who's this best man of Derek's you mentioned?"
Presumably, Derek's best friend won't be any wilder than Lexie about this sudden, out-of-the-blue marriage. Maybe they can join their forces.
"I don't know." Meredith waves vaguely. "Some old friend. He works with him."
"Where?"
"The company is called something like… Ducree."
"And what does Derek do, exactly?"
"I don't know." Meredith holds up a pair of knickers that untie at the back. 2Something or other."
Lexie resists the urge to yell, You're getting married to him and you don't even know what he does?
She gets out her BlackBerry and types in Derek-Mark-Ducree?
"What's Derek's last name?"
"Shepherd. I'll be Meredith Shepherd. Isn't that lovely?"
Derek Shepherd.
Lexie taps at her BlackBerry, peers at the screen and does a fake gasp. "Oh My! I forgot all about that. Actually, Meredith, I'm not sure I've got time for lunch, after all. I'd better go. Have fun shopping!" She gives her a hug. "Talk to you later. And… Congratulations!"
Lexie's bright smile lasts all the way out of the underwear shop. Before she has even got to her car, she's on Google, typing Derek Shepherd. Derek Shepherd, her potential new brother-in-law. Who the hell is he?
By the time she gets back to her office, she has googled Derek Shepherd as extensively as she can manage on her phone, but she hasn't found any company called Decree, only a bunch of entries about a Derek Shepherd who is a race car driver. And he does it badly, according to the reviews. Is that him?
At last, she finds an entry which mentions a Derek Shepherd in a new item about a paper company called Dupree Sanders. He has some made-up title like Strategic Overview Consultant. When Lexie types in Derek Shepherd Dupree Sanders, a million new entries appear. Dupree Sanders is clearly a thing. A huge company. Here's the home page and sure enough, a page pops up with his picture and a little bio, which she scans. Having worked with his father as a young man, Derek Christopher Shepherd was delighted to rejoin Dupree Sanders in 2011, in a strategic role… genuine passion for the business… Since his father's death, he is even more dedicated to the future of the company.
Lexie leans toward the screen and stares at the photo intently, trying to get a sense of this man. He is good-looking, she has to agree. Great hair and blue eyes. Slim. Affable.
After a bit, the pixels start to dance in front of her eyes, so she sits back and types in Mark Dupree Sanders.
A moment later another page pops up, with a photo of a very different-looking man. If Derek was good-looking, Mark is stunning. Salt and pepper hair, a chiseled jaw covered in the precisely perfect amount of scruff, a pair of piercing blue greyish eyes. He is frowning and he looks fairly forbidding.
Underneath the picture, it says, Mark Everett Sloan. Extension 301. After graduating at Columbia Law School, Mark Sloan practiced law in New York before joining Dupree Sanders in 2008… responsible for many initiatives… developed the luxury stationery brand Papermaker… worked with National Trust to expand the visitor center… committed to sustainable, responsible industry…
Lexie can't help but noticing they have the same Alma Mater. He is a lawyer. Let's hope he's the rational, reasonable type and the arrogant asshole type. She dials the number, simultaneously clicking on her emails.
"Mark Sloan." The voice that answers is so deep and gravelly, Lexie drops her mouse in surprise. Surely that's not a real voice. It sounds made up.
"Hello?" He says again and Lexie stifles a giggle. This guy has a film-trailer voice. It's that deep-down rumbly, subwoofer voice you hear as you're scarfing down popcorn, waiting for your movie to begin.
We thought the world was safe. We thought the universe was ours. Until they came.
"Hello?" He repeats again, seeming quite annoyed.
"Hi. Er… hi." Lexie tries to assemble her thoughts. "Is this Mark Sloan?"
"It's he."
From Academy Award- winning director-
No. She has to stop.
"Right, right. Yes." Lexie hastily composes herself. "Well, I think we need to speak. My name is Alexandra Grey. My sister is Meredith."
"Ah." There's a sudden animation in his voice. "Well, excuse my French, but what the fuck is going on here? Derek just called me. Apparently he and your sister are getting married?"
Two things Lexie picks up straightaway. First: he does have a faint New York accent. Second: he is not keen on the whole marriage idea either. Thank God. Another voice of reason.
"Exactly!" She exclaims. "And you're best man? I have no idea how this came about, but I was thinking maybe we could get together and-"
"And what? Plan the table decorations?" he talks right over her. "I have no idea how your sister talked to Derek into this ridiculous plan, but I' afraid I'm going to do everything I can to stop it, whether you and your sister like it or not."
Lexie stares at her phone. He is definitely the arrogant asshole type.
"I work with Derek and this is a crucial time for him," Mark presses n. "He can't just zoom off on some ludicrous, spur-of-the-moment honeymoon. He has responsibilities. He has commitments. Now, I don't know your sister's motivation-"
"What?" Lexie is so outraged; she doesn't know where to start.
"Excuse me?" He sounds puzzled that she has dared to interrupt.
"Okay, mister." Lexie feels instantly stupid for saying mister, but it's too late now. "First of all, my sister didn't talk anybody into anything. I think you'll find your friend arrived out of the clue and bamboozled her into getting married. And, second, if you think I phoned you up to 'plan the table decorations', you are very much mistaken. I'm intending to put a stop to this marriage myself. With or without your help."
"I see." He sounds skeptical.
"Is Derek saying that Meredith talked him into it? Because if so, he's lying."
"Not as such," says Mark after a pause. "But Derek can be… what shall we say? Easily swayed."
"Easily swayed?" Lexie retorts furiously. "If anyone was doing any swaying, he was! My sister is at a low point, she is very vulnerable and she doesn't need some chancer coming along. I mean, what's his job? I don't know anything about him."
"You don't know his background." Again he sounds skeptical and he is really pissing Lexie off.
"I know nothing except he met my sister on her gap year and they had a teenage shag-fest and now he says he's always loved her and they're planning to get married tomorrow to resume the teenage-shag fest." Lexie stops her rambling and takes a breath. "And he works at the Dupree Sanders."
"He owns the Dupree Sanders." Mark corrects her.
"What?" She asks stupidly.
"As of his father's death a month ago, Derek is the major shareholder in Dupree Sanders, a paper-manufacturing company worth fifty million dollars. And, for what it's worth, his life has been complicated and he is also pretty vulnerable."
As Lexie digests his words, a boiling hot fury starts to rise within her.
"You think my sister is a gold digger?" She erupts. "That's what you think?"
Lexie has never been so insulted in all her life. That arrogant, conceited jerk! She is breathing faster and faster, staring daggers at his screen face.
"I didn't say that." He counters calmly.
"Just listen to me, Mr. Sloan," she says in her iciest tone. "Let's look at the facts, shall we? Your, precious friend talked to my sister into a ridiculous, rushed marriage. Not the other way round. How do you know she isn't an heiress worth even more? How do you know we're not related to… to Bill Gates?"
"Touché." Mark replies after a pause. "Are you?"
"Of course we are not!" Lexie says impatiently. "The pint is, you jumped to conclusions. Surprising, for a lawyer."
There's another silence. Lexie gets the feeling she has needled him.
"Okay," he eventually says. "I apologize. I didn't mean to imply anything about your sister. Maybe she and Derek are a match made in heaven. But that doesn't change the fact we have some very big stuff happening at the company. Derek needs to be available in the US now. If he wants to go on honeymoon, he'll have to do it later."
"Or never," Lexie puts in.
"Or never, indeed." Mark sounds amused. "You are not a fan of Derek, then?"
"I've never even met him. But this has been a useful chat. It's all I needed to know. Leave it with me. I'll deal with it."
"I'll deal with it." He contradicts her. "I'll talk to Derek."
Mark is actually winding her up. Who says he should be in charge?
"I'll talk to Meredith." Lexie counters as authoritatively as she can. "I'll fix it."
"I am sure that won't be necessary." Marks talks straight across her. "I'll speak with Derek. The whole thing will be forgotten."
"I'll talk to Meredith," she repeats, ignoring him. 2And I'll let you know when I've sorted everything out."
There is silence. Neither of them is going to concede, she can tell.
"Right," says Mark at last. "Well, goodbye."
"Goodbye."
Lexie puts down the receiver, then grabs her BlackBerry and dials Meredith's mobile. No more Ms. Nice Sister. She is stopping this marriage. Right here, right now.
Replies to your reviews:
Patsy: I hate Jackson in this story, too. He didn't deserve Lexie and I promise you, she'll have her happy ending! Thank you so much.
Cheryl: Thank you so much! There will definitely be a lot of chemistry between Mark and Lexie. The wedding will come soon and in the next chapters you will know other details about Derek's life.
Judy: Oh my Goodness! Thank you so much for your kind words!I hope you liked this chapter as well.
Jill: Thank you so much
ButterflyWhisperer: Thank you! It was my favorite part too but honestly the idea comes from the book written by Sophie Kinsella, though I changed some details lol
Ashmo2000: Lexie doesn't need him and he doesn't deserve her. She will have her happy ending too. The idea of the condom-balloon comes from the book which inspired this story. Thank you for supporting always my stories
Chloe: Thank you!
DreamBigIris: Thank you so much! And don't worry Meredith won't go anywhere… or, at least, she won't go anywhere without Derek! Lol Lexie is having hard time with Jackson but she will have the happy ending she deserves too… Do you imagine who will be involved in that? I hope you liked this chapter as well!
Carla: I won't abandon it, don't worry ;)
Ellen: Thank you and Happy new Year to you, too!
Patsy 2: Thank you
I've just found out there are a lot of typos and some mistakes in past chapters so I'm going to editing everuthing as soon as possible.