UNEDITED.

Chapter Eleven

Éclairs and Clams

- "Alexandra, is that you?"

Alexis paled.

- "Mathieu?"

Sam handed her mother a glass of water.

- "Mom, you look like you've just seen a ghost! Here, drink this."

Alexis stared at the man and took a sip of the water. Unfortunately, she began to choke; the water went down wrong. The man stepped aside as Sam quickly went to her mother's side, while Mac smacked her on the back.

- "Mom, relax—"

- "Yea, Lex, breathe."

As she regained her composure, Alexis looked up at the man as though she had seen a ghost.

- "You can't be here."

He smiled at her and nodded. He spoke to her in French.

- "Well, here I am. It's been a long time, Alexandra. And seeing as this young woman has called you 'Mom,' I take it that she's your daughter."

She could not believe that the man, whom she had been told was dead, was standing before her. He was just as handsome as he had been when she first met him.

- "Oh God—"

She passed out. Sam began to pat her mother's face before angrily looking at the interloper.

- "What the hell did you say to her?"

Mac jumped in as well.

- "If I find out that you threatened her, your baguette will be softer than a day old croissant!"

The man put up his hand.

- "Please, I would never threaten my Alexandra."

Sam turned to respond to the man.

- "Excuse me? YOUR Alexandra? My mother looked a bit shocked to see you! From the way I saw it, she thought she saw some kind of ghost!"

Maxie looked from Mac, to Sam, and then to the mystery man Alexis referred to as Mathieu.

- "Um, I'm sure that Mac, you'd like to do harmful things to this guy's oui oui, and Sam, you're curious about whether or not Alexis buttered his baguette—"

Sam put her hand up.

- "Whoa, MAXIE! Can you please not talk about my mother buttering anyone's baguette!"

Mac interrupted.

- "Okay, I don't care about this guy, can we just take care of Lex?"

Maxie leaned over and looked at the fainted woman.

- "Alexis—"

She grabbed her glass of ice water and threw it into Alexis' face; Mac and Sam looked at her as though she were insane.

- "What the hell is wrong with you Maxie?"

She shrugged her shoulders.

- "She's passed out! I figured, that nothing would get her out of that quicker than some ice water."

Sam rolled her eyes and took the table napkin to wipe her mother's face.

- "Well obviously it didn't work you idiot! … Mom, come on, wake up."

- "Hey! Um, RUDE! I'm only trying to help! I'd like to know, just as much as you two, if Alexis had a taste of his French cheese-balls."

Mac pointed his finger at Maxie.

- "Go ask the concierge for something to wake her up!"

Mathieu reached into his pocket.

- "May I?"

Sam was mistrustful of this character whom she had never met, and her mother clearly was in shock to see.

- "May you what?"

Mac glared at the man.

- "I think we've got it. I'm sure whatever's in your pocket isn't going to be of much use to Alexis right now."

Mathieu held out a vial of smelling salts and smirked at the jealous man possessively guarding Alexis. Sam noticed the vial.

- "You carry smelling salts?"

- "I'm a doctor."

Sam eyed him suspiciously before moving aside to allow him to attempt to wake Alexis. He leaned forward and placed the vial under her nose; she immediately began to come to. Once she got her bearings, she jolted up from her seat at the table.

- "SAM!"

Mathieu continued to eye the young woman as he moved aside to allow her to retake her spot beside her mother.

- "Mom, I'm right here."

Alexis looked from Sam to the mystery man.

- "Um, we need to go home."

- "Mom—"

Mathieu stepped forward.

- "Please Alexandra, we should talk—"

She put her hand up.

- "You had your chance. Now, I need to go—"

- "But—"

She was getting annoyed with him.

- "No. As far as I'm concerned you're dead right now. Give me three days, and then you can play Lazarus, although you're a little late for Halloween."

He was relentless.

- "There's so much to explain—"

- "Mathieu, I mean it! I can't deal with you right now."

She grabbed her daughter by the hand.

- "Samantha, NOW."

Sam frowned, but noticed the look of high anxiety in her mother's eyes.

- "Okay, fine."

Mac was disappointed that the evening was ending abruptly. As annoyed as he had been with his daughter for interfering, he could not help but feel grateful to her because he actually did like Alexis.

- "Lex, I'll walk you two to your car."

Keeping her eyes directly on Mathieu, who, in turn, returned her gaze. Alexis nodded.

- "It would be great if you could walk us to our car, Mac. Thank you."

Mathieu gazed from Mac to Alexis, and back to Mac.

- "Is he your—"

Alexis glared at him and responded back to the man in French.

- "That's really of no concern to you."

She reached into her purse and pulled out Sam's keys.

- "Honey, I think you should probably drive."

Sam stared at the man for some time; there was something strangely familiar about him. Alexis noticed her daughter's fixation so she smacked her arm.

- "Sam, we need to go."

Sam was taken out of her trance. She took her car keys back.

- "Um, okay."

As she turned to leave, Mathieu grabbed her hand.

- "She's ours isn't she?"

She pulled her hand back.

- "She's MINE, not much yours."

- "Alexandra—"

She glowered at him.

- "I need to go talk to my daughter."

Alexis nodded her head to Mac as she pushed her daughter away from the man.

Mac patted him on the back.

- "Listen to me limp biscuit, if you bother her again, I'll see to it that you're thrown into jail where you'll be churning someone else's butter for a long time."

As Mac walked away, Mathieu glared at him.

- "Well, may the best man win."

As Mac watched Alexis and Sam drive away, his heart sank; he would have liked a pleasant dinner with his long time friend. He had been harboring feelings for her for quite some time, and this would have been a perfect time to began acting on them; he was sure that somewhere in her heart, Alexis felt the same way about him.

Maxie noticed his upset; she put her arm around him.

- "Don't worry Daddy; if this Mathieu guy is anything like you, his toaster might have been pressed down so long, the toast won't pop up anymore."

He put his arms around his daughter's shoulders and led her to his car; as insulting as her comment might have appeared to those who did not know her, Mac knew it came from love.

- "Yea, well, unfortunately, I have a feeling that at some point, his toast mixed with her jelly and created a sandwich."

She frowned at him.

- "Whoa whoa whoa… Are you saying—"

He nodded his head.

- "I have a feeling that this Mathieu guy, is Sam's father."

Maxie thought about the man again; he was tall and handsome.

- "Well, he is pretty sexy! I can see why Alexis would have fallen for him. Oh my goodness, the dreamy eyes, the light scruff on his face. I like scruff; it comes to wonderful uses! Oh and that thick French accent… I'm sure that's not the only thick—"

- "MAXIE!"

She seemed to have forgotten whom she had been talking to, and went into a sexual fantasy with a tall, strong, and sexy Frenchman; she blushed.

- "Um, sorry! Well, whatever, Daddy! I'm a married woman—"

- "You're not married per se—"

She rolled her eyes.

- "Well, I'm not the Virgin Mary, either! I left that island a LONG time ago—"

He let go of her and moved to open the passenger door for her.

- "Maxie, do you want me to have a brain aneurysm? Because I will if you keep talking to me about this."

She sat in the car and waited for her father to get in.

- "I'm SORRY! I guess you can call that payback for your phone call yesterday morning!"

It was his turn to blush.

- "I guess I'm sorry too."

She turned to him smiling.

- "SO! What do you suggest we do to make the French toast?"

The drive back from the restaurant to the lake house was a short, but silent ride. When Sam pulled into the driveway, she looked at her mother.

- "Mom."

Alexis stared out of the window, absent-mindedly.

- "Hmm?"

- "Mom, look at me."

When Alexis looked at her daughter, there were tears in her eyes; it broke Sam's heart to see her mother crying.

- "What's going on? Why are you upset?"

Alexis knew she needed to speak to her daughter; if she didn't Mathieu would certainly find a way.

- "Um, okay. I think we need to go someplace else right now. I don't want your sisters to be home and interrupt what I need to tell you."

Sam nodded her head and put the car in reverse; unfortunately, she failed to notice the car pulling into her mother's driveway at the same time.

- "Sh!t! What the hell?"

She and Alexis quickly jumped out of the car to check on other car. Alexis could not believe her eyes. She began screaming at the driver in French.

- "Mathieu! What the hell are you doing here!"

He stepped out of his car; it was not badly damaged.

- "I told you that I wanted to talk to you—"

She glared angrily at him.

- "And I told YOU that I needed to talk to my daughter. Now get off of my property."

Alexis turned to her daughter.

- "Honey, sorry about all the French, this idiot won't get a clue. Will you call the cops please so we can get a police report of the accident, and file a claim of trespass."

Sam frowned at her mother.

- "Okay, what the hell is going on, Mom?"

Alexis took Sam by the shoulders and gently pushed her toward the house.

- "Honey, just do what I asked."

- "Fine."

Sam went inside to make the call, leaving Alexis to argue with Mathieu.

- "She should know that I'm her father!"

She scoffed at the man.

- "Yea, I was planning on telling her that when you decided to plow into her car!"

He stared at her as she screamed and yelled at him; she was just as beautiful as the day they met.

Flashback.

Both his parents and her father, whom she had known to be her cousin at the time, shipped them off to boarding school in the states; she at the all girls school, and he at the all boys school in Chatham, Maine.

One day at a co-sponsored affair, 15 year old Alexis, who, having been virtually isolated and sheltered as a child, was not one for social mingling, went outside onto the grounds for air; she was overwhelmed by the number of people in the auditorium. Rushing quickly out of the door, she bumped into 17 year old Mathieu.

- "I'm sorry."

He shook his head.

- "Non, I'm sorry. This party is pretty lame; I was going to get my jacket and leave, too."

His accent was incredibly thick. Alexis smiled and spoke to him in French.

- "I'm not really a social person, I guess. So even if there was a—"

He cut her off.

- "I love a girl that can speak French. You are beautiful. Did you know that?"

She blushed. That had been the first time anyone had ever told her that she was beautiful; in fact, it was the first time that she had been complimented… ever.

- "Thank you."

He brushed a piece of her away from her face.

- "My name is Mathieu LeGros."

It would be a few weeks before Alexis realized what an understatement his name was.

- "Alexandra Davidovitch, but my family, I guess you can call them that, call me Alexis."

He passed his hand along her cheek.

- "I think I'll call you Alexandra; Alexis doesn't do your beauty justice."

She reddened again; she was nervous about this smooth talking boy, nearly man, who was proving to be quite touchy and intrusive to her personal space.

- "Um, I have to go."

She moved to leave, when he pulled her back to him. He pulled out a pen, and wrote his number on her hand.

- "I want to see you again."

He gave her a kiss on either cheek and let her go.

End of Flashback.

- "I'm sorry, Alexandra—"

She cut her eyes at him.

- "It's Alexis."

He attempted to brush the hair out of her eyes, as he had done all of those years ago, but she grabbed him by the wrist.

- "I'm not some naïve kid, Mathieu—"

Sam walked out of the house and saw this last move.

- "Okay, what the hell is going on here?"

As Alexis was turning to answer her daughte, Mac drove up to the house with Maxie still in tow.

- "What happened? Didn't we leave you at the restaurant? Are you following her now?"

Mathieu stared at Alexis, completely ignoring Mac.

- "I love you, Alex—"

Alexis disregarded his profession of love to look at Mac.

- "What are you doing here?"

- "I got a call that there had been an accident."

She looked from Mathieu to Sam.

- "Um, I wouldn't exactly call it an accident, but there was certainly a big bang… of sorts. It was pretty bad actually… probably the worst I have EVER had."

Maxie mumbled to herself.

- "That's more information than I cared to know."

Sam grabbed her mother's arm. She was beginning to get the feeling that her mother was no longer talking about the accident.

- "Mom, what's going on? Are you okay?"

Alexis smiled at her daughter. Despite everything that had happened between she and Mathieu, she did not regret having her daughter in her life; she only wished that she had been able to keep and raise her.

- "Yes, honey. I'm fine."

- "You're acting a bit strange. Was he your—"

Alexis bit her lip.

- "Um, that's something we need to talk about later—"

Sam's eyes widened as she looked from her mother to Mathieu.

- "Mom?"

Alexis took her daughter's face in her hands, and looked her directly in the eyes.

- "Honey, later. I'll explain everything to you later."

She wrapped her arms around Sam, and glared at Mathieu. Mac walked up to her.

- "Can I talk to you for a second?"

Alexis nodded her head and stepped to the side with Mac.

- "What's going on Mac?"

- "Alexis, he's Sam's father isn't he?"

Alexis turned to look at Mathieu who stared in her direction; Sam stared at the man, as Maxie tried to distract her best friend.

- "Yes."

- "Well, are you going to tell her?"

She rolled her eyes at him.

- "Mac, what the hell do you think? Of course I was going to tell her… except Mathieu [ahem] rear-ended—"

He put his hand up.

- "Okay, I get it. What do you want to do?"

She looked back at the man again.

- "Well, I won't tell you exactly what I WANT to do, however, since she's just figured it out, what I'm GOING to do is tell my daughter that her father is the reason why I haven't been able to touch an éclairs, without roughly squeezing the cream out of it, in nearly thirty years."

Mac wanted to put his arm around her, but he feared that despite her current animosity toward the Frenchman, her clamshell would only open for him.

- "Éclairs are overrated anyway; a bit too sweet, if you know what I mean."

He winked at Alexis. She smacked him in the stomach and smiled.

- "You're a great guy, Mac."

He smiled back at her, and gazed into her eyes. He reached and brushed the stray hair that was in her face.

- "Well, outside of the floppy drive—"

Alexis frowned at him; Mac began to laugh.

- "Did you think I was going to let you continue to make fun of me for that little mishap?"

She shook her head and began to walk back toward her daughter and the man who helped produce her. She stopped and looked back at him.

- "You're too much of a man to allow that. I'm sure your hard drive works… sometimes."