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Chapter 12



Liz reached across the counter, taking a head of lettuce. What else did she need? She looked over at what she had put in her shopping cart, going over what she had already taken and what she still needed. She put the lettuce in the cart and continued pushing the cart in front of her down the alley, moving towards the dairy products. As she made her way through the supermarket, her thoughts were free to unrestrained flow around in her head. Her thoughts, nowadays, seemed to have merely one specific destination.

Max Evans.

What was it about him that made her want to know more about him? She had an inexplicable urge to get to know him. It wasn't only the mystery surrounding him that intrigued her, but she wanted to bask herself in his presence. But just as quickly as those thoughts started to flow freely through her mind, she had to push them away. She couldn't let him get too close to her - she couldn't get too close to him. She didn't want to hurt him and her being close to him would certainly do that... She took a deep breath as she pushed down the painful feelings to the safe state of forgetfulness.

"Liz...?"

The tentative question made her turn around, and she found herself looking into a pair of very familiar blue eyes.

"Alex...?" she said, afraid to hope that it was really Alex that was standing in front of her with a packet of crackers in his hand.

"Is that really you, Liz?" the man asked, and then a big grin spread across his face as Liz threw herself in his arms. Her grip on him was almost suffocating, but he willingly held her close. He had missed her so much and he could understand from the way she was hugging him that she had missed him too.

They broke apart and Alex could see tears simmering in her eyes.

"God, Liz. Where have you been?" Alex asked.

"I've been around," Liz answered, smiling happily. "Do you live here?"

"No, I'm actually only visiting my brother," he answered. "I never imagined to see you here! In a supermarket of all places."

They just stared at each other silently, with something akin to awe in their eyes, both trying to grasp the concept that the other really was there.

"I live close by," Liz said. "How about you follow me home? We have so much to talk about!"

"I would love that," Alex said. "Let me help you finish your shopping. So what else do you need?"

---------------------------------------------------



"So, this is where I live," Liz said, opening the door. Alex stepped inside, eyeing the interior of the apartment.

"This is so you," Alex said.

"I hope that's a good thing," Liz said, as she closed the door.

"Believe me, that's a very good thing," Alex said.

Just then there was a knock on the door. Alex was somewhat confused by the momentary startled expression passing over Liz's face.

"Who is it?" she asked through the door.

"Max," a deep male voice answered.

Alex frowned. Max? Liz had never told him about someone named Max. But then Liz and he hadn't had any contact with each other in last six years. Liz opened the door and he watched as a man, about their age, walked in. Alex felt the strongest urge to get out of the apartment as he met that Max's eyes. He watched as the man positioned himself between him and Liz.

"Hi," Alex said to the man, trying to break the tension that had floated into the room with the man's arrival. He could see the calmness on Liz's face as she walked past the man and put herself between Max and Alex. There was something different here, not only by the dynamics and behavior of the strange man, but also by Liz's behavior. Alex couldn't put his finger on it, but even though the man seemed very hostile, Alex could bet his life on the fact that the man was only hostile in order to protect Liz...from Alex. The thought was ridiculous, but there it was, staring him into the face - literally.

"Max, this is Alex," Liz said waving her hand slightly in Alex's direction. "Alex, this is Max."

Alex watched in fascination as the hostility in Max's eyes diminished. What was up with that man?

"Hi, nice to meet you," Alex said lightly and stretched out his hand towards Max. Max took it, and shook it firmly. But he didn't say a word. 'A true conversationalist, huh?' Alex thought.

"Alex is my best friend," Liz explained. Alex watched as relief spread over Max's features, and then he turned his gaze away from Alex and looked at Liz. Alex relaxed as he was removed out of the focus of attention of those intense eyes. But then he redirected his attention to Liz and Max and got the sudden impression that his presence in the room wasn't any longer noticed. If he didn't know better he would've bet a lot of money that his long lost friend was holding a conversation with this mysterious man using merely her eyes. But Alex knew better. They couldn't do that..right?

"We just met in the supermarket," Liz told Max. "We haven't seen each other in...uhm...what is it Alex? Five years?"

"Six actually," Alex said.

"Really?" Liz said.

Alex nodded in confirmation.

"So...you're okay?" Max asked, and Alex was almost shocked to hear him speak. The deepness of the concern in Max's voice made Alex feel like there was a lot more to their relationship than what he knew. But he was sure to make a serious attempt to try to get as many details out of Liz as possible.

"I'm fine, Max," Liz said with a soft smile. "You wanna stay?"

"Uhm...no," Max answered and pulled back. "I have to go. Isabel is going to start wonder where I am..."

"Right," Liz said. "Say hello to Isabel from me."

"Sure," he said, and once again Alex found himself in the center of the focal point of those intense eyes.

"It was nice meeting you," Max said to him, holding his gaze and Alex could've sworn that Max sternly told him to take care of Liz. He could feel his own head nod in agreement with Max's silent request. Then, as quickly as Max had arrived, he was gone.

Alex felt as if he had been asleep...because the only way he could describe that...meeting... was with two words. Bizarre and surreal. But the softness to Liz's eyes as she turned around after closing the door after Max was what brought him back to reality.

"Okay, spill!"

"What do you mean?" Liz asked, her eyes sparkling.

"Who was that?"

"Max."

"Yeah, that much I know. Is he your boyfriend?"

"No, he's not my boyfriend."

Alex grabbed his heart in feigned relief.

"Gosh Liz!! You gave me quite a scare there!!"

"Would it be so bad if I had a boyfriend?" Liz asked incredulously.

"Shy, passive Elizabeth Parker with a boyfriend? Yeah that would've been something!"

Liz couldn't get angry with him for that comment. She knew that he was making fun of her, but they both knew the truth that lied in those simple playful words. Liz was too private to let just anyone in and having a boyfriend really meant that you had to be willing to share a lot of things about yourself. There was a lot of things about Elizabeth Parker that only she knew. There were unfortunately a lot of things about Elizabeth Parker that no one knew since Liz had decided to 'forget' it...

"No, Alex. I wouldn't want to be responsible for giving you a heart-attack!" she teased.

"Then what's about that whole I'm-protecting-my-female-against-anyone attitude?"

"What?" Liz giggled.

"I'm telling you, Liz. If that man would have been able to kill with his eyes I would have been dead the second he walked through the door. Can we say hostile?!"

"He wasn't hostile," Liz objected. "He's just...concerned."

"Well, that in itself baffles me, Liz," Alex said. "What has he to be concerned about? Has something happened to put you in the need of a bodyguard?"
Liz rolled her eyes at him before making her way to the kitchenette.

"It's nothing, Alex," she said lightly. "I just recently met him-"

"You just meet him?" Alex asked surprised, as he watched Liz pick out a tea pot from one of the cabinets.

"Yeah," Liz said, as if there wasn't anything wrong with that. And there wasn't really anything wrong with that, if it hadn't been for the fact that Max had not really seemed as a man you just happened to meet...

"Well, excuse me Liz for being slightly confused, but you two seem to have known each other for at least...one year."

Liz laughed, thereby brushing it off as something ridiculous. But she forgot that Alex knew her better than anyone else (or he hoped that was still the case, if not that Max now knew more) and he knew that as Liz brushed off something as ridiculous it had hit too closely home to her true feelings and that was her way of dealing with something that was intimidating.

"We've only known each other for about a week...not even that actually," Liz answered.

"Really," Alex said.

"Can we get off the Max subject?" Liz asked, turning her head to look at him. He read her silent plea in her eyes and let the subject drop. It was never a good idea to push Liz too much. She would clamp up like a clam and then it would be completely useless to get anything out of her.

"Sure," he said.

"Thank you. Now, I want to know everything you've been up to these last years!"

"Everything?" Alex asked, arching his eyebrow.

Liz caught his playful grin and a heartfelt giggle escaped her. Alex always seemed to be able to make her laugh and forget about her reality.

"Okay, not in excruciating detail."

"No?" Alex asked innocently.

Liz scrunched her noise. "No, please," she said and tried fervently to stop her mind from going places she wasn't taking it.

"It's actually not that much fun to listen to," Alex confessed. "It will honestly only take me about two minutes to tell you about the last six years of my life."

"Awww, poor Alex," Liz said with her best aww-what-a-cute-doggy voice.

Alex grinned. "Seriously, Liz. Without you in it, always attracting trouble, my life became so much more booooring!!"

"Ah, what are you implying, Mr. Whitman?" Liz asked in mock offense.

Alex wondered for a brief second how many really got to see this carefree side of Elizabeth Parker, before he continued with the playful banter. That was one of the things he had missed the most with the loss of Liz's friendship. She had an ability to understand what he meant and also to understand when he was goofing around and when he wasn't. She didn't take his jokes personally, but she saw them for what they were. Jokes. And he had a feeling they both needed the playful banter right now.

"Remember that incident with that professor?"

Liz's eyes grew big and her mouth fell open. But her eyes sparkled with contained laughter and the corners of her mouth twitched in a contained smile.

"Oh! That was so not me Alex Whitman!!" she said.

Alex looked at her innocently.

"As far as I remember I wasn't the one having a crush on that guy!!"

Liz gasped and then slapped Alex on the shoulder.

"I did not have a crush on him! And it was you who got me into that mess!!"

"You should have seen that professor's face-"

"Oh stop it!" Liz warned, giggles erupting in her throat, putting down the tea pot on the stove.

"-and you could barely show yourself in that lecture hall after that-"

"Alex...," Liz said, the warning note pretty evident in her voice this time as she took a step closer to him.

"I could just picture what was going on in that pretty little head of yours as that shirt clung to his chest-"

And then Alex ducked to narrowly avoid being swatted over the head by Liz's hand.

"You are making this up!" she laughed.

"You wish!" Alex said, unable to contain his own laughter at this point. "And when you stumbled on him and fell with your hands on his chest-"

"Quiet!" Liz demanded, but her demand lost some of its seriousness as she was still laughing. Soon Liz was chasing after Alex, their laughter melting together as they run through the apartment.

TBC...