Everything In This World

By Viv

*~*~ Part Seven ~*~*

"What's this?"

Chloe spun around, surprised enough by the sight of Lex Luthor standing almost on top of her to spill the two lattes that had been precariously balanced on her tray. Giving him a look that would have felled normal human beings, she cursed silently, quickly bending down to mop up the spilled contents. "Is there a rule in the billionaire playboy handbook that says you have to scare the hell out of people?" She snapped.

Lex bent down and retrieved the two empty mugs on the floor. "I don't think it's an actual rule, but I do try to keep up the practice." Grinning suggestively at her, he placed the mugs onto the tray in her outstretched hand, "And you know, practice makes perfect."

Chloe smiled tightly despite feeling strangely flustered, not deigning to make a reply. Although Lex Luthor was the richest and most powerful person she had ever met, and probably would ever meet, it didn't give him the right to scare the living bejesus out of someone and then turn on some sort of weird bald playboy pseudo-charm, whether that said someone was an incompetent waitress or not.

Noting her infuriated silence, he smiled charmingly at her, and in the best conciliatory tone he could muster he asked politely, "So what brings you to the Talon tonight Chloe? I thought you liked drinking coffee, not serving it."

Chloe straightened up to her full though not very substantial height and stiffly informed him, "Everyone called in sick at the last minute, so I decided to help Lana out." Inwardly Chloe cursed at the lameness of her comeback, which when viewed objectively seconds later was not, in fact, a comeback at all but a lame answer to an equally lame question. Which made her feel slightly better, although why Chloe was feeling this flustered she could not fathom.

He eyed her apron and her tousled hair. "Busy night I take it?"

Immediately her hands flew to her hair, running a careful hand through her blonde locks. "Yeah." She eyed him back, taking in the way his metallic grey silk shirt, tailored pants and black suede jacket contrasted with the pale smoothness of his marble-like skin. She cleared her throat self-consciously. "So what are you doing here so late?"

He chuckled, and Chloe had to stifle the urge to force feed a gallon of the horrible coffee she had made tonight up his nose. "I just came in to get a coffee." His eyes sparkled in the dim light as he continued, "Besides, given that I did put up the funds for this place, is it so surprising that I'd be here?"

Chloe blinked owlishly at him, her mind suddenly envisioning a few more unique ways for Lex Luthor to die a horrible, preferably un-graceful death.

She swallowed. "If you're looking for Clark, he's over there with Lana." She paused, tucking a stray wisp of hair behind her ear. "And if you're looking for Lana, she's about to close up the counter." She jerked her head in that direction, only to find Lex's gaze trained on her.

Lex's eyes narrowed in surprise at her mention of Clark. Chloe thought he looked secretly pleased, although she could not for the life of her imagine why that would be the case. "So you and Clark are speaking again?" he asked, although to Chloe it came across more rhetorical than not.

"Uh, yeah." She replied, suddenly feeling every inch the awkward school girl. Which she was not, because that would have been decidedly too un-Chloe like for her mind to deal with. She didn't know why Lex's presence made her feel so unsettled.

"Good." Chloe was surprised to see him smile warmly down at her. It was a very different smile from the smug one he had used on her earlier, and very different to all the other smiles she had seen him wear before. This one seemed different because it looked so genuine ... it felt so genuine, like he was smiling from his heart.

She snatched her mind back from contemplating the exact nature of Lex's smiles, and asked curiously, "Wait a minute - why are you so happy that Clark and I are talking again?"

Lex put an arm around her tiny shoulders, much in the way that an older brother might, which infuriated Chloe for no reason at all. "Clark's my friend, and he's been miserable the past few months because you wouldn't talk to him. And I - as both your friends - am happy to know that you two have managed to work it out." He paused. "Even though I knew you weren't exactly friendless." He gestured meaningfully in the general direction of Lana.

Her brows flew heavenwards as she tried to dislodge his arm. "Is there anything you don't know?" She asked, wondering why he was keeping such a tight grip on her.

He stared intently down at her, and Chloe had to stifle the urge to shuffle her feet on the spot. Long seconds dragged by while he seemed to be measuring his response. Chloe blinked rapidly, trying to dislodge the sensation of thousand butterflies swimming around in her stomach. She had officially entered the Twilight Zone, she thought, as she looked up at Lex scant inches away from her face.

She would have laughed if not for the surrealness of it. She was staring up at Lex Luthor, billionaire playboy extraordinaire, like he was some fascinating plaything (one who admittedly annoyed the hell out of her), while he seemed to be channelling all his energies into trying to read her soul. Chloe shivered slightly. Yep, definitely the Twilight Zone.

After what seemed like a million years to Chloe, but was in actuality probably only a few seconds, he said quietly, "There's plenty that I don't know."

There was nothing Chloe could say to that, so she didn't even try. A part of her bemused mind wondered whether she was dreaming, although to dream about Lex Luthor staring at her the way he was staring at her seemed a tad too incredible to be believed - even if it was her mind, the craziness that had spawned the Wall of Weird.

The moment was shattered when Chloe heard Clark cheerfully greet Lex, making his way over to where they stood. Lex's arm was still wrapped around Chloe's shoulder, although his hold had shifted slightly from intense to playful.

"Lex." Clark greeted them, his infectious grin dampening slightly as he saw Lex's arm still slung around Chloe.

"Clark." Lex smiled back, pretending to ignore Clark's close scrutiny of him.

Noting Clark's increasingly suspicious expression, Chloe shoved Lex's arm off her shoulders and smiled sweetly at him, inexplicably annoyed at his behaviour. "As much as I loved our little chat," her voice dripped with false sweetness, "I really need to get back to serving coffee. You know, that little thing known as 'working'." Satisfied with herself that she had at least mustered enough sarcasm to muzzle Lex's smugness for a little while, she haughtily walked off, conscious of the dual stares from Clark and Lex boring into her back behind her.

Chloe went back to the counter to refill the mugs of coffee that she had spilled earlier. Still feeling slightly off-balance, she was conscious of Lana as she sidled up to her side, clutching her record keeping book against her chest. She frowned in irritation.

"What?" She asked her unceremoniously, eyeing Lana suspiciously.

"Nothing." Lana smiled innocently, with all the sincerity of an apple. "Just noticed your cosy little chat with Lex just then."

"It was *not* cosy." Chloe exploded. "If you must know, he was successfully annoying the hell out of me."

"Really?" Lana didn't seem to believe her, and Chloe had to admit that she didn't sound all that convinced herself. "Didn't look that way to me."

Chloe bit back her irritation. She wasn't used to talking to Lana about anything guy related, or talking to anyone about anything guy related for that matter. Her entire existence growing up had been dominated by Clark and Pete, and one didn't talk about guys when one's best friends were guys. She and Lana had talked about a lot of things during the past few months, but they had carefully stayed away from anything that could possibly be construed as male-related, since male-related topics would inevitably lead to Clark which would pretty much lead to badness on the scale somewhere north of a national disaster. The feeling was strange and new. "Well, it was. Not cosy that is. And don't even *think* what you're thinking right now."

Lana's eyes twinkled with what Chloe suspected as mischievousness. "What am I thinking right now?" The ex-cheerleader asked slyly.

If Chloe didn't know Lana as well as she did, she would have been surprised by the open delight that Lana took in putting Chloe through this excruciating torture. It had taken a few months for Lana's playful side to come out, but once out ... Chloe sometimes regretted her penchant for straight-and-forward honesty and her determination to see people's true personalities come out.

Chloe huffed, flustered enough so that all she could muster were a few inarticulate strangling noises. "Oh ... bite me." She spluttered, as she walked away to serve waiting customers.

Lana giggled uncontrollably in her wake.

(c) July 2002