CHAPTER TWO

Disclaimers in Chapter One

"Lex, darling, could you please hold these for me?  I'm dying to get those bangles I saw on the window at Tiffany's earlier," Helen Bryce drawled, handing over a platoon of shopping bags to her fiancée.

Lex looked at her incredulously, but he eventually resigned to grab the bags and place it on the bench next to him. 

Shopping wasn't exactly his thing, but this morning, Helen was insistent that he came along.  "Couple bonding exercise" was how she referred to it.  Yet, Lex felt no bonding from this experience at all.

Worse, he actually felt relief as he watched his fiancée walk away to another store.  Honestly, Lex could not figure out why he was still in this relationship.  If it were any other of his relationships before, he would hardly hesitate to break the wedding off.  Perhaps, the fact that the doctor had managed to finagle herself this far made things harder for him to call the whole thing off.

"A penny for your thoughts," a voice behind him said teasingly. 

With a deer in the headlight look on his face, Lex immediately turned around and shook the expression off.  "Miss Sullivan," he replied.  "Fancy meeting you here."

"Well, if I guess correctly, looks like we share a similar fate," she smiled as she walked around to face him.  "Lana dragged me here for a shopping-slash-bonding experience.  Funny how little bonding this activity actually provides."

Lex grinned, moving some of Helen's bags to make room.  "Agreed," he told her.  "I prefer a nice conversation over a cup of java."

"Absolutely," Chloe beamed as she sat down next to him.  "Nothing like caffeine to bring folks closer together.  So I take that Dr. Bryce is somewhere around here, making use of the Luthor fortune?"

"One could put it that way," Lex rolled his eyes.  "Let's just say that nothing shuts her up faster than free rein on my credit cards."

Chloe frowned at the thought.  "That hardly sounds romantic," she protested.  "You sure you know what you're getting into, Lex?"

The billionaire was surprised at her sincere concern.  "I don't know," he honestly replied.

"Well, just be careful, okay?" she added.  "You don't exactly have the best record with women."

Lex mock-glared at her.  "I should take offense to that," he joked.  "Though I know that you're in the same boat when it comes to men!"

"Hey!" Chloe exclaimed.  "Okay, okay, how about we call it a truce?"  She held her hand out to him.

Lex was about to take it when a wave of nausea came over him.  In a fast second, everything turned black, and Lex crumbled to the floor.

"Ohmigod," Chloe screamed.  "Lex!"