"Ten Days Wonder" - Seven.
Thanks to everyone who has been reading and leaving comments! I'm so glad you're enjoying this story. When I started writing it, I had NO idea that they would actually start teasing us with Rex/Adriana on the show. Aren't John-Paul and Melissa GREAT together?
Well. So. River knew what he was up to. Or...he thought he knew. Which was probably worse.
Rex had calculated the time it would take to chase the kid down and beat the living hell out of him...and then he'd realized that punching River in the face wouldn't change anything. He would still be the asshole. He would still be the guy who'd deliberately set out to con Adriana just because he could. Except with bruised knuckles.
So, some forty-five minutes later, he was still sitting against the bar, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Kind of cheerfully, actually, seeing as he was on his third gin and tonic.
That was when he heard the sirens in the distance. Growing closer. Not police sirens, but the foghorn echo of fire trucks.
He wasn't completely stupid, not nearly drunk enough. And he knew his luck.
Not only that, he knew Roxy.
When he came out the back door, into the alley, he could see the thick columns of smoke rising from the neighborhood a few blocks away.
Something in Angel Square was burning.
By the time he got to the statue in the park, he could see it wasn't Foxy Roxy's. No. It was worse. The Community Center. People were running every which way. Blair Cramer was sobbing, repeating something over and over about Starr being inside. Starr...Adriana's cousin Starr.
"Mom...Mom, what the Hell have you done?" he muttered, trying to stay standing despite the sudden urge to pass out. Had Natty noticed the bright red, totally obvious, gas cans at the salon? Had Roxy moved them? Had Barry set fire to the wrong place figuring insurance money was insurance money?
He stumbled, lowering his head and trying to take deep breaths. Since the air was filling with ashes, all he succeeded in doing was coughing. Should he call 911? No...no, that would be stupid...the fire engines were all ready there. "Shitshitshit," he hissed, dragging both hands through his hair. He wheeled around, heading away from the fire, back towards the club. "Shit!"
The voice caught up to him, and then the hand. "Rex...?"
She'd seen the flames from the diner, coming out to see what was happening as Rex stormed past in a blur of blond and blue. "Rex, are you okay?" she wondered, as he stopped, glanced back at her like he almost didn't recognize her.
"What?" The haze seemed to lift a little from his eyes. "Adriana. Why...why are you here?" Why was she talking to him? When he asked her that, she simply looked at him like he was crazy.
"Rex, the community center is on fire. Are you hurt?"
"No...no, I'm not hurt...and you shouldn't care..." He threw off her arm and kept going...all the way back to Ultra-Violet. The fire would be out soon. You could count on the Llanview fire squad and the cops. They'd be heroes. No big deal.
She struggled to keep up with him, following him into the depths of the club, ignoring the banishment rule once again. "Rex...I don't understand ... what's wrong?"
It had been almost an entire day since they'd seen one another. She'd slept in after the ice cream talk with David and then gone over to the diner to work on one of her summer reading assignments and help out her madrina during the evening shift.
Had so much really changed since the last time they spoke? Since he'd woken her up inside with just the touch of his hand?
"'What's wrong'?" Rex echoed, picking up his neglected fourth cocktail and taking a healthy swig. "You mean...besides my entire life going up in smoke? And River running off to you and telling you what a mean, bad, man I am?"
Adriana wasn't entirely sure that something hadn't happened. Maybe he'd fallen and hit his head? "River?" she wondered, speaking slowly, as if he was a child. "What do you mean about River?"
"Oh, don't play innocent with me!" he cried, slamming down the glass. "Wait...you're not playing," he corrected himself. "You really are this innocent. And I'm the jerk who tried to take advantage of you. I get it. Really. Got the message loud and clear. The plan to grab your trust fund is officially canceled."
The moment he said it, he knew.
He wasn't completely stupid, not nearly drunk enough. He knew his luck. And he knew her eyes.
River hadn't had the time to get to her.
"You wanted my money?" she repeated, confused. And then not confused. It... it made sense. It did. Why would someone like Rex be so kind to her? Right? Men like him wanted women like Lindsey Rappaport, like her daughter Jen. Not naive schoolgirls. Of course. She had nothing else to offer him. "River was right, wasn't he? All you've wanted all along..."
No. Rex shook his head, violently. "No. No, that's not all..." he started, reaching out to her, trying to make her understand. "Adriana, it's more than that. Let me explain..." He didn't know how, but he had to...
She shrugged away his hand, interrupting, "Oh, claro que si...of course that's not all!" Her fingers trembled as she worked the buttons of her blouse. "You want this, too, right? Isn't that what you told me the first time we met? That all guys are after one thing?" Her bra came unhooked easily. She tossed both items at his feet and stood bare in front of him, daring him, "Well, take it, Rex ...take it. It's yours."
"I...please...Baby..." He closed his eyes. He wasn't going to look. He couldn't.
"Don't 'Baby' me!" she yelped, as the tears filled her eyes. And some of the anger turned to shame. She crossed her arms over her chest, tried to cover herself. "I'm not your 'Baby'...I'm not even your friend."
"That's not true! You have no idea what you are to me." And he had no idea either. He couldn't put it into words if he tried.
"See...you don't even want me." She felt so utterly stupid thinking that, somehow, Rex could have started to care for her the way she'd begun to care for him. Thinking that one conversation in a bar could be the beginning of anything special. "I should have known...I'm not blond, I'm not mature ...I'm not pretty..."
"You're beautiful," he whispered, cutting her off. Looking. Seeing. Swallowing his tongue. It tasted like gin...and the promise of Hell. "You're drop-dead gorgeous."
"Prove it, then," she asked, echoing that challenge that seemed like so long ago. Echoing...but leaving out one word. The word that didn't apply. "Prove to me your story is worth it."
He started by picking up her discarded clothes and closing the space between them. "Here." And as she clutched her things, he took her face in his hands and kissed the top of her head. "I am so sorry, Adriana. So...sorry."
"Not sorry enough. I'm not convinced." And she gave in to the impulse that had been haunting her for days. Possibly since they first met. Maybe even long before. She licked his jaw, tasted the tart-salt of his skin, the hint of liquor at the corner of his mouth. And then she kissed him.
It was better than her madrina's flan.
He tried to stand still. He tried not to register the softness of her breasts pressing against him or way her lips moved, so butterfly light, along the side of his face. Her kiss was something he couldn't ignore. Not something apologetic and platonic. Her mouth was sweet and sharp and bold. Not innocent. Not naive at all.
Oh, Man. Maybe he was the one who'd been conned.
Maybe he was the easy mark.
He gasped her name, wanting desperately to say something... to kiss her back...to drink from the Holy Grail.
"Adriana? Adriana, are you here...?"
The kiss was the most painfully amazing thing he'd ever felt in his life. The arms pulling him off of her and the fist flying into his face...? Was just painful.
"Antonio! Stop!" Adriana cried, struggling into her bra and shirt as he got up off the floor, rubbing his jaw. "Por favor..."
Oh, great, he thought, as she and her cousin went off arguing, rapidly, in Spanish. Wonderful. River had called the cops. And not just any cops, but the most law-abiding boys in town. Vega and McBain. 'Law-abiding' meaning they were going to pretend they were concerned civilians when they broke his legs.
"Rex Balsom...you're under arrest for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, on suspicion of statutory rape."
"While you're at it, ask me about being an accessory to arson before the fact," he murmured, wearily.
The cuffs were slapped on, none-too-gently.
"Duly noted, Mr. Balsom. Thank you for being so helpful." John McBain was not amused, just sarcastic. No wonder he and Natalie couldn't hook up. "However, in case you forgot, you do have the right to remain silent..." and as he continued to rattle off the Miranda rights, Rex tuned him out, staring across the room at where Adriana was frantically gesturing as she spoke to Antonio.
What was she saying? "Lock him up and throw away the key?"
She'd buttoned her blouse unevenly. She knew that. Her haste to put it on had been clumsier than her haste to remove it. But Antonio kept his eyes averted as he used words like "cabron" and "chingada" and "mierda", things his mami would never want him saying in front of her.
"Please," she urged again, in English, "please 'Tonio, it's not what you think."
"It doesn't matter what I think or what you think. You're sixteen," he reminded, voice as cold with anger as his eyes were hot. "You're sixteen and Balsom is scum."
"I thought I was in love with the prettiest girl in Michigan. Of course ...she wouldn't give it up...so I 'fell in love' with somebody who would...Got news for you, Babe. All guys are like that."
She couldn't disagree, could she? Rex was scum. He'd admitted as much himself. He'd only spoken to her at Ultra-Violet out of courtesy and then greed.
But had he danced with her out of greed?
Had he laughed, pretending the last spoonful of flan was an airplane and her mouth the hangar, out of courtesy?
She glanced over to where John was finishing up his arrest, caught Rex's gaze. There was no answer there. No acknowledgment. Simply resignation.
"All right," she told Antonio. "Fine. Take him."
Out of hope.