Lara checked her reflection in the silver sports car's rear view mirror. She studied her calm features and once she was satisfied that she looked fine, she got out of her car and looked up at Alex's new house. The house was right on the outskirts of the School Of Tomb Raiding campus. The building was a major step up from his pervious bachelor apartment, which was cramped and always seemed to be messy. Lara breathed deeply, then gathered up her skirt and carefully walked to the front door. She knocked, softly as she looked over her new high heels. They were extremely painful, yet looked classic on her feet.
Alex finally answered the door. Lara opened her mouth to say something, but stopped short when she saw what Alex was wearing. He was clad in a pair of faded jeans and a white button-down shirt that was unbuttoned to his waist, leaving the shirt open and his well sculpted chest in perfect view.
Damn him! Lara mentally swore. Just when she thought she would finally have an edge over him and she wouldn't feel so damn awkward around him, he suddenly does something to place her right back where she started from. Just stay calm. Lara reminded herself. Being smooth only means appearing smooth on the outside.
"Hello, gorgeous." Alex smirked at his dinner guest. "Come on in." He said, opening the front door wider and admitting the tomb raider into his home. "Might I take your coat?" He asked, eyeing the swelling cleavage that was displayed from the dress's neckline. Lara flushed red when she saw where his line of sight was. She wanted to leave immediately, but managed to calmly slip out of the light jacket she was wearing and hand it to Alex. Breathe. . . She instructed herself.
"My, my, my." Alex said, happily noting the dress's cut in the back. "I'm flattered, Lara." He murmured, running a hand down her spine. The actions sent violent warning signals through her head.
She roughly caught Alex's wrist and glared at him. "I'm not making an offer." She snapped. "Furthermore, I did not come here to be manhandled by you."
"Really?" Alex asked, freeing himself from her grip and placing her jacket into the hall closet. "Where do you usually go?" He asked.
"I don't want to argue with you." Lara said, flatly. She felt suddenly self conscious and rather strange to be parted with her jacket. She avoided Alex's gaze as he looked her over.
"You'd probably lose anyways." He said. "Well, come along, dinner is getting cold." He lead her through a rather elegant sitting room, into a formal dinning room. The room was quite large and with a finely crafted oak table and a setting for two. Lara observed her surroundings, with a careful eye.
"I'm impressed Alex." She finally said. "You can actually see the floor in here."
"This is going to be a fun date. . ." Alex smiled.
Lara glanced at the cuisine that was set out on the table. A dish of beef lo mein, a dish of sweet and sour chicken, beef with broccoli and even a bowl of egg drop soup.
"Tops China?" Lara asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Tin Lee's Chinese Take Out Palace, actually." Alex smirked. "I was going to cook for you, myself. But the day was a little longer than I thought it was going to be and I was too exhausted to cook."
"Or change." Lara said, looking over his outfit.
"I'm sure you can find it in your heart to forgive me." He said, then gestured to a chair. "Please have a seat, mi amor."
"I didn't know you spoke Spanish." Lara said, take in her seat in perfect lady-like fashion.
"That was Spanish?" Alex asked. "I thought it was French." He shrugged. "Must have seen it in a movie somewhere. Anyways, I'll go grab the champagne. You can start eating if you want." He said. Alex suddenly leaned over and pressed a kiss to her lips. Before Lara could react, he ducked towards the kitchen and made it past the kitchen door, unharmed.
Lara shook her head free of the thoughts of Alex and took a plate from the end of the table. She began to pile it high with Chinese food, completely ignoring her regular diet. A Chinese food splurge seemed in order.
"So, Lady Croft." Alex said, walking out of the kitchen, holding two crystal champagne glasses and a bottle of very expensive champagne. "How was the drive down here?" He asked, setting the glasses onto the table and filling each half way with the alcohol.
"I didn't come here to make small talk." Lara responded, ladling herself a small bowl of egg drop soup.
"Fair enough." Alex shrugged, handing Lara a glass. She took the glass from him and gave him a level look.
"Hmm, what should we drink to?" Alex asked, sliding into the seat beside Lara.
"To this date being as short as possible." Lara said. She clinked her glass with his and drained the cup as if it had been a shot glass.
"Planning on getting drunk are we, Lady Croft?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.
Lara squeezed her eyes shut and bit back an expression of disgust at the drink. "Well, Mr. West, your company is much easier to take when one is not sober." She explained.
"Well, don't drink too much, honey. I still want to talk to you and it's going to be a little hard to get a decent conversation out of you if you're drunk." Alex told her as he began to select his meal from the spread on the table.
"Hm, what do you want to talk about?" Lara asked, returning her attention to the food on her plate.
"My school."
"What about it?"
"Lara, if you would have ever actually gone to the school, instead of just running it into the ground, then you would have known that we're getting short on funding. My bank account is exhausted, and the sponsors that we have managed to get are getting scared. Especially since you foiled the top student's first mission, which would have probably gotten us tons more sponsorships."
"Yes, however, your school is none of my concern."
"Well, if things keep going the way that they have and you keep interfering with the student's missions, then you won't have anything to worry about, because the school will be bankrupt in under two months.
"That is still none of my concern."
"You're SUCH a humanitarian, Lara." Alex said, disdainfully.
"Alex, get to the point." Lara snapped.
"Alright, my point is, that if you were to, oh say, promote the school for a little while, nothing major, but may teach a class or two, then the sponsors we have still be happy and maybe some new ones will invest in the school."
"So you want me to train them so you can send them to their deaths?"
Alex groaned in frustration. "Listen to me, Lara, kids are going to Tomb Raider, with or without this school. If you keep up with the news, you'd know that just last week a group of Egyptian teenagers wandered into a tomb and were all killed by one of the booby traps. Now, since nothing can stop kids from tomb raiding, wouldn't you prefer that they had some training."
Lara nibbled on a large piece of broccoli that she had speared on her fork and thought for several seconds. Alex had presented a valid point. Lara hated when he did that.
"Well?" Alex asked, hopefully. "Will you at least tour the school and think about it?"
"No. I'm not convinced. Keep talking, Alex."
"You're impossible."
"Yes, I know." She shrugged. "By the by, there's something that I've been wondering."
"What?"
"Where did you get the money to start the school? It must have been very expensive and I don't think that even your bank account could have accommodated it."
"Long story." He responded, taking a sip of his champagne.
"I have all night." Lara commented.
"Look, I'd rather not talk about it. It's a little personal."
"Do you want me to tour your school or not?"
"Alright. Fine." Alex bit out. He said nothing and took another sip from his champagne glass, he appeared to be staring off into space.
"Well?" Lara asked. Her voice brought Alex back to reality.
"It was the money that my ex-wife left me." He finally said.
"You were married?" Lara asked, surprised.
"Yes. Once, when I was young and stupid."
"As opposed to you being old and stupid?" Lara asked.
"Do you want to hear this?"
"Fine. I apologize, now, please continue."
"It's not very interesting Lara. . ."
"Tell me anyways."
"Alright, have it your way. We met in college, fell in love, married right after we graduated, we moved to upstate New York and settled down. We lived together for about a whole year without any big problems."
"What broke up the marital bliss?"
"Well, my wife decided that she wanted to have a baby. I said that I wasn't ready for one yet and suggested that we wait a few more years until we were ready and financially stable and then have a baby. But she wanted one that second and she went behind my back and stopped taking her birth control. Then, a few months later she told me that she was already two months pregnant. I was furious, we had a huge fight and I ended up moving out for a month. She couldn't handle it at all and she ended up miscarrying. The doctor said it was due to extreme stress, so she blamed the bulk of the situation on me. Which was right, to a certain extent. Anyways, we went to counseling and whatnot, thought it would help. It actually kinda tore us further apart. So we filed for divorce and I moved to England."
"Then what happened?"
"She regretted the divorce after about a month and she would call me, bawling her eyes out asking me to come back. I gently told her 'no'. Then about two years after the divorce, I went to go visit her, out of some morbid curiosity."
"What was the visit like?"
"Well, she still had all our old pictures up, my rec room looked exactly the same and she even bought clothes in my size to fill my side of the closet. It was scary. Well, getting back to the point. About four years ago she committed suicide. It was on the anniversary of the day she miscarried. But her suicide note also seemed to legally double as a will and she left everything that she owned to me. As I found out, she had a secret bank account that she had opened before we were married which had more than enough money. Then I was able to start work on the school."
"So you've been planning this school for years? You never mentioned anything about it to me."
"I know, I was always working on it, but I wanted it to be a surprise for you, since I thought we were going to remain partners. But then there was the business with the prayer wheel and I wasn't sure if I was still going to go through with the idea, but by then it was too late to call it all off."
"And you don't regret opening the school?"
"Nope. I haven't been this happy in years. I've always liked teaching, I just wanted to be better paid than your average high school schmuck."
"Lovely." Lara commented.
"Hey Lara? Have you ever been married before?"
"No."
"I assume that you've been asked before."
"Well, yes. By you, for one."
Alex nodded. "How come you've never said yes?"
Lara shrugged. "I've never felt that someone was asking for my hand in marriage because they cared about me. I always get the feeling that men are only attracted to my money and my social position."
"Well, money and power are a turn on. But don't sell yourself short, honey, you have really nice tits."
Lara turned pink and glared at Alex. "Is THAT why you proposed to me?"
"Part of the reason, if you want me to be brutally honest." Alex admitted. "But I also proposed to you because you're a wonderful, intellectually stimulating woman who I could love for all eternity."
"Hmm. . ." Lara gazed at him for a second, remembering that night and his hasty, badly articulated, proposal.
"Still with me, baby?"
"Don't call me 'baby'."
"Yes, darling."
"Don't call me that either."
"Of course, my lovely fire kitten."
"Alex, I'm not your anything." Lara reminded him.
"I know." Alex shrugged. "But I can dream, can't I?"
Lara shook her head.
"Anyways, we got off track, let me finish making my point about the school." Alex said, leaning closer to her. "If you could maybe, donate some money or sit in on a class or even teach a class, if you feel up to it. It would get me enough sponsors to keep the school running for a little while longer. Hopefully, until I can figure out a way to save the school. But, in the very least, could you leave the kids to their missions and not interfere with them?"
Lara sat back in her chair and thought. "Well, I don't know."
"You don't have to decide now, Lara. In fact, if you want to stay the night, I can give you a full tour in the morning. You can meet the kids, sit in on the classes check out the assault courses and the training grounds. You can even eat in the cafeteria. Then you can see how this place is run."
"Hold on." Lara told him. "Stay the night here? Here? With you?"
"I didn't mean that, Lara. Give me a little credit."
"For what?"
"Come on, when we were partners we slept side-by-side in ancient caves for months on end and I always minded my manors."
"Mostly because I slept with my hand on an automatic weapon."
"Well, there was that. But come on, you have my word. I'll be a total gentlemen. Besides, would I sexually assault you if I'm trying to get you to help me? It's in my best interest to keep you happy." He winked at her. "You're my new best friend."
"Well, I suppose. However, you have forgotten one keep detail in this conversation."
"What's that?"
"The Eye of Odin."
"I was just coming to that, Lara. Now, I have the Eye all nice and safe and I'll return it to you if you tour the school and keep an open mind. You don't have to give me any money or any help. Just tour the school."
"Just tour the school? That's it?" Lara asked, waiting for a hidden stipulation.
"That's it."
"You have to admit, that's too simple."
Alex blinked. "Well, I could hide the Eye somewhere on my body and have you search for it, if you want it to be a little more complicated." He smiled, wickedly.
"Er, I take it back."
"Oh wait, I know. We just built a new assault course. So far, no one, not even me, has been able to compete it. If you complete it, then I'll return the Eye. If not, it'll be the first donation to the school's private collection."
"What is this course like?"
"Well, there's swinging blades that can slice you in half, pyrotechnics, real fire, trap doors, breakable slabs, razor-sharp spikes, flying targets and the entire course is thirty feet above the ground, with no nice little landing pad if you fall off."
"Hmm, well. It might do." Lara said, mentally sizing up the course.
"Anything to satisfy." Alex smiled. "So, are you going to stay the night?"
"Yes. I will. And tomorrow I'll tour the school, beat your assault course and get the Eye back."
"Great." Alex smiled.
"Oh, Alex?" Lara asked, sliding closer to him and placing her hand on his thigh. "I still sleep with my hand on an automatic weapon." Lara then removed her hand from Alex's thigh and got up from the table.
"Yes, baby."