One week after what Chloe liked to refer to as The Incident, and things were still somewhat weird between her, Lois, and Clark. She hadn't seen them for a couple of days after the coitus interruptus, and that gave her some time to work out how to handle it when she did see the couple. Everyone had acted the way that she had thought that they would: with Clark apologizing and falling all over himself trying to be nice to her, and Lois acting like nothing unusual had happened but also being unusually nice to Chloe.
Chloe had likewise acted like there was nothing to apologize for, and pretended that everyone walking on eggshells around her was the way that they always treated her. She surprised herself by actually being okay with Clark and Lois being an item once the initial shock had worn off. There was an occasional twinge of jealousy that shook her when she saw them looking at each other the way that only lovers did, or when they played air hockey and Clark let Lois win. For the most part, however, Chloe felt like she was practically all the way back to the normal schedule of life.
Except that Clark still acted all twitchy when Lois and Chloe were in the same room, like suddenly they might leap at each other and fight to the death over him. It made her annoyed and she usually left the office when he began to act that way. It was ridiculous, things were civil between the cousins like they had always been, and even someone as extraordinary as Clark wasn't going to change that.
Chloe had never gotten a chance to show them how she had done with the article on Luthorcorp, but the editor, Perry White, had seen it and demanded that she cover the Luthorcorp conferences from then on. Clark, who had done that up until her break-through article, was actually relieved since he hated writing about business as it was all pretty much over his head. He went over to following the college football stories and the actions of the newest costumed vigilante in town.
Which was partly in fault to the way that she bumped into Lex during her attempt to get information about another, completely non-Luthorcorp article that she was working on. If Clark had been the one doing the gruntwork on Luthorcorp stories, he would have seen Lex, glared at him, and been on his way without a single passing word.
That was another way that Chloe and Clark were different. Clark always assumed that there would be a bigger story than the one that he didn't want to do, while Chloe would risk her life for the mere mention of a first page article.
She had been at one of the loudest night clubs in the city, tracking down a wily informant that had offered to tell her about a big drug ring slowly taking over the streets of Metropolis. She was more accustomed to the dark city jungle that was her home that most at the Daily Planet who had lived here all their lives.
Chloe had sat at a corner table under a black light for an hour, impatiently waiting. Her informant wasn't going to show, so she had decided to leave. She negotiated her way through the crowd on the dance floor, thinking that next time she would wear more of a no-nonsense outfit that wouldn't be getting so many looks from the drunken pervs littering the club. She was almost out the door when she accidentally knocked a man into the bar in her hurry to get out and try to salvage her night.
She winced, automatically saying, "Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going." She would have kept going, cursing herself for being so clumsy if the man hadn't called out her name uncertainly.
"Chloe?" She knew the owner of the voice instantly, not even having to fish through her memories to puzzle it out. She had heard it often enough, at the press conferences that he gave, on CNN, in recollections of the good old days in Smallville. Lex.
Chloe stopped, staring at him. He looked the same as when she had last seen him, maybe a few days ago, maybe more informal with no tie and suit. She was suddenly very aware of how she must have looked to him, with her short plaid skirt, low-cut red blouse and high heels. This was practically a first impression she was making on him, since he probably never really saw her amidst the hordes of other reporters when she was firing questions at him over a notepad and pen.
"Lex? Wow…I wasn't expecting to see you here," she said, laughing uncomfortably and wondering if he could hear her over the blaring music.
As if in accordance to her thoughts, a sluggish rock song began playing, volume turned down as couples paired up and slowdanced in the center of the club.
He smirked, raising an eyebrow at her. "I'm offended, Ms. Sullivan. Since you seem so determined to drag Luthorcorp through the dirt, I assumed that you were watching my every movement to further bring me down. "
She rolled her eyes, inwardly chiding herself at thinking that he didn't notice her at all. Of course, he would know what she was doing; he probably read every article that even slightly mentioned him or his company. "Cut it out, Lex," she snapped, "I'm more offended than you are since you seem to think that it would be perfectly natural for me to stalk you and I am making no such assumptions. And I suggest that you stop calling me by my last name or I'll have to revert to reporter mode and start calling you by yours."
She had startled him, though he scrambled like hell to try to cover that up with a chuckle. He leaned against the bar she had shoved him into a minute before and responded calmly enough. "You're not in reporter mode right now? Funny how I hadn't noticed a difference."
"If I was in reporter mode, I'd be throwing a million questions at you about why you're putting thousands of people out of jobs and how Lana's doing and why aren't you married yet, but since I'm settling for trying to leave the club in peace, that mode is sleeping. That's the difference." Chloe was actually about to head for the door again when she saw the way that his face clouded at the mention of Lana's name. The way that he looked would have scared most people away even faster, but she had seen and been victim to much scarier things than an angry Lex Luthor.
"…Is everything okay?" Chloe asked slowly, not sure if it was any of her business but sure that she wished that someone would have asked her that after seeing Clark and Lois use a desk as a bed.
Lex glanced at her, surprised that she hadn't left at his silence. "What, don't you talk to Lana anymore?" She hadn't spoken to Lana in over a year, and even then, it was only for a few minutes. Lana Lang behaved differently when she was with Lex, like she was sad about life in general and couldn't be bothered to be happy again. Clark had always wondered why she didn't leave Lex, while Chloe wondered if Lex had noticed the change in Lana.
When Chloe shook her head, he shrugged and took a sip of the beer that he had been holding. She had thought it was weird to see him with the drink since he had always seemed above beer, more inclined towards a scotch by himself than with a few beers with friends.
"She left me. For Pete," he said shortly, not offering any more of an explanation than that and Chloe not expecting one.
She was speechless. Chloe hadn't seen Pete in months, and hadn't heard much from him about any feelings he might have for Lana besides an innocent inquiry into how she was doing. Lex was watching her for a reaction, and she forced herself to speak. "I'm sorry. How are you doing?"
He raised an eyebrow at her again, giving her a look like she was the biggest moron on the face of the planet. "I feel like shit constantly, I'm always thinking about her, and I can't get to sleep at nights so I go to crappy little nightclubs and drink by myself. How did you think that I'd be doing?"
Chloe felt bad for him, but she knew that he didn't want her pity and she didn't like getting snotty answers from someone that she was supposed to hate, even if his heart was broken right now. "I don't know, I don't think that I've ever been in your situation," she said as honestly as possible, "I'm sorry if I intruded on your lonely drinking time, I'll just be going home now." It took a lot of effort not to smack him upside the head for talking to her like that, but she didn't. All that she wanted was to leave, and since all that Lex had said to her wasn't worth much unless you were his friend or a gossip columnist (and she was neither), she may as well go.
She walked away without looking behind her, and didn't notice that Lex had followed her out until she was crossing the doorway out onto the sidewalk. He was just strolling alongside her, matching her strides evenly, just as if they were two friends taking a walk together. Chloe stopped and glared at him, trying to figure out what he was up to before she asked him, "What do you think that you're doing?"
Lex stopped too, smirking again as if he hadn't been telling her how much his life sucked less than five minutes ago. " I wanted to apoligize for being such an asshole and offer to drive you home. Do you have a problem with that?"
"Yes, I do. I live not too far from here, and it would be completely stupid to have you drive me four blocks. Besides, even if I lived way on the other side of town, I would not accept a ride from you." Chloe was striving for her tone to be firm, cool, and logical. Instead it came out like she was making excuses for herself.
"Uh huh," Lex said, sounding amused. "May I ask why you would never get into a car with me?"
She wasn't sure if she should answer that. Chloe thought about it for a while and decided to throw back, "I don't trust you."
"Uh huh," he repeated, smirking more than ever and wanting to laugh at her, "And what does that have to do with you not wanting me to give you a ride?"
For lack of a decent answer, Chloe began walking again, her heels making quiet clicking sounds against the pavement. Lex walked side by side with her, and she still didn't speak.
Her frustrated silence did nothing to annoy Lex, or if it did, he didn't show it. "Since you're ignoring me, I'll have to guess why you don't trust me, right?"
Chloe still remained silent and stared straight ahead of her as if he wasn't there.
"Is it because…I'm a Luthor?" Lex guessed randomly, knowing as soon as he said it that it wasn't right. Maybe that was why other people didn't trust him, but Chloe usually wasn't that prejusticed.
Despite that, his guess either hit a mark or she got fed up with the "game". Chloe spun around and yelled at him, "Lex, shut up. It doesn't matter why don't trust you, okay? You can't just stay out of my life for years and then walk in and act like you only saw me a few days ago!"
They were now standing in the middle of the sidewalk outside a short, wide brick building that housed a pub and billiards hall. An elderly couple who had exited the pub at almost precisely the time that Chloe started shouting at him gave Lex a sympathetic look and strolled away, giving Chloe wide berth in case she would suddenly decide to start screaming at them too.
Lex pretended not to see this. He threw his hands up disarmingly like she was physically attacking him instead of verbally. "It matters to me," he said quietly, "that you don't trust me. I want to be friends with you again, Chloe. I'm sorry, really sorry, that I never contacted you over all this time but since you're also trying to bring me and my company down, I think that we can call it even."
"Stop acting like I'm trying to rob you," she snapped, but she was starting to calm down and maybe even see from his point of view a little. When you're in love with someone, nothing else seems to matter, and Lex had seemed very much in love with Lana. It made sense that he wouldn't rush to pull Chloe and the rest of them into the equation. Now that Lana was gone…it had never occurred to Chloe that Lex might need some friends to help him get through this.
She sighed, rolling her eyes. "You win this round. I need to go home, so we can talk about this some other time. Alright?"
Lex shrugged, but he looked smug. "I'll take you up on that. I'll…I'll call you sometime." He sounded unsure about how that would go, not exactly used to calling women over the phone just to chit-chat. For someone who was such a great conversationalist, he very rarely indulged that skill upon just anyone.
"My cell-phone number hasn't changed. Do you remember it?" Chloe was aware that she sounded like she was challenging him, but she was past caring. It was late, she wanted to go home and change her clothes, maybe even get some sleep if she got a chance.
He nodded, and waved goodbye. She watched him walk away, then went on her own way. If Lex actually called her, she might just die of shock. The bald billionare was probably was too busy arguing with employee rights activists, and she didn't expect him to take her up on her offer. Still…
What if he did?