Author's Note - Christmas-y AU... This ended up being longer than I expected, so I decided to divide it in 3 or 4 chapters. I hope you all enjoy this first one.
I'm not a native English speaker, so my grammar and spelling may not always be correct, but I try my best...
Disclaimer - Characters are the property of their respective owners...
Lexie Grey took another sip of wine and then checked the clock on the wall for the 15th time. She had been sitting at her "3 months forward reserved" table for two, for an hour, all by herself.
He will come. He promised. There is no way that he's gonna bail on me. He probably just got stuck in traffic. It is Christmas Eve after all. Traffic is probably brutal. He is not gonna bail on me. Not on Christmas.
Taking another sip, she turned on her phone and texted him again. The fourth time.
-Are you coming soon? I'm sitting by myself for like an hour. Please hurry up...
Still no response. She texted him the first time when she was in a cab. He didn't respond, and she told herself it was probably because he was in a hurry. The second time, after she ordered a bottle of wine. No response again. And the third time after her first glass of wine, when she really started to worry that he won't show up at all. And that sick feeling in her throat just grew stronger.
Lexie was staring at her phone, praying for some text to pop up, when a soft polite voice got her attention.
"Excuse me, miss, are you ready to order?" The same waiter who welcomed her when she arrived alone and served her that bottle of wine she ordered alone, smiled at her. Lexie briefly wondered if he actually felt sorry for her. Maybe destroyed dates were something he was seeing on a regular base. Maybe, but probably not on Christmas Eve. When everything is about being with people that you love and… not bailing on them, leaving them to sit by themselves in preoccupied expensive restaurants.
She already scanned space around her, and she was the only one who was sitting by herself. How pathetic, how embarrassing, how miserable...
"Uhm, not yet, I'm waiting for someone. He should be here any minute." she managed to answer in a shaky, uncertain voice. The young waiter just nodded, probably in pity, and walked away.
Who the hell are you lying to?
The room full of laughter, touching hands over the table, candles, Christmas lights, sparkles and everything else that usually made her feel joyful now made her feel like she was about to throw up.
God, she loved Christmas, she loved it so much, she spent months preparing for this perfect night. She needed to make it perfect. The first Christmas Eve without her mom, without her family. That felt so painful. So unnatural.
But spending it with her boyfriend should be at least almost as good. It should. Except the boyfriend was God knows where.
After sending the fifth text she decided that if he doesn't show up in 15 minutes she is out of there, and out of his life for good. He knew how much Christmas was important to her. And not showing up here, for whatever reason, without calling or texting, was telling her exactly how much she was important to him.
…
So… how many people are alone on the Christmas Eve?
Mark Sloan was gazing at the snowy streets through the window of the cab. There were cafés, restaurants, hotels glowing in the cold winter night. Most people don't even work on Christmas. But he did. Most people have plans for Christmas. He didn't. Most people don't spend Christmas at their apartment, eating ordered Italian food and drinking scotch without even bothering to take a look at the firework at the end of the night. Most people don't spend the Christmas Eve alone. That really hit him.
Usually, when he felt lonely like that, he would be at the random bar picking up some random woman, and he would feel a lot better in the morning. But tonight was different. Mark knew he had a lot of flaws, but he also had some kind of conscience. And that meant one thing. Special nights, like Christmas Eve, cannot be spent with ordinary women who just sit and drink their martini while waiting to be picked up. It's just... it doesn't feel right.
Watching all the restaurants that his cab was passing by, he felt jealous of how happy people inside looked. All dressed up, not doing anything except enjoying the evening… So what if he was alone? There was no rule that says that he can't have an amazing dinner and drink the finest scotch by himself. Yes, he could have that home as well, but... What was preventing him to have someone serve him that scotch? He definitely deserved that. He deserved to have some expensive dinner too. He was working his ass off the last couple of weeks. Alone or not, he deserved to treat himself for Christmas. And that's what he'll do.
When the cab stopped in front of Mark's building he told the driver that he would pay him an extra bonus if he waits for him for a half an hour. That should be enough for him to quickly get changed into something classy. When he got back into a cab, in his favorite navy blue suit, he gave a driver a new address. An address of the great restaurant that he already visited a few times, with some colleagues, the place he thought was great, newly open, with some great food and great scotch. The only thing he had left to do was praying that there was actually a free table in such a night.
…
Entering the restaurant, the first thing that caught Mark's eye was a giant Christmas tree in the middle of the room with a big golden star on top. The capacious room was half-dimed, with a main lights turned off, but a bunch of Christmas lights on every corner and a few candles on every table made the perfect romantic atmosphere. He stepped in a little further, passed between a couple of tables, waiting for some waiter to notice him.
As one did so, Mark could tell from a sad look on the waiter's face that he wasn't about to hear a good news. "I'm sorry, sir, but there is no available table. Reservations for tonight started months ago and..."
"Uhh, excuse me..." Both men's heads turned at the voice behind them. "There is... I think I'm gonna head home. He can take my table."
Mark looked at the woman who was sitting alone at the table, as she put her phone into her purse and pulled out a wallet. She smiled politely at him, but it was clear that she must use all of her inner strength to do so.
"Are you sure about that? I'm positive your date is going to show up..." The waiter started, but as she glared at him, clearly offended, and her cheeks got flushed up, he immediately apologized, "I'm so sorry. As you wish."
"I'm sure." she stated firmly, her cheeks still flaming with embarrassment. "Can I get a check now, please?" Then she added looking at Mark. "I'll be out of here in a minute."
"No!" Mark exclaimed quickly, earning confused glares from both, the woman and the waiter. "I mean, I don't mind if you want to stay. With me. I'll be happy to have some company… You should think twice about leaving the table that, as I heard, had been reserved for months."
"I..." She looked completely startled. Having dinner with a stranger definitely wasn't her plan for tonight. And as he put her in a spot, she didn't know what to answer, or how to react.
"I'm not pressuring you... It's just a suggestion. I understand if you have some other plans." Mark continued, clearing his intentions. The last thing he wanted was to forcefully make her stay if she would later pray for the evening to end as soon as possible. He stepped a little closer to the table. "But if you don't... It's Christmas Eve, I really hoped I wouldn't spend it alone. And I think you shouldn't either." Her cheeks were finally calming down, when he flashed her a wide, charming smile that made her blush again.
"You know what, you're right. I really don't want to… be alone for Christmas." She couldn't believe what she just said. She just agreed to have dinner with someone whose name she didn't know. He could be a serial killer for all that she knew. A very hot serial killer... but still.
"I'm always right." Mark stated, winking at her.
"And humble." she added laughing, probably for the first time that night.
"So... can we get the menus please? And a bottle of scotch? The best you have?" Mark turned to the waiter who was still standing next to him with a shocked but delighted look on his face. This kind of thing definitely wasn't something that's happening daily. "Right away."
Mark pulled back the chair next to her so he could sit, and before he did so, he leaned forward extending his hand towards her. "Mark Sloan."
"Lexie Grey." She shook his hand as she held his gaze and felt her stomach fluttering a little. A lot.
As he sat down, Mark just couldn't help himself, but to roam all over her body, at least at part of it that he could see.
Sparky black sleeved dress fit her slim body perfectly, and half-pinned wavy hair completed that picture. The way she was sitting, leaning against the table with her forearms resting in front of her… that made really hard for Mark not to stare at the skin exposed thanks to deep v-neck her dress had. So he tried his best to look at her face and her face only, and there weren't any complaints about that as well. She was beautiful.
"Well, I must say I am impressed. You just agreed to have dinner with a complete stranger. I like how open-minded you are." Mark admitted smirking at her. This being only dinner or not, he's not gonna be any less flirty than he usually is.
"As long as you're not a serial killer. Or psychopathic stalker. Or something like that." Lexie answered, looking at her glass as she took a big gulp of wine. Then her eyes settled on him. "You're not, are you?"
"Are you?"
"I asked you first!"
"And if I don't answer that, you're gonna say you have to go to the restroom, and I'll never see you again?" After those words, he leaned a little towards her in a dangerous way that made her shiver. She wasn't sure though, did that happen because of his action or his words.
"Probably... yeah." she replied, widening her eyes in the way that stated the obvious.
"Well, I can't let that happen. So no, I'm not a serial killer... or psychopath. You don't have to worry."
Before she could say anything the waiter appeared again, bringing one glass and a bottle of scotch, along with menus. "Here you go, I'll be back when you're ready to order."
"Thank you." they replied simultaneously.
"You know, even If I were a serial killer, you gave me your name so I could easily track you down and... find you, if I want to. Even if you manage to escape tonight." Mark stated the second after they were left alone again.
"Well if that's the case, I guess that I'll learn something from having dinners with strangers." For some reason, actually no, not some reason, sitting at the table with a person you never met was the reason, Lexie kind of had a problem to look at him for longer than two seconds. It seemed a little… intense.
"Either way, that's better than having dinners alone." His tone changed a little bit. It became a little softer, with a glimpse of pity. "Can I ask why are you alone on Christmas Eve?"
Lexie narrowed her eyes at him. For a second. Before her look fall down again. There is no way that he missed "I'm positive your date is going to show up" words that were literally the first words he heard about her. Hopefully, his intention wasn't to embarrass her.
"Well, I don't have an answer for that." When he raised his eyebrows, she knew he wanted to hear more. "I wasn't supposed to be alone. But my company never appeared and never even bothered to inform me that he's not going to be here." She was surprised by her own words. She didn't have an intention to tell him all of that. But it felt like relying on the kindness of strangers is actually a real thing.
"He?" Mark frowned. She was staring down and her fingers were brushing over the edge of her half-full glass.
"My boyfriend. Well, ex now, I guess. There is no way that I'm gonna even try to fix this, and it doesn't feel like he'll try to do something about it either. But it hurts, you know… Christmas is very important to me and I wanted it to be perfect." Lexie explained, trying to sound as less pathetic as she can manage. Suddenly realizing the painful but real truth behind her own words, she needed to change the subject and inhaling deeply, asked him, "What about you? Why are you alone?" She then looked up at him, really look at him, as she waited for his response.
Lexie expected from him to also have some kind of sad, pathetic story, because she was absolutely sure that there was no person on the planet who would be alone on Christmas by choice. But then again, she couldn't exactly imagine him being dumped by someone like she was… because she couldn't imagine a woman who would actually let him wait at the restaurant by himself for more than five minutes. She knew she wouldn't.
"Didn't really feel like making plans. To be honest, I decided to come here in a last moment." Mark answered.
"People always have plans for Christmas." she stated nostalgically.
"Do they? Did you plan to end up where you are right now?" he asked… even if he already knew the answer.
"Not exactly..." she whispered, slowly realizing his point.
"You see. You had a plan, and it didn't work out. I didn't have a plan, and I end up here with you. And I'm… more than happy… because of that." he said huskily, looking at her, as he took the first sip of his drink.
I wish you all happy and wonderful holidays...
