Paul got a solid 3 hours of sleep before waking up to the sunrise. He walked past the bathroom and could hear Alice in the shower. She'd left the door wide open.
Paul quickly walked down the hall with his hand covering his face so as not to accidentally catch a glimpse of her before going downstairs to make some coffee in the kitchen. He sits at a small round table by a window with a view of the beach and hears Alice coming down the stairs.
"Hey I thought you were still asleep" Alice smiled.
"I was ... Made some coffee for you" Paul points to the pot of coffee behind Alice.
"Aw, Thanks" Alice poured herself a cup and sat across from Paul. "Have you eaten?" she smiles.
"Oh, no. Sorry I didn't even think about breakfast. I always forget to eat" Paul shrugs.
"How do you forget to eat?" Alice gets up and looks through the fridge. "Ha! Eggs. I'm making you eggs". Alice wiggles her bottom and hums a tune as she looks through the drawers for pans and plates and The Reverend can't help but look and smile. He doesn't usually get company and certainly no company quite as bouncy.
"How do you want it?" Alice asked as she slowly bent down and reached for a pan in the bottom drawer. "I can do it however you like"
"Like what?" Paul felt a sudden rush of panic and quickly took his eyes off Alice's bum.
"Eggs" Alice turns around to face him. "How do you want your eggs? Boiled, scrambled, over hard, over easy, over worked, eggs benedict, eggs cumberbatch. Whatever"
Paul chuckled "I honestly have no preference. I'll trust your judgement."
"I'd make huevos rancheros but I don't see any salsa in your cupboards." Alice jokes. "Scrambled it is then"
Alice serves the eggs with buttered toast and a glass of orange juice. "Ta-da"
"Thank you very much." Paul smiles picking up a slice of toast.
"It's the least I can do. I was such an idiot last night. It's all a bit of a daze really" Alice takes a sip of her coffee. "I remember calling you and that's about it really..." She takes a bite of her toast. "Nothing... happened, did it?"
"What do you mean?" Paul had a feeling he knew what she meant.
"I didn't try to put the moves on you, did I? Or vice versa" Alice raised an eyebrow.
"No! No way. I don't have any moves to even try to put on anyone so ..." Paul smiled and looked at the ground. "I do feel like you vaguely attempted to flirt with me in the car before you passed you."
"Well, I'm in a constant state of vaguely flirting so that's nothing new." Alice winks in a vaguely flirtatious way. "I like your house. It's real cozy" she looks out the window "And you have a great view of the beach from here. It's quite beautiful really"
"Yeah, it is." Paul looks at Alice and smiles sweetly. "It's better with two"
Alice's smile brightens and to her surprise she almost feels herself blushing. "And you said you didn't have any moves" she jokes.
"I didn't mean ... I'm sorry." Paul breaks eye contact and looks at his plate.
"Don't be." Alice laughs as she stands up takes her empty plate to the sink. "So how much you think it would cost me to call a cab to take me all the way back home?"
"I can take you home." Paul drops his plate in the sink next to her. "It's really no trouble"
"Well, I'm not entirely sure how to get home from here but if we go back to where you found me last night I can find my way home from there. Where did you find me last night?" Alice asks getting into the passenger seat of Paul's car.
"You don't remember?!" Paul rolls him eyes and smiles.
"I'm so very seriously sorry." Alice looks a little embarrassed. "I really only started drinking like this recently. Last time I got this bad was the time I got arrested and that was a little over a month ago." She tried to make an excuse for her behavior as best as she could.
"Do you think you have a trigger?" Paul asked. "Do you have something in particular that makes you forget to limit yourself? Or something that simply makes you not care about limiting yourself?" Paul stops himself from layering on more questions. "I know for me it was my ever constant feelings of nervousness that kept me drinking. It made me forget I was nervous."
"Are you still nervous all the time?" Alice asked.
"Yeah, I'm always a little nervous. I guess that's just the way I am." Paul laughs. "I can't really change that. All I can do is learn to deal with it without being self destructive."
"Well that's not me at all" Alice tried to think of a trigger. "I never care what people think of me. I just get bored and being bored makes me feel sad and I do hate feeling sad." Alice smiled. "It's a good distraction"
"You're an escapist." Paul spoke while keeping his eyes on the road. "But just because you found something to help you escape for a little while doesn't mean that reality isn't still waiting for you when you wake up."
"Yeah, yeah. I know." Alice looked out the window. "You're always ready to preach; aren't you, Paul?"
The Revered laughed "I'm sorry. Force of habit"
"Did I tell you I used to take meds for depression last night?" Alice suddenly had a drunk flashback.
"Yes you did. You said you don't take meds anymore and that you just drink instead. Which worried me a little" Paul looked at her at a stop light. "Self medicating is really dangerous. First you think it's just a harmless couple of drinks and then..."
"Are you going to preach again?" Alice's voice sounded only slightly irritated.
"Sorry, I'm shutting up now" Paul looks back at the road as the light turns green.
"No, don't. I love how you talk." Alice smiles and feels a little flustered after saying something that so obviously gave away her growing crush. "I mean... you always say things that are kind and you always seem to have good intentions. I just hate to be told what to do and I hate to admit when I'm wrong." she leans in closer to him and nudges him with her shoulder playfully. "I know you're just trying to give me good advice"
"I'm speaking from experience, you know." Paul reaches the road where he'd picked Alice up before.
"I know but I'll bet you've never experienced waking up in a jail cell without the faintest idea as to how you got there." Alice jokes at her own experience.
"Well, you'd be surprised" Paul chuckles nervously. "So, we've reached the place. Where to next?"