AN: So, I updated this morning, but to be honest, the chapters so far have been very plot-heavy and not enough GALEX. This chapter, whilst it does move the plot along (hopefully!) also has some romance… sort of.
The False Kiss
So this is what Dexter meant by dizzying sexual excitement, thought Gene.
Shaz and Chris were playing happy couples over near the auctioneer's podium and Ray had quickly found the most pornographic painting in the room, Lot 273, which Gene too was looking at.
A naked woman, body beautifully detailed, yet without a head. There were comments on a white plaque below claiming how it showed how disgusting it was that women were depicted as sex objects, how this painting represented the Feminist Movement of the nineteen-eighties and how brave it was of Dominic Dexter to tackle female oppression in this way.
Gene was unconvinced. He thought it was braver to throw yourself under a horse than to paint a picture and getting your fancy-pants art friends to fawn over it but he didn't really have the confidence to say so, not even to Ray. Drake would know about art though. Where was she?
At that moment, Alex finally arrived and Gene almost hyperventilated at the sight of her. She wore a beautiful dark blue floor length gown that clung to her hourglass figure. Her lips were painted a deep red and her hair was swept up onto her head with just a few ringlets left hanging down to frame her face. He heard Ray whisper "Flaming Nora" just as Alex moved her hand so her finger sparkled.
Gene smiled. Alex was going to hate him for this but he would only be acting as per the terms of their cover story. Quickly, he walked over to her, flung his arms around her waist and kissed her gently on the mouth.
He pulled away almost immediately and noted with satisfaction that her eyes were wide and bright and that a small pink blush was creeping onto her cheeks... and growing redder with every passing second. Quickly, he grabbed her hand and drew her over to the wall where Ray was. Alex faced the wall unseeing, trying to lose the colour from her cheeks.
Gene said, "Have to make it believable, Bolls."
"I should have arrived with you," replied Alex. "We are supposed to be married after all."
"Engaged, not married, still buying bloody furniture for the house." Gene was enjoying himself, for the first time that night. He liked this game of predicting the future with Alex. They would probably never have a future together but this would be the closest he would get to pillow talk with her.
He decided to take it further. "Maybe we should have pretended to be married for fifty years." She laughed and he continued, "You know, taking each other for granted, living a sexless marriage. I wouldn't have to kiss you then. I would have picked you up from your flat and got over your dress there."
Alex laughed again and the brightness of her eyes and the blush in her cheeks didn't seem inappropriate anymore. "I don't know about you, Gene Hunt, but I am not old enough to be married fifty years. Why did you drag me over here anyway?"
"In case your obvious inability to handle to the charms of the Gene Genie is noticed by anybody and blows our cover. If we're engaged you should be used to it!"
"I thought it was to look at this," said Alex, pointing to the painting. Gene looked too.
Lot 273. Shit.
"Dizzying sexual excitement," he quoted. Alex snorted, to his surprise.
"I had never read so much tosh before I read that article," she said. "You can't have both bold designs and minimalism. And this painting is just horrible."
"You don't like art?"
"I love art," said Alex, briefly remembering Easter holidays spent dragging Evan around art galleries. "And this is terrible, which fits in nicely with our theory."
"How?"
"That the art thing is probably a front. More than that, it might be a way of getting the drugs on the streets, like the furniture. Cocaine dissolved in the paint, that sort of thing. One day, this'll be how they get drugs into the country. And look in the corner here, a daffodil."
"So?"
"About half of the paintings have a daffodil somewhere. It's probably a code, indicating which paintings are clean of drugs- and so which can be bought by collectors- and which are to be bought by dealers and users."
"So we want a painting with a daffodil?"
"Not necessarily. The daffodil could imply a clean painting," said Alex. "Did you bring the camera?"
"Yeah, but we had to leave it in the Quattro," said Gene. "No flash photography in here."
There was a flurry of movement around them as people began to move to seats set out in the centre of the room and voice came over the speakers, asking for their attention.
The auction was about to start.