It's A Matter of Trust
Disclaimer: I do not own anything mentioned in this story except for the character of Alexandra H.
Chapter Four: Dish Towel and Jet Lag Love
As Ben applied a little bit more pressure onto the gas pedal of the car, he couldn't help but feel like a new dad racing home to check on his children after leaving them alone with a babysitter for the first time. He could tell Abigail was feeling the same way, because she wasn't telling him to slow down as he went a 120 down the dirt road that led to their country estate. In his head, he was wishing that they had both just ignored each other the entire night and had gone to bed early, but deep down, he knew that that probably hadn't been the case.
As expected, the gala had taken several hours to get through. After a short speech by each of them saying how honored they were to have a tiny fragment of the treasure they found on display at the Boston museum of Ancient History, they raced through the 5 course dinner, mingled for a couple of hours and then booked it home. They needed both Alex and Riley for their next adventure, and they did not want to get home to either of them packing to leave.
"I'm sure they're fine" Abigail said, breaking the twenty minute silence they had both just endured. Ben slowed down and turned onto the road that would take them home. He threw a cautious look over his shoulder to her and then nodded.
"Hopefully. I just hope that Riley didn't give her too hard of a time. He's still pretty edgy about Ian and everything" Ben noted as the distant lights of their mansion came into view. Ben's eyes flickered to the dashboard clock. 1:45 AM. He then looked back at the approaching house and noticed that it was still considerably lit. They were still awake.
He parked the car and then got out, locking up before joining Abigail as they walked towards the door.
"No, I'm sure everything's fine. I'm sure Riley didn't do anything too bad. Riley is a mature, responsible adult, right?" he asked her as they slowly made their way to the front door. They both suddenly stopped in their tracks and looked at each other, horrified looks on their faces. Riley, mature? Yeah, right.
"Oh my God" Abigail exclaimed before the pair of them ran the rest of the distance, fumbling with the keys and then throwing the door open. As if expecting the house to be in ruins, they were rather shocked to find everything exactly as they left it. Everything was perfectly still and oddly silent. Then they heard it.
The faint sounds of laughter met their ears and they looked at each other again, as if to verify that it wasn't a figment of their imaginations.
"Oh?" Ben asked, turning his right ear towards the direction of laughter. They heard a door open and the sound of footsteps and the laughter all of a sudden got significantly louder, although still very far away.
"Oh" Abigail replied, a small smile playing on her lips as she slipped off her coat and hung in the closet. Un-strapping her shoes, she placed them along with her purse on the first step of the staircase and then missioned down the main hallway to find them. Finally, she reached the kitchen and saw the pair of them washing dishes and cleaning up what looked like a pizza and wings dinner.
"Oh, hey! You're back. How was the gala?" Alex asked as she finished washing the dishes, picking up a dish towel to begin drying.
"Boring, as usual. What's going on here?" she asked as she felt Ben come up behind her, putting a hand on the small of her back before stepping into the kitchen beside her.
"Hey Ben," Alex said before looking back at Abigail. "Nothing, we just finished dinner. We ate outside, it's lovely weather. But we never got around to the research, sorry" Alex said apologetically, placing the two now dry plates and glasses on the counter top. She put down the dish towel and then proceeded to put the dishes away.
"You know, I don't understand why I'm never invited to these things. I mean let's face it…without me, you still would be looking for the charlotte. My program found it" Riley said smugly, before turning to Alex who he directed the last part of the sentence too. She nodded appreciatively and then put on a look of mock-astonishment. Riley laughed and then picked up the semi-wet dish towel. He proceeded to throw it at her, Alex laughing in reply as the towel hit her head and clung to her hair.
Abigail and Ben laughed, observing the two of them interact easily. The blonde looked over her shoulder and smiled at Ben, who was smiling at the two youngsters. So neither of them were packing to leave. Instead, they were actually getting along.
"Tell you what Riley, next time we get invited, you can sit through the 2 hour of speeches, 5 course meal and 3 hours of mingling for me, okay?" Ben bargained jokingly. Riley went pale faced and then shook his head aggressively.
"Uh, I'll pass. I wouldn't want you to miss out on all that" Riley said before putting the last piece of garbage into the trash. Alex had finished too, and was now making her way out of the kitchen.
"You two are probably tired from all the fun you guys just had" she joked as the four of them made their way towards the stair case. There was a chorus of laughter as they made their way up to their respective bedrooms. After saying goodnight, Ben and Abigail took a left while Riley and Alex went left. As she got to her bedroom door, she turned the knob, reached in and turned on the lights. Just as she was about to enter into it, she looked down the hallway and caught Riley's eyes as he did the same thing. She smiled and waved goodnight before disappearing from view and shutting the door behind her.
Alexandra Howe was definitely not impressed. Jet lag had kept her up for the past couple of days and it looked like tonight would be another sleepless night. As she flipped over onto her stomach, she opened her eyes a little bit and read the red, glaring numbers of her alarm clock. 3:23. Definitely another sleepless night.
She let her mind wander for a couple of seconds before letting it rest on Riley. Immediately she felt herself smile, and she stuffed her face into her pillow. He was so cute. Although at first she had resented him a little bit, even then she still couldn't deny how handsome he was, in the dorky, nerd way she liked best. He had the most resilient blue eyes that she had ever seen. She liked the way his dark brown hair seemed to have a mind of its own and stuck up in different directions whenever it wanted. He was adorable, and to top it all off, once he stopped being mean to her, he actually turned out to be a nice guy. She turned into her back and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about the night they had just had.
About an hour after she confronted him in the kitchen, he found her in the den going over some researched. He asked her if she was hungry and when she saw that he had ordered food, she knew that this was his idea of a peace offering. He had even tried to apologize, but she had cut him off and told him that she didn't care anymore, as long as they could be friends. They ate slowly, since they were talking so much and got to know each other.
She had found out that his full name was Riley James Poole and that he was one year older then her, since he would be turning 27 in just a few months. He was an old friend of Ben's and took care of most of the technical stuff that they had to deal with. He rewired surveillance cameras, wrote scripting programs, the whole shebang. He was a whiz on the computer.
He seemed like a genuinely good guy. She hadn't met one of those in a while. She had very few guys friends, since most men who saw her started to hit on her immediately. It was very annoying, actually. She was at the age where some of her friends were settling down and getting married and she could barely keep a boyfriend for more then a couple months. But at the thought of being Riley's friend, she felt giddy. She wanted to be his friend and she wanted them to have a good, solid friendship since they would need one as they progressed through their journey in the coming weeks.
Flipping onto her side, she looked at her clock once more. 3:45. Shutting her eyes, she got into a comfortable position and then drifted off into sleep.
Little did she know, a couple doors down, a cute man with resilient blue eyes was thinking similar things about her. Except the more he thought about it, the less content he was with just being friends.
((Author's Note: Hey everyone!! First of all, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT. It's really lit a fire under me to keep on writing. That, and I just saw the trailer for the next National Treasure. I'm pretty excited. Okay so this chapter I decided to sort of focus in on Alex because we really haven't gone into how she's felt about Riley. But now we know!! Next chapter we'll deal a little with Riley's take on the evening and then get into the research. I'm writing my own clues and doing my own research so hopefully you will find it interesting! Reviews are much appreciated, so click the little purple button : ))