Chapter Two.....
"Fun? What do you know about anything anyway?" Lulu challenged Ethan.
Just like a cat with the canary, Ethan leaned back on the bar and watched the colour rise around her neck. She was something when she got rilled he mused, and his presence seemed to do it every time. It was all he could do not to laugh his head off as she glared at him with challenge. This was child's play.
"Easy Luv, you might break something."
Ethan didn't think Lulu could get any more pink, but he was wrong. She looked like she was about to explode and while that would amuse him to no end, he knew his employer wouldn't see the humour in it.
"What goes on between me and my boyfriend is none of your business. I don't know how you managed to con my Dad and Tracy into hiring you, but I'm not fooled for one minute. You are up to something. You just didn't arrive here by accident."
His smile faltering just a little, Ethan moved around behind the bar and pushed the box he had been carrying off to one side. She might be easy to rile, but she was as savvy as her father and if he wasn't careful he might give her some hint of his real reason for being in Port Charles. That wasn't going to happen.
Lulu saw the slight drop in his facade and smiled to herself. That was all he needed to do to tell her she was on the right track. He might have been able to play Tracy - how anyone got past Tracy Lulu would never know - but he wasn't going to play her. There was nothing Lulu liked better than a challenge, and Ethan made this personal the minute he decided to target her family.
"Okay, Luv" Ethan said, bringing Lulu out of her contemplation, "let's not ruin this opportunity by bickering. Come over here and have yourself a drink. One Relax Cupcake for your pleasure... on the house, of course."
Lulu was suspicious but she decided to play along anyway. Sitting down on a barstool, she took the pro-offered drink and took a sip. It was every bit as good as the first time.
"What's in this?" she asked.
"Why, like it or don't?"
"No, I like it but what is it's real name?"
"It is what it is. That's a genuine, original Ethan Lovitt specialty known throughout the world only as Relax Cupcake. Named after you."
"That's not going to work on me" Lulu said after taking another sip.
"What's not going to work?"
"That man-of-the-world charm that seems to have my step-mother gooey eyed."
"Tracy gooey eyed? Now that brings an interesting image to mind. I don't think she's gooey eyed, I think she just knows an attentive gentleman when she sees one."
"You a gentleman? Yeah right."
"Hey, I do have considerable charm. And for your information I am a man of the world and that is a genuine Relax Cupcake. I am an open book for your inspection."
"You, an open book? I'm not that stupid you know."
"Stupid is not a name I would ever associate with you, Ms. Spencer" Ethan assured her as he pulled his hair behind his ear and grinned.
Lulu smiled, not buying his line for a minute but enjoying the attempt. She knew that line of conversation wasn't going to get them anywhere so she tried a different tack.
"So, a genuine Relax Cupcake? That's what my dad said to me and then you made this. Do you usually just make up drinks off the top of your head?"
Ethan leaned on the bar and began his yarn while Lulu continued with her drink.
"Well, the night your dad and I met..."
"You mean the night my dad caught you stealing from him. Go on."
He had to give it to her, she wasn't as easy to snow as one would assume, so he began again.
"Yes, the night I made the fortunate acquaintance with your father under the most regrettable of circumstances, I told him I was one of the best bartenders in the world and he put me to the test. He kept inventing names of drink after drink and I just kept pouring. You know, your sire has quite the imagination."
"My sire? What are you some literary major somewhere?"
"I am educated in the school of life, but even a man of travel has times he just wants to hide away with a good book. I decided if I was going to know the people I visited I should read their stories. I am currently working my way through Mark Twain, if you must know."
"Yeah, I imagine Tom Sawyer is right up your alley."
"He has a certain inspirational appeal, I must confess. What about you, what do you enjoy reading?"
"I... I don't know. My mom used to read to me when I was a little girl but I haven't really kept it up myself. I see the classics in the library at the Quartermaine's all the time and I'm tempted, but I don't know."
"Well you should start. It's not only good for the mind it's also good for the soul. Once you read what Edward Rochester has to say to Jane Eyre, you will realize how shallow modern declarations of love truly are. I suggest you start with Alcott and work your way through."
"Bartender and literary expert. What else are you good at? I know you're not a good thief or else my father wouldn't have caught you... or was that the plan?"
Lulu was uneasy with them getting so far away from her original goal of discovering what made Ethan come to scam her family. For his part Ethan noticed he was feeling a little two comfortable talking with her and needed to create some distance. Standing up again he grabbed the box.
"Well, enough of my musings. I must get this off to the office and return to my duties."
Lulu barely got a sip of her drink swallowed before she yelled "No".
Ethan looked at her in confusion. "Look lovely, I realize you don't want me working here but a chap can't give up a decent paying job in these times. Your father wants the rest of this box in the office."
"No, Dad and Tracy are in the office. You can't go back there."
He stood still and looked over at Lulu, intrigued by her words but concentrating on any sound he might hear from the office. Suddenly a smile crossed his lips, then he lowered his head and turned to place the box back on the bar.
"You knew this whole time?"
"You will too if you stay here long enough."
"And it doesn't bother you?"
"Bother me how? My dad and Tracy love each other, I know that. Why would that bother me?"
"No, I mean knowing what activities go on behind closed doors. You are just so caviler about knowing your parents are playing slap and tickle in the next room. Ms. Spencer I think I've discovered a whole new side of you and I am captivated."
"Get over yourself, it's just sex."
"It doesn't sound like it's just sex to them. Obviously with that opinion you haven't had a true experience of passion, and I dare say your parents are both very passionate people."
Lulu just looked at him with as droll a look as she could muster. "My experiences are my business and I'd stay out of their way if I were you. Tracy and my dad might be entertained by you for now, but that will change on a dime if you assume too much."
"My god, you even look like her when you are annoyed. How fabulous!"
"You really like playing games don't you Mr. Lovitt. Well I like games too and I will find out what your real reason is for being here. Tell my dad I left, and whatever you do don't go into that office until they come out."
"Noted and understood," Ethan said with a mock salute as he watched her leave, then he returned to take her empty glass and wipe the counter.