Dianne just stood in the doorway looking at Alexis and Julian standing there. She had brought a plastic bag with her.
"Alexis…I hit PC's book store before I drove up here and just in time too…We need to have some margaritas and some straight up women talk so you're going to have to send lover boy here out on an errand."
Alexis glanced at Julian and then back at Dianne.
"We're just going to do dinner if you want to join us."
Dianne nixed that.
"Three's a crowd…so Julian surely you have some associates to meet with in some shady garage or pier to discuss business while we chill back for a while and discuss…men."
Julian looked bemused.
"My calendar is free for the future thanks to the feds and we're having dinner tonight if you'd like to join us."
Dianne snorted.
"I need to talk to Alexis alone before she makes any rash decisions she might regret. I don't know go out and take up a hobby or something. Surely there's something you have to be interested in besides blowing people up and comparing…caliber sizes with Sonny."
Alexis just dropped her mouth at Dianne.
"What the…I don't even know what that means."
Dianne stared at her.
"Oh yes you do Alexis…better than most."
Julian chuckled.
"Okay…I'll go out and occupy myself and you can have your…women's night and then when I return, Alexis we can have a nightcap after Dianne heads back to PC."
Dianne laughed back at him.
"Oh don't pull this alpha male thing on me," she said, "I've got a special place on my belt for alpha males like you."
He smiled.
"I'm not helping you add to it Dianne if that's what you're asking…J don't work that way."
She studied him carefully.
"We'll have to see about whether that's true of Julian or if it was true of Derek or…"
He sighed.
"I think I'll head on out and let you two…talk. I'll see you later…when Dianne's finished."
The older attorney just tilted her head, always sizing him up.
"I've got leave her with some…literature I picked up at the bookstore. She might have some reading assignments."
He smiled.
"They'll have to wait until tomorrow. We've got other plans…"
Dianne shrugged.
"I'll be done…really you're not bad to look at but you really should have stuck to those simpler women, you know like Carly and Olivia rather than…"
Alexis put her hand up.
"Dianne it's all right…he's leaving and I've got plenty of tequila here somewhere. Ingredients to make Tapas too…if you're up to that."
Dianne sighed.
"I could go for that. PC was lacking in many things but one of them was a good Castilian restaurant. Whenever I eat a tapa I always think of my ex Fernando the bull fighter…damn he was good with a cape and a few other things."
Julian took that as his cue to leave. After he departed, Dianne touched Alexis' shoulder.
"Let's get started with this party," she said, "We've got to have a serious talk about your decision to bail from your wedding and shack up with Lover Boy…"
Dianne had found some jazz to play in the background while they cooked up some tapas the way Fernando had taught her and kept the margaritas flowing. Alexis drank up as she always did with Dianne who since she had to head back to do some handcuffing of her latest, Scotty Baldwin who'd courted her in a manner of speaking during the DA's race.
"He's pretty hot…I never liked the way Laura played him off of her ex Luke. He's not Max but no one will ever be him."
Alexis shrugged.
"Well if he hadn't caught you in bed with Milo you might still be together."
Dianne sighed.
"Nah I'm not wired to be some guy's steady girl…thank god. Life's a candy store Alexis and I like to sample the…different brands of merchandise."
"That didn't include Julian did it?"
Dianne shook her head.
"Not even when he was Derek Wells. Didn't get the feeling he was interested in playing around."
"He was probably too busy playing the latest Mafioso rising from the dead…and dodging my questions."
Dianne smiled.
"He was enjoying your questions like he enjoyed you. He liked being one step ahead of everyone."
Alexis sank into a chair with her latest glass of liquid fire.
"He played me so well. I mean used me…but marrying Shawn would have been a huge mistake."
Dianne nodded.
"Yes it would have been. He's probably got the best body in PC…you can bounce a quarter off of his abs…did I say that?"
Alexis narrowed her eyes.
"You and Shawn?"
Dianne sighed.
"It was very short…he's not a bad…bad guy but I found myself dreaming about his pastrami sandwiches."
Alexis had to laugh at that and it wasn't just the margaritas.
"For me it was his meatloaf…"
Dianne plopped down on the couch.
"Really Alexis…some of the books are good…they deal with what's called the "bad boy syndrome" which is what you've clearly been suffering from all this time…"
Alexis looked at her glass.
"I know…but it's Julian's fault really. He was my first…"
Dianne frowned.
"But he wasn't even a mobster in grooming yet by his father. That came much later didn't it?"
Alexis nodded.
"I was sitting in the bar and he sat there with his friends looking so cool in his leather jacket. So different from the preppy boys. You know it wasn't even that he was a bad boy…I grew up with them all my life…didn't know anything else. I actually liked him because he was so nice…"
Dianne harrumphed.
"Until he got you in the back seat of his car…"
Alexis furrowed her brow.
"No…actually I think I was more…pushy than he was as I remember. I was so determined to be someone else…if only for one night."
"Alexis...the wild child. Who'd have thought?"
"Hey….I've had my moments…"
Dianne raised a glass.
"Yes you have…and three daughters to show for them."
Alexis softened looking at her glass.
"I love my daughters. It was so difficult bringing all of them into this world but it was a best thing Dianne. Every time I held onto them I felt like I'd won….against all the Cassadines. But with Sam, it was so short…the time I had with her and I thought it'd have to last a lifetime."
"She came back and…after a while she became family. I love walking into your house…all that estrogen in one place."
Alexis smiled.
"Danny's the first boy in the mix. But they all love him so much like they love each other."
"And you…you're lucky to have all that and no one fought harder than you did…not that some of us always made it easy…"
Alexis knew she was talking about being so rough on Sam to do her job…but they had begun to move past that.
"Family matters…"
Dianne laughed.
"I'll have to take your word for it. For me, my work is my life…that and plenty of sex…"
Julian drove down the curvy highway that hugged both the ocean and the mountains. This part of the state was always beautiful and he'd spent plenty of time hiding out here including while he was reinventing himself.
Now coming back as his own identity again, things had come full circle. He hadn't minded being shooed out of the house by Dianne. Whatever she said to Alexis or whatever they did, wouldn't impact his own plans.
He stopped on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean and sat in his car…
Julian ran after Alexis once the court ended its session in the hallway. She glanced at him, a trace of a smile on her face just before she hid it behind that professional exterior she wore.
"You really were impressive in there," he said, "I'd heard great things about you but you outdid them all."
She shrugged, putting something back in her briefcase.
"I did my job. Now Dianne's a master in the courtroom, tough to beat," she said, "A worthy opponent."
He smiled at that.
"You know if you're looking for an attorney…closer to home you might want to think about hiring her to join your staff. I'm sure she could handle media law."
"Someone will snap her up then. I have my eye on the other attorney…"
She shot him a warning look.
"Derek…"
"I'm serious. I could use someone like you working for me."
She sighed.
"No…I don't think so. I'm good at my job, damn good…though I'm more of a corporate attorney…"
"For businessmen right?"
She didn't appear fazed.
"Yes…but I'm not like Dianne. Oh I'll fight hard for my clients…I play to win after all in all games and law is just another game with a restricted player list."
"But…because I'm sensing one here."
She paused and grew more thoughtful.
"I'm here because I work for Sonny and his son…though Lulu's my nephew's half-sister. It's also a bit challenging to side with what legally is an adoptive family over a woman who's being sued over her biological child."
"Because of you and Sam…"
She nodded.
"I get what Maxie might be going through. Not that the facts in evidence are the same but giving up your own child, your own flesh and blood isn't something you ever get over…or ever forget. I admit to facilitate doing that to someone else…well I'm a professional, I have a job to do and I'll do it…"
"Alexis…we all are faced to do things that we might not want to do as part of the careers we've chosen for ourselves."
She considered that.
"You're right…I'll be glad when this is over but family law…it's so complicated…so protracted and always emotional as it should be since it's about families and breaking them up."
"Sometimes those families can reunite again…"
She gave him a surprised look and then suddenly they heard footsteps behind them and she didn't need to look to see that Carly was walking up to her
"Derek…Franco's ready for his latest hearing. We really should go…"
Alexis just shook her head at all the men jumping aboard the Carly merry go round. She wouldn't have figured Derek for one of them but she should have known better.
"Hello Carly…"
The other woman's smile was brittle.
"Alexis…Derek and I were just on our way there but he got lost. No problem...they were waiting for Dianne anyway."
"Good luck…he's going to need it."
Carly's face wore a pout.
"And what do you mean by that?"
Alexis smiled.
"Carly, it's sometimes amusing to watch you play your little games and juggle the men who buy into them but I've got to meet with my clients…."
Derek interjected.
"Remember what I said…"
She looked back at him.
"Like I said, Carly's a good juggler if you're into that kind of thing."
She walked off and he just watched her go, slightly stunned.
He remembered that now and how she'd called him on being with Carly which Carly gave him no shortage of grief about that awful Alexis and how she was sooo jealous of her because all the men gravitated to her instead of Alexis. Ironic considering the circumstances that had brought him together with Carly in the first place.
Alexis had zinged him on that matter of factly and rightfully so. He'd not done anything about it back then when the hiding of some secrets trumped the revelation of others but that just made him all the more determined to do something about it now.
Alexis lay on the couch pretty sauced after drinking more margaritas than originally planned. She didn't usually drink, not like this except when with Dianne. Blame that on the one night spent years ago when she'd had been drunk and the horrible price paid for it.
Except for Sam of course. But the rest of it…
"I think your daughter knows you pretty well. She really told you to saddle up with the guy? Her own father?"
"She didn't know it at the time. God, I'm rethinking a lot of conversations back then. I just didn't figure it out in time. I mean why didn't I at least buy a clue when Derek…I mean Julian was telling me he and Sonny had a lot in common right after I dropped my mobster baby story right in his lap."
Alexis put a hand on her face partly out of self-recrimination as well as getting hit by a wave of dizziness. Too much tequila not enough ice in that last one. If she didn't know better she'd think Dianne was deliberately trying to get her drunk to spill some truths and incriminate herself.
"Well you were probably nervous and ditzy and all that. You know how you get sometimes."
Alexis sighed.
"Yeah…I just…from the beginning I felt like there was something there…I didn't get it…maybe I knew the truth all along? I mean I know his face had changed, a lot of time had passed but I just couldn't shake it. Of course I had no idea what it was really all about…but to be played Dianne. It just…"
She didn't finish but of course she didn't have to do that. Just then someone opened the front door…