Ethan walked into Jakes or what is now known as The Floating Rib and met Coleman up at the bar. "Coleman, is it ready for me?"
"Sure thing, brother." Coleman handed Ethan a set of keys. "Now you take care of it up there. You're the first tenant since I knocked down all the old rooms and turned it into a loft."
"What made you decide to do that anyway?" Ethan asked. "Those filthy rooms surely must've given you some extra cash here on the weekends."
"Indeed they did, but they also brought in some unwanted attention if you know what I mean. The morning after walk of shame had the lunch crowd losing their appetites."
Ethan had never been there to witness the sobering moments, but he had been there several times when the excited couples made their way up the stairs of love. "At least the rest of the place has stayed the same. Besides the name of course." He glanced up at the neon sign hanging on a side wall.
"Can I get you a drink?" Coleman offered.
"Thanks, but I think I'm just going to head up for the night. You don't get much sleep when you're on the run." Ethan turned away from the bar and did a once over on the small crowd, before settling his eyes on one particular patron. She stood alone, facing the jukebox as her hips swayed back and forth to the music. "On second thought, Coleman, I think I'll take a beer." Ethan sat back down and admired Kristina from behind. It didn't seem so long ago that he thought of her as a child. She had been just a young, naïve girl who he had bonded with over poker lessons. Little did he know then that over the next couple of years they would come to rely on one another for support in all of life's ups and downs. Kristina had become a friend, a best friend you could say. She took the time to understand him and see past his many imperfections, something that many people never did. He had fought against his growing feelings for her because quite frankly he didn't realize they were there until Johnny kept pointing them out to him. To hear it from Kristina was one thing, but from Johnny was somehow different. It scared him. He needed to shut them down fast. So when Kristina told him she was going to Yale he welcomed the idea.
"She's been here all of thirty minutes and already she's had three shots of tequila and she's working on her second Jack and coke." Coleman told Ethan as he handed him a beer. "I was thinking that I should call Max or Milo."
"No, it's okay. I'll make sure she gets home safe." Ethan couldn't help but smile as Kristina continued to dance by herself. He knew it would be any minute before she would notice him and from the way she left him at the Star, he was sure she wouldn't be too happy to see him, so he decided to sit back for as long as he could without being seen.
She twirled around in her tight fitted jeans and three inch heels. Ethan laughed to himself when she spun a few too many times, causing herself to pause so that she could regain a grip on her surroundings. He knew all too well how she would be kicking herself in the morning. He began to watch intensely when he noticed a guy with a pool stick approach her. Ethan couldn't hear the exchange, but seconds later Kristina was holding onto the stick and leaning over the pool table to break open the balls. She walked around the table looking for her next shot and the guy followed her, leaning against her as she focused in on the shot. Ethan was getting restless as he watched the punk brush his lips onto her neck. It was definitely time to intervene.
Ethan walked behind the two and with his hands in his pockets he leaned to the side so that she could see him. "Hey, Kristina, do you want me to give you a lift home?"
Her flirty giggles stopped cold when she seen Ethan's face. "I've got it covered, but thanks anyway." She then turned back to her new friend and placed her arms up around his neck to which the man responded by going in for kiss.
"Sorry, man, but I can't let this happen." He gently grabbed onto Kristina's arm and pulled her away.
"Ethan, let me go!" She protested.
"Kristina, you've had too many drinks. You don't know what you're doing." Ethan said as he tried taking her out of a regretful situation.
"Hey, man." The guy grabbed onto her other arm turning Kristina into a wishbone. "I believe she said she's got it covered."
"She's had too much to drink and I'm taking her home." Ethan insisted.
"I can take her home." Countered the man.
"See, he can take me home." Kristina pulled her arm away from Ethan and grabbed her drink back up from the table. "You can stop babysitting me now."
Her stubbornness that Ethan had once found cute in the past was becoming annoying here tonight. "Kristina, I'm not…"
"Then why are you here?" She asked.
"Listen, I did not follow you here. I live here now."
Kristina practically spit out her Jack and coke. "Right, you're living at The Floating Rib?"
"In the loft upstairs." Ethan answered.
The unnamed man was clearly getting confused. "Are you two a couple or something, because I don't want to be wasting my time here."
"No, just friends. Or we used to be friends. I'm still not sure where I stand on that one yet." Kristina shook her head as she finished her drink.
"Good, then there's no problem. I'll take her home." The man smiled and began to wrap his arm around Kristina's waist. She giggled from his attention.
"She's married." Ethan knew he was playing dirty and that Kristina was not going to be happy, but he thought of it as saving his friend.
"Ethan!" She yelled.
"You're married?" Shock splattered across the man's face.
"Well yeah, kind of." She was going to kill Ethan. The man released his grip. "But it's not what you think. I promise."
"Sorry, sweetie, you seemed like fun, but I don't need to be getting involved with someone that has a husband. I've been down that road before and I do not want to revisit it again." The man took several steps back before grabbing his coat from a chair and walking out the door.
Kristina's head seemed to move in slow motion as it left the direction of the door and landed at Ethan. This was a new feeling for her. She had never been angry with Ethan before, well not like this anyway. "I thought I told you, I don't need you to save me anymore."
"Kristina, I know that you're mad at me right now. I get it. I haven't been a good friend to you lately."
"Lately?"
Ethan sighed. "Okay, for a while. But this is me trying to make up for that. I can't let you make a mistake that I know you will regret tomorrow."
Kristina was drunk. She could feel it now as everything around Ethan's face was a blur. But even with her clouded head, she was able to realize that he was right. "I need to go." She began to stumble past him.
"Sounds good. I'll drive you."
"No, Ethan, I can manage myself."
"You can't drive home, Krissy. You've had a lot to drink."
Only one word that Ethan said stuck out to her. Both hands flung to her face and rubbed up over her forehead. "You're right, I can't." She said as her eyes began to moisten.
"Hey, it's okay. I'll take you."
"No."
"Okay then, if you don't want me to take you, I'll call you a cab.
"No, Ethan. You don't understand. It's not that I don't want you to take me home. It's that I don't have a home to go to."
Ethan's eyebrows furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
Kristina sunk down onto a chair. "I was married, Ethan, as short lived at it was. I left my mom's house and have been staying with Trey."
"That's alright, I'll just take you back to your moms."
"No way! There is no way I'm going to my mom's tonight."
"Kristina, I'm sure she's worried about you."
Kristina thought about her last conversation with her mom. She already had to listen to Alexis tell her how she knew that this would happen and if Kristina had only thought like an adult instead of making childish decisions, then she would never have ended up in the situation to begin with. "I seen enough disappointment in her eyes when I asked her to file the annulment papers, I can't take it anymore."
Ethan knew that even though Sonny and Alexis loved their daughter, they always had a way of making her feel as if she could do better. Be better. The intentions were good, but they never realized how much pressure they put on Kristina. "The Metro Court then?"
"Yeah, so they can call Carly as soon as I check in and then she calls my dad and I wake up to several guards outside of my room." Kristina wiped a fallen tear from her cheek. "Whatever… just take me. I don't really have any other options." She began to make her way to the door, stumbling a few more times.
Ethan could see how Kristina would not want to deal with her mom tonight, but having to deal with Sonny when he found out she was drinking all night without any of his men around to protect her would be too much on Kristina's already wounded heart. He firmly ran both hands over his head. "Kristina, wait."
She turned around. Light traces of mascara showed the route of her tears. "What?" She asked in barely a whisper.
He would probably regret this, but here it goes. "You can stay here tonight."
"With you?"
"Well I haven't even been up there yet, but I know there's a bed and I'm pretty sure it has a couch."
A sparkle shimmered back through her eyes. "Are you sure? You don't have to. I know I haven't been too nice to you tonight."
Ethan smiled. "I'm pretty sure I've deserved it all and then some. Come on, I've had to sleep in some pretty creative places recently. One more night on a couch isn't going to kill me."
"Thank you!" She rushed up to hug him, but lost her footing on the way. Her ankle collapsed to the side and just as she was about to go down, Ethan grabbed up under her arms and pulled her to him. "Are you okay, love?"
Love. It had been so long since she had been called that and being called that while she was pressed firmly against Ethan's chest brought back a whole stream of emotions. Emotions that she had long ago buried. She inhaled deeply, only to add to the rush of memories. Damn he smelled good.
"Kristina?"
Ethan's voice caused her to come back to her senses. Well as far back as she could be in her current liquored up state. She pushed off of him. "I'm fine." Embarrassed she started off again, this time grabbing back onto Ethan's shirt when her ankle shot off crippling pain when she put pressure on it.
"What is it? Did you hurt your ankle?"
"Yeah, I must've twisted it when I…" She looked awkwardly at him.
"When you fell?" He smiled.
"Yeah, when I fell." She laughed. "Now stop making me laugh. For one I'm in pain and two, I think I'm still mad at you."
"You think?"
"Well you're letting me stay with you tonight so I may start to reconsider if your kindness persists."
"Well then, I believe this will also score me some brownie points."
"What will?"
He put his arm around her ribs and scooped up her legs with the other. "Awe, that's so sweet, Ethan."
"Brownie points?" He smiled down at her as he began to make his way up the stairs.
"Brownie points, definitely brownie points." She turned her head and looked forward as Ethan carried her up.
Ethan could smell the tequila and Jack on her, but it was very faint compared to the cherry vanilla body spray flowing up under his nose. He was relieved when he reached the top of the stairs. She was too close to him. Way too close to him. He sat her down and she leaned against the wall as Ethan unlocked the door to the loft. Ethan and Kristina were both looking at his new apartment for the first time.
Upon entering through the door, you walked right into the living room. Flat screen TV to the right, a green couch that faced it with a matching lounge chair that sat along the side. Moving to the left, just past the couch, you took two steps down on to the darkened hard wood floors of the spacious kitchen. All the appliances lined the right wall with the counter extending just a bit further before taking a left into the open for several more feet. Three bar stools sat on both sides. In the middle of the kitchen floor was a round wooden table. Nice, but simple. Kristina took this moment to sit and take off her heels. Ethan continued through as he took the two steps up and went to the door on the left. "Bedroom." He called to Kristina, before disappearing inside for a moment. When he came back out, he walked directly across to the other door. "Bathroom." He announced as he only stuck his head in to look around.
"Very nice." Kristina said as Ethan came back to the kitchen.
"I have to admit, it's much nicer than I would have ever expected." He walked over to the fridge and opened it up, knowing there wouldn't be anything in it. "I'd offer you something to drink, but as you know I haven't had a chance to go shopping yet. How about a nice cold glass of tap water?"
"No, I think I just need to lie down."
"Believe me, love, you're going to need this glass of water. It will help you stay hydrated so you won't feel so bad in the morning." Kristina agreed by nodding.
Ethan had her wrap an arm around his neck and she hobbled along his side over to the two steps. He used his one hand that was around her waist to pull up on her body so that she could completely bypass them. He took her into the bedroom and over to the queen size bed where he folded down the burgundy comforter. She scooted her body up and placed her legs under the covers.
Ethan sat the water on the nightstand. "If you need anything, just yell."
"Thanks."
"No problem." Ethan began to walk out the door.
"Hey, Ethan!" She called out to him.
"Already, love?"
"Remember earlier tonight when you said that old habits die hard?"
The corner of his lip turned up, revealing his perfect teeth. "Yeah."
"Well, I think you were right. I do still need you."
"I guess you could say that it's sort of our thing." Ethan replied.
Kristina smiled. "Exactly."
Ethan's eyes held onto hers until he forced them away and walked out of the room.
She held onto the gaze, even though he was no longer standing there. It was hard when Ethan had been gone. Kristina missed having that one person who actually believed in her whether she was right or wrong. Even though there was never a romance, there was always chemistry. That's why it hurt so much when she left for school expecting to continue their talks over the phone or online, but never heard from him again. She finally got Johnny to tell her that he had taken off. It took her a long time to let him go and move on with Trey, but she did it. She had finally come to terms with the fact that Ethan had really been telling the truth all along. He never loved her. Well not in the way that she wanted. Over the next year she became more independent, finally coming to terms with the fact that she was stronger than she had ever given herself credit for. She was really beginning to like the person she would see in the mirror every day. That is until Trey took her for a fool. That seemed to be a major setback for her. It had her doubting yourself again. But the moment she seen Ethan tonight, it all clicked again. She had to stay strong. There was no option. Reverting back to that young girl would mean falling for Ethan all over again. The friendship, she really wanted back. The constant rejection? Not so much. She was going to have to find a way to balance the two out. She didn't want to push Ethan away. She had to learn how to be his friend again without letting her past feelings get in the way of that. She could do this. She would make this work.
Authors note: I realize this may not have been the most exciting of chapters, but it was necessary for taking the rest of the story where I want it to go. I promise you, there will be a pay off and you won't have to wait too long! I want Ethan to have to squirm just a little bit