childhood. "Your enthusiasm is catching. You really think I can win her back?"
"Yes," she cried. It felt good to have her brother turn to her, to need her help. Rick had made a mistake and hadn't fought for his marriage, but she'd do everything she could to support him.
CHAPTER 12
ALIX TOWNSEND
L aurel owed Alix, so she had her roommate cover for her the minute Jordan Turner showed up at the video store on Tuesday night. As soon as she saw that he was getting ready to leave, she slipped out front and pretended to be on break. Her hand shook as she lit a cigarette; she leaned against the building and took a deep drag, hoping the nicotine would calm her.
When the door opened and Jordan stepped outside, Alix called to him.
"Hi," she said.
He looked over his shoulder. "How's it going?" he asked.
"All right. I didn't see you earlier," she lied. "I put aside The Matrix for you if you're still interested."
"Yeah, sure, thanks."
"I aim to please." She reached for her cigarettes and silently offered him one.
"No, thanks."
She should've guessed he was a nonsmoker. She stared at the tip of her lit cigarette. "I'm trying to cut back. These are the low-nicotine cigarettes, but I swear I'm going to end up with a hernia getting any taste out of this."
He chuckled at her stupid joke and a warm, happy feeling came over her.
"I've seen you around the neighborhood," Jordan said.
"Alix Townsend. Alix, spelled A-L-I-X." She thrust out her hand, which he shook. "You're Jordan Turner," she went on before he had a chance to introduce himself. "Your driver's license is on file. You live off Fifth Avenue, don't you?" She didn't mind letting him know she was interested. She thought of the boy she'd once known with the same name, but that was years ago, back in grade school. He'd been a decent kid, and she'd had a crush on him, but it felt like something that had happened in another time and another place.
"Yeah, that's me."
Could it be the same Jordan Turner? She studied him, wondering if it was possible. She took another deep drag of the cigarette in an effort to calm her rattled nerves.
No, this couldn't be the same Jordan Turner, she decided. Still, her memories of him were fleeting and she wasn't absolutely sure. She might have dredged up the courage to ask, except that he continued the conversation.
"I don't work far from here."
So he stopped in for videos on his way home from work. Lots of people did.
"You can tell a lot about a person from the videos they rent," she said casually. She tossed the cigarette onto the sidewalk and crushed it with the toe of her combat boot.
"I'll bet you can."
"Do you want to know what I learned about you?" This was one of her best conversational gambits - character analysis through movie selection - although she didn't have much opportunity to use it.
He grinned, and she was struck by how cute he was when he smiled. Laurel couldn't understand what Alix saw in a guy as average as Jordan. She couldn't explain it to her friend, either. Someone attracted to a guy who rented XXX videos just wouldn't get it.
Jordan leaned against the wall beside her. "Go ahead and tell me what you've figured out."
Flustered now, Alix suddenly found it difficult to express herself. She faltered and struggled with what she wanted to say and to her utter humiliation, she couldn't do it. In one final attempt to redeem herself, she gestured weakly with her hands and said. "They're cool, you know."
"Cool?" Jordan repeated. "You mean I pick cool movies?"
"Yeah." She wanted to crumple onto the sidewalk and disappear.
"Thank you."
The heat was radiating from her face. "I've got to get back to work," she said gruffly and without another word, she practically ran back into the store.
To make matters worse, Laurel was waiting for her. "How'd it go?" her roommate asked eagerly the instant Alix returned.
Alix glared at her.
Laurel raised both hands. "That bad, huh?"
A sick feeling attacked Alix's stomach. It was like the nausea she'd experienced as a kid when her parents started to fight. That painful sensation used to corrode her stomach - as if she were somehow responsible for every bad thing that had befallen their lives. Jordan might be the same Jordan Turner she'd once known, but there'd been no time to ask. And she couldn't now, not after she'd run away!