“If you think that, then you must be truly stupid!” Alexis is nearly shouting now, and the altercation has attracted some curious onlookers.
Shit.
“Alexis, come on.” I grab her arm, but Alexis wrenches herself free.
“No!” she booms. “Not before I give this bitch a taste of her own medicine.”
“I’m so scared,” Felicity mocks.
Alexis lurches forward, but I snake an arm around her waist and drag her back, hissing in her ear, “Calm down. You’re making a fucking scene.”
Alexis wriggles in my grasp at first, but soon stops and looks around, blinking. Cameras flash from every corner of the room. She pales.
“Come on,” I whisper, guiding her outside. I call David and tell him to be waiting out front.
“That heinous bitch,” Alexis mutters, stomping down the front steps. “Who the fuck does she think she is?”
I don’t say anything. I’m caught between wanting to yell at Alexis and wanting to push her up against the wall and kiss her.
I’m impressed by how well she held her own, and how far she was willing to go to put Felicity in her place. I have no doubt that Alexis would have torn the older woman apart in a fight. Felicity talks a big game, but she always gets somebody else to do the heavy lifting for her.
But tonight was not the time or the place. The whole point of us going to this event was so we could be photographed together as a happy couple. I’m surprised Carmen isn’t calling me already to read out a list of damages.
The town car pulls up, and I open the door for Alexis. She and the dark cloud over her head get inside, and I follow. David starts to drive.
“What the fuck was that?” I ask.
Alexis looks over at me, frowning. “What do you mean? She disrespected me. She disrespected both of us.”
I scrub a hand through my hair and shake my head. “You shouldn’t have risen to the bait. Now I’m going to have to clean up your mess.”
Alexis gasps. “You’re one to talk! You’re constantly getting into some sort of trouble with the press. How dare you!”
“But I kept my composure!” I snap. “If I could keep my shit together, so could you. The point is that I’m trying very hard not to get in trouble with the press, and if I have to start worrying about how you’ll react in public, I’m fucked.”
“She brought up my father and Clara in the same conversation,” Alexis argues. “What was I supposed to do?”
“You were supposed to walk away,” I bite out. “You’re a mafioso’s woman now. You need to be made of sturdier stuff than that, Alexis. People are going to test you. Felicity just did, and you failed massively.”
Alexis huffs and crosses her arms, looking out the window, muttering something under her breath.
“What was that?” I ask.
She spins to face me, snarling, “I said, maybe I don’t want to be a mafioso’s woman!”
Her words sting more than I would have anticipated. They are just another reminder that although she is back in my life, things are not the same as they used to be. Perhaps they never will be again.
Both of us stare out the window for the rest of the drive home.
18
Alexis
I type away on my laptop, listening to the distant traffic sounds that whisper through the window from the street far below. My eye strays to the folded newspaper on the corner of my desk, but I force myself to look back at my screen. It wouldn’t do any good to read it again. Plus, I have a load of work to do.
I keep typing. Keep glancing. Finally, I give in with a sigh and slide the newspaper in front of me, opening to the picture of the gorgeous, angry girl in the black dress.
A TALE OF TWO TEMPERS, it reads.
I’m so annoyed that the press has used my spectacle from two days ago as a way to remind the public of Gabriel’s previous outbursts that I can’t even enjoy the Dickens reference. The article makes it seem like I freaked out over nothing, which I suppose is how it would have appeared to an outsider. It’s not like I can set them straight either.
I groan and ball up the paper, tossing it in the recycling bin a few feet away. I miss. I swear.
My receptionist buzzes before I can get up to retrieve the paper, announcing that Clara has arrived. I tell her to let Clara in and try to grasp