A/N: Sabby: Some stuff happening here. Gee how specific, I know. But there's a bit of romance there, until....See for yourselves, Feedback is always appreciated.
A/N: Blue: More pain and stupidity...enjoy!
Chloe was once again sitting at her desk reviewing some ‘facts’ about DeHaven when she heard a high pitched commotion right outside of her office. She needed a break anyway and was curious so she got up to investigate what was going on.
Her secretary, Adele (if she’s been named something else in the course of this fic the author invites you to find it out and tell her cause she’s too lazy to look it up at present), was staring at a huge bouquet of roses that sat atop of her desk. Various other women in the office were gathered around the buds, as well. Most of them asking what she had done to deserve them.
Smiling, Chloe sidled up to her secretary and watched as the other women scattered. It still amazed her to realize that she was fairly high up on the food chain and that she was viewed as someone who shouldn’t see one standing around, doing nothing.
“They are exquisite, Adele,” Chloe said, honestly. The roses were long stemmed and of various colors. “What’s the occasion?”
She looked over at Adele and saw that the other woman had a very confused look on her face. “There isn’t an occasion,” she said slowly. “And he hasn’t messed up in weeks so they can’t be an ‘I’m sorry’ gesture.”
Chloe’s interest was now peaked. “Well, read the card,” she said, gesturing to the square that was among the flowers.
Adele’s face became even more confused, her eyebrows drawing together as she read the card a few times. “I thought so. This is a mistake. The card makes absolutely no sense.”
Without hesitating, she handed it over to Chloe.
Chloe, for her part, did her best to look confused as she read the words. In reality, her heart picked up and she tried not to smile.
I tried to find another man's words to state my sentiment. But even poets seem to have their limit when it comes to such complicated a matter as saying. 'I am sorry, forgive me?'
“He hasn’t done anything wrong so they can’t be from him,” Adele said. Chloe looked back over at her and nodded. “I’d have to agree with you.”
Adele’s phone rang, cutting off their conversation, and Chloe read over the card a few more times. If Lex was apologizing to her that meant that he wasn’t angry for what she had said.
“That was the florist,” Adele said, “They just figured out the mistake but said that I could keep the flowers.” The woman was smiling at the idea.
“That’s wonderful,” Chloe said, handing back the card. “You want this?”
Adele shook her head so Chloe said, “I’ll throw it out.” She turned around and then went back into her office, sure to close the door so Adele wouldn’t see that the card wasn’t thrown into the garbage but slipped into her desk instead.
~~~
Lionel looked at the weekly reports and circled a number with his red pen. Three times. He picked up his phone and called the accounting department. The woman on the other end was very nervous but she was able to inform him that the numbers on the spreadsheet were correct. Lionel put down the phone and rubbed his hand over his eyes. Lex had lost close to a billion dollars in the past week.
Dialing a number from memory, Lionel said, “Ella, please inform Lex that I need a moment with him now.” He didn’t wait for a response before hanging up the phone. After making himself presentable, he walked over to his son’s office.
If he needed any more proof that what had happened between his son and Chloe had deeply affected Lex, the numbers sitting on his desk would have been enough. But he also had the various reports that his son had been acting like a tyrant for the past week. Which wasn’t like him. Yes, he was hard on those that worked alongside of him but he was never unfair.
So, not only had Lionel ruined his son’s personal life with his meddling, he had also managed to start to torpedo his company. It wasn’t the fact that the money had been lost that bothered Lionel so much, it could and would be made back, it was the fact that Lex was so upset by the events that had transpired that he had been unable to function properly.
Lex put the phone back in its cradle and settled back in his chair with a satisfied smirk. Another forty million dollars down the drain. Lionel would be oh so pissed. Good. Even though Lex knew now that the friendship between Chloe and him had not been utterly destroyed by the fight they had to stage a week prior, he was still not about to let go of his ambitions to hurt Lionel financially as well as emotionally.
Truth be told, he didn't think it was possible to hurt the old bastard emotionally, since there hadn't been proof for decades that the man even had emotions to begin with. So, he would hit where it hurt most and that was business.
His secretary had informed him via frantic hand motions and that his father was already on the way. Ah, so he'd paid attention to the numbers on the reports after all. Lex settled back in his seat to wait. He didn't have to wait long. A second later, the door to his office opened with a flourish and Lionel sauntered inside.
“What can I do for you, Lionel,” he decided to forgo any greetings, using his father's first name deliberately.
Lex was in a rare mood, Lionel could tell this instantly. Instead of the usual sneer that accompanied the word ‘father’ there was an even colder tone used when he said his name.
Lionel first closed the door to his son’s office. He didn’t think that Ella was in the habit of speaking to anyone else about what occurred in Lex’s office, she had signed a confidentiality agreement, but he wasn’t about to take the chance. He was going to attempt to speak with Lex on a personal level so he most definitely didn’t want her hearing anything that transpired.
He sat down across from his son and said, “I was concerned when I saw the numbers from last week’s business, Lex.” Lionel decided that he’d try to ease them into this conversation. He half expected to get nowhere with Lex but he had to try.
“Really,” Lex drawled out the single word as he settled deeper into his chair.
This wasn't the outburst he'd expected, but Lionel had been known to build up to his biggest speeches. Well, time to draw the old man out.
“I'm surprised. Concern is a pretty strong sentiment for someone who usually insists on shunning emotional investment completely.” He delivered his statement smoothly, letting his eyes roam over the man in front of him. His resentment must've shown, because for a moment he was sure he saw Lionel's gaze waiver from his own.
Yes, this was going to be difficult. Lex’s body language was screaming ‘fuck off’ but Lionel knew that he would have to soldier on. “I’d agree with you on that, Lex.” He thought he saw Lex react to that sentence but couldn’t be sure. He’d trained his son too well.
“But I am concerned with what your performance in the past week or so means. And not from a business standpoint.” He settled back in his chair. “I don’t have a right to say this and part of me expects to be verbally assaulted for bringing it up but does this have anything to do with Ms. Sullivan?”
When Lex just sat there with no reaction, Lionel knew that Lex was angry and it would only get worse. He went on to say, “The whole floor heard that the two of you had an argument.”
Lex was frozen. There was no other way to describe the icy feeling taking hold of him inside and out. There were no words either that he could think to throw at Lionel's face, because at this moment, his fury ran beyond words. The audacity to bring up Chloe, try to hound him for information even now, after everything.
The complete disregard of Lex's private life and his feelings. The utter insanity of playing the concerned father when Lex knew, knew with every fiber of his being that Lionel was, always, only looking out for himself. The gall to sit there, across from him and act like losing almost a billion dollars was not important.
There were simply no words. Nothing he could say that wouldn't result in incoherent screams of rage as he launched himself over the table to kill Lionel with his bare hands. Lex fought to stay clear enough to not do just that. Disjointedly, he wondered how his mother could ever have married such a man, let alone genuinely loved him.
His son just stared back at him. He had no discernable reaction to what Lionel was saying. But Lionel was not about to be deterred by this. He knew that a break through with Lex was almost out of the question, he’d done and said things to his son that were beyond repair, but this conversation needed to be had.
If only for Lex’s sake. Perhaps he couldn’t see what his fight with Chloe had done to his life. He might still be trying to deny what he felt for the young woman. No matter what the consequences, Lionel had to press on.
“I’m assuming from your silence that I am either totally off base or have hit the nail on the head.” He paused, “Or you are considering which of your desk knick knacks will cause the least amount of splatter when you crack me over the skull with it. Or perhaps a combination of the two.”
He leaned slightly forward. “There are mistakes that we wish we could take back, Lex. Things that we do or say that irrevocably change the course of our lives and when we look back on them….” He trailed off, thinking of every time that he mismanaged the way he had dealt with Lex.
The sound that left his throat couldn't be classified. Lex shook his head, grinding his teeth together to stop the torrent of choice words he had for the other man. He would not make the same mistakes he'd made as a young man, every time he'd been confronted with his father's tactics.
Reining his emotions in tightly, he pushed them down and away as far as possible until the ice that seemed to be flowing through his veins left him numb. There was no emotion, no fury, no hurt, no regrets, nothing.
Slowly, he raised his eyes once more to meet Lionel's gaze, completely in control of himself and what he was saying. “I lost LuthorCorp a billion dollar during the last week. If you came here for punishment, feel free to fire or disown me as you see fit. Otherwise, I have to ask you to leave my office.”
The words had gotten to Lex, that much was clear. But his son still was not about to discuss his feelings with Lionel. And he couldn’t blame Lex for that. Lex had learned from their dealings in the past and wasn’t going to be fool enough to open himself again like that.
“Fair enough,” Lionel said, getting up to his feet. “I hope that making bad deals and spiting me will help with whatever it is that you’re going through. In the unlikely event that you’d like to discuss what is really wrong, you know where to find me.”
It was all that he could do at this juncture. Lex wouldn’t take him up on the offer and would continue to sabotage his life and Lionel could only stand by and watch.
Lex didn't dignify that last barb with a response, instead simply waiting until the door closed until he was up and out of his chair. The numb feeling was fast retreating, his hold on it tenacious and slipping.
He snatched up the remote control from his desk and opened the cabinet, then filled the scotch glass to the brim and emptied it in three quick gulps, then refilled it. It took considerable effort not to smash the glass against the wall.
He still couldn't believe the gall Lionel had had, to come into his office and start poking for information about Chloe. It shouldn't have surprised him, on second thought. Of course Lionel's goals took priority over any and everything.
Lex still didn't know why he wanted to hook the two of them up in the first place, but since the plan had failed so spectacularly, of course Lionel would prod for information and try to figure out where he'd gone wrong so he could 'fix' it, or at least not fail the next time.
Well, he could take his plans and shove them, because this time, Lex wouldn't fall for it and Lionel would be left with nothing but loss and confusion.
“Welcome to my world,” he muttered before finishing the glass.
~~~
Chloe stared at her father’s open door for a moment. She had tried to mentally prepare herself for seeing him first time since she had learned what he had done to her. After taking another deep breath, she walked through his doors.
“Hi dad,” she said, hoping that she sounded as normal as she could under the circumstances. Her father looked up from his desk and she fought the urge to start yelling at him. She thought that might give her away.
“Hey, sweetie.”
Gabe got up from his chair instantly and stepped around it to take Chloe into his arms. He couldn't imagine how much she still had to hurt, even though she had put on her brave persona.
“I am so sorry. I tried to reach you all through last week, are you okay?”
Even if he hadn't known about the stage of Lex and Chloe's relationship, what he'd seen would have been enough to know that this had been a break up. It still hurt him to think about the words the two of them had exchanged and the silent tears his daughter had shed as she ran out of Lex's office.
Chloe did her best to not tense up when her father hugged her and hugged him back. The concern in his voice sickened her. If he hadn’t gotten involved than she wouldn’t be feeling as badly as she did right now.
“I’m fine, dad,” she said. He looked back at her, clearly not believing what she was saying so it was time to put on a show. “It was just too bad that I actually fell for what Lex was selling.” She shook her head and said, “I mean, that I actually thought that he and I could be friends?”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Gabe took a step back, running his hands comfortingly up and down Chloe's arms.
She was trying to be so strong and not let it show. Trying to make it seem less than it was. Playing her own pain down to comfort him. But he wouldn't let her do that. Gabe would be damned to let her revert to the old habit of taking it all inside and bottling it up. “What happened between the two of you?”
Chloe chuckled and said, “Nothing much, dad. Our true natures just came out. Again.” She walked away from him and sat down on the couch on the far side of his office. “We tried to be civil and kind for a few weeks, stamping down who we really were, but it was bound to blow up in our faces.”
“And after what he said about me,” she paused and looked at her father meaningfully, “I don’t want to discuss him or our ill fated friendship.”
She crossed one of her legs over the other and continued. Her father would need a little more than that to let the topic drop. “I will admit that what he said hurt. A lot. But when I realized that he’s just a pompous asshole who truly doesn’t care about anyone else but himself, I got some perspective on the whole thing.” She smiled up at him. “I feel much better now.”
Her father was doing his damnest not to have a reaction to what she was saying. So, she decided to change things up on him. “And, what about you? How are you? Did you ask out Celeste yet?”
Gabe was too gobsmacked to reply for a minute. He couldn't imagine that the same people who'd been getting along so well, seemed to have fallen in love with each other, would suddenly realize that they couldn't be civil to each other. That didn't make sense. Chloe and Lex hadn't fought at all since that first time in the elevator. There had to be something else at the bottom of this.
Obviously though, Chloe wouldn't talk about it and he would have to let it drop for now, or risk that she ran out of his office and shut down completely again.
“Celeste doesn't work here anymore,” he said instead. “She was only hired on a temporary contract and that ran out,” he answered honestly.
During the last week, Gabe hadn't even thought about the woman. He'd been too preoccupied worrying about his daughter and wallowing in the misery that the fall out of Lionel and his plan had caused.
“Is there anything I can do for you, sweetheart?”
No matter what it took, Gabe would do it. If it would make his daughter feel better, he'd throw himself off the Empire State building or climb Mount Everest.
You can stop calling me sweetheart you manipulative bastard
Thankfully, Chloe had not said that outloud. What interested her most was the fact that Celeste no longer worked here. She was fairly certain after her and Lex’s performance that the woman had been canned. Good, served the bitch right. Maybe that meant that if she and Lex were very careful, they could see each other again.
Turning back to her father’s question, she waved a hand at him, “Nothing at all. I really am ok, dad. You don’t have to worry about me getting over this fight with Lex.” She locked eyes with him. “I’m done with Lex Luthor, mark my words.”
~~~
Less than twelve hours later, Chloe stood on Lex’s back porch and wondered what in the hell she was doing there. True, she had waited until the dead of night to make her move and she didn’t think that anyone was watching her anymore but she knew that this was crazy.
She was like a junkie that would do anything for a fix. But she didn’t think that analogy was too far off. Even though both she and Lex had made amends for their fight in a stealthy manner, she still felt the need to see his face when she apologized.
She didn’t want to use his front door because that could be seen by anyone who happened to be on the main road. So, that left her outside his sliding glass door. She had knocked a few times but doubted that Lex would be able to hear that if he were asleep.
Shrugging, she tried the door itself and was not surprised to find it locked. Because she knew that it might come to this, she had brought some tools with her. Chloe had picked up some interesting skills while investigating some of her stories and was now quite adept at picking locks.
After a few stalled tries, the lock gave and she quietly stepped into Lex’s house. She was thinking that that had been far too easy when she heard a whooshing noise above her head. Before she could ascertain what was happening, she found herself enclosed in what appeared to be a steel cage.
Chloe heard a vaguely female robotic voice saying, “Intruder, Intruder,” and she started to groan as she lightly rested her head on the bar that was closest to her.
Lex was jerked out of his restless sleep by the alarms going off around his room. Instantly awake, he jumped out of his bed and grabbed the nearest pair of pants, forgoing anything else. A quick routing through the bedside table brought out his gun. It wasn't loaded, but whoever had made the mistake of intruding wouldn't know that.
Opening the door cautiously, he peered out into the hallway. The lights had automatically gone on, illuminating the entire lower level of the house, where the breach had happened.
Hoisting the gun, he stalked through the hallway into the open area of the living room, where he could see the cage that had dropped from the faux ceiling in front of the veranda doors. Good to know that his contraption worked.
The hand holding his gun fell to his side as he stepped closer and finally saw the 'intruder' inside the cage. The blonde head lifted slightly from its position against the steel bars and she twiddled her fingers at him in greeting.
Lex lifted his free hand and ran it over his face, covering his mouth. For a moment, he was torn between getting her out of the cage or going for the Canon digital cam he kept in his office and taking a picture first.
Lowering his hand he stepped up to the cage. There was only one question on his mind.
“Just what the hell are you doing here?” he asked, attempting to stifle the chuckle that was trying to escape.
Chloe leaned back and struck a pose of pure casualness. “I was just in the neighborhood and thought that I’d stop by.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Nice security system. Glad to see that it works.”
Lex kept standing there and looking at her. “Oh, for god’s sake, get me the hell out of here.” When he started to laugh at her she said, “This is clearly not funny.” However, she had started to laugh during her last sentence.
He approached the cage and she said, “Is a steel cage really necessary, Lex? You find many ninjas trespassing in the ‘burbs?”
Lex shrugged casually, entering the code necessary to open the lock on the cage. “It's practical. Whoever intrudes is contained before they can either steal, or destroy anything.”
He swung the door open and stepped back a little to give Chloe room to get out of the cage. “No one gets hurt, and I don't have to depend on the police to 'rescue' me.”
It was good to see her again. But damn risky. What if they were still followed by Celeste? Lex had never taken the time to actually find out of that was the case. Chloe could have just brought down their entire plan. Scarier to Lex, though, was the fact that a part of him was already asking if he even cared.
“Right,” Chloe said, stepping out of the cage, “why would you want professionally trained people whose salary you pay with your taxes doing their jobs? It’s sheer lunacy.”
She shook her head at the thought of Lex, instead of calling the people, keeping an intruder in the cage until he had gotten all of the necessary information out of him. Or her, as the case may be. “What if I had been armed?”
Thinking a little more about it, she added, “You could have gotten yourself hurt.”
Arching a brow, Lex lifted his gun hand. “I wouldn't have come close enough to the cage to get hurt if I hadn't recognized you,” he explained simply.
Not to mention, this was the first time that the alarm system had actually become necessary. He'd chosen a good, secure neighborhood. The chance that someone broke were pretty low, given the private security patrols... that should actually have picked up on Chloe. He'd have to take care of that at a later date.
“You're crazy, you know that, right?”
He still couldn't believe she'd broken into his house, just to see him. It felt damn good to be cared about like that. Over the week he'd gone through several stages of withdrawal, and with the talk he'd had with his father, just that morning, he'd reverted to old habits and downed almost half a bottle of scotch.
Thankfully, the effect of the alcohol had worn off over the course of several hours in the LuthorCorp gym. He'd driven home almost sober and spent the rest of his day brooding over effective new ways to make his father's life hell. So far, he hadn't come up with much.
Chloe crossed her arms across her chest and said, “I prefer the term not of sound mind and body, thank you very much.” She smiled as she looked over at him. The smile faded a little when she looked at him more closely. He didn’t look like hell, exactly, but he looked haggard.
Then again, she’d wager that she wasn’t looking her best either. “And if my bout of insanity is too much for a stable minded person such as yourself to put up with,” she started to back up towards the front door, “I could just go…..”
She knew that Lex would pick up on the fact that she was just teasing him so Chloe wasn’t concerned that he’d let her walk out of his house. Chloe heard a small tinkling sound and turned her head towards it. Her mouth dropped open and she said, “You put a bell on her?”
Thora was sitting up on the couch, assessing the situation before her. Hanging from her collar was a tiny bell. “Lex, that is just the….” She stopped herself before she said, ‘cutest thing in the world.’ That would get her thrown out on her ass.
Lex shoved the gun in the back of his pants, gritting his teeth as the cold metal hit skin. Bruce Willis never seemed to have that problem. He stepped up to Thora where she was sprawled on the couch, once again Queen of all she surveyed. A smirk on his face, he reached out to scratch her under her chin as she turned curious eyes first on Chloe then back on him.
“Well, in true fashion of the women in my life, she made an attempt at killing me, so I had to make sure it didn't happen again.”
Off of Chloe's look he explained. “The first morning after the Martinsen kids brought her by she snuck between my legs and I almost broke my neck trying not to step on her.”
That had been a rather bad way of waking up. On the upside, it had taken him only one cup of coffee to get going, since his adrenalin had been pumping high even before the first sip.
“I hardly think that that constitutes as trying to kill you, Lex,” Chloe said as she made her way over to the couch. She gingerly sat down, careful not to jostle the content looking cat, and then addressed Thora. “He’s a big ole baby if he thinks that’s attempted murder, isn’t he?”
Thora appeared to be listening to her as she turned her head towards Chloe, her big, blue eyes focusing on her. She moved and started to rub her head against Chloe’s arm. Sighing, Chloe gave in and scratched the cat behind her ears.
Chloe still couldn’t believe her good luck in finding the cat. Even though she could afford it, it seemed crazy to spend upwards of 1500 dollars on a cat, even if it were a pure breed. And there was no way that she was going to buy a cat from a pet shop. Which had left her hoping for a cat to just fall in her lap.
The ad in the paper was a godsent. The family was giving away the kittens because it seemed as if they thought in the same way that Chloe did. Plus, Thora wasn’t a blue blood through and through. But Chloe had known she was perfect the second she had seen her.
Thora had been sitting up properly, looking like a sphinx, and watching her brothers and sisters play with one another. After a small amount of time, she had joined in the fray and been just as mischievous as the rest of them. She was perfect for Lex.
Chloe could also see that she already had Lex wrapped around her little paw. There were various toys scattered around the living room and Thora’s simple collar had been replaced with a designer one. And Chloe would bet anything that the bell which adorned the collar was made out of platinum.
“You were just trying to give him some love and look how he takes it?” Thora was purring loudly now as Chloe ran her hand down her back. “See, she agrees with me. Besides, I never tried to kill you. Isn’t that right, you spoiled kitty?”
Lex watched Chloe sucking it up to Thora and couldn't help but quirk a grin. Someone was trying very hard to get in her highness' good graces. Within the last few days Lex had already figured out the list of people she did and didn't like. It amused him to no end that Thora seemed to favor older women, children and men. She hated the woman that delivered the mail with a vengeance, but was putting all the works into buttering up the milkman with her feline 'charms'.
“Point taken,” he finally offered to Chloe's last comment. “Let's call it an unfortunate household accident then and rest the case.”
Lex leaned over the back of the couch, bracing his weight on his forearms as he watched the interaction between cat and woman. The two of them seemed to be getting along just fine. Which gave him the opportunity to get back on the other topic at hand.
“Now, if you're done sucking up to my cat. Are you going to tell me why you are really here,” he asked again, this time elaborating. “We don't know if Lionel's still got his henchwoman on our cases, this could be risking the entire plan.” He kept his voice smooth and neutral, not wanting to send the cat scattering.
By now he'd also figured out that Thora had a low tolerance for shouting and brash movements. It had been a painful lesson to learn, to say the least.
Chloe shook her head at Lex’s implication that she was sucking up to Thora. She’d had the cat for a day before giving her to Lex so she knew the cat already liked her. But she’d address the more important issue at hand.
“I’d like to think you’d give me enough credit to know that I wouldn’t be here if that were the case,” she said. Part of her couldn’t blame Lex for thinking that she would just barge ahead without any thought, but their plan was a little too important for her to ruin on one of her whims.
“Celeste has been fired,” she said simply. Thora pulled away from her and slinked over to where Lex was still leaning over the couch. She stared up at him until he started petting her. Chloe did her best to not make a kitty whipped joke. “My father informed me of that fact and then I did some checking of my own. She’s off of our case.”
Even though Chloe knew that, though, she’d still been careful to make sure that she hadn’t been followed. “And as to why I’m here,” she looked over at Lex and said, “I didn’t want our last meeting to be the last memory I had of you. I’m sorry for what I said and I needed you to hear that from me.”
Lex nodded silently to accept Chloe's apology. “It wasn't my intention to insult you,” he clarified as he straightened up smirking as Thora actually rose up to follow his hand before sinking back onto the cushions with narrowed eyes. “And I'm sorry as well,” he continued. “What I said to you, there's no excuse for it. And I just want you to know that I didn't mean it.”
Incredibly, he felt a lot better now that the words were actually out in the open between them. It reassured him that everything had not been lost and he hadn't ruined the only real friendship he'd found in years because of his own vicious streak.
However, he still felt himself at a bit of an impasse, not used to making heartfelt apologies in the dead of night, wearing nothing but a pair of dress slacks and with a gun warming up against the small of his back. In fact, it all just felt a bit surreal.
“Do you want something to drink?”
It was a shabby excuse to get at least some normalcy back into the conversation and this entire situation.
Chloe looked at her watch and then back up at Lex. She wanted to stay but she didn’t think that it would be a good idea. She had an early meeting and was certain that Lex did, too. Even if he didn’t, he’d still be up at the crack of dawn to get work done. Besides, she had a long day. She had loads of work to do and then after work……
“I really shouldn’t stay,” she admitted. “It’s already late.” Chloe reluctantly rose to her feet. “I have a long day at work full of meetings and pouring over more documents on DeHaven.”
She knew that she could figure this fucker out if she really threw herself into it but she was just about ready to burn all of her notes on the man in effigy. “And then after work,” she paused, feeling a little strange as how to properly put what she needed to say, “I’m going on a date.”
The news hit him from left field. So much for making the situation less surreal. It shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise to him, all things considered. After all, this was just another side effect of them not being together anymore. Raising his chin he took the news with calm facade.
“Then I guess you really should be going,” he answered. “After all, we don't want you falling asleep on your desk.” He smirked as he shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “Or your date.”
Chloe faked a chuckle. It was too weird having this conversation with Lex. Even though she knew that she wasn’t doing anything wrong, it still felt as if she were. Mirroring Lex’s stance, she shoved her hands in her pockets before looking back up at him.
“No, we really couldn’t have that. Not even I could talk my way out of taking a nap during dinner.” But she didn’t think that it was a real worry. She knew that she’d be too keyed up to relax, let alone actually fall asleep on her date.
“Or, when we go dancing, explain to him why he’s got to carry me around.” She started walking towards the sliding glass door and Lex followed her silently. She wished that he would say something.
It felt like Chloe was fishing for something, though for what, he couldn't tell and honestly, didn't have the energy to try and guess at this time of night. Especially not with the kind of day he'd had. So instead, he simply kept stepping towards her as she kept stepping towards the veranda doors and let the silence fall between them.
When he opened the doors for her to step outside, he used the excuse to steady her, before she fell over the doorstep, to take hold of her arm. “Take care, Chloe,” he voiced sincerely, then decided to continue in a lighter tone. “Be sure he's a good dancer or he might end up having to carry you either way.”
“I will, Lex,” she murmured as she stepped out of his house. Chloe had come over here to make sure things between herself and Lex were ok but she felt as if she’d made things worse.
When Lex let go of her arm, she fumbled around for a second before she was able to grab hold of his hand. She looked up at him, hoping that she would know what to say…but she didn’t. Instead, she just gave his hand a squeeze and then disappeared into the night.
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I don't like that. I want Lex to go after her and say no we should go out. 
I just really wish for them to stop acting like teenagers xD 
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