The Tipping Point (R)

[daria_103]

Just re-reading this wonderful fic and it seems to stick on page 11, won't let me go any further?

[lovelyfishbones]

Just re-reading this wonderful fic and it seems to stick on page 11, won't let me go any further?

Nope, you got us to page 12! But that does not seem to do us much good. I think it's time we call for help.

[jstarr713]

yeah it won't let me past either

[Emch]

Always a pleasure to reread one of your fics, Love it

[mama_kat]

just love this story!

[Julie]

MISSING CHAPTERS. These were written by the original thread author, I am just re-posting them since they were missing

Lex helped Felicity out of the car and followed her up the steps that led into the apartment building. They’d reached the end of their date and he spared a moment to think about what to do next. It was the classic moment of decision between “coming up for coffee” and “I’ll give you a call, good night” with the matching kiss for whichever path you chose.

He’d very rarely ended a date the latter way.

When Felicity looked at Lex she knew that he wasn’t going to go quietly into that dark night….or whatever the saying was, without at least a kiss. She took out her keys and when she looked back up at him, he was leaning in.

She placed one of her hands on his shoulder as he softly kissed her once. And then again. And then again a little more aggressively.

Her brows drew together as he wrapped an arm around her body. He couldn’t think that this was a good idea. Hell, the kiss wasn’t even all that enjoyable. Once he stepped it up again, she pushed away.

“Ok, no. Not going to happen.” He looked at her a little confused. “Come on, you can’t pretend like you’re even remotely turned on at this moment.”

Lex pulled back and shook his head once, to clear it. What the hell was wrong here? Felicity was an attractive woman. Not the model type, but the type you’d wake up next to in the morning and still think she looked great. The initial kiss had been lacking a little fire, so he’d stepped it up. But there’d still been nothing.

And her caustic comment had been right on the mark. Physically, he wasn’t even remotely turned on.
“Well, that’s never happened.”

Lex wasn’t the type to be insecure. Not anymore. But it irked him to be faced with a conundrum that seemed to be without a plausible reason, or solution. The date had gone well. They’d had pleasant conversation, seemed to be of the same mind on important subjects, and as far as physical appearance went, everyone would have agreed that Felicity was Lex’s type.

Since he was on a date with a certified shrink, she probably had an answer to the question that was going through his mind now.

“What went wrong here?”

Lex’s tone had changed a little. He was demanding an answer. And she was inclined to give it to him but she got the distinct impression that he didn’t want to hear it.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Lex nodded once. “Ok, fine, but please remember that I asked you.” It seemed a little strange to be having this conversation on her front stoop but so be it.

“You’re clearly enamored with this Chloe person.” Lex actually recoiled and shook his head a few times.

This was ridiculous. Lex couldn’t believe she’d just said that. She didn’t even know Chloe. How could she say that he was in love with her? Why did everybody insist that his feelings were of a nature they most certainly weren’t?

It seemed that, since Chloe had admitted she was in love with him, naturally, he had to be in love with her, too. And everyone was in on it. Even Felicity, who didn’t even know Chloe.

“And how did you come to that conclusion?” Because that leap of logic most certainly escaped him.

Felicity sighed. She knew that he wasn’t just going to take her answer, thank her and then toddle off into the night. “Because you can’t stop talking about her, because of the look on your face when you do, because of the tone of your voice, your body language and because of how defensive you’re getting.”

He started to talk but she wasn’t having any of that. “Look, if it was so ludicrous, you wouldn’t even have asked me that question. You would have laughed and called me insane. Instead you’re asking what it is that I see that makes me draw that conclusion.”

She paused. “Which leads me to believe that others have said the same thing. Am I right?”

Lex shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket. Of course he could lie to her face now and deny that anyone had ever brought it up. Unfortunately, Felicity hadn’t made her degree at some little hick town university and Lex had a feeling she’d be able to call him on his lie.

“A few of our common friends have made the same misinterpretation of my feelings towards Chloe.”

Clark and Lana had called a few of the same things Felicity just had. It was still just misconceptions. So he mentioned her in conversations, and maybe he smiled more when he talked about Chloe, but that was simply because she was a lot of fun to be around: and Lex usually didn’t smile much, so it stood out when he did.

“A few, huh,” she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Or all of them? Lex, this bullshit and dancing around a question may work with the people around you who are worried about upsetting you but it’s not going to work with me.”

This was a waste of her time. She couldn’t convince Lex that she was right. She just was and he needed to deal with it.

He’d become stiller and stiller. She knew that she was hitting him close to home.

“I’d even bet that you’ve lost friends over this. One of them perhaps not backing down, hmmm?” Lex’s jaw clenched and he looked away.

“Listen, I’m tired and I want to go to bed so excuse my abruptness. I didn’t think that I’d have to work tonight. I’m only telling you this to save you time.”

Lex was now leaning against the railing of her stairs. He hadn’t stomped off yet so she took it as a good sign. “Every date will go the same way. Sure, you might be able to strike up enough interest to fuck your way through half the town before you realize this on your own but that seems so stupid to do. This Chloe means something to you. Don’t fight it. Go and get her before it’s too late.”

She made a shooing motion. “Like now.”

Lex didn’t move. “Ok, I’m done here. Goodnight.”

Lex watched in parts confusion and parts morbid fascination as Felicity turned the key, stepped into the building and closed the door.

If she treated her patients like this, he was surprised that she was still in business.

Then again, at least she’d not used the run of the mill psycho babble that most therapists liked to apply.

And she’d been right on the mark about the reaction of his friends.

But still, wouldn’t he know if he was in love with Chloe? He would, he was sure.

It wasn’t that he didn’t love Chloe.

She was his best friend. She could make him laugh like no other.

Lex slowly walked down the steps and got back into his car.

True, if given the choice, he’d rather spend his time with Chloe than pretty much anyone else he knew.

He turned the key in the ignition and pulled out onto the street, not really with a direction in mind. It was only eleven and he had nowhere to be.

Lex thought about the fact that the kiss with Felicity had done nothing for him. There had to be a more feasible reason than ‘You’re in love with Chloe’.

Scientifically, it was all about chemistry. Maybe that was all it was. There had been no chemistry between Andrea and him either. So, what he had to do was try to find someone who he did have that chemistry with.

Unbidden, a memory came back: discordant notes on a piano, warm lips and a quicksilver tongue.

Lex blew a red light, missing a crossing car by no more than a couple inches and the memory was gone with the shock.

“Fuck.”

He slowed down and paid more attention to traffic.

So, he needed to find someone he had chemistry with.

That shouldn’t be too hard. He could hook up with any woman he set his mind on.

‘Fuck yourself through half the town before you realize…’

“That’s just ridiculous.”

Lex would know if he was in love with Chloe. If he was, he wouldn’t put her through all this misery.

“Except the misery can’t be that great when she’s dating pocket protector Dexter.”

Since he was on the right hand lane anyway, he took a random right. Metropolis was set up on a grid and he was going in the opposite direction of Suicide Slums, so it didn’t matter.

He wondered where Chloe had gone on her date. Dexter had probably taken her to some upscale restaurant and a play somewhere up in the art district.

Lex remembered that one horrible avant-garde play they’d seen, a few months ago. They’d ended up going to a late night movie special of Star Wars to make up for it.

His cell phone still hadn’t buzzed. She was probably having too much fun with Dexter.

Lex sneered and took a left. A quick look at the signs told him he was heading towards the interstate.

He’d just have to find a date that he had chemistry with. Some woman that wouldn’t leave him feeling absolutely nothing when they kissed.

Lex shifted into fifth as he hit the road out of Metropolis and towards Smallville. There was no reason to keep going around the city when he had a two hour drive home ahead of him.

~~

A half hour outside Smallville and he was still trying to work out how it was possible that everyone thought he was in love with Chloe when he was sure that he really wasn’t.

And he wasn’t much closer to finding the perfect lab rat for his little theory on chemistry. Every woman he’d thought of so far had resulted in an instant “no” from some part of him.

There needed to be a fail-safe way to get his answer once and for all and prove that they were all wrong and he was right.

Lex was still surprised about the absolute lack of chemistry with Felicity. He knew what people said about him, and some narcissistic part of him wasn’t above agreeing: Usually, he had chemistry with everything, including inanimate objects.

Going on that, it must have been Felicity.

Of course to prove that theory, he still needed a girl to kiss.

Unfortunately, Smallville wasn’t known for its red-light district.

Which left one option.

Lex winced as he looked at his wrist watch, but there was really nothing for it.

He pulled onto Mainstreet and took a left from there heading towards the community of town houses.

~~

The incessant banging on the door was really getting annoying. And a little scary. It didn’t appear as if whoever was at the door was about to go away so she went down to answer it. However, she also brought a baseball bat with her. Could never be too careful in Smallville.

She flicked on the light and then peered through the peephole. She was confused at what she saw. Bat still loosely in one hand she threw open the door.

“Lex, what are you doing here? It’s almost one in the morning.”

The bat stayed in her hand when she saw Lex. The last time she’d seen him hadn’t been pleasant but it didn’t compare to now. He looked harried and freaked out and just plain not himself.

Which was why she doubted the two words that fell from his mouth. Maybe that parasite thing from a few years ago was sucking on his brain stem at the moment.

Lex took in her confused expression and the way her hand tightened on the baseball bat she was holding.

“It’s not meteor related, so you can put that bat away.”

When Lana still didn’t move, he tried to explain. “I’ve been confronted with a quasi-chemical problem by the shrink I went on a date with tonight and I am trying to solve it analytically, so would you please put that bat away and kiss me?”

He needed to know and he couldn’t possibly wait until he’d arranged and gone through another date to find out. It was too much to ask for in terms of time and effort to get the answer to his question. Lana wasn’t exactly the perfect test subject, but she’d have to do. She was a standard model American female in the age group between 21 and 26, straight and as far as he knew Democrat, which didn’t exactly figure into it but was good to know for future purposes.

And she still hadn’t answered him, or moved to oblige for that matter.

“No way in hell,” Lana said, recoiling and backing into her house. Lex was holding on to sanity by a thin thread, she could see that but she still wasn’t going to make out with him because of a bad date.

Lex had followed her into her house and closed the door behind him. He looked all business and Lana knew that he was serious about the whole thing. She could also see that the man was desperate. It hung around him like a cloud.

She placed the bat on the couch and stood her ground. “Why don’t you go and kiss Chloe? From what I hear it wouldn’t be the first time.”

That hit Lex like a smack in the face. “You know…Clark. Of course you know.”

Wonderful. Did anyone not know? Felicity probably would have known, too, if she’d stayed on her front steps for another five minutes instead of closing the door in his face.

Lex shook his head, trying to stay on track. “Look, what happened between Chloe and me that night was a one time thing, a mistake, we both agreed on that.”

He started pacing the length of Lana’s living room as he wrapped things up into an easily understandable summary for the girl on the couch. “The issue at hand is that I am trying to disprove this whole ‘The kiss with the shrink didn’t do it, therefore you must be in love with Chloe’ theory. Just because I didn’t have chemistry with Felicity, doesn’t mean it was my fault, or that I’m in love with Chloe.”

He turned around and looked directly at Lana. “Never mind that kissing Chloe would be the worst thing I could do, considering she’s in love with me and would inevitably get the wrong message, don’t you think?”

Lex couldn’t believe he was actually forced to state the obvious. Lana was usually a little smarter than that.

God, this was terribly, tragically funny. “No, because I don’t think it would go that way. I think that once you kissed her that you’d stop being an idiot. You don’t want to kiss me, Lex. And I doubt that you wanted to kiss whomever it was that you were out with tonight.”

Sure, Lex might think that he wanted to kiss that woman or any other random woman but he was wrong. It wouldn’t work out. Because now Chloe was in his head and Lex was nothing if not obsessive.

“Course,” Lana muttered as she sat down on the couch, “Chloe’s lips might be otherwise engaged.”

Lex sneered and turned for another round of pacing in front of the couch. “No need to remind me of Dexter. Not that I don’t think it’s not good that she’s on a date.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “But seriously, this isn’t a movie, I’m not going to go over there, kiss her and suddenly realize I’ve been in love with her all along or whatever the going cliché is.”

He exhaled a long breath. Things like that didn’t happen in real life. If he was in love with Chloe, he’d have known. They would have dated, he would have proposed and things would have inevitably downward spiraled right into disaster. That was how life worked.

“You’re right,” Lana said, wearily. “You’re not going to go over there and do anything. Instead, you’re going to torpedo the relationship that you have with her now. Rationalizing that you’re no good anyway so she’s better off without you.”

“So, fine, you want to make out with me so you have one more thing to beat yourself up about, saddle up, cowboy.”

Lana looked over at him and then patted the space next to her.

Suddenly, it felt a lot like he was the test subject in this analysis.

But Lex would not be deterred by her standoffish attitude and her insufficient attempts at being patronizing and mocking. He’d been ridiculed a great many times in his life and this was nothing.

“If you could refrain from using heartland American phrases, it would be greatly appreciated.”

He settled down next to her on the couch and leaned in.

Lana reflexively leaned back and he was tempted to roll his eyes. Instead he reached out a hand, slowly and placed it around the back of her neck.

The kiss was careful, at first. The baseball bat was still between them on the couch, and he didn’t want to spook her into using it.

He tried to get that reaction that was supposed to come with a good kiss. That pleasant warm feeling that promised arousal.

All he got was a wet tongue that hesitantly stubbed against his own.

Lana was doing her best not to gag. She supposed Lex was good at this but them kissing was wrong on so many levels. And upsetting and stupid and she didn’t see why Lex wasn’t getting any of that. She kept her eyes open and just waited for it to be over.

Lex’s hand tightened around her neck and he leaned in a little more. His tongue in her mouth, his body beside her and his very presence seemed overwhelming to her.

She only kissed him back a little so he couldn’t say that she didn’t try. All in all it was the worst kiss of her entire life and she almost breathed a sigh of relief when Lex pulled away from her. The look on his face was priceless.

“I can see that I rocked your world about as much as you did mine. Listen, Mrs. Frank is probably still up next door, she loves infomercials, tell her I said ‘hi’ before you jam your tongue down her throat.” Lana had a sinking feeling that Lex wasn’t going to stop this insanity until he got the desired results. He’d go door to door if he had to.

He was about to respond when their attention was drawn to the kitchen. Lana’s cell phone was ringing. She knew by the tone that it was Chloe. “It’s her. Do you want to get it or should I?”

Lex was still trying to cope with the fact that it hadn’t worked. He’d been absolutely sure that it was just Felicity. Right up to the point where he’d kissed Lana and felt nothing. Zero. Not even the slightest stir of anything other than a great gaping nothing. He might as well have kissed the morning paper.

Being that he wasn’t answering her question, or moving for that matter, Lana decided that she had to answer the phone. She crossed to the kitchen and hit the green button before it went to voicemail.

“Hey,” she said. Lana paused as she listened to Chloe’s question. “Yeah, I couldn’t exactly sleep,” she said, looking over at Lex. He was just sitting there, blinking and breathing but not doing much else.

“How was the date?” Lana ignored Lex, she wanted to hear what Chloe had to say but moved a little further away from Lex. It was pretty quiet in the house and Lex could probably hear what Chloe was saying…if he wasn’t too busy totally spacing out.

As the question penetrated his brain, he came back to himself.

It hadn’t worked. Kissing Lana hadn’t worked. And Lana was the supposed focus group; which meant that if it hadn’t worked, she wasn’t the right focus group anymore. But it was impossible. This whole fucking situation was impossible and had just now become intolerable.

He could go about this the illogical way and try to find other women, but the crux of the matter was excluding one woman so it would be completely ridiculous to go through all others first. He just had to prove now that he was right.

As of yesterday, well, the day before yesterday technically speaking, Chloe hated him anyway so he didn’t have much to lose.

Lex got up from the couch and straightened his jacket. “Tell her I’m coming over.”

On his way to the door he added, “And that Dexter had better be gone when I get there.”

Lex was not in the mood to deal with a wannabe big shot lawyer while he was trying to prove a point. Especially not if that point proved to be the final moments of a friendship.

Lana gaped at her front door as it shut. She heard Chloe’s voice on the other end of the line, questioning what was going on, was there a guy there and that Lana had better dish what she had.

“Um, Chloe, I have a few things to tell you and you’re not going to like any of them so please save your screaming until the end of the call.” With that, Lana sat down at her kitchen table and proceeded to explain what had happened in the past ten minutes.
Lex parked his car at the sidewalk and headed straight for the front door. As luck would have it, the old guy from the third floor was just coming out with his dachshund, so Lex was able to get right in and up to Chloe’s apartment door. He rang the bell twice and waited for her to answer.

Lana had probably told her everything that had happened, so he knew she wouldn’t be happy, but he had to put an end to this insanity.

Chloe had been sitting on her couch trying to figure out what in the hell was going on in Lex’s head when she heard someone banging on her door. She let out a sigh and padded across her small apartment to open it.

Unsurprisingly it was the man of the hour. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re here for but before you come in I think we should both agree on the fact that your tongue stays in your mouth.” Chloe was still trying to deal with the fact that Lex had kissed Lana for some reason.

She wasn’t mad but that’s because she was fairly certain that she was in shock.

Lex let the barb roll off his back. He wasn’t even surprised that she was blocking his entry.

“Look, I know Lana probably made it sound like I’ve gone completely mad.” He cocked his head to the side and leaned in a little further so he could lower his voice. “Or possibly she blamed it on meteorite related issues, but I’m really just here to sort this thing out once and for all.”

He paused, waiting for Chloe to let him into the apartment. She didn’t move an inch.

“So, can I come in please?”

She didn’t disguise the fact that she was surprised by his use of the word ‘please.’ It was a word that Lex often had a problem with. The phrase ‘thank you’ was even harder for him.

But that wasn’t what made Chloe let him in. Getting this sorted out once and for all sounded pretty good to her at this point.

Her date with Dexter had been nice and she was inclined to see him again. But her fight with Lex had been niggling her for the past few days. It was this omnipresent cloud over her life. So, if they could get that, and all of their other issues laid to rest it would be worth it.

Unfortunately, she didn’t think that Lex wanted to hear about which way she was leaning. The way they were now wasn’t healthy for either of them.

“Sure,” she said and stepped aside to let him in. As usual, she could tell that he didn’t approve of where she lived and her tiny living space. But she wasn’t made of money as was the man in the Armani suit who now seated himself on her used couch.

“So,” she said after a moment of silence, “how do we go about sorting this out?”

Lex ignored the way the couch was trying to swallow him and focused on how to get to the crux of the matter as fast as possible.

“Are you aware that, ever since you made your feelings for me known, Clark and Lana have been trying to convince me that I return those feelings?”

It was best to get all the crucial data out there, so she knew where he was coming from before she agreed to be a test subject, or ripped his head off.

“In addition to that, I had a date tonight. With a shrink. She also insisted that I am in love with you but deeply in denial. Her diagnosis was based on the fact that I talk about you, apparently in a certain manner unusual for friends. I also, in her opinion, exert a different body language and expression while I talk about you. The last checkmark on her mental tally was when I kissed her, and nothing happened.”

Looked at it from this point of view the diagnosis seemed shaky at best, ludicrous at worst. That was the reason Lex was here right now, trying to disprove it with the simplest methods possible.

“Considering my history, the idea is preposterous. Therefore I tried to disprove it with Lana. Surprisingly, the results weren’t as I had expected.”

He looked over to see if Chloe was still following his explanations or needed clarification on any part of it.

Chloe shook her head. Even though Lex had given it up years ago, he was still a scientist at heart. But he didn’t get that he could kiss as many women as he wanted, her included, and that wasn’t going to give him an answer.

“Just because you don’t physically feel anything when you kiss another woman doesn’t mean anything, Lex.” She leaned back in her chair. “I’m not going to help you out by kissing you, either.” She looked over at him.

“It’s not about what it feels like when you kiss me. It’s about what you feel when you kiss me.” She sounded like one of those touchy feely shrinks on TV.

“And that, you’ve assured me, is nothing. So,” she spread her hands out for a moment, “I don’t think we have anything left to talk about, do we?”

Chloe felt beaten down, tired and was getting increasingly upset by the decision she had to make. She didn’t want to do it but she wasn’t going to put herself through drama and angst again. “I can’t be friends with you,” she said in a hushed tone. “At least, not now. I do love you Lex, but I need to do what’s best for me for a change.”

And just like that the world dropped out from underneath Lex Luthor’s feet and he plummeted into empty space.

This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be happening. It just wasn’t possible that she’d just said those words.

“You don’t mean that.”

Denial.

They’d been friends for so long now and he had tried like a madman from day one to ‘not fuck up’. He’d even stopped one or two projects that he’d liked that would have led to major fights because of Chloe’s ethics, that he didn’t exactly share, but respected enough to heed them, because she was his best friend.

His hands balled into fists inside his coat pockets. It wasn’t his fault she’d gone and fallen in love with him and that he didn’t return those feelings to his knowledge. It wasn’t his fault that people kept pushing the situation in his face to the point that he couldn’t take it anymore and needed a solution to this irritating problem.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this.” He turned sharply to face her and look her straight in the eyes. “You said we could work through this and still be friends.” His tone was deathly calm. “Excuse me, you said we could try. Did you already know you were going to change your mind then and there?”

Anger.

He was pissed as hell. For the last couple of weeks he had done everything to try and make things easier on her. Granted, he’d slipped up and fucked up once or twice, but goddamnit it wasn’t every day your best friend decided to be in love with you. There was no handbook, no code of behavior, nothing to even remotely guide you through that situation. Lex hated winging it.

His molars ground together as he thought. He hated winging it, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do it. He should have seen this coming. Wait, he had seen this coming. He’d seen it coming all the way, even before he’d sat in Chloe’s room and talked about it. But Lex wasn’t the type to take things lying down.

“Look,” he said as calmly as possible. “I know that we’re in a shitty situation with this issue between us.” And shitty was putting it mildly. “And I know it’s not going to go away on its own; that it’s going to be uncomfortable. But, if anyone is capable of working through this, wouldn’t it be us?”

Lex pulled his hands out of his pockets, after forcefully unclenching them and leaned forward. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes.”

Bargaining.

He used to be better at this, but the problem in this situation was that he had nothing to bargain with. There was nothing he could offer her to make it easier for her to deal with her feelings. Nothing he could say or do to make them go away at the drop of a hat. He was one of the richest fucking bastards in the United States, but he was entirely powerless to salvage this.

“I can’t lose you, Chloe."

Depression.

He’d felt like the earth had been pulled out from underneath his feet a few times before. But it had never been like this. The thought that he could lose her, when she’d told him she was in love with him, had been terrifying. Lex had turned away from it faster than the eye could blink and tried to convince himself that things could be okay. The actual fact that she was right here, right now, telling him it was over…. Lex imagined this was what it felt like when you were told you are going to die, no cure, no miracles, no last minute recovery.

It was over. She didn’t want him in her life anymore. There was nothing he could say or do to make her change her mind. Chloe’s face was set on resolve and Lex knew from experience, there was no messing with that.

Acceptance…

Was not going to happen.

“I can’t lose you,” he said it again, this time a lot firmer than the first. “I won’t just let you go.”

Lex reached out and took hold of her hand. “Chloe, you’re my best friend.”

Shit, he was no good at emotional speeches. Money, power, progress, new horizons, he could talk with the best of them when it came to these things. Love, need, fear, caring, compassion? He had no fucking clue where to even start.

“I need you in my life.”

When Chloe tried to pull her hand away, he held on tighter. He was trying to work his way through this speech, the worst he’d ever given, in small sentences.

“You help me take life less serious, keep me grounded.”

His gaze shifted from her face to her fingers, and he really knew better than to cut eye contact when you’re trying to convince someone of your point. But if he kept looking at her resolve face he’d never be able to say anything.

“You’re the only person I can trust with everything. No need to close my laptop when you come in, no need to explain my every move because it might be taken the wrong way. You get me.”

And there were so many things about him that nobody seemed to be able to remotely understand. Chloe took them all with a shrug and a ‘That’s Lex for ya’. Everyone else was spooked when they entered the mansion and had cameras following their every move. She picked out the next best one, cut a face at it, waved and smiled. Security loved her. Lex kept footage of it on his laptop and pulled it up whenever he needed a laugh.

“Getting to spend time with you is my equivalent of a vacation.”

Other people needed palm trees, beaches and three weeks of undisturbed sunshine and drinks at the pool. Lex needed a couple of hours with Chloe, including her seemingly endless supply of things he hadn’t tried yet.

“You’re an addiction. You got under my skin, you snooped through my life. You know more about me than anyone, including the Inquisitor. You made yourself at home in a place that others treat like a museum. You’re the biggest part of my life aside from work.”

He’d never had a large social circle after moving to Smallville, business associates and flavors of the week didn’t count. Aside from Chloe, there was only Lana and Clark who he saw on a semi regular basis. And that was because Smallville was just that, small.

The long and short of it was that he didn’t even know how things would go on if she wasn’t there. What would he do when there was no more work to get done? What had he done before Chloe and he became friends? He couldn’t remember even if he tried. He couldn’t imagine finding something to do.

“You can’t leave me. I don’t think I’d function right without you.”

Lex was being so honest and earnest and she could tell that he was sincere about everything he said but it didn’t change anything. The definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. She couldn’t remain best friends with a man she was in love with and not expect to get hurt.

And she was sick of that. She deserved some happiness in her life and wasn’t going to allow herself to do this with Lex.

She shook her head and didn’t look at him. She was already crying a little and looking at Lex would make things worse. She’d been strong for awhile but once he started telling her what she meant to him, how she fit into his life, it had been hard to remain stoic. “I can’t,” she whispered. “I just can’t, Lex. Please, please understand.”

Then she did look up at him. She squeezed his hand. Knew that she was now hurting him and did her best to not care about it. She had to be selfish, had to be a bastard and had to get out of this situation before things got any worse. Even though his words kept playing through her mind she had to ignore it.

Had to ignore that she was maybe the one thing that kept Lex from going over the edge. She was standing at her own precipice at the moment. She had to think of that. Had to be the ruthless, unfeeling one. It would have been easier if she weren’t crying at the moment but life was a bitch and never fair and all of the rest of that bullshit.

“If you care about me at all, you’ll let this be it. You’ll let me go.” She knew that Lex was obsessive by nature and that he wouldn’t take this lying down. But she needed him to. If he continued after her with his usual fervor she knew that she’d eventually cave.

Lex’s face didn’t change. He was stubborn and that was working against her. But her knowledge about him that she’d garnered over the years would help her win.

“You can’t make me happy. You’ll only make me miserable.” She hated doing this but it was the only way. She knew that Lex did care about her, just not in the way that she needed. If he thought it would hurt her, he might walk away.

“Lex, I’m glad that you get all of that from me and you should take that as a sign that I’m not the only one who can do that for you.” She wanted him to get everything he deserved and that did include a woman who could understand and put up with him. It just wouldn’t be her.

“But, what do I get from you?” It was harsh and they both knew it. “It’s not a fair trade and I can’t keep putting myself second. Being around you like this hurts too much.”

“I tried it but I’m not strong enough,” she shook her head.

She blinked and felt twin tear streaks appearing on her face. “You’re my best friend, too. You have to know that I didn’t make this decision lightly or easily. But one of us had to.” She looked back up at him and almost looked away from what she saw.

Real emotion on his face. She’d seen it before but nothing this deep. She couldn’t be sure which one of them was hurting more at this point. Lex had opened himself up more in the last three minutes than he had over the past 25 plus years of his life and this was what he got for it. Chloe didn’t want that to be the lesson he learned but she couldn’t help this. She couldn’t stop this now.

“You told me that I’m under your skin. Well, Lex, you’re, you’re,” Chloe searched for a way to explain it to him without it sounding dumb but she was failing. “You’re in every part of me.” Their hands were still grasped and she brought them up to her body. She placed the back of Lex’s hand on the skin that was exposed by her tank top just over her heart. “I feel like I can’t breathe sometimes when you’re around.”

“You think that you’re obsessive. You have no idea.”

She locked eyes with him. “You’re the only person in my life who truly understands me. I love you. But I cannot do this anymore. I can’t.”

This was killing him. Seeing her like this, knowing he was the reason for it. He was making her miserable. Lex felt like shit.

Chloe had lost her fight against the tears and all Lex wanted to do was to fix this, make it all better, at least hold her until she calmed down and stopped crying. So he did.

Without saying a word he pulled her over and into his lap. She didn’t even fight it. He tightened his hold anyway.

It hit him that this was the last time he’d get to hold her like this. The last time he was allowed to touch her and have her close. The last time she would let him see her like she was, without distance or affected politeness. The next time they inevitably crossed paths there would be awkward silence and she would walk away. He’d never be given the chance again to just reach out and pull her in. He could smell that peculiar shampoo she’d been using since high school, for the first time he was close enough to actually identify the scent as a mixture of cinnamon and vanilla.

“Should have done this earlier.”

They’d been close friends for so long, but other than the occasional hug or the casual touches they shared whenever they talked, there was only one time when he’d had her this close.

The night of the party, when things had gotten out of control; the night that had started the downward spiral that led to this moment.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a low voice, “forgive me.”

He’d really gone and fucked it all up and now he was losing the best thing that had happened to him in his life. There was nothing he could do and it killed him. Chloe was still crying and he sucked at doing this. He still couldn’t even imagine letting go and moving away. Because if he did that, it would really be over and there was just a great gaping nothing after that.

And Lex was afraid of what came after the nothing. Or with it.

“I love you. Forgive me.”

He wasn’t even sure anymore what he was asking forgiveness for. Maybe for everything: what he’d done to get them to this point and all the things that would happen from here on out, maybe even for the fact that he couldn’t let go like she’d asked him to.

Chloe heard him but didn’t believe what he was saying. She didn’t believe that he loved her but she didn’t care at this exact moment in time. At this moment she was hurting and so was Lex and it felt good that he was holding her and she couldn’t be expected to react logically or with any type of thought.

Lex sounded on the verge of some type of breakdown. Chloe was already there. He moved slightly and she felt him kiss the top of her head.

Her hands fisted on the material of his shirt and jacket that she respectively held in her hands. She craned her head to look up at him. He looked horrible. Maybe only a little better than she probably looked.

Gently and slowly, almost as if he thought she was going to bolt, he used the jacket of his very expensive suit to wipe her face clean.

She loved him and he didn’t love her. But Chloe didn’t care. They needed each other right now. Tomorrow would be worse than today and it would be her fault, too, but she didn’t care.

Chloe stood up and Lex moved with her, almost as if he were ready to snatch her back to his body. She fumbled for a moment but then her hands captured his as she used her leverage to encourage him off the couch.

If Lex was immature, he’d dig his heels in and not budge an inch. And he did resist a little as she pulled him away from the couch. He couldn’t believe that she was actually making him leave.

Surprise hit as she pulled him in the opposite direction of the front door towards her bedroom.

Lex followed her wordlessly. He was confused, conflicted, he had no idea what was going on but at the moment what mattered most was the fact that she hadn’t made him leave. He was still here and Chloe was keeping hold of his hand as she went into the bedroom and steered them towards the bed.
There was no mistaking what was going to happen. And there was no part of Lex that was protesting it. He didn’t care that it was wrong, or that it wouldn’t accomplish anything, or that things would only be harder in the morning.

He leaned in for a kiss before she could think better of it. At the same time, she leaned up and in the same direction.

Their noses collided and then bumped again when both of them leaned in the other direction.

Lex let go of her hands and gently took hold of her head to keep her still.

Third time was the charm.

Warm lips. A rough, smooth, slick tongue, flicking out like quicksilver. And the odd warm, electric feeling was right there. The one that he’d missed whenever he’d kissed Andrea, or tonight when he’d tried with Felicity and Lana. It was coursing through his body like…The best comparison his brain could come up with was hot chocolate spiked with rum.

The fumbling awkwardness quickly disappeared once their mouths met. This kiss was different from their first. Instead of tasting like champagne and scallops Lex tasted like Scotch and whatever dessert he’d had during his date. Instead of hesitation it was laced with desperation.

And instead of praying for no one to come in and ruin the mood, Chloe prayed that one of them wouldn’t come to their senses.

She wasn’t wearing her shoes so she was close to a foot shorter than Lex. Her neck and toes arched up so she could maintain as much contact as was possible. Lex had one arm wrapped around her waist as the other cradled the back of her head, holding her in place.

Their bodies were crushed together and she could already feel him getting aroused. It was just as she’d told him before…she could barely breathe.

But it had more to do with the fact that her mouth wouldn’t release Lex’s in order to breathe. It was better than she’d remembered. Maybe because they both had use of all of their facilities or maybe because they were both so damn needy that neither of them worried about technique.

After another moment of kissing, her tongue was now running over the roof of his mouth and working its way along his teeth again, Lex pulled back.

But he didn’t have anything to say about what they were doing. Instead he bent down even more and started nipping at her neck. He knew it was a sensitive area on her body, she’d told him that once. Years ago.

As he used his teeth on her skin, marking her, there was no question about it and she didn’t ask him to stop, Chloe’s hands made their way to his shoulders. She started to slip the jacket off of him and he dropped his arms away from her body for a moment in order to help her.

Chloe was panting and moaning and practically grinding against him by this point in time. She tried to get his $900 hunter green cashmere sweater over his head but now he wouldn’t release his hold on her body. He’d found her ass and his hands were squeezing it as he pulled her closer to his body. His hips were making small pushes against her belly.

Undeterred, Chloe wormed her hands between their bodies and got them under the sweater. She ran them up and down the smooth skin, which was already hot, as much as she could.

She cried out his name in the next moment, forgetting what she was doing, when she felt his hand cover her breast under her tank top. She’d lost track of his hands and had paid the price.

Lex stifled a moan against her neck. Her skin was warming up under his touch, sharp little nipple poking the palm of his hand. His own skin felt almost too hot wherever her fingers strayed. Rearing back for a moment, he pulled off his sweater as quickly as possible and tossed it into the next corner.

The next second, she’d pulled him back into another kiss and things got fuzzy again. Cotton friction against his skin, naked warm flesh shifting against his palms. The cotton had to go, right now.

Removing her shirt proved difficult with her arms slung around his neck like vines and his mouth clinging to the spot on her neck where he’d already left a mark. Forced himself to release the skin long enough to pull the tank top over her head and make a mess of her hair.

Crushing their lips together again, bending low to reach and they weren’t near close enough like this. Hot hands sliding down his back and he mimicked the action, slid under the elastic of her pajamas to take hold of her ass and just pull her up, in, closer.

Matching groans as their hips collided and friction hit just the right place. Her tongue flicked against the roof of his mouth again and then there was suction that made his fingers clench on her butt, because wow.

Lex stumbled towards the bed that he knew had to be there, somewhere. Found it on collision and somehow managed to uncling Chloe enough to keep from landing on top of her as they fell.

Gravity had taken care of getting them on the bed with a little help from Lex. She knew she should feel a little self conscious. She had a ballpark figure of how many women he had been with, most of them with more impressive measurements than hers, but she was more concerned with getting comfy on the bed, touching more of Lex and urging them along to the inevitable.

Once their bodies stopped bouncing on the mattress, Lex was on top of her again. One arm braced on the mattress while the other traveled down her body. She held him in place at her mouth with her fingertips on the nape of his neck. Her other arm kept bumping into his as she went for his belt.

They were never going to get anywhere this way. Chloe moved both of her hands to Lex’s collarbones and gently pushed him away from her. “I’ll get a condom and you get naked.”

Maybe separating for a few seconds would help them to regroup. And regrow certain parts of their brains that would be necessary to coordinate their movement. Lex nodded once, kissed her again and then rolled away from her.

Chloe moved a little on the mattress and reached for her bedside table. She heard the clicking of Lex’s belt, the unzipping of his pants, the clumping of his shoes on her carpet and the shuffling of material.

She listened to this as she moved a few things out of her way before finding the box she was looking for. She felt Lex’s fingers at the waistband of her pants. She moved her hips as he guided them down her legs. She kicked them off once they reached her feet.

When Lex’s lips brushed against random places on her skin as he traveled back up her body, Chloe closed her eyes and concentrated on not dropping the packet in her fingers.

Lex was taking care of the covers and after some strategic rolling and moving, they were both placed under them. All Chloe could think about as he looked over her body hungrily was the fact that she hadn’t shaved her legs. And she also wasn’t waxed in a specific geographical region on her body.

Then she came to her senses and started to check out Lex’s body. Neither of them had flicked out the lights so even though he was under the blankets, she could still see all of the good parts. And there were a lot of them.

She felt Lex take the packet out of her hands as she blatantly stared at his body.

After some disagreement with the “tear here” line, Lex managed to get the package open and took out the transparent blue rubber. He ground his teeth as he rolled it on and gave his cock a couple strokes to relieve the tension.

Looking up he found her eyes roaming over him, face tilted down and totally absorbed in checking him out. His gaze slid down from her face as he returned the favor and promptly got stuck on her breasts. Soft white mounds that came closer and moved away with her breaths. Dusky rose colored nipples that beckoned to be nipped. Yeah, he loved breasts.

He hooked his arms under her shoulders and dove in. Warm, spicy smell and pliable skin he could indulge himself for hours. Flicked his tongue over the closest nipple and mapped his favorite spots with kisses.

Lex arched into the touches that skated all over his back and humped the mattress when surprisingly strong legs closed over his hips and pressed together.

“Chloe.” Her name slipped out on a groan.

He needed to get inside, now. Craved to bury himself all the way and fuck her until both of them passed out.

His hand slid down the length of her body and between her legs, fingers stroking through rough curls to her lips and finding her slippery, hot, ready.

Pushing two fingers inside with a moan and rearing into a messy kiss as he pumped them in and out of the tight channel.

Chloe’s head lolled back as her hips started to move. She could now see her headboard behind her. Her hands tightened on Lex’s shoulders as his fingers started to work her over. But she didn’t need that. She just wanted him to get on with it and get inside. All of this was far from necessary. She was about two minutes away from coming already.

She reached down between them and was finally able to get to what she wanted. Her hand encircled his cock and she ran it up and down the hard flesh twice before starting to guide him where she needed him.

Repositioning her legs slightly, she jumped a little when she felt him at her entrance. With one last squeeze, she let go of his cock and then looked back up at him, waiting. She was the one who was in love with him and who would pay the price in the morning so she needed him to do this.

Chloe gently kissed him once and then shifted her hips restlessly.

The gentle peck on his mouth had him dumbstruck for moment, but then she shifted her hips and his eyes went wide as he slipped inside. Lex exhaled a shuddering breath as tight hot velvet sucked him in and he couldn’t remember if it had ever felt this good before.

Couldn’t tear his gaze away from her face, couldn’t get his hands unglued from where they clawed into the mattress next to her shoulders; and fuck he never wanted to leave this place that was better than being high, way more heady than being drunk.

Then she shifted again and his body took over, hips moving to pull back and push in again, muscles working to keep his weight balanced. But his brain didn’t have anything to do with that, because it was stuck on the fact that he loved this.

He’d never forget that look on her face, the way her eyes went wide with every thrust and her mouth half open, tiny noises escaping with every breath. He loved this. Forced his eyes to stay open as her muscles contracted around his cock. Never wanted to look away.

Lex was looking at her so intensely, like she was one of his experiments or spreadsheets or a meteor freak, that she had to close her eyes. Though maybe it was the physical sensations that she was experiencing that made her close her eyes. Or maybe it was both.
He was grunting rhythmically above her but that only added to, did not distract from, the pleasure that was coursing through her body.

She knew that Lex would be good at this, she’d read enough and heard enough first hand to know that the man could fuck. But hearing about it and experiencing it were two different things.

Chloe focused on his cock, his voice, the weight on top of her. Not the fact that this was Lex. Her Lex. That she was getting what she’d wanted on so many levels for so long but not in any real, lasting way. If she did think about that, the tears would return. While Lex seemed to be enjoying himself at the moment she doubted he’d react kindly to her crying during the act so she forced all of that down.

Instead, she clung to his shoulders as she moved her hips to meet his hard, deliberate thrusts. Lex dropped his head to rest on her shoulder and she tightened her internal muscles as she moved her hips in a circle. Lex cursed and she gasped.

Her legs hooked themselves more securely around his middle and she arched her hips up a little more, pulling him deeper into her body. This time she cursed…at the top of her lungs.

She was clawing at his back by now, her nails marking him but turnabout was fair play. She was babbling almost incoherently. Her lips right by his ear she was fairly certain that he could make out at least some of the words. A mixture of curses, begging, telling him how amazing he was and other things she didn’t want to focus on.

He heard words spilling into his ear, along with hot breath that sent shivers down his spine, but they made no sense. There was no sense in anything, just sensation that pulled him in and pulled him under. Into heat and skin and the smell of sweat and sex, taste of salt in his mouth and sounds of pleasure ringing through his ears, warm red space behind his closed lids, flaring bright with every scratch to his back.

Arousal coiling sharply at the base of his spine, he was so close to coming it hurt. Fighting to push it back, longing to let it go and let it take him. Hands sliding over slick skin to find purchase on her shoulders, teeth scraping down her neck to kiss and lick, taking a nip at one nipple then the other, he felt her muscles squeeze around him, inside and out. So fucking close.

Their voices had risen in both pitch and volume, their hips slamming more urgently into one another, the rhythm that they’d found was starting to deteriorate from the blind need Chloe knew that they were both feeling. Lex was holding out for her. Wanting her to come first. She knew it.

Even if she stubbornly wanted him to come first it wasn’t going to happen. She was too close and this whole situation was too much for her to handle. She moved her hands from Lex’s back as she moved her legs. She was able to grab onto her knees after two attempts and she pulled them up to her body.

On Lex’s next thrust Chloe’s world exploded. Distantly, she realized that Lex had moved his body so he could hook his arms under her knees and keep her opened up to him. She screamed her release, unashamed of what he was doing to her body.

Her muscles gripped him tighter, then loosened, tight again, loosening. She jerked her hips along with the rest of her body, making it last, as some of her hair flew into her mouth. She arched up and clawed at Lex’s lower back. His hips pumped brutally into hers and she felt, heard, saw him come.

He viciously, primally and instinctually fucked her for a few seconds as he rode out his orgasm. She could feel him through the latex and she groaned at the look on his face. His mouth fell open and she used the opportunity to lean up and give him a sloppy kiss.

Her lower body never stopped moving. Lex opened his eyes and looked down at her. Watching as she bit down on her lower lip and milked his cock. Lex was panting above her, staring at her as he moved the locks of hair out of her mouth that still hadn’t dislodged even after their kiss.

Genesis 1.3. And God said ‘Let there be light’ and there was light. And Lex had definitely seen the light. Crashed into it head on, more like it.

He couldn’t stop looking at her. It was like someone had pulled off the blinders, smacked him in the head and pointed his nose at something he should have seen ages ago, because it was right there.

There in the way her legs stayed twined around him, keeping him inside her. In the way his own body refused to move more than necessary to slide his hands back under her shoulders and hold on. He lowered his face and kissed her gently on the lips.

What could he say? He was possibly the greatest fool on this green earth and had ruined everything because he’d been too blindly focused on the wrong things. And now it was too late.

Lex moved down to rest his head on her chest and closed his eyes. The rhythmic beating of her heart slowed down against his ear as he cursed himself for being himself. All he had left was the time between now and when she decided to kick him out.

This had to be his personal hell. Fucking up the best thing in his world without any outside help.

There was nothing he could say right now. Nothing he could do except hold on and wait for Chloe to speak first. And he knew what she would say. Something along the lines of: ‘I think you should go’ and ‘This doesn’t change anything.’

Except that it had. And for the first time he wished that things had gone different that night in the drawing room. He wished that Enrique hadn’t interrupted them and that things had gone the way they would have. Because if that had happened, he would have known. Lex would have known and spared both of them the situation they were in now.

The looks that Lex had given her were very confusing. Chloe kept her mouth shut, not asking what was going on in his head. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to know. Now that they were done with the amazing sex portion of the evening, her mind was starting to work again.

But before it sprung fully to life, she closed her eyes and tried to commit everything that had happened between them to memory. If she didn’t know Lex as well as she did, she would have sworn that he was looking at her with love in his eyes or heart or some other bullshit in those romance novels that she did not read and were certainly not hidden in her bedside table.

Lex’s breathing was returning to normal and one of her hands stroked over the base of his skull while the other was busy trying to soothe the marks on his back. He was probably trying to figure out the best way to extricate himself out of the situation.

She didn’t want him to leave. That was the long and short of it. Because once he was gone, he was gone. Yes, it would be her own doing, Lex just following her wishes but when she thought about the first few days without him…well, her brain could only come up with a picture of herself alternating between eating everything in her fridge and not eating at all.

Lana would come over and stay with her. Lois would look up how to castrate a man on the internet. Clark would be his usual ineffectual self while he tried to help her through it. Just those people around her. No Lex. Not ever again.

She cleared her throat and opened her eyes. “I know that it’s, um, weird that I’m asking you this after what I just said before. But,” she hated the way her voice sounded. “Can you stay tonight?”

Chloe was weak and stupid and just making things worse but she decided to go with it for the moment.

Lex jerked at the initial words, expecting to be thrown out, before their message became clear. She’d asked him to stay. For tonight. He didn’t know what that would mean come morning but for now it meant that he didn’t have to let go. That he was given more time.

Taking a deep breath, he didn’t move from his position on her chest as he spoke, “I can stay.”

~~

The sausages sizzled in the pan and the eggs were almost ready, there were ready made biscuits in the oven and Lex didn’t know he had it in him.

He’d woken up about an hour ago, clinging to a warm body with his nose buried in thick blonde hair. Both of which turned out to belong to Chloe. Then his brain had decided to give him a fast forward repeat of the night before and he’d reluctantly pulled away and gotten up. He’d intended to leave before she made him go, not wanting any kind of scene.

He’d gotten as far as Bob’s Hardwarez at the corner of her street. Then his brain had stopped functioning correctly and made him do something that he would never have a sound explanation for. After that, he’d returned to Chloe’s apartment, apparently still temporarily insane, and followed the instructions to install the bolt lock on the door. Once he was done locking up the apartment, he’d entered the kitchen, opened the fridge and started to pull a Martha Kent.

Breakfast was almost ready, and he still didn’t have a clue what to say when Chloe got up and found him in her kitchen instead of out of her life.

When Chloe woke up and found herself alone in the bed she took a moment to think about the ramifications of what she’d asked of Lex. Honestly, after his words last night she was shocked that he was gone. It was what she wanted but it still hurt like…was that bacon?

As she padded across her bedroom the smell became stronger and she heard noises coming from the kitchen/living room area. That had better be Lex. Of course, she didn’t think many burglars were in the habit of making breakfast for their victims.

Chloe felt sweaty and sticky but she didn’t think she should put off what she needed to do for a shower. Besides, Lex had seen her look much worse. There was the time she’d gotten food poisoning from the shrimp she insisted on eating from a roadside stand the time they’d been coming back from the opera in Metropolis.

The slight ache between her legs reminded her that he’d seen her in other compromising positions as well. Quickly throwing on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt she decided it was time to join Lex in the living room.

He was in the small kitchen obviously making breakfast. His back was to her so she just watched him for a moment. Why couldn’t the stupid bastard just love her the fuck back? Was that so fucking hard? Moron.

Well, he’d just have to live the rest of his life without the amazing sex they’d had the night before. That ought to fix him. Chloe had just decided that she was going to be angry instead of upset. That was much better and constructive.

Her eyes alighted on a piece of plastic that sat on her coffee table. She picked it up and then her head whipped around to the front door. Her heart sped up when she saw what was now on her door.

Lex had bolted both of them inside of her apartment. He wasn’t giving up. Christ, she wasn’t strong enough to take this. It was the ultimate fucked up, obsessive yet not romantic at all gesture she’d ever seen. God, she loved him.

She threw the plastic back on the coffee table and approached the kitchen. “I hope you saved the receipt for that,” she said, softly.

He didn’t look up from the pan, caught the jerk of his hand before it was too visible and straightened up.

“No reason to do so.”

His brain was still not coming up with the right words and he was again winging it. And he still hated it. There should be some convenient speech at the top of his head that resolved all issues. This was where Hollywood movies were ultimately wrong. When the guy showed up and had all the right words to say and knew how to say them and after about 3 minutes of grand speech he had the girl where he wanted her. Yeah, that so didn’t happen in real life.

For his part, he was only sure about one thing. There would be no leaving unless she managed to physically break the bolt lock and shove him out the door. The rest was completely unclear.

The tension in his body was clear. He didn’t look up at her when she spoke. This was going to be another one of those marathon discussions that drained her of the will to live. She could just tell. It was like that time that Lex tried to convince her that the first Godfather was better than the second.

“What are you doing, Lex?” She really wanted to know. What did he hope to accomplish? They’d said their goodbyes last night. She’d given him much more than the hug she’d planned on. “And don’t say making breakfast. Do you think that by locking me in here you’ll convince me that I don’t love you and that we can just keep going like we’ve been?”

Lex checked on the biscuits and turned off the oven. Of course she’d not given him the option to evade verbally. He hadn’t been able to use verbal evasions since that one discussion a couple years ago when she’d asked him for the real story of his days at Excelsior. It made keeping things a secret exceptionally difficult.

“I won’t try to convince you that you don’t love me,” he said, stalling for time.

As it was, he was still trying to come up with a way to convince her that he was, after all, in love with her. Not the usual kind that came with butterflies in the stomach and rose colored glasses. If it was anything like that, he would have recognized it a lot sooner. But Lex had never been the butterflies and glasses type, so of course he hadn’t recognized it and played himself so far into a corner that there was possibly no way out of it.

He bent down, took the biscuits out of the oven and set the tray on the rinse next to the sink. He turned off the burners and took two plates and an additional mug from the cupboard.

“Do you remember why I hate tissue movies?” he asked without thinking as he started piling the food on the plates.

Chloe noted the fact that he wasn’t going to try to talk her out of being in love with him. That was a plus. She didn’t know where he was going with the question but knew he wouldn’t be asking it if it wasn’t important, in some way.

“Because they’re trite and clichéd and don’t correctly represent the way that the real world works,” she responded. She’d heard the criticism more times than she could remember.

Chloe took the offered plates and put them down on the tiny table that was in her kitchen. She retrieved some forks, knives, napkins and salt and then sat down, waiting for Lex to speak.

He poured both of them coffee, then sat down and stared at his plate. He hadn’t even known he was going to ask her that question. And it was really not a good idea to just come straight out and say it, because her reaction would be explosive.

“They are, in most ways. The characters always know what to say, when and how to say it. And there’s nothing they could fuck up that doesn’t get fixed.”

While in real life, he was sitting here and wished he could remember the appropriate movie so he could steal the lead character’s lines and get the desired result. Of course, his memory wasn’t being cooperative.

“Like Jerry Maguire. You remember that one?”

In his opinion, one of the worst movies Tom had ever done. Including War of the Worlds. The worst part of it had been the end.

“He comes in with his grand speech at the end and everything is forgiven and forgotten.”

“Yeah, I remember,” she said. They’d had this discussion. It was her firm belief that he didn’t actually love the other character. He felt bad and he liked her and he liked her kid and he didn’t want to be alone.

Lex hadn’t touched his food and neither had she. “Lex, I know that you’re trying to make a point but I’m just not seeing it. Little help?”

He was struggling with his words which was something she wasn’t used to. He obviously needed to tell her something but things were just not…

It was almost audible. The click in her head. Her heart sank but she waited for Lex to go and lie to her.

Lex looked up from his plate to meet her eyes. She looked like she was preparing for a punch in the face. And that was exactly why he hated this and didn’t know how to do it.

“See, I didn’t buy it. And I know you wouldn’t buy it. That’s why I can’t take this road and don’t know how to do this. Because you won’t believe me.”

It had come to him about a second after his realization, the knowledge that she’d sooner believe he’d turned to communism than even entertain the thought that he loved her back.

There simply was no way to just say the words and have her believe them.

“Sex isn’t love.” She looked down at her plate. “You of all people should know that,” she muttered. She closed her eyes and shook her head once. This wasn’t her. She looked back up at Lex. “I’m sorry, that was uncalled for.”

She sat back in her chair. “You’ve told me that you don’t love me numerous times. Lex, how can I believe you now?”

Chloe wouldn’t let herself think it was true for a moment. She couldn’t. Because if she did, if she did and he was lying. Well, she’d kill him. With her bare hands. And then set fire to his carcass.

He needed to go. Now. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t have the same conversation with him again. Chloe looked over at the door. From here it looked like Lex had done a pretty good job installing the thing and she was fairly certain that he’d then probably hidden her toolbox.

“What do you want from me,” she asked. Trying another tactic. Maybe if he could be clear about what he expected then they could work from there.

It was his last shot, and he knew it. If he didn’t have something to convince her now, she’d make him leave and never let him back in.

“Give me a chance.”

When her face fell in disbelief, he tried to plead his case. “You believe that I care for you, right?”

She nodded, then opened her mouth, and he just knew she’d start the sentence with a ‘but’ if he didn’t cut her off, so he hurried on.

“You believe that I love spending time with you and that you’re my best friend.”

“Yes, but…”

He cut her off again, “And the sex last night was incredible, right?”

She actually blushed at that before she answered with a ‘yeah.’

“Then can’t we start there? Give me a chance, Chloe.”

Lex reached out and took hold of her hand, willing her to listen to him and give him the chance he was asking for. “In a few weeks, you can make your decision.” Even though he had no clue how more time was going to help him ‘prove’ that he loved her. But he’d worry about that after she agreed. “Only a few weeks and if you think I’m bullshitting you,” he paused before he could force himself to spit out the worst part. “I’ll leave and you won’t have to see me again.”

Lex was holding on to her with a death grip. Like last night. Chloe was a big believer in words and while they were convincing, it was the way he held on to her that gave her pause. Like she was his life jacket. But she didn’t want to be something that Lex used to save himself.

The real question was whether she trusted Lex. And whether she trusted herself at this point to make such an important decision. She knew the answer to the first question but wasn’t too sure about the second.

What Lex was saying made perfect sense. Had he said this, oh, two weeks ago it would be an easy answer but it wasn’t two weeks ago.

Chloe looked up at her best friend. Her decision made. When she saw his face, she changed her mind again. After all of their years together, she could give him a few weeks. She didn’t dare to hope that he actually loved her like he was now claiming to but by doing this she could convince both of them that she’d tried her best.

“OK,” she said clearly. She nodded. “We’ll date,” the word sounded very odd to her at the moment, “for a few weeks.”

A moronic part of him was pushing to ask ‘really?’, but he wasn’t going to give her the opportunity to change her mind. She’d agreed and despite everything that had gone wrong, she’d given him the chance to make things right. There was no risking that.

“Thank you.”

He had to get this right. If it was the last thing he did, Lex would take the time he was granted and convince her that she could believe him. Whatever terms she set for the dates, he’d work with them to make those upcoming weeks make up for all the misery he’d put her through. And he knew there would be terms, and terms with clauses attached to them. That was how Chloe worked. But he also knew there were ways around them. He’d had years of training in finding those.

~~

Six weeks later Chloe was late for a lunch date with Lana. She knew that the girl was probably eating her hair by now. It was time for Chloe to make her decision. Chloe prided herself on being on time but she’d been distracted. By Lex.

A grin lit up her face as she remembered what he’d done to try and convince her that they should keep on dating. It had been rather creative…and orgasm inducing. Hence the glow and the lateness.

She caught sight of her friend and sat down in the chair opposite of her. “Sorry I’m late.” She looked over at Lana, who was grinning. “What?” She said nothing. Chloe glared at her as her grin grew wider. “Shut up.”

Lana hadn’t minded waiting too much. Ok, she was ready to eat a horse by now and if it wasn’t for the fact that she knew who Chloe had been with before coming here, she would have pitched a fit. But she knew just where her friend came from, so irritation took a backseat to curiosity.

“So?” she asked as she picked up her drink, waiting for her answer.

Chloe had told her all about Lex’s plan and kept her up to snuff, but today was the deadline and until now, the blonde had stubbornly refused to make her decision known. Even though Lana was sure she’d put her money on the right horse, judging by the way her friend had been grinning wide enough to make a crest commercial envious for the last three weeks.

Said friend was now sporting that aforementioned grin and didn’t say anything except. “And?”

Lana couldn’t take it anymore. She placed her coke on the table with a huff and burst out, “Oh, come on! Spill already, what’s your decision?”

Chloe’s decision hadn’t been too long in the making. She’d known for the last month or so what she was going to do. Lex had never said the words but she knew that the man did, in fact, love her.

Part of the problem was that Lex, as horribly clichéd as it sounded, really didn’t know what love was. She couldn’t blame the man based on his past experiences with those that claimed to care about him.

The first two weeks had been strange what with the man trying to lavish her with gifts in his own way. Nothing that he knew she would send back and nothing to buy her affections but she did tell him if he gave her one more flower he’d be picking the thorns out of his ass. The only real gift that she’d gotten was that he’d hired Enrique back. She still couldn’t believe that Lex had fired him in the first place.

They’d gone on quite a few dates before figuring out how best to work what they had. Actually, she loved the way they were before she’d admitted her feelings and they’d quickly gotten back into that pattern.

The only thing that had changed between them was the sex. And she wasn’t complaining in that department. She hadn’t told Lex that she wouldn’t sleep with him again during the course of the six week trial but she thought that he had assumed that it was part of the deal.

He’d been gentlemanly on all of their dates and never pushy. When he’d left her at her place after a particularly good date that left her all tingly she’d waited 20 minutes and then driven to the Manor. He’d looked surprised to see her but he hadn’t gotten much of a chance to ask what she was doing there. He’d been too distracted by her hands on his belt.

But it wasn’t the sex that made up her mind. It was everything that surrounded it. Lex knew her in every sense of the word. He made her laugh, she could tell him anything, be herself and he wouldn’t judge her and then there was the fact that he was clearly devoted to making her happy. But that didn’t mean that he put up with her shit. They’d still fought over the past few weeks. It had almost been a relief to see that he wasn’t going to cave on any and all respects.

All in all, everything a girl could ask for.

“Please,” Chloe said, putting her napkin in her lap, “as if you don’t already know.” Lana’s grin widened. “Lex does love me.” Lana let out a sort of squeak and started to clap happily.

“I’ve really just been seeing how far I can push him in the bedroom for the past week as a sort of experiment while biding my time before telling him.”

“Chloe!” Lana exclaimed halfway between laughter and indignation.

She couldn’t believe that her friend had made Lex Luthor dangle before…oh who was she kidding, of course Chloe would let him dangle and it served the bastard right for what he put her through before he finally saw the light.

They both shared a giggle and as soon as she could breathe again, Lana wanted details.

Things had turned out to everyone’s satisfaction. Lex and Chloe were together, both of them were happy and basically inseparable. The universe was back in balance and Lana could finally order her lunch.

In short: Happy End.

~~

Chloe returned from her lunch with Lana full, happy and just a little drunk. Unsurprisingly, Lex was at her apartment. He looked up at her expectantly…as he’d done all day.

She giggled a little as she flicked off her shoes. She worked her way under her skirt and shucked her panties off. “I know that you love me,” she said as she walked towards her bedroom backwards, “now get over here and prove it,” she held out her hands towards him.

Lex’s face broke out into an honest to god grin. He had planned, schemed, fought, fucked and lost sleep for this. Those first six words out of her mouth were worth it.

He closed the distance between them and lifted her up around the waist and into a kiss. Spinning her around for the hell of it, Lex managed to remember the direction of the nearest bedroom. He’d prove it to her, alright. Over and over again, and with pleasure.

The End

[Shane77]

Thanks Julie! Even if I already read it, I wanted to read it again and was stuck as every one^^
Love this one!

[reyeslu]

thanks for reposting the ending Julie

And Blue and Sabby Thanks for this fun story

[daria_103]

Such a wonderful story, thanks Bluesabby and thank you Julie for posting the rest of the chapters!

[malugargula]

That's an amazing fic
Thanks Julie for reposting it