Alex nodded. “Your kisses healed me,” she said.
Cheesy, I thought fondly. “I think I’d still feel better if you went home for a while.”
She shook her head. “How about I get my work for the day, and I stay with you? You can put on the calendar that I’m helping you with Hunter’s case.”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said and went over to my computer to do just that. I booked Alex out for the rest of the day and then absolutely shooed her away from actually doing any work. Instead, she rested on the couch, and we talked in a way we hadn’t since before we started sleeping together.
Our relationship was the most wonderful thing I’d ever experienced, but sex had become a large part of it. It was all I could do to not touch her some days... and on the days I didn’t see her, Ifantasizedabout her. It was wholly distracting, and I wouldn’t change it for a second.
But I had to admit, this was nice too. It was a shame I couldn’t just keep her in my office as a hang-out buddy all the time.
Not that Alex would allow that for long. My girl had ambitions, and they weren’t to watch us work while she kept us entertained.
We fell into a game of 20 Questions, and surprisingly, answering the first thing that came to mind, without thinking, kept my mind clear as I made my way through some backed up emails. I also learned that Alex hated peas, loved going to the beach to watch the tourists screech at how cold the water was, that she broke a tooth when she was twelve, and that one of her teeth was capped, but she wouldn’t reveal which one. “What did you always want for Christmas but you never got?” she asked.
That one stopped me, and I had to look at her. “Did you ever not get what you wanted for Christmas?” I asked.
She tutted gently. “It’s not your turn,” she said.
I thought about what she said, as much as I wanted to pry. “I think one year, I really wanted inline skates,” I said, “and my mother refused because she thought I’d break my head open.” The thought of trying to rollerblade now made me laugh. “She was probably onto something there,” I added. “I probably would have broken something.”
Alex giggled. “I think I would pay to watch you skate,” she said. “Not to see you get hurt, obviously, but because you’re sogoodat everything. I’d like to see you struggle, just a little.”
It was entirely understandable, but still, I balled up a piece of paper and threw it at her. She let out a little shrieking laugh. “Play nice, Zach,” she scolded.
I could show her nice. I could walk over, strip her out of that dress, and have her coming on my tongue in under five minutes. I had done it before. But I was enjoying this banter too much to do that... yet, anyway. I was only human, after all.
“What about you?” I asked her. “Have you ever not gotten a Christmas present you really wanted?”
Her smile faded a little. “We didn’t really do Christmas growing up,” she said. “My mom would do a stocking for each of us, but that stopped after she was gone, and with our finances the way they were... it was better to not ask for anything.”
The way she talked about her childhood, in fits and starts, painted a sad picture for me. I knew that she’d lost her mother at a young age, and she was passed around by her family members, so there wasn’t a ton of stability. But to not have a solid Christmas memory?
It pulled at my heart. “So, let me rephrase,” I said. “If you had asked for something, what would it have been?”
Alex’s face twisted as she thought about it. “There was a Barbie that I wanted one year,” she said finally. “She wasbeautiful, and I think I prayed to like... Santa Claus or God or someone that I would wake up with her waiting for me.” She rolled her eyes. “I knew it wouldn’t happen, but I couldn’t help but want it, anyway.”
I pulled up Amazon. “What Barbie was it? Do you remember?” I asked.
She smirked at me. “Isn’t it my question now?”
“This is just an add-on to my original question,” I countered.
Alex considered it and then nodded. “It was the hair bead Barbie. It came with this little gun thing that let you thread beads into her hair. I thought it was the most amazing thing when I was younger, and I never got a chance to play with anything like that before.”
The Barbie in question was already in my cart. I’d found it in less than five minutes. It wasn’t a collector's item—there were Barbies that came out around the same time that were worth thousands of dollars, and this one was less than twenty dollars—but if it meant that much to her, I would put it in her hands by Christmas.
“What’s one thing that you haven’t done in your life that you wish you would have done?” Alex asked me.
“Huh?” I looked at her from my computer.
“Are you busy? Should I let you work?” she asked, and I realized that she was talking about our game. It was her turn now.
“Oh, no, you’re fine,” I said. “I just got a little... into what I was doing.”What haven’t I done that I regret?It was a hell of a question. “I spent a lot of my time alone,” I said. “I was more... academically gifted than other kids, and it was a lonely place to be on a weekend. If I could go back, I think I’d try to open up more. Get to know people better.”
“You wouldn’t want to get married or have kids or something like that?” She sounded honestly curious, so I didn’t point out that it was, technically, my turn. “And this is just anadd-onto my original question,” she pointed out, as if she could read my thoughts.
“When I was younger, I lamented never finding the right woman,” I said, “but I wouldn’t go back and try to fix that... not when I know what I have now.”