Chapter 20
The following days are an exercise in discrete and partial (ok: total) avoidance. If Alex were to venture a guess, she’d say: on both their parts. Which doesn’t smart. In fact, it makes it easier.
It’s fine.
It’s somewhat stressful, though: this being on high alert all the time (whenever Lena’s near and whenever she’s not); this pretending like nothing happened when it’s – if she’s honest – all she can think about. Lena’s moans, Lena’s hands, Lena’s mouth.
It’s not easy. It’s not ideal. But it’s fine.
It does bring to light how much time she’s been spending with the CEO, how central Lena’s become to her daily routine. To make matters worse, Steven’s discovered Taylor Swift: in addition to now self identifying as a Swiftie - which single handedly breaks down the internet for a day - he’s taken to play her break up songs on repeat.
She’s called into an impromptu meeting during sparring. (If she could be so bold, she’d say that today she actually held her own against Natasha. A few more and she’ll finally give her a proper run for her money). Jess wants to go through the next month’s schedule and begging out of it would look weird. If there’s one person she doesn’t want to start suspecting something, it’s Lena’s clever and devoted assistant. So she apologises to Natasha for cutting the session short and makes her way to the meeting room. She’ll have to shower afterwards.
The question of whether Lena’ll be there too is the only thing on her mind.
She is. And it’s awkward.
Alex arrives in the middle of Jess’ update. Lena looks almost stricken and acknowledges her presence with a cursory nod.
(It doesn’t smart. It’s fine.)
Alex returns the nod and hopes her smile is more awkward than creepy.
“How does that sound?” Jess’ hologram wants to know. She doesn’t get a reply. In fact, it’s as if Lena doesn’t even hear her. She tries again: “Lena, is that ok with you? We can proceed to any change you’d like.”
Still, no acknowledgement whatsoever.
Jess turns towards Alex for the first time. “Oh, hey Alex.” Her eyes widen: “Ah…”
Alex has to tear her eyes away from Lena. “Hi Jess. Sorry for being late.”
She expects the usual friendly commiseration from Lena’s right hand woman, but it never comes. Jess looks at Lena again, before swivelling back to Alex: “I see…”
Alex frowns, she has the unpleasant feeling she’s missing something. Jess asked her to be here… “I hope I’m not interrupting? I can come back later if now’s a bad time.”
Jess pinches her nose and mutters something unintelligible under her breath.
Is the hologram glitching again? “Is… something wrong with the schedule?” Alex tries again, growing disconcerted..
Jess waves her concern away: “I don’t think so, no… No… I’m pretty sure… Uhm. Thank you for coming on such short notice.”
“No problem.”
“Would you terribly mind…” she gestures to Alex. “Look, I get it.” She points to herself: “If I had anything resembling this level of definition, I’d show off too…”
What is Jess talking about?
“It’s just… I’m kind of trying to talk shop here, so… Would you… You know… Would you terribly mind covering up? A shirt, a blanket, really anything’ll do at this point.”
A shirt?
Why would Jess…? Alex looks down. Shit: she rocked up in her sports bra, a few (ok: more than just a few) bruises blooming around her midsection, baggy shorts low on her hips. She’s comfortable in her body these days, which wasn’t always the case. And Lena… well, Lena’s seen her in less than that. Still, she doesn’t make it a habit to prance around in her sportswear (not that she’d stand out, what with Cap’ usually spending his mornings shirtless). She simply forgot. Great.
“Oh, man. Right.”
“I feel kind of overdressed next to you. I’m sure Lena does too” Jess explains, with a loud and pronounced inflection of her boss’ name.
This finally seems to get a reaction out of the CEO. She blinks, her cheeks turning crimson.
“Yeah. Yeah, of course. I’m sorry” Alex feels like an idiot. “I didn’t think…”
“Don’t worry. It’s not like it’s hard on the eyes” Jess replies with a wink.
“Uh… Just give me a minute, I’ll go grab something now, I’ll be quick.”
“I think…”
They’re interrupted by a familiar voice: “Dios mio!”
“Andrea!” Even as a hologram Jess’ wince is clear to see. “Great, just what we needed: more people!” she continues with exaggerated enthusiasm.
“Apologies, I didn’t think I’d be interrupting anything.” Andrea’ hologram looks anything but apologetic and turns to Alex: “Very handsome Alex. I had a feeling we’d see each other again soon.”
“Nope. Nuhu” Jess interrupts, pinching the top of her nose and frowning in exasperation. “This discussion is officially tabled” she announces, ushering Andrea out.
“Wait, don’t stop this on my account. Anything that’d need my input? If this is strip poker, I want in Lena!” Andrea protests.
Jess can be seen redoubling in her efforts to push Andrea out of the room, throwing: “Tell you what: Lena, Alex, you’ve got the proposed schedule in your inboxes. You can both send me your feedback at the latest tomorrow noon. Deal?” over her shoulder and not waiting for an answer before disconnecting.
Which means she leaves a befuddled Alex alone with Lena, who still seems as intent as ever to avoid Alex’ gaze.
Great.
“Err… I’m sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable…”
“It’s um… well then. I better go…” Lena stammers, making a hasty exit.
How odd.