Settling Slowly

Chapter 3 - Parasol dudes

After that I had a free, one of the frees that I shared with Lexie. We met up in one of the rec’ rooms. Normally she did homework in her free lessons, but she did so much school work even at home we didn’t have much time to talk so she set aside this free so that we could catch up. As there were still some students missing we had the room to ourselves. Even so I found her sat in a corner had a portable radiator pointing towards her from both sides and had stripped off her layers down to her blouse.

I grinned, sat in the arm chair next to her and took my layers off as well dumping them in the chair opposite. I sighed.

“I haven’t been warm for hours.”

“It gets better,” she said and pulled a thermos from her bag. “Tea.”

Then two mugs emerged and then some ginger chocolate. And that was why I loved her. Not just because she knew my favourite chocolate, but because she’d made an effort to do something she knew I’d appreciate. She poured the tea and passed me a mug, and the chocolate she left in the middle after breaking some up. She licked some chocolate from her fingers.

“We did it,” she suddenly blurted.

“Did what?” I asked.

Then she grinned and gave me a knowing look.

“Oh,” I said. “Oh.”

“Yeah. We –”

“Gah!” I yelped knowing how much she liked details. “No. No, no, no. I don’t want details. Hell, I don’t need details. I’m too innocent to have that conversation.”

Lexie laughed a light, musical sound and her eyes sparkled. “One day, one fine, glorious day, I will look at you and realise I’ve created a monster.”

I laughed. “You didn’t think that when I punched Danny?”

“No,” she said her thoughts turning inwards. Had she looked pained, as she always used to when Danny came up in conversation, I would have regretted mentioning it, but she looked… quietly strong. Confident in herself. He’d cheated on her and then insulted her so much and so terribly when she confronted him about it that she’d been afraid of him and lost all of her confidence. Now… well she was back to her old self. Sure, she was different now, more cautious to let people in, but she was more or less back to normal. Sergey had a lot to do with that. “I thought you were wonderful.”

“Oh, only wonderful?” I asked to lighten the mood. “Not ‘amazing’ or ‘sexy’? Though I suppose Sergey gets those labels now.”

“He is sexy,” she said. “Even you agree on that.”

“I’d go for hot,” I said. “Sexy implies…”

“Intimacy?” Lexie asked with a knowing grin and a quirked eyebrow. “Give up, Zo. I know you want to know something about what happened.”

“I do not want details,” I reminded her.

“What am I? A porn book?”

I didn’t dignify that with an answer.

“Hey!” she playfully protested and swatted my knee as she laughed.

I helped myself to some chocolate and once again took off my shoes. “This is bliss,” I sighed. “Go on tell me.”

“We got to the hotel at half two. It was just a basic twin room which was nice. He booked it like that because we’d only just got together then,” she explained. I remembered the conversation. They’d (finally) got together the Sunday after Halloween and it was only a few days after that that she told me he’d invited her down to London. “Well, we settled in, unpacked and grabbed showers – separate showers,” she pressed because I was asking silent questions. “Then we went to dinner and later on he ordered a room service desert. Hot apple pies and scalding custard before you ask. We sat on the same bed and ate them and then he looked into my eyes and I knew, I just knew it was going to happen.” She smiled softly. “It was… wonderful and amazing but… so much more than… I love him, Zoey. I really, really love him.”

I smiled a little, glad for her and that she’d found happiness. I just wished I’d had the same luck as her.

“Oh gosh, Zoey, I’m sorry,” she said softly. “How are you and Grigory getting along?”

I smiled and looked away from the chocolate I’d been staring at. I took a sip of my tea and then said, “Well, he didn’t complain that I let myself in to give him the cookies and he hasn’t asked me to transfer into a different Russian class even though I offered.”

“But –”

“Lex,” I said, “Nothing is going to happen yet. He needs time.”

She sighed. “Yeah. I guess. Let me know how class goes tonight, yeah?”

I smiled. “Sure. How’s everyone at your place?”

“Oh we’re all fine,” she waved off. “Paul said Ana-Sofia isn’t dealing so well with the snow. She lived near the Med’. Hasn’t seen it before and hates it.”

“God I wish I lived near the Med’,” I grumbled. “Good food, sea and sand, bikini weather all year round…”

“Hot dudes holding parasols…”

I fake gasped. “You’re taken!”

“Damn it,” she grinned.

“And you’d burn before five minutes are up.”

“Hence the parasol guys,” she said sagely.

“Ahhh.”

She laughed a little and took some chocolate. “You wouldn’t last long on the beach either.”

“Parasol dudes.”

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I know, short chapter. This is seriously a work in progress, dudes! But I hope you like this bit of Lexie and Zoey chit-chat! 

The song is Leona Lewis, I Got You

As always, my facebook page is in the external link. 

The dedication is for shayknight for all of her votes and for so quickly reading Falling Fast and catching up with this! It's amazing! Thank you so much!