By the time dinner had finished, it was rather late, so with that and the fact that they'd all had a fair few drinks, Norma insisted that Alex had best stay with them for the night. In one of the empty rooms, of course. The one he'd taken his little nap in earlier on.
As she pottered around in the motel office, tidying everything up ready for the day ahead, Norma couldn't help but grin as she thought of Alex drunk last night. She'd never seen him like that before. All smiley and....cute? Okay, no, Sheriff Romero was not 'cute'. She frowned, shaking her head.
When Alex woke up, he had a headache so bad that it felt like there were little people banging against his skull with hammers. "Ugh-" he said, squinting to look at the alarm clock beside him. Then, it hit him where he actually was. He was...in the motel? He pulled a confused expression, rubbing his temples. He had hazy memories of what had happened the night before, but not much. And what happened after dinner was something he couldn't quite grasp. Must have drank some more after that little nap, he thought. Once he'd carelessly thrown on his clothes, he fumbled around in the draws in hope to find some tablets to help his head. Nope, nothing. He slammed the draw shut with a grumble, knowing what he'd have to do.
As Norma looked up for a moment, she caught a glimpse of Alex walking towards the office. She put down the leaflets she was stacking, resting her elbows on the desk and looking over at him with a smirk. "Morning."
"Hah. I see, make fun of the hungover guy....thanks." he said, narrowing his eyes at her as he walked inside.
She lifted her hands up in surrender and shrugged. "I'm just saying good morning. My bad."
"Sure you are." he said sarcastically, walking over to the desk. "Do you happen to have any aspirin I can take?"
"Uhmmm..." she went into the back room, looking around for any sign of some pills. "I'll have to fetch you some from the house." She said as she made her way back to him, walking out and gesturing for him to follow. As Dylan walked past, she stopped him in his tracks. "Ooh! Dylan, honey...be a dear and watch the front desk for me, thanks." She said quickly, shooing him over to the office and not really giving him much chance to protest.
Alex watched Dylan reluctantly walk into the office, raising an eyebrow. She really couldn't have left the office unattended for 5 minutes? It's not like they ever had visitors anyway. But, he never complained since to be fair, she was helping him.
When they reached the house, Norma opened the door and made her way into the kitchen, holding the doors open for Alex who was following closely behind as they walked through the house. She grabbed a pack of aspirin from the cupboard, popping one out and pouring him a glass of water. "Here." she handed him the glass of water, waiting for him to take a sip before placing the aspirin in his palm.
He took a sip of the water, gulping down the aspirin along with it. "This shit better work, I can't be dealing with a hangover today." he complained, drinking what was left of the water.
Norma raised an eyebrow, snatching the glass from him once he'd drank it all. "I think, 'thank you Norma.' were the words you were looking for, hmm?" she said, turning to go and rinse the glass.
"Ugh...yeah, sorry." he shook his head, frowning. Well apparently hangovers made him even more grumpy than usual, his intention was never to upset Norma. "No but seriously thank you. For...that, and last night." He scratched the back of his neck. "I, uhh...don't know what I'd have done without your help, so...thank you. Again." he said with a nervous chuckle.
She grinned as she dried the glass, placing it back in its rightful place before turning back to look at him. "It's no problem, besides...I owe you anyway. After all the times you've helped me, it's only fair I do the same for you." She smiled, starting to head back to the motel office with him.
He nodded, flashing a small smile as they walked back down to the office. "Hey....Norma?" He said in a curious tone, looking towards her.
"Hey....Alex?" She copied him jokingly, grinning. "What?"
"Did I-well, you see when I was drunk, I remember some things but...some things are a little hazy." He frowned. "I didn't do, say, anything bad...did I?"
She had to stop the grin spreading over her face. He didn't, not unless he counted 'I think you're beautiful' as something bad. Opening the door to the office, she smiled and nodded over at Dylan to tell him he could leave now. Looking back at him, she tilted her head. "You didn't do anything bad, no."
He followed her inside, raising an eyebrow. "So I did do something, then..." He said, noticing the emphasis she put on the word bad.
"Ehh, it's more...what you said." She nodded, still trying to contain a grin or even laugh at this point. He was completely clueless.
"Oh, jeez....go on. What did I say?" He said with a nervous laugh. He expected it to be something awful, offensive or something along those lines.
"Oh, nothing....nothing." She shook her head, making a gesture with her hand in a way that meant 'It doesn't matter'.
"No, go on....what did I say? You've already brought it up now, you can't just not tell me." He crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation.
"You said lots of things, Alex...I can't even remember myself." she said, scratching her neck and laughing awkwardly. She'd been teasing him all this time, yet now when it came to telling him she felt slightly embarrassed herself.
"Norma." he frowned, walking closer to her. "You're worrying me, what did I say? Did I say something to you, something bad?"
As he closed the distance between them, she looked up at him and muttered. "No, no-it's nothing like that. You just...you told me that you thought I was beautiful.." she said hesitantly, nodding.
"....Oh." he stepped back slightly, his worried expression turning into an awkward smile. "Umm."
"You know--maybe you should drink more often. Your face is less-" she gestured around his face. "-paralyzed. And you say cute things. It's nice." she teased.
As he started to walk away, he glanced at her over his shoulder. "Did you just...call me cute?" he raised an eyebrow.
"Huh? No no. I said you said cute things, there's a difference. And anyway, it's clearly only when you've had a few drinks." she stated, starting to fill in some paperwork as she thought he was leaving.
He continued walking across the room, opening the door. "Well i'm fully sober now, who says I don't still stand by what I said?" he said, leaving her with that comment before leaving with a small smile plastered on his face.
She stopped the scribbling on the paper, the corner of her lips quirking up into a wide smile. For the first time in god knows how long, Norma Bates had a genuine smile on her face. And it was because of Alex Romero.
