Romance is Dead to Me

two

I had the weirdest dream. Alex rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she got out of bed. Opening her door she was hit with the smell of eggs and pancakes, "I must be dreaming because I smell food." Alex was jolted awake when a low chuckle came from the kitchen, her feet rushing to see who was in her house. Familiar hair...body...wait a minute...whoa. I could get used to seeing this in the morning.

"Morning Alex. Thanks again for letting me crash here." He turned around as he set down two plates of pancakes with scrambled eggs for her and him.

"Okay, so it wasn't a dream." Connor chuckled again and that deep sound did something to Alex's core. Shaking off the feeling, she focused on the food as she sat down on her bar stool.

"I wanted to thank you somehow for last night, so I made us breakfast."

Alex took a bite and moaned, "Feel free to cook for me again. I didn't think eggs could taste so good." Connor felt himself get embarrassed as he wiped his cheek, "I'm glad you like it."

She took a bite of the pancakes and moaned again, Connor laughed at her enjoyment of food. Then she remembered he had a bike, "So what's your bike?"

"I ride a sportbike, a Kawasaki Ninja, to be precise."

"Oh that's a good bike, what's the horsepower on that?"

Connor's eyebrow was arched matching a grin, "122. You like bikes?" Alex hiked a shoulder and continued to eat her pancake, "Just a little. So how long do you plan on staying over, stranger?"

Connor looked at his watch; it was nine. "After this, I'll clean the dishes and then head out."

"A gentleman and a responsible one? Hey now, keep this up, and then I just might be interested in you." Alex teased and received yet another chuckle as Connor downed his glass of orange juice. It was silent as Connor began to clean up, and Alex helped to put the pans away.

Once they were done, he made his way to the door and Alex followed. "Thanks again for your hospitality."

"Thank you for the breakfast."

Smiling at each other, Connor felt like he didn't want to leave. But Alex wouldn't let that happen, "Well, I'll see you around stranger."

-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-

"You let him sleep over? You just met him!" Alex put the phone at arm's length as her best friend began to yell a whole string of words that were not meant to be heard so early in the morning.

"You know, none of this would have happened if you didn't send him here, Bell." Scoffing with no response, Alex knew she won this round. Wiping her face, she then ended the call and began to get ready for the day. She didn't have much to do – only two meetings with her manager and team about a project and then a Zoom call with her social media team. Later that evening, there was to be a car meet so she figured to go there.

Dressing in business casual – black button-up with sleeves rolled up halfway, cream trousers that flare out, paired with black heels, and a black bag – hair in a high ponytail and a few jewelry to pull the outfit together. "Good. Let's get this over with."

Alex doesn't hate her job, she actually loves it. She has her main job being a design engineer; second, a private job being an interior designer, and lastly being a social media influencer. Some people are amazed when they hear she has not one, but two jobs and they are equally hard in their own way.

Her apartment came with a garage so she opened it revealing a Nissan Skyline R-35, wrapped in black chrome, making it look sleek and shiny. Getting into the right (not left) side of the car, placing her foot down on the clutch and the other on the brake, putting it in neutral, and turning the car on, it roared to life. The first day Alex showed up to her job in that car, everyone automatically assumed she was rich. Which is understandable but she just got lucky and got it at a decent price after years of saving since she was a child.