True Blue

Chapter Thirty Two

Alex woke up the next morning, surprised to find Norma still pressed tightly into his side, still sleeping peacefully. It was the first time he had gotten to wake up to her, and he wanted to take advantage of it.
Slowly, his lips pressed against her bare shoulder lovingly, careful not to wake her just yet as he kissed up to her neck lazily, his hand now finding its way to her hip. He slowly traces patterns with his fingers on her side as he gently licked and sucked on her neck and collarbone, feeling her breathing pick up as she began to stir.
His hand slowly makes its way between her legs, smiling against her skin as her legs part for him, though with one quick glance up at her he sees that she is still sleeping lightly.
His lips begin to move down her chest as his fingers brush over her clit, making her gasp and open her eyes finally as he begins to suck on one of her nipples.
"Alex." she whispers with a soft smile, her fingers burying themselves in his thick hair as he continues with his movements. He slips one finger into her while his thumb continues flicking across her clit, making a soft moan escape Norma's lips.
She can feel her pleasure roll over her body as she begins to tighten around Alex's finger and she quickly sits up and grabs his chin, stopping him.
"I need you." she whispers, pulling him towards her.
He quickly obliges, crawling back up to kiss her as he situates himself at her entrance. Slowly, he pushes into her, loving the sounds that came from her as he did so, her nails already scratching lightly at his shoulders.
"More." she whispers, making him push the rest of the way into her. He pauses for a moment, allowing her to relax around him before he repeats the movement, slowly pulling out before pushing back in.
"Faster." she tells him, feeling the pit begin to form in her stomach and desperately needing a release. His movements quicken, his eyes being drawn to her breasts that bounced with every movement, and he couldn't help but reach down to brush his thumb over her erect nipple.
"Fuck." she whispers at the action, her eyes squeezing shut for a moment as her back arches into his touch.
Suddenly, she was rolling them over to sit on top of him, setting her own pace as she rides him. The sight was almost too erotic for Alex, with her breasts freely bouncing in front of him as she throws her head back with a moan of ecstasy. His hands find their way to her hips as his hips move to meet hers with every pump.
He can feel her walls close around him and he flips them back over, his hips not missing a beat as he pushes her to her climax. Her back arches again, her jaw dropping open as her orgasm consumes her, and Alex moves to swallow every gasp and moan that slipped from her mouth.
Just the taste of her against his tongue brought him to his own release.
As their breathing begins to slow, Alex continues to hold himself over Norma, his nose brushing against hers as they smile at each other, still trying to catch their breath.
"Good morning." she finally says sweetly, making him laugh and nod in agreement.
"Very good morning." he says, making her giggle in return before he presses his lips against hers again.
"I like waking up to that." she says, still smiling up at him as he finally moves himself away from her.
"Yeah, well, normally I wake up alone. Thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity." he says jokingly as he slips out of bed. She smiles at the sight of his perfectly toned, bare ass before he pulls his boxers on and turns back to her.
"You just gonna stare at me, or you gonna get dressed?" he asks with a smirk at having caught her staring.
"View's pretty nice, I think I'll stay here." she replies jokingly, watching as he leans back down to place another kiss on her lips.
"But then who will kiss me and send me off to work?" he asks lightly against her lips, making her smile and move to get out of bed. They begin to dress in silence, both too busy thinking of the other to start a conversation.
"Alex, do you mind?" she asks, holding the back of her dress closed as she looks at him through her mirror. He walks to her and slowly zips her dress closed for her before slowly wrapping his arms around her waist, pressing a kiss on her exposed shoulder.
"I'll start the coffee." he says to her reflection as he gives her waist a gentle squeeze before releasing her altogether.
He starts the coffee for them, his mind still thinking back on Norma's revelation from last night. He could feel his jaw clench and anger filled him as he thought of Caleb, how Alex had been sat right next to him at the dinner Norma invited him to.
He didn't know if he would've done anything differently that night if he had known. But he knew if he ever saw Caleb again, he was as good as dead. Not that Norma would actually allow Alex to kill him, but he knew he could land some good punches in before she stopped him.
A sound from the basement pulled him from his thoughts and he slowly made his way down to find Norma moving things around.
"Oh, hey, there you are." he says as she looks up at him with a smile.
"Hi." she says sweetly, as if she hadn't just seen him minutes ago in their bedroom.
"Heading to work. What you got there?" he asks, referring to the large object she was carrying that was covered by a dusty sheet.
"I was thinking about making some new curtains for the kitchen and maybe the living room. Wanted to since I moved in. I thought maybe if I buy the fabric wholesale and do it myself-" she says, setting the large sewing machine on Norman's old work table.
"You're gonna make curtains." he says with surprise, though he should know by now that Norma could practically do anything she put her mind to.
"Yeah. I used to make my own clothes in high school." she says casually before moving back further into the basement.
"This house is so cool. I mean, look at this. Look, this is a fruit cellar if you just wiped all this junk away." she says, carrying more things to Norman's table as she looks around, clearly picturing all the things she could do with this basement.
"I always wanted to plant more fruit trees and preserve fruit. There's so much I want to do." she says, looking to him with an excited smile. His heart warmed at the fact that she was planning for the future again, their future, not just trying to survive the day.
"Well, we could do that. I'll help you." he says, earning an even wider smile from her.
"Really?"
"Yeah. Yeah-well, I can't make curtains, but I can plant a tree. Yeah, I'll start this weekend." he tells her, loving the excitement he saw in her eyes.
"All right. I gotta go, but just start thinking about what kind of fruit trees you want to pick and I'll go buy them and whatever else you need." he says, moving in to place a soft kiss against her lips. She smiles up at him as he finally manages to pull away from her to go to work.
"Alex?" she calls out as he is halfway up the stairs.
"Yeah?" he asks, looking back to her to see her messing with her sewing machine.
"Don't worry about it." she tells him, looking back to him with guilt.
"What? Why?" he asks with confusion.
"It's-I'm...I don't want you spending your money on it. That's not what I was asking." she says, looking to him nervously as her fingers still played with the dusty sheet over the sewing machine.
"Oh, come on. I don't mind-"
"Yeah, but that's not why I brought it up." she tells him, watching as he continues to look at her with confusion.
"It's so silly. I don't really have any money. You know, we haven't really had enough guests since they put the road in to even break even. I'm behind on a lot of bills, so the last thing I should be thinking about is home improvements. It's bad accounting." she finishes with a laugh as he closes the distance between them again.
"Norma, why didn't you tell me?" he asks, knowing he could've had this fixed a while ago.
"Because it's embarrassing. I was so excited when I first showed Norman this place. I had so many ideas on how to fix it." she says softly, looking around the basement with a far off gaze as she remembers the day she moved here.
"It's an amazing house, and I just kind of gave up on it. But...I feel like taking it on. So I'm gonna start with the curtains, and then we can work on it one thing at a time. There's no rush." she says optimistically as Alex slips past her and moves to the furnace where he hid it all.
"And I know things will pick up in the spring, you know, and-" she stops as she turns to him, seeing a large duffle bag being pulled from her furnace.
"What are you doing?" she asks with confusion as he sets the duffle bag on the table between them and looks to her.
"Remember that day I told you I was hiding a bunch of money down here?" he asks, reminding her.
"Yeah."
"Well, I actually was." he says softly, watching as Norma begins to laugh again, still not believing him.
"Open it." he says, glancing down to the bag.
Her giggles falter as soon as she zips the bag open, her small hand taking one of the stacks of money out of the bag and looking up at him with disbelief.
"Where did you get this?" she asks hesitantly.
"It was Bob Paris' getaway cash." he finally admits, hating the way her smile dropped from her face and she quickly sets the money back before stepping away.
"Oh, I-No. I can't do that." she tells him, still glancing to the cash as if it were Bob Paris himself.
"Well, it would help me cause I don't know what to do with it." he tells her softly, watching as she begins to battle with herself internally.
"Look, this money, it doesn't belong to anybody, and who knows how he got it? And, honestly, I couldn't think of a better use for it than to put it back into the world through your hands. You've had nothing but bad breaks since you moved here. And you deserve some good ones." he tells her sincerely, watching as she slowly smiles up at him.
"I mean, think of it like it's like a balancing of the scales. Some positive karma. Please take it. It'll help me." he whispers to her pleasingly. Because she really did deserve this. She deserved to be able to finally breathe for once.
She slowly reaches out to take his hand and pull him into her embrace, not knowing what to say so deciding to show him instead. She couldn't believe how lucky she is to be loved by him.
"I wish we could just erase all the bad things that have happened." she whispers into his ear, making him tighten his hold on her.
She leans away and begins to kiss him as the phone begins to ring from the kitchen above them. They try to ignore it for a moment, both too wrapped up in each other, but the ringing continues.
"Okay, what jerk invented the phone?" he asks jokingly against her lips before he pulls away, loving the way she giggles at his words.
"I'll get it." he says, already moving to walk up the stairs.
"Hello?" he answers, waiting for a moment for an answer but just hearing silence on the other line.
"Hello?" Alex says again, this time freezing with shock as Norman's voice enters his ear.
"Hello. Um, is my mother there?" he asks softly.
Alex glances back to see Norma appearing from the basement, a smile still on her face as she gazes lovingly at him.
"Uh, yeah, she's right here, Norman." he says, watching as Norma's smile quickly drops as fear takes over her features. She quickly takes the phone with wide eyes before plastering a smile on her face.
"Hi, honey." she greets him sweetly, twirling the cord between her fingers nervously..
"Everything okay, mother?" he asks.
"Of course. Why wouldn't it be?" she asks before glancing back to Alex with fear.
"Oh, the sheriff is there answering your phone, so I thought maybe you were in trouble or something." he says hesitantly.
"No, no, uh...the stained-glass window in the hallway needed to be replaced so he...he just stopped by and helped me put a new one in." she lies, looking to Alex with worry, hoping he knew she was only lying to protect Norman. A short silence follows her explanation.
"Norman?" she asks, wondering if he had hung up.
"Mother, I'm coming home." he tells her simply, making her heart drop.
"What do you mean?" she asks with confusion.
"I'm coming home. As soon as I can." he repeats, his voice eerily calm.
"Is that...is that something that you can just do?" she asks, knowing he hasn't been there for nearly enough time to have gotten the help he needs.
"I signed myself in voluntarily. I can leave whenever I want." he tells her. She glances back to Alex who mouths a confused 'What?' before she turns back around, trying to focus on Norman.
"Has something happened, Norman?" she asks with worry, her fingers now thoroughly tangled in the cord but she continues twisting anyways.
"No, no." he says.
"Well, Dylan said that you were doing really well. Don't you think it would be good to give it a little more time?" she asks, making Alex tense as he begins to understand what Norman is telling her.
"Oh, well, Dr. Edwards thinks I've made significant progress and it's time for me to come home. Is there some reason I shouldn't?" he asks, making her glance back to Alex in answer. She loves Norman dearly but she wasn't ready for her perfect little bubble with Alex to be popped so soon. Not when she just got him.
"Of course not." she lies anyways, her sad eyes holding Alex's. "I'm just surprised."
"I'm sure you are. I'll let you know when you can pick me up." he tells her, an underlying tone in his voice that Norma couldn't quite figure out, before he hung up the phone, leaving Norma and Alex to stare to each other in shock.