Time Changes

"Alexis Carmichael?"

Lex barely heard her own name being called across the reception of the five star hotel. It took a second shout until the words penetrated her overstretched brain. It was ridiculous as usual. She was in the almost palatial building by default, and she was desperately trying not to look like a fraud. But as usual, the reason for her apprehension, for this lack of preparation, for her being plonked a million miles outside her comfort zone was her father. He’d asked her to be there, in his usual insistent manner, he had a way of pleading more manipulatively than a child, and as usual, unable to say no, she was sat there, woefully underprepared.  But her father always got his way, and she’d spent every second since she’d left home, the less than twenty four hours notice that he’d given her, reading up on the plans for the next few days.

Oliver Carmichael had been Joan Collins obsessed in his younger years, and had named his daughter after her Dynasty character, as most people seemed to guess with glee. The name had been the bane of her life, and she’d loved the last few years in University where she’d dropped the full name and been called Lex. Lex seemed a little less attention seeking than Alexis, and it had allowed her to hide in the relative background for a change. Lex had struggled through her teenage, formative years, being too tall, too gangly, and the last in her school to need a bra, but somewhere over her time in university, things had changed. She was the product of a tall blonde man and a curvaceous Spanish mother, and by nineteen she’d measured almost six foot and had developed a full hour glass figure that was the envy of her friends. The name Alexis would have been a bigger handicap then, so she was relieved that she’d changed to Lex those few years back.

And that was why someone calling her by her real name confused her. Gathering up her files, she waved in the direction of the voice, all the while making sure she had all her belongings together.

Standing with a shudder, at the icy wind blowing through the door, she cursed Oliver Carmichael again. It was his fault she was here, in snowy, cold, expensive Stockholm. She’d booked to go to Mexico with Steve her boyfriend. Her father hated him, and she knew this was a deliberate sabotage of her plans.   

Her father was a well respected Economics lecturer; over the years he had produced cutting edge research that had changed the area for good. For the last twenty years he’d had been the head of the best Economics school in Britain, and a very successful author and consultant. He now travelled all over the World consulting with huge companies, even governments. Alexis had shied away from the field, but had just graduated in medicine, and was planning to take a year off to find herself. She had a few tentative ideas lined up for the year, but she’d planned to travel in Mexico first.

She’d been pondering what to pack for the sun when her father had called. He had a famous politician contact him, and he needed to see him urgently for some sort of consultation, but he was due to pick up an award at a huge conference in Stockholm, step in dutiful Alexis. He’d begged her to attend in his absence, and despite her protests, her holiday plans, her OWN life, he played the emotional blackmail card. Her older sister Henrietta (Joan’s middle name) was pregnant with her first child, so ‘couldn’t possibly’ go. So it left her, she was the only one he could trust. Steve and a few other friends were flying out the same day as she’d arrived in Sweden on their trip of a life time backpacking in Mexico, there was a strict itinerary, and even if she left as soon as she’d finished in Stockholm, she’d miss the majority of the places she wanted to visit. She couldn’t think about it all. She’d worked harder than hard and was a straight A med student. She’d done everything ever asked of her, yet it wasn’t enough. Her father still wanted more from her, and ironically, it took her away from Steve, someone he’d been less than pleasant about.

"Alexis Carmichael?" the voice shouted again. She shook herself from the self pity she’d cocooned herself in, and waved again to acknowledge the elderly gentleman carrying a large parcel.