Chapter 5 - Quality Garages

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     What an absolute dick, I thought as I followed Marx out to his car. I'd been using that words an awful lot lately. Mostly to describe him. But honestly, could you really use another word to describe the man that betrayed and shot you?

     "Would you mind if we went to my apartment?" Marx asked, unlocking his car. "I work better there."

     "Of course not," I said, forcing a smile.

    "Good." He grinned before opening the passenger side door for me.

     I couldn't openly hate him; I had no reason to as Evelyn Muerto. That didn't mean, however, that I couldn't hate him in my head, where no one would know.

     "I know you don't like me," Marx said abruptly, causing me to jump. "I don't know why, or if I remind you of someone from your past. But, Evelyn, you remind me of someone from mine, someone that I hurt, and this is hard for me too, so, just cut me some slack, okay?"

     His words had rendered me speechless. I knew he was talking about me - Anita DeSantos. Did he regret betraying me - her? 

     I lapsed into a guilty silence. He was right, Evelyn didn't have any reason to mistreat him, so I decided to show him that I wouldn't. Not publicly, anyway.

    "I don't dislike you...I just kind of lumped you into the stereotype of FBI agents, but you're not like them. I shouldn't have been so quick to judge you," I said, doing my best to sound sincere.

     "Well, I hope that I continue to break your stereotype, Evelyn Muerto," Marx said, smiling over at me when we stopped at an intersection. He looked into my eyes just like he did before I died; when I trusted him. I suppose he thought that we were having a "moment", but I was just uncomfortable.

     "The light's green," I said quietly, cutting into the moment, or whatever it was. 

    He cleared his throat. "Right, of course."

    I retreated back into myself. His eye contact with me had triggered all sorts of memories of him from before. I remembered one night in a club when both of us had had just a little too much to drink and we'd kissed. I was pretty sure that he didn't remember any of it, but I did. I was 100% okay with that, though, it would have just become awkward. 

    After about half an hour of driving, Marx pulled into his apartment building's garage. "Nice place," I commented.

     "Thanks," he muttered as he took the keys out of the ignition. "This really is a quality parking garage."

     I snorted in laughter. "Yes, it's the best parking garage that I've ever seen."

     "Oh, so you are human," Marx commented as we stepped into the elevator. I noted that there were no elevator attendants to thank God for. 

     "Phew, I'm off the hook! He'll never know that I'm an alien now," I said jokingly, not even realizing that I was reverting back to the way that I was with him before he betrayed me.

     His FBI composure - if it hadn't already before - crumbled. He dissolved into laughter. He didn't catch his breath until we reached his floor, which, of course, was the penthouse.

     "In all seriousness, Marx. You've got a very nice building," I said.

     "The FBI pays well," Marx commented. "Do you want a drink or anything?"

     "No, thank you," I said politely. 

     "Suit yourself," Marx said, grabbing a Coke out of the fridge. 

     I settled myself down on his tan couch, pulling his laptop towards me. I opened it and examined the keys for the password. 

     "That's password protected, you know, you couldn't get into it," Marx said, popping off the lid of his Coke as he plopped himself down on the couch next to me.

     "Got it!" I said as I typed his password in. "You should really wipe this off once in a while, you can clearly see the oil deposits on here." I gestured to the keyboard.

     Marx just stared at me in awe. "Are you sure that you're not an FBI agent?"

     My face fell. He'd asked me that the first time that I'd been able to open his computer, to which I'd replied "Nope. Just constantly on the run from them." I sighed. "Nope, just my job to know how to get into bad guys' computers."

     "I saw that you know."

     "Saw what?" I asked innocently, putting an alarm on any Google searches for 'Jack the Ripper'.

     "Your face changed. Has someone asked you that before? Someone that you lost?" he pried.

     "Sure. Someone that I lost," I said quietly. I'd forgotten how much he could tell from just looking at my face. "Can we talk about something else?"

     "Yeah. What did you just do to my computer?" he demanded.

     "I set up a triggering device for any Google searches for 'Jack the Ripper'. No permanent damage in my experience," I said, smirking.

    "In your experience," he repeated.

    "It's to help you, not hurt you, Marx." I slid the computer over to him. "See for yourself."

     He examined the computer screen. "You're right," he said. "Everything seems to be in order."

     My phone went off, signaling a text. I dug it out of my pocket while Marx typed things into the computer. I opened the text when I saw who it was from. My mouth turned up into a smile, I hadn't realized how much I'd been anticipating his text. 

     How are you, Evelyn?

     His text was simple, but it made me wonder.

     Do you pay this much attention to your other clients?

     His next message took a little longer to come in. 

     No, but as I've told you before, I like you.

    "Texting your boyfriend?" Marx asked.

    "No," I said, stowing my phone back in my pocket.

     "Look at this," he said, dropping the subject and turning the computer so that I could see it.

     It was an Instagram post by a fan account called j_the_r. It was a picture of a girl with her throat slit and a caption saying. "I'm back, baby!"

     My eyes widened. "What the hell?"

Hello, loves! I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter! I certainly enjoyed writing more of Noah Marx. I told you last update that I wasn't sure how I liked him, but I've decided that I do like him very much. Thank you so much for your patience for me not being able to update Sunday. Quite frankly, this chapter almost didn't get up today either!

Questions, Questions

1) Do you think that Anita had feelings for Noah?

2) Do you think that Noah had feelings for Anita?

3) How about their talk in the elevator?

4) Ships?

5) Who here has started school, and how is it going?

Okay, that's all for now! I'm drowning in schoolwork so I'm hoping for the best. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please! Thanks so much for reading. Please comment your questions and concerns. Don't forget to vote. Love you all!

xCelia



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