Survivor - Connor x OC

Put It On Me

Matt Maeson – Put It On Me

"I'll have the Cabernet Sauvignon," Alex raised an eyebrow at her as the waiter began praising her choice, talking about the Bordeaux region and the vintage. Smiling politely, Taylor nodded along and let Alex order the food. After the wine list, she lost her ability to focus.

The dark red swirling in her glass felt like a focusing point. It was damn good too, even if the waiter was still chattering somewhere in the background. He'd recognized her when he'd seated her across from Alex. He must have been nervous.

"You want him to bring the bottle?" Alex's voice finally cut through her thoughts. Her eyes met his over the rim of the glass and she placed it delicately back on the table. Barely a mouthful remained swirling at the bottom. Said waiter had finally disappeared.

"No," an instant later the waiter materialized again, depositing a basket of crusty bread wrapped a napkin. He made a show of preparing a dip out of olive oil and spices, then when he noted her empty wine glass, he refilled it for her immediately. Taylor watched it all in silence. Despite her refusal, Alex told their waiter, Sam, to leave the bottle.

"Well?" Her pulse quickened, but Alex dug in the basket for a breadstick, looking at her imploringly. "I know you love bread. Isn't it the reason you started running?"

"One of them," she conceded, reaching for a breadstick as well. She dropped it on the smaller plate in front of her and started tearing off smaller chunks to stuff in her mouth. When she glanced up, Alex was looking at her.

Or he was looking at her bruises, she realized. His dark green eyes were focused below her face, at the dark black and blue circles that looked disturbingly like fingerprints. She had spent some time staring at them herself in the mirror earlier, and no amount of concealer or contouring would lighten them. Alex took them in with singular focus, his eyebrows drawn down low over his eyes.

Still, she couldn't start the conversation. She kept pinching bites of her breadstick off and shoving them in. As long as her hands were occupied, she could ignore the anxiety curling like smoke at every edge of her awareness, trying to set her aflame.

"You know," he finally spoke, startling her, hand pausing halfway between the plate and her mouth. His eyes finally rose to hers again, "When I saw you this morning, all I could think of was the last time we were in Detroit. Do you remember?"

"Yes," she breathed. It was snowing then too. Jake had been crying. There had been a dull ache in her chest that had started the moment she had walked into her mother's bedroom and never stopped. She didn't feel anything else, even when Alex took her hand and led her away, toward the departure gate.

"I thought we were starting over." He glanced down at the table. She lowered the hand holding her bread while reaching for her wine instead. "I never thought I would see you like that again."

"It started in Los Angeles." Taylor took another sip of wine. "Weeks after I started posting about deviants on social media. This android approached me, and I didn't realize he was an android at first. He had a proposition for me and..."

She met Alex's eyes across the table. He was looking at her, rapt. "And I took it. I helped deviants escape into Mexico."

He just kept staring at her. She found the silence more unnerving than anything he could have said. When he realized she wasn't continuing, he finally asked, "Is that why you've been turning down so much work?"

She nodded. Alex sighed. "Is that why you asked me find you work related to deviants? The reason you've been throwing yourself into danger at every possible opportunity?"