Until Alex

CHAPTER TWO: THE ALLURING TIFFANY COX

“You did WHAT?!” Tiffany exploded tempestuously the next evening when I casually informed her that I had set her up with Alex.

Unfazed, I remained sprawled on her pink fluffy couch, my fingers punching fiercely on my phone, not even bothering to look up when out of the corner of my eyes, I saw her standing in front of me, hands on her hips. The reason why me and Tiff ticked it off was because I was not usually impressed with her melodramas.

Though I could hardly blame her for being so pissed off with me for having given my consent without even consulting her beforehand. Had we switched places; I would have mercilessly bitten off her head for her audacity.

But I would prefer dying than to let Tiff see that Alex had gotten better of me, whether with his sweet charm or candidness, I had unwillingly fallen into his trap, surprising even myself for that faux pas. All I could do was try my best to cover up my mistake.

“He’s a nice guy. I think you ought to give him a chance,” I replied stoically when she did not budge from her menacing stance.

“I can’t believe that the ice princess Arianna Baxter is judging a guy nice,” she muttered eying me suspiciously with hooded eyes deliberately taunting me with the nickname assigned by the media. “Am I missing something here?”

It took me great effort to remain impassible resisting the urge to look up at her, my subconscious filled with my current jumbled emotions for Alex which I could hardly express. Indeed, it was rather atypical of me to appreciate a guy; I was after all well-known for my antipathy with the opposite s*x but harboring hidden amorous sentiments for my best friend’s playmate was definitely off-limits.

Trying for a casual shrug, I remained in my slouched position still busy with my mobile phone, or pretending to be fully preoccupied while in truth, I was raking my mind for a platonic answer. I had to tread carefully. I didn’t want to give myself away by singing his praise to Tiffany – she would just freak out. Because Heaven knew that it would ruin my carefully erected image if the word got out that I valued Alex Harrington.

“Let’s just say I took pity on him,” I replied with iciness, lifting my eyes towards her when I knew that I had composed myself enough that my smoke grey eyes glazed over with feigned boredom.

Tiff scoffed loftily completely buying the pretense as usual, letting go of her posture to slump her body next to me with a thudded movement, the action causing my big rounded glasses to slip with the effect. I promptly pushed them back on the bridge of my nose.

“I don’t want another leech,” she whined annoyingly right into my eardrums and I shifted away from her with a tsking sound, annoyed that she had invaded my personal space. Her excessive physical touches were a mere means of wheedling her way in my good books again. Since I’ve been begging her to meet for the past weeks, she must have guessed that I would be pissed off by her lack of availability.

“You’re an expert in putting a leash on anyone you want Tiff,” I informed caustically, peeved with myself that bitchiness and lack of sympathy had nothing to do with her wails and everything with the adjective she’d associated with Alex.

She groaned balefully in response, and I finally took pity on her allowing a c***k into my icy structure. “Listen, give him a chance,” I suggested gruffly, putting my phone away to emphasize my point agreeing that both me and Tiffany should be wary of new friendships. “He’s just attracted to you in a physical way. Who knows? In the end, he might eventually realize that he does not like you that much after all,” I teased lightly and watched Tiff’s blue eyes alight with indignation.

Nobody talked to her the way I did. If they did, they were no longer alive to tell.

Her laughter was full of derision, laced with the salient message that it was an impossible fact, and I simply smiled back at her, mentally acknowledging that she was right but unable to help myself from wishing it despite the odds.

“Not gonna happen,” she sang in a confident voice with a roll of her eyes. “Arie, do something. I so don’t need him in my life at the moment,” she complained again, and I knew she was subtly referring to her crammed schedule at ‘playing the princess’. Tiffany’s social life was more loaded that that of the US president, and even if she grumbled about her hectic calendar all the time, she reveled in that lifestyle.

I rolled my eyes discourteously at her. “You never have time for anyone Tiff,” I admonished softly, not wanting to sound as plaintive as her. “You’re so busy that I hardly ever see you now,” I grumbled before I could stop myself, although I had vowed not to rebuke her one more time.

It wasn’t possible. All the time since I’ve been her friend, she’d been such a social butterfly that our plans rarely matched. It had never been a problem before because we would see each other daily at school. Having recently graduated from high school, I had the knack that we were growing apart, resulting in her keeping tabs only when she needed me. I already had a jaded view on life, I didn’t want a cynical insight on our friendship.

She ached her eyebrows towards me in an offhanded manner. “Are we having another lover’s tiff, Arie?”

Were we? I guessed not. I had enough of reproaching her for her lack of disposal, the distance between us having left her unaffected as she was always surrounded by friends, no matter how phony. I was the only one who’d seemed deeply concerned with her unavailability, since I was the one with only one friend.

“No, we aren’t,” I answered defiantly pushing myself up from the couch and wriggling my shorts to the right position before picking up my backpack. I was usually not so easily irritated but I had had enough of her attitude.

“Alright,” she shouted at my retreating back, her voice holding a satisfying note of defeat. “I will give that Alex a chance if you’re so inclined to the idea. Don’t funk on me again. It’s been weeks since I’ve tried to clear a slot for you, and I don’t want to spoil our evening together.”

I sighed with relief. Most of the time, when she shredded her antipathetic attitude, Tiffany was quite a wonderful friend. Smiling, I turned around to face her, positively beaming with pleasure – I wasn’t manipulating her, it was just my way to get back at her for having ignored my calls for so long.

“Okay, I won’t sulk,” I replied with enthusiasm, flinging my bag to its initial place, and taking my place on her bouncy couch. “So, what’s the plan for today?”

Aside from all her shortcomings, Tiffany Cox had one aptitude which I would never resent – she knew how to have fun. Even a stodgy wonted girl like me was impressed with her unconventional ways. It was our completely opposite attitudes towards life which deeply fascinated me, like she didn’t have any care in the world while I dissected every situation to the finest detail.

When I was with her, I wasn’t afraid to let my hair down in the figurative sense.

Face flushed when we got back to her house after hours of fun, I giggled like a schoolgirl, happy to have spent some quality time with her. Even if she didn’t pay me special attention among a crowd, I felt good with her when there was only the two of us– she was the only person who could make me forget my worries.

“We should do this more often,” Tiffany suggested as soon as we dumped our exhausted bodies on her pink waterbed. It was her refrain, which she never abided to – and it hardly affected me anymore.

Looked pointedly at her, I conveyed a loaded message with my eyes refusing to allow another reproach to spill out. She merely served me a cheeky grin.

“Don’t look at me like that, babes. I have agreed to meet your Alex after all.”

I bristled instantly. “He’s not my Alex,” I denied hotly, before I could even think twice, then bit my lip in an obtrusive tell-tale gesture. What was wrong with me? Why was I super sensitive whenever that guy’s name cropped up?

“Relax,” Tiff commented softly, thankfully not terming my susceptibility to anything suspicious. “I’m not going to impose my problems on you any longer. I gave you the assignment of grooming him before I give him a chance and I’m grateful that you spared your precious time for me.”

Like I said, when Tiffany wanted to, she knew how to maneuver anyone into succumbing to doing anything she dictated.

I sighed wearily, hating myself to give in so easily.

“What is it you want from me this time, Tiff?”

Her soppy puppy look did not fool me for even one instant. After trying to maintain her con for several seconds, she finally dropped the innocent act and tried an appealing one. I still wasn’t impressed.

“I’m dating this Aaron for the next few weeks, and I don’t have any clear slot for your Alex for at least another month,” she confessed sheepishly. “I can only squeeze him if my current date ditches me or is unavailable.”

Nodding with hesitation, not bothering to hide my skepticism, I stared speculatively at my best friend. Aaron Fitzgerald was Irish sovereignty, a match between the two most prodigious children of the elite society was always encouraged, especially by filthy rich parents who were even more desperate to make even more money at the expense of their own children.

Unlike me, Tiffany was quite congenial to that barter system though, she was very conducive with the fact that she would one day become the trophy wife of a very influential man.

I, on the other hand, was allergic to the very notion.

That was why her dating Alex was a terribly bad idea from the very beginning. No matter how hard that poor guy would struggle, he would never measure up to the standards of Cox family, not with his background and lineage.

Involuntarily, I felt a fierce protective adoration for him surge inside me which caught me completely unawares. Struggling with my ambivalence, I debated whether to ask Tiffany to renege on her promise to me, or break Alex’s heart by telling him that a date was not possible in the near future.

Eventually, after fighting with myself, I opted for the latter. Although I did not have the courage to dash Alex’s hopes, not when he’d so humbly appealed to me for one single chance, I knew there was no convincing Tiff.

Besides, it wasn’t up to me to decide their fate. I was hardly in the place to predict the future. Who knew maybe despite my antagonism, Tiffany and Alex would hit it off and become the lovers of the century?

Opting for a nonchalant shrug – an idiosyncratic behavior whenever I was ill-at-ease with a situation, I replied offhandedly. “Whatever suits you.”

That was what I hated the most about the contemporary world - I could never express myself with my views, even if they were puerile sometimes. I literally craved to have a person in my life with whom I could share my inner thoughts without inhibition or boundaries, without the fear of being constantly judged.

Everybody was fake, and undoubtedly so was I. I was a hypocrite trying to live up to the image that others conjured of me. Or someone who was living up the expectations by playing a role instead of being myself.

It was choking me.

Tiffany practically beamed at me after my capitulation, and I had the insight that her detachment wasn’t a good sign for poor Alex. Inadvertently, I understood the implicit fact that I was the one to convey the bad news.

Much later that night, I tried to not let myself get exuberant at the prospect of calling Alex, even if it was to announce the circumvention. I had purposely shoved his phone number at the bottom of my purse, not even bothering to enter it in my phone so as not to succumb to the temptation of texting him.

Now, the opportunity presented itself to me - I had a very plausible reason to call, the frenzied restlessness which assailed me left me worried. So much fascination to a guy was not healthy but fancying someone who was after my best friend was despicable, especially for someone who claimed to be so staunch.

Frowning, I dialed his number, stilling my erratic heart with a hand on my chest, preparing myself mentally to act curt and brief.

“Hey Alex,” I greeted as soon as the call was connected. “Arianna here,” I stumbled upon the social niceties, improvising in my head on how to reveal the truth without vexing him too much.

“Arianna!” he replied with his emblematic upbeat note, the affability in his voice undeniable as he pronounced my name, again causing that tinge of awareness swirling through my entire body, rendering all my good intentions kaput.

I swooned like a schoolgirl, grinning back at the happy note in his answer, my spirits inexorably lifting up. “How are you?” I found myself asking, although my conscience was screaming at me. Remember Arie, you said no small talk!

“I’m great, as usual. Just having my daily walk down the street before I’m off to bed. What about you?”

On reflex, I glanced down at my DC comics PJ’s and my Batman’s pair of socks and gulped in a telltale fashion. Fiercely glad that he could not see my flushed face, I rolled on my bed, and summoned my deplorable acting abilities.

“Just had dinner with some friends,” I lied right through my teeth, trying not to sound despondent as I recalled my lonely pathetic dinner with my beloved terrier.

There was a moment of pause during which I literally felt my heart tilt in suspense.  Would he detect my lie? Was he psychic?

Truly enough, after a while he sighed heavily. “Are you aware that your voice raises several octaves when you lie?” he asked gently, without a connotation of judgment in his tone. I was discomfited anyway.

Was I so transparent? Customarily, I managed just fine when I pretended otherwise – others believed me in a jiffy. Or did not care deeply to probe further. Whatever the reason was, I always gotten away with my subterfuge.

“Alright, if you really have to know, I had a lonesome dinner with my puppy,” I conceded with humility, conceding that there was no point faking it with him. “It sounded rather pathetic and I guess I wanted to sound cool to you,” I confessed in a small voice, cringing with mortification while I awaited his response.

“How could you be lonely when you have your pet around?” he queried jokingly, although I knew he was not taking it lightly. It was eerie how we could read each other’s mind, that connection I felt rather uncanny than anything else. “What’s his name by the way?”

I bristled with self-awareness. “Pudding,” I muttered under my breath, half wishing he hadn’t probed.

His laughter rang appealingly to my ears, the sound melodiously light, and I smiled uncertainly, unsure whether he was mocking me, but his next words diffused my misconception. “How cute. It would be a great honor for me to meet him someday.”

I hurried to correct him over the gender mistake, but then my mouth remained open as I realized that I was complicating things too much. If I allowed him to delve further into my personal business, I might end up liking him even more than I already did, which could prove fatal for me. Curbing my avidness for an enthusiastic answer, I composed myself before replying coolly.

“That’s feasible. I’m afraid I have bad news though,” I hastened to notify before I was tempted to drag the conversation.

“She hasn’t agreed for the date?” he asked, all mirth eradicated from his serious tone, not failing to pick up. Tiffany was after all the elephant in the room, impossible to ignore, for me at least.

Trying to resist making a grimace, I sat up in my bed crossing my legs and twirling a tendril of hair around my finger. “Not at all. It's just that she has a rather hectic schedule and can squeeze you in anytime. Think you can handle that?” I asked casually, poignantly ignoring the way my treacherous heart waiting for him to get annoyed.

“Oh,” he simply said in monosyllable, not elaborating further leaving me in deep suspense.

Pursing my lips in worry, I attempted to console him anyway, even if I wasn’t genuinely concerned. “Look. There's no need to feel disappointed. Tiffany is quite taken up with her social works these days. She has promised to do her best to accommodate you.”

My explanation sounded lame even to myself. Instead of pacification, it only served as a petty excuse. I rolled my eyes, silently thanking Tiff for once again putting me into a tight spot. Mentioning Aaron Fitzgerald was completely out of question, courtesy of pure loyalty towards my friend.

I sighed.

“Listen! Look at the bright side,” I inferred cheerfully trying to lift his mood.

“What bright side?” he finally asked gruesomely, and I knew he was only playing along to humor me.

“You don't need to torture yourself with our morning coffee rituals,” I feigned in a light banter note to diffuse the tense silence. “You've passed the first step and I will contact you whenever Tiffany can squeeze you in. What say?”

“Alright,” he gruffly acquiesced, unaware of the way my heart constricted with pain at how easily he'd conceded to forfeit our daily breakfasts. For me, it had been a very enlightening experience quite contrary to a compellation as clearly was his case.

Keeping my public front even in the privacy of my room, I nodded briskly although he could not see me and added with all the bravado I could muster. “You're on! Try to get yourself something decent to wear in the meantime. So, I guess I'll see you around then,” I concluded on a swift note and disconnected the call before I was tempted to act senselessly.

I heaved a sigh of relief. Although the idea of not seeing him was terribly hard, the concrete proof was my poor heart wriggling with pain, I was actually grateful that my ordeal was over.

Out of sight, out of mind.