Riddles on Napkins // E.Nygma

Chapter 23

It had been a couple of days since we'd gone ice skating and it was finally time to go back to work, Ed's shoulder had healed enough for him to be off medication and able to go back to his own apartment. He'd moved out, if that's what you'd call it, on Friday. He had insisted I come over to watch movie to uphold tradition and I was grateful to not have to spend the night alone. The night had gone as it usually would with the exception that we both slept in his bed, no strangers to sleeping beside each other.

Saturday and Sunday night felt strange, an odd sense of loneliness that despite living alone for almost a year and a half I hadn't felt before. It sounded weird to say considering he had only stayed with me for a mere week and a half but it felt as if we'd been living with each other for months. The apartment was silent, something I was usually completely fine with but it now just seemed foreign, I'd gotten used to listening to Edward's fun facts of the day or the new riddle he'd created and sometimes just the sound of his presence.

I tried to shake the feeling and focus on the mail I'd neglected to check throughout the week, far too distracted to do so. I skimmed through the ever piling bills and junk mail before reaching an elegant looking envelope with a cursive 'L' in the center. I rolled my eyes, knowing exactly who it was from and what it was about, I opened it to find exactly what I was expecting an invitation to my own birthday party.

Dear Alice,

Would you look at that you have yet again failed to plan your own birthday party so here I am doing it for you. You know exactly when and where and you better attend otherwise your parents will be extremely upset. I've invited your new boy toy as well, I'm assuming the two of you are together by now so don't think you are going to be skipping out on this anytime soon.

I'll bring in one of my designers to sort out your dress so don't fret and you don't need to RSVP because not coming is not an option.

Oh and be sure to invite anyone you please because I hear you actually have friends now. Don't worry I invited a few of my own to make it look like you're popular.

Lots of love, your favourite Lex.

I smiled at how old fashioned he was, sending letters as apposed to texting but that was the true Luthor way I suppose. I hadn't forgotten about my birthday but I had figured out over the years that Lex's favourite month of the year was the month of my birthday because he loved to plan a party for something that wasn't work related. He loved to feel wanted, he'd never say so but considering what the two of us had been through it had become common knowledge. So I let him throw my birthday party and every year I would pretend as if I didn't want one until I saw it and I would tell him that he had made my birthday special.

This year was no exception, although at least this time I could invite people I'd like to spend time with rather than his business colleagues who would ask the same dreary questions but give great presents. It was always an elegant affair, a beautiful gala where I'd be forced to give a painful speech and mingle. I looked at the other contents of the envelope to find that he had attached a few invitations aswell, each one looking beautifully detailed and expensive to make but I didn't expect anything less from Lex. I took my phone from the table and dialed his number.

"Somebody got my letter." He mused into the line and I pretended to be upset with him.

"I told you I don't like parties." I lied into the phone, truthfully I loved the parties he threw for me.

"But you like my parties." He joked into the line and it took everything I had not to laugh at him.

"I can't believe you would go behind my back again and throw me a party. How do mum and dad let you get away with this?" I stated incredulously, having mastered the art of pretending not to enjoy this.