Time Changes

Part Twenty Four

Attack was her best form of defence, “I do not plan to bum around, but I want to take a few weeks enjoying a country I’ve not seen a lot of. Shoot me for wanting to share those moments with you!"

She stormed back out to the kitchen.

He joined her a few minutes later, "I want to spend time with you, but I have commitments."

"Sure you do, and one of them you said was me! Surely some things can be put on hold?" She turned to him, "you put your career before me, commitment to my father before me...maybe you need to prove that you do actually want this relationship to happen."

"Alexis, please. Don’t be irrational. I came here thinking you were having another man’s baby, so don’t make out that I don’t show you I care. I want this to work more than anything, but I have got some work things that have been lined up for a long time..."

"More than eight years?” She hated how childish she sounded, but she was facing fear and pain at the thought of him leaving, and it was bringing out an ugly side of her, but she seemed powerless to resist. “As you said, that’s how long I’ve been waiting to spend time with you! Call me irrational if you like, but that is the least you could do for me!"

He shook his head in frustration, “you think I want to leave? You think I want to go and not spend tonight with you? Is that what you honestly believe? Look Alexis! I would so anything to stay here tonight, but I have a class of students who need me back tomorrow, and I also have a successful business. Please Lex, just try and see this from my point of view."

She smiled at him, but there was sadness in her eyes, "sorry, I shouldn’t have expected so much. I am going travelling though Peter, so we will have to meet up when I return."

He sighed, hating how this had disintegrated, around them, "When will that be?"
She shrugged, "a few weeks, a couple of months? I don’t know. I just know that after spending six months helping people for no reward, I need some ME time!"

That night, Peter followed her to bed, and whilst they made love, he knew that she was already distancing herself from him. He felt like hitting a wall, she was being unreasonable, and he couldn’t drop everything on her whim, and couldn’t believe that she didn’t understand that.

When he’d left for his flight, the apartment was suddenly felt empty. She knew she had been unreasonable, bordering on childish, but she was fed up of being overlooked, used. She needed to be overindulged with attention and love. She deserved that, after all she’d been through. Didn’t she? Her family depended on her, her patients depended on her, all she wanted was someone to look after her, to devote time and attention to her. She knew he’d come out, the second she needed him he was there, but she’d been in this position twice, being away from him, watching him leave, waiting for him, and it was hell.

As she lay in bed that night, she thought about all that had happened. Peter’s main fault was loyalty, to her father. When they both realized that this could work after all, he’d dropped everything to fly to her. Was it reasonable to expect him to do that again?

It was afternoon in Rio, and middle of the night in Australia, when she called. All she knew was she had to say sorry, had to tell him how she felt. She had come home from work, Boris had told her she was like a zombie.

Peter sounded so sleepy when he answered, “Yep?”

"Peter? It’s me!" she spoke quietly and was pleased to hear him sigh with relief.

                "Lex, it’s three am, are you ok?"

She chuckled, "and there was me thinking you loved me waking you up in the early hours! At least that’s what you told me on Saturday."

It was his turn to chuckle, “A kiss on the cheek and a hand snaking...well you know where it was going, is a little different to a phone call!"

Alexis took a deep breath, "This isn’t just any phone call. This is someone realising she was childish and wanting to apologise, and deciding that she can wait to go travelling or on a nice extended holiday until you’re free to join her, and that she’s happier getting to you as soon as she can rather than choose to spend time apart!"

Silence met her for a few moments, "Really?"

"Definitely. I’m sorry. I was so grouchy, so angry, but it was because I didn’t want to think about how much I’d miss you, how empty this apartment would be without you."

He blew out a long breath, "I did wonder if you’d ever get over this! I thought you were going to push me away."

"Am I that unreasonable?"

"Oh yes!" he laughed. "Sometimes! But I do love that stubborn streak. So what are your revised plans?"

This was the bit she still wasn’t sure of, “Well I was thinking that I could maybe fly home to London via Geneva? If you’ll be home by then?”

“I will make sure I am, and I’ll send you a ticket, for any date you want. OK?”
Relief spurred her sigh, and she laid back on the pillow and closed her eyes, “That sounds like a great plan. Now, about being woken in the middle of the night...is there anything I can say to help you get back to sleep?"