Alluring {Completed & Rewriting}

Chapter 12

Rewritten: 09/11/2019

The day has passed by uneventful, however, when Lexi hears the doorbell ring, she knows that's about to change. Without even opening the door, she knows it's Lewis. As she gets up, she suddenly feels nervous. She knows this conversation is important in order for them to move forward, but she has no idea how things will go. But she has to do it. Not because they have to for their job's sake, but for her own sake. And because she wants to. She wants to be his friend. If he'll let her.

She takes a few deep breaths before she opens her door, revealing Lewis, who also looks slightly nervous. This calms her down a bit, knowing she's not the only one.

"Hey," Lewis says as he smiles at her.

"Hey," Lexi replies, stepping aside to let Lewis in.

"How are you?"

"I'm good, you?"

"I'm good too."

"Do you want anything to drink?" Lexi asks, mentally cringing by the small talk.

"Yeah, some coffee."

"Alright, just a minute," Lexi says before walking to the kitchen. She quickly makes both of them a cup of coffee before walking back to the living room, where Lewis has made himself comfortable on the couch.

"Here you go," Lexi says as she gives Lewis one of the mugs.

"Thanks," he replies as he takes the mug from her. Neither of them says anything for a few minutes, both feeling the tension in the air.

"Alright, so...," Lexi says, breaking the silence. The tension, however, is still there.

"Right, the talking."

"Yeah, exactly. What did you want to talk about?"

"Well, when I asked you to talk, I mostly just wanted to clear the air and figure out how we're gonna move forward. But I've been thinking about all of this a lot, how I acted and all, and I realized something. You've said it yourself already as well, but you were so patient with me. Why?"

"I felt like I had to."

"That doesn't change the fact that I made your life extremely difficult. Looking back, I wouldn't have blamed you if you got mad at me ages ago."

"I know, but I thought you deserved a second chance."

"You probably gave me like a 100 second chances," Lewis says, making Lexi chuckle.

"Probably, yeah."

"Why?" Lewis asks again, really wanting to know as he clearly didn't deserve it.

"It's what people did for me when I needed it. They were patient with me. And I know how big of a difference that can make. So I figured that it'd only be fair if I was patient with you."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's just say that if people hadn't been that patient, I probably wouldn't be here right now," Lexi says, making Lewis' eyes widen a little.

"Were you depressed?" he asks carefully, but Lexi shakes her head.

"No, I wasn't. But I don't really want to talk about it, to be honest."

"Yeah, of course," Lewis says, making Lexi smile slightly.

"But I'm happy to see my patience paid off," she says, changing the subject back to Lewis.

"Yeah, me too. I really want to turn our relationship around," Lewis says and for a moment, Lexi thinks about what Pascalle said. Immediately she laughs at herself. He doesn't even mean it like that and it will never happen. It can't ever happen.

"Me too," Lexi says, making Lewis smile. He knew she wouldn't want to continue like it was, but hearing her say that she wants to work on their relationship as well is still a relief.

"So, how do we do that?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you think we need to set some rules?"

"Rules? Lex, this is a friendship, not a business deal or something," Lewis chuckles, making Lexi blush. However, the nickname he used doesn't escape her.

"Right, sorry. I just don't want this to go wrong, you know."

"Yeahh, I feel the same way. Let's set some rules then. But we won't call them rules. Instead, we'll call them....," Lewis says and he takes a moment to come up with the right word.

"Promises?" Lexi suggests, making him smile.

"Promises, that's perfect. So, what first?"

"Always be honest, no matter what. Relationships are built on trust, so if we can't be honest with each other, we might as well not be friends," Lexi says, making Lewis smile.

"That sounds good. As a second one, never make decisions for the other. I've learned that once people start deciding what's best for you, things go south."

"That's kind of my job though," Lexi says and Lewis realizes she's right.

"Alright, how about this. On a personal level, no decisions, on a business level, make all the decisions you have to. As long as you don't make me look like an idiot."

"No promises there," Lexi says and Lewis gives her a warning look, making her giggle. He smiles, loving the sound of her laugh, something he's never realized before. Maybe because he's never really heard her laugh. Or maybe this is the first time it has a meaning to him. He wants her to be happy.

"Alright, what's next?" Lewis asks and Lexi takes a moment to think.

"Always be patient and each other," she says, making Lewis smile.

"Perfect. I think that's it, right?"

"Yeah, this covers the most important things."

"I think so too."

"Do you want some more coffee?" Lexi asks and Lewis realizes he drunk his cup without even paying attention to it.

"Yeah please," he replies and Lexi gets up to make some more coffee. As Lewis watched her walk to the kitchen, he realizes 2 things.

The first thing is that he's really happy he and Lexi made up. Sure, they're just at the start of their new and improved relationship and things might not be perfect right away, but he already knows it'll be worth every hard moment they've had to experience until now.

The second thing is that no matter his efforts to prevent a situation like this, it happened again. And this time, he didn't even realize it. You'd think he learned from last time, but his heart apparently learned nothing. But he can't. They have to work together. And he's not making that mistake again.

"I have one more thing to add," Lexi says as she walks out of the kitchen with two cups of coffee

"Sure, what is it," Lewis asks as he takes one of the mugs from her.

"We can always talk to each other, about anything."

"Meaning?" Lewis asks, not really getting the point of that promise.

"Meaning that no matter what the other person has to say, we'll listen and try to help them if necessary. We never have to be afraid to tell each other something."

"Sounds good," Lewis says, though inside he knows he has already broken that promise, along with 2 of the other ones. And he can't do anything to change that.