London

57 - "When you call me Lexie."

"Everything better than a hostel for months I'd think."

"That's for sure. I'll see."

"You will never believe who I called on my way here," she says and I think about it for a second.

"No clue," I say in the end trying to come up with a name. 

"Nano."

"What? Why?" I question her, hearing how I'm raising my voice already. 

"I need work, Harry, and he's offering me a position. I need money to start building a future for myself."

"You shouldn't have said no to my mother's money," I tell her. "Then you wouldn't have to work for a douchebag like him."

"You were the one being a douchebag," she says. "Nano has apologized and is giving me a raise. I rather work for him than accept money from your mother who is deceased, and we're no longer together. That would make me feel like a douchebag."

She's right of course, and I don't feel the need to fight about him again so I hide my ego and try to sound calm and collected whilst I'm actually raging. Alex knows how to irritate me, but it shouldn't surprise me that the second we're able to be civil, we're also able to have a little argument.

"He's more than right to give you a raise. If you're happy about it, then I'll keep my mouth shut."

Alex laughs on the other end of the line. "I'm happy about it. Of course it is not my dream job, but it is better than nothing. It's time to be independent."

"I'm proud of you. Takes some balls to go back there."

This makes her laughs again. "Yeah, that's true. I know he was a dick for the most part, but he sounded apologetic so. For now it is better to do something easy and figure out what I want."

"I suppose it is. When will you start?"

"Don't know yet. Next week I think."

"Okay, well, good luck," I tell her, feeling as if the conversation is dying down. 

"Thank you. You with your sleeping facilities," she says and I smile. 

"Oh, it will be alright. Thank for calling me.. I really liked it."

"I just wanted to tell you about Rob," she tells me, and I can tell she's drifting away from me as I'm probably pushing her limits by saying that.

"Well, I like that you want to tell me about it."

"Yeah, I'll call my Doctor now," she pauses, "bye Harry."

"Bye, Lexie."

I listen to her breathe for a second longer, waiting for her to hang up but she doesn't. Then I hear a soft giggle. "You know what I like?" She then wonders and I shake my head, not able to reply but she doesn't seem to mind. "When you call me Lexie."

****

Alex

"So, my idea's weren't completely crap?" Doctor Collins muses after I explained how my last week has been. "You managed to forgive both your parents."

"They weren't crap, I'll admit to that."

"It seems to me that you are doing better, that you learned from your past. We're seeing each other less and less, but I think it is time to let you go bit by bit, Alex. No matter how much it pains me," he says. 

He's trying to be funny and sarcastic, but the thought of him letting me go scares me. Over the last months we have gone from daily appointment to weekly and that all felt natural. The thought of not seeing him anytime soon scares me and he seems to notice. After all this time he notices almost everything about me.