Alyssa heard voices in the living room and finally decided to get up. Staying with her belly pointing up was amazing, especially to cure that annoying pain in her back, but she had better stuff to do. She slept like a rock as soon as she got into bed, thanks for the jet lag, and when she woke up Matthew had already left the apartment to his morning run.
When he got back – deliciously sweat, by the way -, they spent a few minutes deciding what to have for lunch, and Aly got a little calmer because it seemed like they were finally leaving Canterbury and all of those inopportune feelings behind. It was definitely the clever thing to do. The time they almost kissed, their careers practically went down the hill. They needed to keep the cordiality, to their own good.
Nobody needed to know that she thought Matthew had gotten a lot hotter over the day. Even though he was still the same ogre, he seemed so adorable that...
"Shit, Alyssa!", she swore and got up.
It should be Lexi talking to Matthew in the living room. She was supposed to help her choose a dress to wear for the Teen Choice Awards. Her personal stylist had sent an absurd quantity of exclusive models for her to try, and she never knew how to do it alone.
Alyssa staggered to the living room, dying of tiredness, but instead of her blonde and definitely girl friend, she faced Luke, sitting on the couch. Matthew showed up right after she arrived with two beers on his hands.
"Ah, it's you," Aly said calmly and Luke raised his eyebrow, then pouted.
"Always good to know I'm welcome here, Hayes." He joked and the girl giggled. Luke got up to hug her. "Good to see you, Aly. And good to see you too, baby," he said, putting his hand on her belly.
Alyssa smiled, staring at the guy that looked like a model, the type that would make one hundred per cent of the sane girls crazy. He was nearly perfect, and on top of that he was all melting because of a baby bump. That was probably every women's lifelong dream, and of course he wanted the only one that made his life a living hell.
"How was the trip with Jas?" She asked, instantly remembering of Malone's new girlfriend. He smiled, blushing a little.
"Amazing. You should have introduced us before, because if I depended on Matthew..."
"Hey! I introduced you to a lot of women in our lives!"
"I don't remember the names of any of them," the other confessed, while both of them laughed. Aly rolled her eyes.
"You are such jerks. But it's good that things are being different with Jas, Luke."
The door opened into a bump and no one needed to turn their heads to know who it was.
"Good afternoon, fam!" She came in screaming, then scowled. "Oh, you're here."
"Women seem to be loving you today, Luke!" Matthew joked.
"Ah, it's okay. The only one who needs to like me still does." Luke provoked, gazing specifically Lexi, that grimaced. Aly coughed.
"So, Lexi, can we go to the bedroom so you can help me with the dresses?"
"Right behind you. I'm just gonna grab something to drink."
***
Lexi opened the fridge looking for anything with alcohol and when she reached a bottle of Stella Artois and closed the door, Luke was right behind her, paralyzed like mummy. She jumped back.
"For fuck's sake!" Lexi cursed, putting her hand on her chest, and he stared at her.
"Don't you think I forgot, Lexi." Luke said, taking a sip of his beer. The blonde girl arched one of her brows.
"Forgot what?"
"You ate my cookies."
A flash of confusion and grace went through the girl's face, a second before she had a fit of laughs.
"It's not funny", he said with an mad expression, which only made her laugh more.
"You're such a douche, Luke. I'm shocked with your priorities list."
"It was the only thing I asked you not to do, but you never take me serious, do you?"
"You just found out I don't take you serious now?"
"Well, you should."
"Wow. What are you going to do? Kill me and dump my body in the stream just because you think I ate your cookies?" She replied, laughing, and Luke giggled.
"I don't think you ate my cookies, I'm know it. And I'm not that lame." He said, getting closer to her face. "You know, Lexi, for someone who never took me serious, you seem pretty uncomfortable with my presence since I started to date Jas."
Reed laughed loudly.
"You think I care or do you want me to care, honey? They are totally different things," she provoked, touching the musician's face. When his reaction was a deep breath, she smiled. "That was what I thought," she said taking his arm out of the way. "Oh, and before I forget. Your cookies suck. I gave everything to Hayes' dogs and I'm almost sure one of the got diarrhea".
Luke lifted up his arm quickly totally in her way, making it impossible for her to leave.
"What did you say?
"I said your cookies suck."
"It's not enough to lie we didn't sleep together, then pretend you don't want my body", he laughed, maliciously. "And now you want to tell me that my adored cookies, made by myself, suck? Someone here is in denial..."
"Yes, someone is. You." Lexi grinned.
Luke laughed loudly, taking his arm off her way.
"There will be revenge."
"And what are you going to do? Force me to eat cookies?" She mocked, laughing.
Luke just gave her a smile.
"You'll see."
***
Matthew fixed his hair one last time and stared at his own reflex on the mirror. He loved teenage awards, like the Teen Choice Awards, just because of the simple fact he could wear a messy shirt, jeans and a leather jacket, not those horrible and uncomfortable bow ties.
They came back from Canterbury exactly a week before, and he could not affirm for sure if those days had passed by easily. He had never lived with a woman in his house, especially when that woman was probably the one in at least three or four years that had taken sex out of the menu. And, to be honest, they both were trying hard to keep a friendship, and that exaggerated desire of being friends was a little awkward, like any false step could lead to an explosion - for the good, or for the bad.
They had so many shootings that he couldn't even go out during those days, which made everything harder. It was like they were really dating, except they didn't kiss or have sex. They were together 24/7, going to the set together, eating together... Alyssa was everywhere in sight, all the time. And as much as he fought to think about it, it was pretty bloody hard to keep his own hormones in check with her parading around the house with her small clothes.
He hated summer. He'd go crazy, for real.
At least they had one positive point: Landon and Holly had broken up again, so their scenes were basically fights and a lot of drama. He wasn't sure how he would react if he had to kiss her, even though he knew he would have to do it pretty soon – in a different kind of script.
"You look hot, man." Luke joked, showing up behind him, and Matthew laughed out loud, shaking his head.
"Didn't even see you there."
"I realized you were more interest in fixing your girly hair", the other mocked, getting a punch on the shoulder, and both of them laughed. "Do I look handsome? I can't even believe that I'll have to walk on a red carpet, I ran away from this my whole life."
"If it helps, they have a blue carpet", Crawford replied, smiling. "And I can't believe you're dating Jasmine. What's wrong with you, Luke? Have you tried to man up for once in your life?"
"Hey, it's not because you're a walking disaster that you're going to screw up the life of your Prince friend", Aly walked into the room, interrupting the conversation, and Luke laughed.
She was wearing a simple dress in a red tone almost orange, tied on her neck and a little tight, leaving her belly showing more than the last party dress Crawford saw. Her hair was in a side fishtail braid and she barely had any makeup on, since the event would start with the sun shining.
That woman needed so little to be insanely gorgeous, Matthew thought, coughing a second later, like anyone could hear what was on his mind.
"I'm not a walking disaster, girlfriend. I know how much you love me and can't live without me. And this whole prince thing is way old fashioned, it's so obvious you're much into my bad boy look", he joked and the girl giggled.
"I don't know how I haven't died with your breathtaking ego, boyfriend. And hey, no compliments for my look?"
"You look amazing, Aly, and thanks for the prince. If everything goes wrong right here, you know my number." Luke said and the girl laughed.
"Are you seriously flirting with my woman right in front of me?" Matthew said loudly, trying not to laugh.
"Your woman? Oh my God, I got promoted!" Alyssa laughed, and Matthew stared at her from head to toe.
"You look OK", he said, and got slapped, what made him chuckle. "Ouch! You look hot! Wanna have some before the awards?"
"Damn, this place is catching fire right now." Luke laughed, "I think I'm the third wheel here, maybe I should wait for you guys in-"
The sound of the door shocking against the wall silenced the musician in the middle of the sentence, and Lexi walked in like a hurricane in the apartment.
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, MALONE!" She screamed, and Aly widened her eyes with the furious expression of her friend. She ran her eyes to Luke, that was holding back a laugh.
"Lexi! How long. I missed you", he smiled, clearly having fun, and Matthew glanced at Alyssa trying to find an answer too.
Lexi was not kidding. She ran the tiny space to Malone with one of her hands in the air, ready to punch him. He gave a step back, still finding that hilarious.
"Where are my shoes?" She asked, and Matthew frowned.
"Shoes?" He whispered, like someone who thinks out loud, but Alyssa was equally lost.
"What shoes?" The musician asked, with a calm voice, and Lexi growled.
"I KNOW YOU TOOK MY SHOES!"
"Guys, what's going on?" Alyssa tried to interrupt, but none of them even looked at her.
"Come on, Luke, spill it before I punch you in the face! Where are my shoes?"
Luke smiled widely, snapped his fingers in a calm way, then fixed the collar of his shirt narrowly. Lexi looked like she was just out of a cartoon, and Alyssa was about to laugh even though she had no idea of what the hell was going on.
"Damn, Reed, you are really attached to futilities. I mean... three of your pairs of shoes go missing and you go nuts?" Luke provoked, and the girl snorted. "Unfortunately I'm no longer in possession of your shoes."
"What do you mean you no longer have my shoes? If you tell me that you gave them to your stupid girlfriend I swear to God I'll break your head in two pieces!"
He chuckled.
"I sold them."
"YOU DID WHAT?"
"I sold your shoes and donated the money to a charity institution. Along with some cookies for the kids, of course. They loved it." Luke said, calmly, and Lexi seemed to be about to faint or to pick a gun or a knife straight from her purse. Matthew and Alyssa were still checking the whole confusion, Aly in particular with wide eyes.
"YOU SOLD MY MANOLO BLAHNIK?"
"Yes." Luke grinned.
"YOU SOLD HER MANOLO BLAHNIKS?" This time Alyssa was the one doing the screaming, out of control. "You don't freaking sell a Manolo Blahnik!"
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU DEAD!" Reed yelled, a second before she went to look with her hands curled into fists. Luke was chuckling, holding her hand in the air, listening to the girl cursing at him in a hundred different languages. Matthew put himself in the middle of them, pissed off.
"What the fuck is happening here? Bloody hell!" He said, too high. "Why did you sell Lexi's shoes?"
There was a short moment of silence, before Luke spoke.
"Because she stole my cookies."
"Oh. My. God." Alyssa seemed to be in shock, throwing herself over the couch. "Cookies? Were they made of gold or something?"
"It is not about the cookies. It's about what the cookies represent." Luke defended himself.
Matthew was practically fainting of laughing, still trying to hold Lexi.
"What those cookies represent, for the love of God?"
"They represent you don't freaking touch my food, specially my cookies, little less you should offend them." He responded, promptly, and Matt thought he was going to have a syncope.
"Seriously, Aly. Touching Luke's cookies without his consente is a very good way to lose some fingers." Matt added as if that was normal, and the girl was still in shock.
"That's freaking bizarre!"
"You are going to pay really high, Luke Malone!" Lexi screamed and Matthew rolled his eyes.
"He's going to pay in bed, because you can cut the sexual tension in here with a knife. I'm feeling violated here in the middle." Matthew chuckled. "Stop acting like fucking babies, we are late. Lexi, go to your place."
"I'm going to get back to you! This is not over!" She screamed, watching Luke ran off the apartment crazy laughing.
Matthew held Aly by her hand, pulling her through the corridor.
"Tell me who looks like a prince now, please." He teased, and the girl giggled.
***
Alyssa and Matthew held hands and took deep breaths before the driver opened the car's door. As soon as they stepped over the blue carpet of the awards, thousands of flashes burst in their direction, together with a lot of screams from reporters and fans that were impossible to distinguish. That was the first award after they were officially dating – at least in theory -, and worst than that, they were expecting a child together. Aly didn't know if she had enough stomach to cope with the questions she knew it would pop up next.
Matthew held her waist tight when they stepped on the first photography mark and they both smiled.
"Matthew! Alyssa! Do you know the sex of the baby?"
"When you guys are getting married?
"You look fabulous!"
They shared a laugh with the questions and followed the carpet, posing. Crawford got closer to Aly and whispered in her ear:
"I'm already bored. Can we please go home and order some pizza?" He asked and Alyssa giggled, looking him in the eyes. They smiled.
Picture.
"That kind of proposal to a pregnant lady can be considered really mean, my love," she teased, while they walked to the next posing place. "If we didn't have an award to present and probably a few to receive, I wouldn't be here at all."
One journalist approached to a live interview.
"We are here now with the most loved couple in and out the screen! Look how many people screaming your names!" The woman said, pointing to a bunch of screaming-out-of-control fans. Aly made a sign to them, promising to go there after the interview. "I have to say, Alyssa, your baby bump looks beyond adorable."
The actress smiled.
"Thank you, Kelly."
"It is because now she has a little bit of me inside of her, Kelly, that's why she looks that hot." Matthew played and both girls laughed. Aly pushed him to the side, shaking her head.
"You two won't change! How is the pregnancy going? Do we know the sex of the baby already?"
"We are insanely happy, each day is a new discovery. But no, he still don't know about the sex."
"The only thing we know is that he or she will be insanely beautiful, because please..." Matthew said, laughing.
They finished the interview a few questions later, to talk to their fans, right before the award started.
***
Alyssa snapped her fingers frenetically and saw that Matthew seemed to be a little nervous as well. They have already won a category each, for best actor and best actress in a TV Drama, and they knew that was just a matter of time for Hidden Springs to score a few more surfboards. That wasn't the issue.
They were there, backstage, waiting for their names to be announced to present the Best Chemistry in a Motion Picture category. The award, that wasn't actually only about romantic or sexual chemistry, won over a great appeal with the America's Golden Couple presenting it. In addition, there was of course that damn script. They chose to put everything that happened in England in a very deep drawer in their minds, really locked, and now they were about to kiss in national television.
"... Alyssa Hayes and Matthew Crawford." Someone said onstage, and they both put their best smiles on their faces.
The applause and the blinding lights filled their vision as they walked to the center of the stage. Matthew squeezed Alyssa's hand a little harder, and she gazed him. He just smiled, as a mute incentive, and she smiled back.
"You know, Aly, I was never really good at school... I always sucked in English, Math..." Matt started his lines, delivering his famous smile in sequence. "... but Chemistry... Well, this I understand very well."
"I'm not quite sure that's the kind of Chemistry we are talking about here today, Matt, but nice try." Aly said, making the room laugh. "These pairs showed in their movies how incredible they are together. Well..." She picked the list of nominees, looking at it from the top to the bottom. "They seem pretty good to me, don't you think?"
"I know what you saying... These two, Jesus, they were great!"
"But not as good as us, right?" She playfully added, to the audience's delirium, and Matthew chuckled.
"Chemistry for me it's all about a spark. Do you feel a spark here from the stage?" Matthew asked, receiving crazy hysterical screams in return. "Let me have a little chat with my co-star here, one second." Matt said and approach his mouth to Aly's ear, as scripted, to make the lines sound more spontaneous, while they were both hearing the screams from the audience. "Do you remember when we started all of this?" He whispered, just for her, taking his time to get the audience crazy. Alyssa laughed. "I told you to try your best not falling in love."
"And?" She whispered back.
"Time to make this promise that much harder, babe." He added, in a deep low voice, and the girl felt a shiver down the spine. "Let's show them how it's done!" Matt said, this time on the mic, for all America to hear.
They knew they had to kiss for a long time, but weeks before, they couldn't care less. It was a daily task, something they were absolutely used to. However, the minute their lips touched, for a few seconds the whole scenario seemed to disappear, opening space to shivers in all possible places in their bodies and the excitement of something new and incredibly real. Matthew instantly remembered the effort they did that week to put that aside, and now the reason seemed to materialize in front of him.
He did not wanted to stop.
Not even for a bomb. For absolutely nothing.
When Aly cut the kiss, facing a hysterical audience, they laughed together. After all Matt saw, from the tail of his eye, the goosebumps on Aly's arm.
And that felt weirdly good.
"And the nominees are..."
***
"I have no idea where we'll put all these surfboards," Matthew said, looking to the apartment, and Aly laughed.
"My house has a specific room for them, you know? But you wanted to live here..." She teased and Matthew raised his middle finger to her.
"Nah, it doesn't matter. Let's eat the pizza before it gets cold and if we can't find a place for them I can make a donation to the surfers in Venice tomorrow morning."
"Hey! Only if you donate yours, dumbass!" Aly snapped and Matthew laughed. "It's bad enough that Luke sold Lexi's shoes. I'll never be able to accept that. I'm in denial." She said, with a truly painful expression, making Matthew chuckle.
"Women..."
"It was the same shoes from Carrie's wedding in Sex and The City." She said with and affected tone, with only made Matt laugh harder. The girl laughed too, putting one hand on her waist and facing the actor. "Matthew, in a scale from one to ten, how would you feel about eating the pizza in my room so I can watch the episodes of a few shows I recorded on TIVO?"
"In a scale from one to ten, how much are you trying to seduce me to your bed and take advantage of me?" He teased and Aly laughed aloud.
"Stop seeing my acts with your pervert eyes, my love. You know that's not how I play."
"What shoes are we talking about?"
"The Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls..."
"Am I getting a foot massage?"
"Absolutely not."
"You are a terrible girlfriend," he grumbled, picking up the pizza box and walking hearing Aly's laugh. "OK. Sheldon wins."
**************************************************
Hello everyone!
Second part of three for this chapter is up! I hope you enjoyed it. There's a whole "Luxi" plot going on right now and I know it's dumb but I swear they are going somewhere! hahaha. Aside from that, seems like finally Malyssa might be on the right track. Can't wait to post more! :D
I just want to thank you all for the beyond lovely comments the last part! You guys are so sweet and knowing you missed the story - and that you wouldn't let it go - meant the world to me! Seriously, that made me smile <3
Dedication of the day goes to the daredevil Tater_tot04 that read the chapter in a run and being grounded! hahaha. I'm glad everything turned out OK and you even managed to leave a comment <3
Next chapter will be up the following week. Don't forget to vote, comment and tell your friends to read the story <3 See ya!