Chapter Fifty Seven
Mitch takes us to a small ice-cream parlour that's conveniently deserted. He opens the door for me as we walk inside. My eyes do a quick survey of the parlour, skimming over the small seating area in the back corner and the large counter and display counters of ice-cream.
The place is painted a frozen blue colour and complimented with large white tiles and styled with different shades of blue.
I walk past Alex and over to the counter and begin surveying the tubs in front of me. My eyes dart from tub to tub, looking at the different colouring and extras mixed in with the ice-cream. When Alex stands next to me, he places his hand on the lower section of my back. I look up at him and watch as his eyes hungrily scan over the tub's labels.
"What ice-cream do you want?" asks Alex.
"I'm still thinking," I say.
"I've already decided what I want." He grins happily. He almost reminds me of a hyperactive kid, except there isn't a bounce to his step – just an excited look on his innocent face.
"And what would that be?" I ask, slightly curious. There are two types of people in the world, those who choose chocolate, and those who opt for vanilla instead.
"I'll take two chocolate waffle cones," Alex says to the person standing behind the ice-cream counter. The young teenager nods his head, even curves his lips into a simple smile as he begins work on the ice-cream cones.
I watch as he nervously shuffles to the side to grab the ice-cream scoop out of the hot water container and then back in front of us so that he can begin scooping the ice-cream for the cones. It always surprises me how effortless it looks when someone scoops and moulds the ice-cream into a perfect blob. Every time I try scooping ice-cream, my hands get sticky, the spoon slightly bends and I manage to flick small pieces onto the kitchen counter – I'm surprised I get any in the bowl.
The server puts the cones in the plastic serving tray on the top of the counter when he's finished – and the prospect of almost being able to enjoy the ice-cream makes me smile. Alex moves to the till to pay the man for the ice-cream cones, so I take it upon myself to collect the goods.
Like natural, I pick the largest one and lick it – clamming the cone as mine.
"Does it taste alright?" Alex holds his hand out.
"Chocolate always tastes amazing, how can you doubt it?" I say as I hand the cone to him.
Alex is hesitant at tasting it, but when the ice-cream's first melted drop starts sliding down the cone, he's quick to start eating it.
"It's nice, isn't it?" I grin wickedly. His eyes don't leave the cone, but he nods his head quickly while still maintaining eye contact with the melting ice-cream.
"Let's sit down," he suggest. I'm shocked to see how well he manages to wander over to the seating area without tripping over something. Within one fluid motion, he takes a bite into the ice-cream and slips into a chair.
I'm quick to join Alex at the table, but in the seat directly opposite him. I begin eating my ice-cream and looking around the room so I'm not awkwardly just staring at Alex. However, the shop is rather small and it only takes me a couple of minutes to get familiar with the surroundings and notice the finer details. My eyes land back on Alex and the air turns stiff but filled with cheap classical music – which kind of makes the situation bearable. It could be silence.
Alex is the kind of person to bite into the food and quickly consume it. I've never been able to bite ice-cream, and I don't understand how people possibly manage to do it – my teeth are tingling at the thought of the coldness.
When he's finished, he cleans his hands with the napkin that was previously wrapped around the cone. After cleaning his fingers, he scrunches the napkin up in his palm and tosses it into the centre of the table and looks up at me.
"Ava's scheduled early rehearsal tomorrow," Alex opens the conversation. Rolling my eyes, I lean back in my chair. I'm quickly shocked as the cold plastic presses up against my skin. It's now that I'm stuck in this cold shop that I wish I paid more attention to my clothing instead of my thoughts.
"Can we talk about something else?" I ask. The thought of discussing more work makes me sick to the stomach – I miss having real, deep conversations. Continually talking about work outside of work doesn't give me much of a break or a down brief.
"What do you want to talk about?" Alex asks, raising an eyebrow up.
"You." I smirk.
"What about me?" Alex asks, his voice quirking with surprise.
"We're supposed to be dating and I've yet to really learn about you. And I don't think all the things I've read on the internet about you is enough – you can't always trust what people say to begin with."
Alex's face morphs into an expression of shock, "If we're going to talk about that, what about you?" he starts saying, "I'm sure I know less about you – there's nothing about you to read on the internet."
"Have you tried looking?" I giggle, "Well, we're going to educate ourselves on the matter." I wrap my arms around my body as I lean against the table and closer to Alex. This makes him laugh and waggle his eyebrows – which gets me excited about the future conversations we'll have. I've always wanted to know what makes Alex ticks, he's a bit mysterious.
"What do you want to know?" he asks.
"Everything."
He doesn't immediately respond to the question, but leans back in his chair and tries to settle into a comfortable position. A thoughtful expression consumes his face and his eyes wander to the wall behind me. As he continues to think, the silence and waiting time makes a curious feeling begin to bubble up inside of me.
"I'll start with the basics," I suggest, "where do you come from?"
"Australia, mate." He winks, putting on a thick Aussie accent which makes me giggle.
"Really?" My eyes pop open, "I thought you were American?"
"No, I recently moved a few years back when we started doing more tours in America, it was easier travel wise. I guess I lost my accent over the years." He chuckles.
"Oh," I whisper.
"What do your parents work as? I gather your sister is still at school?"
"Mom doesn't work; Dad's a lawyer – the best at his job." I wink, "and yes, my sister is at school."
"A lawyer, sounds like a good profession to be in when his daughter choses this career path." Alex nods his head slowly.
"What about your parents?" I ask. Now that I think about it, I don't ever remember hearing about his family in interviews.
"Well..." His gaze wanders off to the wall behind me. His cheeky grin fades slightly, but moments later his smile becomes wider than before – like he's desperately trying to look happy, yet the sad emotions inside are eating him alive, consuming his words and plaguing his mind.
"Sorry," I say under my breath. This is why he never talks about his family on camera, touchy subject. How could I be so stupid? Of course he doesn't want to talk about it with me.
"It's fine. Both my parents live on a cattle farm, typical Aussie's right?" he laughs, "they breed and sell mostly cows, once we had horses," Alex lists off.
"And do you have any siblings?"
"Yes, but –"
The server from before suddenly appears next to the table. "We're closing, so could you please move on?" he asks, cutting our conversation off.
"Sure," Alex says. "We should be going now; we do have a busy schedule tomorrow." He winks, and I nod my head.
"We should finish this conversation later though," I say, hoping he will agree.
"Sienna, you're my girlfriend; I want to continue to know everything about you!" He smiles. Alex's glowing smile makes my heart race.
"I want to know everything about you too," I agree.
Alex helps me out of my chair and we proceed to leave the shop. Waiting outside is Mitch with the car. Like a gentleman, he opens the door and ushers me inside. The warm air from inside the car rushes out, reminding me of how cold I actually am.
Shooting Alex a quick grin, I hop in and wiggle across the leather seat so that I'm in the middle. Alex quickly jumps in and closes the car door which sends a rush of cold air my way. As soon as we are buckled up, Mitch drives down the road and joins the busy hall of traffic at the end of the street.
I'm glad I got the opportunity to spend some alone time with Alex after the incident with Nathan. Despite the differences we have and the similarities with Nathan, I feel like there's something with Alex, I just haven't had the chance to discover it.
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