Alex and Annie: A Bad Jokes Spinoff

Chapter 10 (Alex): Back On Track

Her apartment wasn't that big so I wasn't sure why it was taking Annie so long to answer the door. I'd been pounding on it for at least three minutes.

"Open up, Annie. Now!" 

My sister and cousins had told me she'd left the club with a man. Some random man. After I'd yelled at them for letting her leave with a stranger, I hurried to catch up to her, to make sure she was OK. Then I'd explain to her why that wasn't happening again.

I pounded again. Then I heard pounding coming from inside the apartment. Followed by a sound I knew well, Annie moaning, and that sound was followed by, oh, God, yes! Do that again, Mikhail. Yes! Just like that! That's amazing!

WhatTheActualFuck?

Who the hell was Mikhail? Was it the random guy from the club? She wouldn't have. Would she? I listened closer, my mind refusing to compute what I was hearing. But there it was again, banging against the wall, more of Annie's moans. I pounded on the door again, and I heard her call out, I'm coming!...but who the fuck knew what that was in response to? Fucking Mikhail or me?

Fuck it, I was going in. I'd come up with a reason later. Maybe I thought she was being attacked; that could work. I was a concerned citizen. Reaching for my wallet, I got out my lock-picking tools, went to work on the lock and just about had it when the door flew open.

Annie looked down at the pick still in my hand and back up at me. Then I took her in and I didn't like what I saw at all: she was wrapped in her robe, her hair was sex-messed and her lipstick was smudged as if she'd been kissing...

"Were you just breaking into my place?"

"Were you just having sex?"

We both spoke at the same time, but one of us might have been yelling. Loudly.

Oh, shit. Her hands went to her hips, and I knew that wasn't a good pose because my sister and cousins pulled that shit all the time on me. So did the four- and five-star clingers when I explained we were done.

"What if I was, Alex? We're not together. You're actively in pursuit of someone just like me to have a relationship with, so I can have sex with whoever I want. Maybe I brought some guy home from the club, but whether I did or didn't is none of your business!"

This feeling of being out of control was new. This feeling of wanting to beat some unknown man to death was also new. Normally, kills were dispassionate, calm, calculated, and carried out with precision. A mission to complete with no personal feelings involved. This feeling, though, was unexpected, but I could work with it. I walked past Annie, looking for the fucker who was about to die.

"Where is he?"

"He jumped out the window when he heard you acting like a crazy man."

Annie lived on the tenth floor.

"What was the charade about, Annie?"

"It was to make a point, Alex," she said, and her tone wasn't nice.

"And what point was that, Annie?"

"That I can do whatever I want, and you have no say over what I do."

"Well, that's where you're wrong," I informed her. "I have a lot of say over you."

OK, I should get credit for knowing I shouldn't have said that even before Annie's eyes got all squinty at me and her face twisted in anger. In my defense, I was upset thinking she'd been with Mik-fucking-hail and the words came out of my mouth before I had a chance to think about what I was saying.

Somehow, just seconds later, this woman I outweighed by at least eighty pounds had me standing out in the hallway, the door shut in my face.

"And if you try picking the lock again, you don't even want to know where your little tools will end up!" she shouted at me through the door.

I decided to give her time to calm down, but she didn't return any of my calls or texts the rest of the weekend. When I stopped by her apartment a few times, she either wasn't home or not answering. When I found out she called in sick on Monday, my mood went from bad to worse.

"Get out of here," I said when Creighton wandered into my office later that morning.

He threw himself into the chair in front of my desk. "That was a great time at the club. We'll have to do it again sometime."

Not if I break your neck.

I didn't respond, just continued to glare at him.

"I saw you, you know. You and Annie."

"What are you talking about?"

"About a month ago, it was late, and I was walking past that all night ice cream place, Cravings, on Fourth and Maple, and you and Annie were inside, right by the window. She was looking at you like you were the most amazing thing she'd ever seen, and I figured she was about to become another victim of the Alex Matthewson spell. Just another girl you were going to toss by the wayside when you were done with her. But then you reached across the table and pushed her hair back from her face, and a whole bunch of things started adding up. You were always in the break room when she was, you stopped by her office every morning with coffee, you even ate lunch with her when you two coincidentally happened to be in the cafeteria together."

"So?"

Creighton laughed. "So you were gone on Annie. But you're a lot like my older brother who was too stupid to see what was in front of his face because he was such a player, and I saw Shelby trying to move in on you. Shelby's hot, but that's about it. Annie's a great girl, and I didn't want to see her hurt, so I thought I'd help give you a wake up call."

Creighton leaned forward in the chair, his smile wide. My hand curled into a fist, ready to wipe it off his face. "And you woke up, dude. It was even better than I could have expected. I thought you were going to start a brawl on the dance floor."

"You can leave now," I said, wondering who else had figured things out before I had. Everyone, maybe?

"Alex, I hope you're serious about her. She's not like the other girls you've tossed aside."

"I haven't tossed anyone aside. I told every single woman I was with I wasn't going to get serious. It's not my fault they wanted more."

"Dude, that's like waving a red flag at them to prove they can change you, dumbass. The minute you say that, they may be agreeing with you outwardly, but inside, they're thinking they'll be the one to change your mind. I just hope you're not messing with Annie because, like I said, she's great."

"Well, you can stop noticing Annie," I snapped at him. "She's not yours to notice."

"Is she yours?"

"Is it any of your business?" I was still pissed about the shit he'd been saying about her at the club and didn't want to answer him until I spoke with Annie and explained how things had changed for us.

He stood up and planted his hands on my desk. "Don't blow your chance with Annie. I suspect if you lose her, you'll never find anyone like her again."

"You let me worry about Annie," I said with more confidence than I was feeling.

Given that she wasn't communicating with me at all, I decided to stop by with dinner for her after work and let her know how I wanted us to move forward.

That would get us back on track.