Alliance

Shame

Chapter Nineteen

Victoria sat listening to Alex intently; everything there was to know about Max seemed to kill every bit of hope inside of her. She studied Alex features as he talked, he never once lifting his gaze to meet hers. It seemed that it shamed him to be talking so open about his best friend. She smiled within herself seeing some bit of change take place in him yet again. His face seemed down cast, a frown overtaking all of his features.

She stood and placed a hand over his, giving him a warm sympathetic smile. "You can stop now," she whispered. Relief crossed his features as he looked up at her searching her eyes for some kind of anger, but it never came.

"I want you to know I'm being completely honest with you...I don't want you to get hurt." He replied.

"And I thank you for that Alexander; you did what any good friend would have done." she said squeezing his hand.

"I feel like I did the right thing but yet I feel so bad for doing that to Max," he sighed.

"Because you care for Max, there is no need for him to know what you told me. I will still talk to Max if he comes into the shop, but I will keep it only as friends, nothing more."

Alex felt so much relief unclench his stomach as he looked at her and grinned, she truly was a good friend. He knew he did not need to think about it twice when it came time to trust her with something like this, or ever much worse. He too stood and stretched feeling his muscles unknot; he was actually feeling a lot better knowing that he had kept Victoria from getting heartbroken.

"Shall we finish?" he asked.

"Yes, and to be honest I might think about hiring help, the orders are starting to pile up," she replied.

"So let's get to it, we will set up an interview for the applicants that come in after we spread the word about hiring. Then we'll look into catering like you had suggested." He said.

Victoria couldn't help but simply grin and nod feeling her stomach fill with excitement, she liked how he said "we" too much in all honesty. Her smile faded and she looked down to her hands thinking maybe it wasn't a good idea to get too attached to Alex. What if she fell for him, she knew better than to. Alex was a guy just like Max, nothing good could come of her ever wanting to be with him.

Although the joy inside of her didn't subside she decided to ignore it and get working. Just concentrate on work, nothing else, she told herself.

The afternoon soon faded and the sky began to paint itself into a breath taking sunset. She felt herself nearly drained of strength as she began on yet another cake. The rest of them were being stored into the fridge, soon to be shaped into the gran wedding cake that would take place in just a few days.

"You know I was thinking maybe we should hire two people to help out, I just saw the message machine and it's blinking with at least five more messages." Alex said walking out of the office.

"Let's just try one person first, what if we hire two and then the work suddenly starts to go down," she replies.

"That's true, it would suck to have to fire them after just giving them work."

"I'll get working on the help sign for the window," Victoria said wiping her hands on her apron. She hurried past Alex but soon stopped and turned to him.

"One question, how did you get here?" she asked.

"I took a cab, went with my mom for lunch and then was dropped off home."

"Next time give me a call and I'll give you a lift," she grinned rushing into the office.

The front door jingled and Alex quickly rinsed his hands and walked past the door to attend the customer.

"Alexander?" Mr. Eleven said. Alex stood frozen and rattled his brain for a good explanation. He felt his blood drain to his feet as he took in Victoria's father curious expression.

"I-I..," Alex stuttered.

"What are you still doing here, get out!" Victoria exclaimed. She quickly took in the situation in front of her.

Alex turned to look at her and glared, but inside he wanted to laugh.

"What is going on here?" Her father asked.

"You need to teach your daughter some manners," Alex hissed. He didn't know what he was doing but he hoped Vicky had a plan.

"You don't even know the meaning of manners," she spat back crossing her arms.

"Will somebody care to explain what is going on?" he asked once again confused.

"I'm not paying you a single dime, my dress was ruined, a gift from my grandmother, something way more valuable than your precious expensive clothes." Victoria shot at Alex ignoring her father.

"One way or another you will pay me back," he replied. Alex let out a fake frustrated breath and stormed out of the shop. He was quick to circle towards the back and hide inside the office closet, while Victoria tried getting rid of her father.

Victoria rolled her eyes and tried to relax her phony anger; she smiled and took her confused father into a tight hug.

"Hey dad, what brings you around here?" she asked.

"Care to explain to me what was all that about?" he asked for the hundredth time.

"Alexander is the most obnoxious guy I have ever met, and I refuse to pay him a ruined shirt, when he was the one who started everything." She replied

Her father simply chuckled and took her hand leading her to the office. There was really bad news about her mother and he felt the only place he could let her know was in the safety of his grandfather's old office room.

"What's going on?" she asked, taking in her father's down cast feature.

He silently closed the door behind him once inside the office and took a seat behind the desk. Victoria felt her eyes grow wide to see the closet door creak open and Alex pop his head out. As her father lowered his head trying to find the right words to say she quickly signaled for him to get back inside.

"I have some news about you mother's cancer," he began. Victoria felt her stomach clench at the mention of the word cancer and quickly took the seat facing the desk.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"She starts the chemo therapy tomorrow, but I gotta tell you it's not good to hear how weak she is becoming. The chemo will weaken her even more, make her lose all of her hair...she plans to let you know tonight was is really going on with her seeing that she is no longer going to be able to hide it from you." He sighed.

Alex leaned his back against the closet door and stood surprised to find out finally what cancer it was that was slowly killing Mrs. Elven. He leaned away from the door not wanting to eavesdrop any longer and sat on the floor only hearing muffled voices.

Soon the closet door was creaked open and there stood a teary eyed Victoria looking down at him.

"You can come out now, he's gone," she whispered stepping away from the door. Alex rose and walked out feeling suddenly very awkward to be standing there watching her cry. He didn't know what to say that would make her feel better. To his surprised she embraced him and held him tight crying into the center of his chest. He took a deep breath and hugged her back searching the ceiling for words to say.

"Everything is going to be fine, your mother is stronger than you think," he whispered.

"What if...,"

"There is no what if's, she's going to pull through," he cut her off.

"Okay," she replied.

He lifted her face to look at her and with his thumbs gently wiped away the thick flowing tears from her face. "Everything is going to turn out, you just gotta have faith," he whispered leaning into her. He stopped just a few inches from her lips and stared at them. He wanted so badly to kiss her, but what if she rejected him? She was sober, not drunk like that night. This isn't the right time to be hitting on her you idiot, he told himself. He closed the distance only to hug her once again and pulled away.