(no subject)

[takecourage]

It's shit, but life goes on. Alex goes through the motions -- she hands Edie over to the nanny, she goes to work, she thinks about drugs, she comes home. The work she does at the club varies; most of the time she's in the office, sometimes she's behind the bar and, sometimes, she's up on the stage or weaving in between the booths and couches. Tonight, one of her dancers hasn't turned up, so she does her makeup over the sink in her bathroom, fluffs her hair, hoists her tits into a sequined bra. She dances, her skin sheened with sweat and glitter and, whenever someone offers her a drink, she takes it.

It's after midnight when she leaves the club, t-shirt and sweats pulled on over the gear she was dancing in, feet shoved into her loosely laced boots. She doesn't want to go home -- not to the apartment at Dimera, and definitely not back to Black Elm, where her little girl lies sleeping. She's pretty limited on where she can go, honestly, her circle shrunk, but then she has an idea, and she pivots on her heel, heading in the opposite direction.

A few minutes later, having slipped in to the building as a delivery driver left, Alex finds herself leaning her forehead against his front door, knocking with her whole fist.

"C'mon, Steve," she says, through gritted teeth. "Be home, buddy."

Comments

[haplesshairpile]

The comment disarms him a little, and he pauses in his movements when he thinks of them fucking in Kagura. Steve was so easy back then. But let's be real, he's always been easy. It was the monogamy that was the strange thing, and now he's realizing how long it's been since he's touched anyone else. It feels like he doesn't even remember how, and the thought of doing so now makes him feel sad enough that he takes a long swig of the alcohol before he even pours in any mixers, then starts over.

"I guess I have to remember how to be single again," he says in a low voice, raspy from alcohol, swallowing hard as he finishes the drinks and hands one out to Alex.

[takecourage]

"Guess we both do," she says, taking the drink and raising her glass in a lazy toast. "Yale was really the only time I've been single since I was fourteen and Len fucked me in the storeroom at Baskin Robins." She rolls her eyes and knocks back a long swallow. She shifts again, settling back and stretching out her legs, draping them across his thighs.

[haplesshairpile]

"Damn. I worked at an ice cream parlor for months and couldn't get one girl to let me fuck them in the storeroom," Steve laments, lifting his arms to make room when Alex puts her legs in his lap. He puts his hand on her calm, sliding it aimlessly up and down the smooth expense of it as he takes another drink. "It was probably the sailor suit."

[takecourage]

"You should have been targeting chubby fourteen year olds with shitty homelives," she says, smirking as she takes a sip of her drink. She says it, but she knows for a fact that Steve isn't an asshole, let alone the kind of asshole that Len was. He never would have taken advantage of a kid who didn't know any better. She does snort at the thought of Steve in a sailor suit, though.

"Bet you'd have made me come, too. Even in the sailor suit."