Game Day
by Cowgirl

chapter 26 - Transitioning

Sonny sat on his couch staring straight ahead. It was the second Sunday. Two weeks ago Alexis had told him she didn't want to continue sleeping together and now it was the second Sunday in a row that they had skipped their weekly ritual and it was killing him. He rubbed a hand across his chin and closed his eyes. He always thought he could read Alexis. Always knew what she was thinking and how she felt about something, and he was sure that she was feeling what he was. Every time they had made love in the last six months, he could swear by looking into her eyes and feeling the way she touched him that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. He shook his head and looked over at his closed door. How could he have been so wrong?

They had tried to act as normal as possible around one another during the past two weeks. They both tried to act as if nothing at all in the world was wrong, but it was. Something was very wrong . . . at least for Sonny. They had conducted their normal business as they had every other time, but this time Alexis wouldn't look up from her contracts, she wouldn't flash him that small embarrassed smile that made him giddy inside. The worst part of it all was that Sonny was finding it difficult to sleep without her there with him in his bed.

He stood up and grabbed his keys and wallet from his desk drawer. He called Max on the cell phone and had him bring the car around. He opened the door and walked to the elevator, punching the button when he heard Alexis' door open. He turned around to see Kristina heading his way. He nodded his head. "Hey."

Kristina regarded him cautiously. "Hi," she said politely and pushed the down button even though it was already lit up.

The two stood in uncomfortable silence as they waited for the elevator. When it finally arrived, Sonny held the doors and let Kristina step inside ahead of him. "Ground floor?"

Kristina nodded. "Yes, please."

Sonny punched the button. "No problem," he replied and leaned against the elevator wall.

They both looked straight ahead as the car slowly started its decent down. Sonny squeezed her eyes shut for a second and cocked his head to the side. "How's Alexis?" he asked with great effort.

Kristina turned her head and looked at him. He was still staring straight ahead but she could see he was hurting.

"She's . . . she's okay . . . you know, she's Alexis," Kristina replied knowing full well that he was looking for a different answer.

Sonny nodded and it appeared he wasn't going to say anything else when he put his hand out flat on the wall in front of him and leaned on it. "I love your sister," he said matter of factly.

Kristina's eyebrows shot up in surprise; for once, she clearly didn't know what to say.

Sonny turned his head to her, his face like stone except for the pain that was evident in his eyes. He took a breath and let it out slowly. "I . . . I hate being apart from her like this . . . what do I do?"

Kristina looked down for a second and then back up to him. "You're asking me for my advice?" she said, still stunned that Sonny Corinthos was declaring his love for Alexis to her.

He gestured with his hand. "You’re her sister, you two are close."

Kristina held up a hand. "Sonny, I can't work on her from the inside if that's what you want."

Sonny shook his head. "That's not what I'm saying." He cleared his throat. "I mean she must talk to you about this . . . and I'm not asking you to . . . like . . . tell me anything but . . . I don't know . . . is there anything I can say or do?"
Kristina turned her body so she was facing him. "Have you tried telling her what you just told me?"

Sonny nodded. "I thought I was telling her that every time we . . . " He trailed off.

Kristina balled up her fists and tensed her arms. "The two of you are so incredibly stubborn that it's beyond comprehension." She moved closer to him and waved her hand. "All right . . . you know that phrase 'actions speak louder than words?'"

Sonny nodded. "Yeah."

"Good . . . now forget it. Apparently the two of you need big giant signs with very large colorful lettering."

Sonny stood up straight and looked up at the ceiling. "You're starting not to make sense."

"Don't the two of you ever talk at all? I thought that was part of the big appeal of being around each other. I thought you and Alexis shared your inter-most thoughts and secrets with each other."

"We do."

"But you won't tell one another the most personal thing about yourselves."

Sonny looked at her. "Which would be?"

Kristina rolled her eyes and Sonny almost laughed at how much she looked like Alexis right then. "That you love each other. "

The elevator dinged signaling that they had reached the ground floor. The doors opened and they walked out into the parking garage. Sonny stopped. "No, she doesn't love me . . . not like you're saying."

Kristina shook her head and smiled. "Funny, she said the same thing about you," she said and headed to her car.

Sonny stood looking after her, dumbfounded.

Alexis raised her hand and tentatively knocked on Sonny's door. Sonny swung the door open, his heart stopping for a beat as he eyed Alexis standing in his doorway. He stepped back and motioned her inside. "Hey."

She gave him a wan smile. "Hi. I um . . . I brought over those contracts with all the changes we discussed," she said holding out an envelope to him.

He nodded and took the papers. "Great. If you want to wait a second I'll sign them right now."

"You should probably read them over first," Alexis cautioned, although she knew he wouldn't.

He shook his head. "Nah, I'm sure they're fine if you say they are."

Alexis shrugged and looked at her watch. "That's fine if you don't want to read them, but I'm kind of in a rush . . . so . . . just drop them by later." She turned to leave.

"Lex?" Sonny called out.

She stopped and turned to look at him, her lip curling in between her teeth.

Sonny sighed and cleared his throat. "I was wondering if you maybe wanted to have dinner later . . . I could cook, or we could go out somewhere."

Alexis looked at him for a moment. "I . . . I can't tonight. I have a deposition in the morning and I really have to work tonight."

Sonny nodded. "Oh . . . right . . . okay, some other time then."

"Some other time," she said unconvincingly and moved to go again.

"Alexis."

She turned once more. "Hmm?"

"What's going on?"

"Going on?"

He rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "Yeah, what's going on? Two weeks ago you said you needed some time and I'm giving you all the time you need, but I didn't think that meant you were taking a break from our friendship."

Alexis looked away for a brief second and then back to him. "I've just been really busy, Sonny."

"Oh, come on Lex. You've been . . . cordial when we've had to do business, but beyond that you've been avoiding me."

"I'm not avoiding you."

"No?"

"No."

"So we're going to start lying to each other now?"

"What does that mean?"

Sonny gestured with his hand. "I'm really busy, I have a deposition that I have to work on, you're not avoiding me. Those aren't lies, Alexis?"

Alexis looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "What is it that you want from me?"

"I want the truth, damn it."

"What truth do you want, Sonny?"

"I want you to tell me why you're acting like this!" Sonny yelled.

"Don't scream at me."

He squeezed his eyes shut in frustration. "So that's it, huh? Alexis decides that she needs time so all communications are cut off . . . what about me, Alexis? What about what I'm feeling?"

"I don't know what you want me to say."

"I want you to say anything that will give me . . . give me some clue as to what you're thinking. You think I'm not as scared as you are about what's been happening with us?"

Alexis stopped. She had hoped to avoid this conversation, but it was happening. "I'm not ready to talk about this yet."

"Fine!" Sonny yelled, slamming the envelope he was holding down onto the coffee table. "Just call my people and let them know when you'd like to schedule a time to talk about it . . . I'll just be here on hold until you're ready." He turned on his heel and marched up the stairs to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him.

Alexis took in a deep breath and shut her eyes. For a split second she thought about following him upstairs and apologizing, but she knew there was no dealing with him when he was angry. She opened his door and walked across the hallway to her own. She walked in and slammed the door behind her.

"Jeez Alexis, you scared the heck out of me," Kristina said from her position on the couch.

Alexis looked at her sister. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were home yet."

Kristina stood up. "I got back a few minutes ago." She studied her sister's face. "Did you and Sonny have a fight?"

Alexis' head snapped over to her. "What makes you think me slamming the door has anything to do with Sonny?"

"I heard you two yelling at each other when I got off the elevator."

Alexis put her hand to her forehead. "Oh."

"What happened?"

Alexis waved her hand and walked further into the apartment. "He's . . . he's angry with me . . . frustrated." She shook her head. "I guess he has a right to be," she said slumping down onto the couch.

Kristina moved and sat down with her. "Alexis . . . play a game with me."

Alexis raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Let's play the truth game."

Alexis stood up and wagged a finger at her. "No, you tried that once with me and I didn’t like it then."

"Come on . . . what are you afraid of?"

"You."

"Alexis . . . "

"Fine," she said sitting down in the chair, her frame rigid with tension.

"Okay, I'm going to ask you simple questions. Just answer them honestly and without a twenty minute dissertation."

Alexis glared at her. "Get on with it."

"All right . . . first question. Why are you running from Sonny?"

"I'm not running from Sonny."

"Okay, why are you avoiding him then?"

"Because I need time away from him."

"Okay, you've had two weeks away from him. Don't you miss him?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't you bite the bullet and talk to him?"

"Because I don't want my heart broken."

"And you know he'll do that?"

Alexis stood up and held out her arms. "He's Sonny Corinthos . . . of course he's going to do that."

"He hasn't so far."

"That wasn't a question."

"Sorry . . . Has he?"

"No."

"But you're so sure he will?"

Alexis didn't answer. She didn't answer because Kristina was right. She didn't know that.

"Listen, Alexis the last six months, I've never seen you happier. You like being with him and you know it. How much have you been through in your life, Alexis? How much have you gone through and come up stronger than before?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Kristina stood up and moved around the room. "It has to do with the fact that all these bad things happened to you. You didn't run, you stood your ground and fought and you won. Now when something really great has happened . . . " She stopped and looked lovingly at her sister. "You've fallen in love with a man who knows you like no one else on earth and who treats you like you deserve to be treated . . . most of the time . . . but he makes you happy. This is a good thing . . . and you want to run from it."

Alexis moved a hand over her mouth. "I'm scared," she said in a whisper.

"You won't know if there's anything to be scared of unless you jump in. Don't wait until you lose him Alexis. He may love you, but a man like Sonny is not going to be content with what you're serving him right now."

The cold hard truth of what she was saying hit Alexis like a ton of bricks. She never thought about losing Sonny, but when Kristina said it, it was the truth. Sonny would cut her out of his heart if she hurt him too much. She'd seen him do it before. She breathed in deep and fought back the urge to cry. "I . . . I need to think," she said to her sister and headed quickly up the stairs to her room.

Alexis had lain on her bed for over two hours thinking about Sonny. She thought about their relationship and the way things had been over the past six months. She mentally asked herself if she really wanted to be with Sonny. She asked herself why she wanted to be with Sonny and finally she asked herself if she thought she could live without Sonny in her life . . . because if this didn't work out, she knew it would be the end of them. Too much had changed to go back to being best buddies. She asked herself how she felt about it and sat up on the edge of the bed when the answer came to her. She stood and exited her room. She found Kristina in the living room doing yoga.

Kristina stopped her exercises and looked at Alexis. "You okay?"

Alexis nodded. "Yes."

She smiled and raised her eyebrows. "Did you think?"

Alexis chuckled. "Yes, I did."

"Come up with anything?"

Alexis cocked her head to the side and smiled. She moved to her sister and kissed her on the forehead. "I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too. What about Sonny?"

Alexis smiled and let out a sigh. "I love him too."

"Going to let him know that?"

"I am."

"Right now?" Kristina asked hopefully.

Alexis walked to her desk and pulled open a couple of drawers until she found her palm pilot. "Not just yet."

"Why not?"

She clicked through her palm pilot until she found what she was looking for. "Because I have an idea of how to tell him," she said as she picked up the phone and dialed.

Kristina watched her with questions running through her head, but she wasn't about to interrupt what ever it was her sister was doing.

"Hi, yes, I need a New York number please . . . The Plaza Hotel."

chapter 27