Losing Balance
by Lionel

chapter 47

"Lorenzo." Alexis shook her head and gave a small, indecipherable laugh as she leafed through the dossier in her hands. "Of course. I should have known."

John Schaeffer sat behind his grey steel desk, flipping through a pile of folders with little purpose other than to avoid meeting her eyes. "You're familiar with Lorenzo Alcazar?"

Alexis tossed the dossier on her mysterious new client on the desk and leaned back in her chair. For the last hour John had been briefing her on the assignment that had brought her to D.C., sketching out the skeletal details of the man she would be representing: a "valuable asset" who "moved product" in "close consultation" with the U.S. government and who needed to renegotiate the terms of his engagement. Once she formally accepted the assignment and the necessary security clearance was in place, John had handed her the dossier providing the full details on her client's identity.

Even as she reached across the desk to take the dossier, Alexis recognized the plain blue cover, and though it could have contained anything, she knew as she turned the page that it would be Lorenzo's face, with long hair and beard, staring back at her. Still, her heart skipped when she saw the familiar photograph. She stared at it just a moment, his heat trickling through her like hot water filling a radiator, and then she closed the cover again. She didn't need to read the dossier; she had already studied every word.

"You know I am, John. What's going on here?"

John shrugged, and in that moment he looked every bit the recalcitrant bureaucrat he liked to play at being - middling grey suit, balding pate, soft middle, unfashionable wire rims. He was as smart in his way as anyone Alexis knew, but despite his Harvard Law degree and old Washington money, he had a gift for seeming ordinary, and it served him well in the delicate, high stakes game played in his corner of the State Department. "Just what I've told you, Alexis."

"Why would you ask me down here to represent Lorenzo Alcazar? You must know about his brother."

"I do. Is that a problem for you?"

"It would be reasonable to assume so, wouldn't it? Obviously you know otherwise, John. Did Lorenzo ask you to get me down here?"

"Not exactly."

"What exactly, then? Explain this to me now or I'm going to walk out that door and go home to my daughter. I don't like being manipulated."

John held up his hand in a gesture of peace. "No one's trying to manipulate you, Alexis. I promise. Everything I've said is true. Why don't we go talk to your client? He's in the conference room down the hall."

*****

Though her pulse pounded in her ears and her stomach fluttered with some vague nervous excitement at seeing Lorenzo so out of context and unexpectedly, Alexis barely nodded at him when she and John walked into the conference room. Instead she stood just inside the door with her hands on her hips, fending off the impulse to rush to him by focusing on her anger, ready to flee if she didn't get a satisfactory explanation.

"Why am I here?" she asked Lorenzo tersely.

Lorenzo had risen from the table quickly when Alexis came in the room, his own heart beating hard in anticipation of her reaction, but now he was held awkwardly in place by her forbidding manner. He wanted to hug her or kiss her or take her hand, or just tell her how ridiculously happy he was to see her, but he didn't dare. "John," he said. "Could you please give us a moment alone?"

John looked to Alexis for her consent, and she nodded tightly and stepped out of his way. Once John was gone, Lorenzo took light hold of Alexis's bent arm and tried to guide her toward a seat at the table, but she pulled her arm back and shook her head in refusal.

"Why am I here?" she asked again.

Giving up, Lorenzo let his hands fall to his side. "I didn't lure you down here to try to get you in bed, if that's what you're thinking."

"But you did lure me down here?"

"Not exactly."

"God, that's an annoying answer, Lorenzo. Tell me what's going on now."

Lorenzo hesitated a moment, battling his own inappropriate reaction to her anger. The armor of her business suit couldn't contain the edgy energy that radiated through her body, accentuating everything lithe and feminine and impassioned about her movements. Though her eyes flashed at him with impatience and accusation, and her posture said 'stay back', Lorenzo was quite sure he'd never found anyone more alluring. A substantial part of him wanted to wrap her in his arms and make her energy his, or even just stand there watching her all day, but there was a delicate path to navigate first. He tightened his hands at his sides, fending off the challenge to his self-control, and nodded his assent.

"I will. Please, let's sit down." Lorenzo pulled out a chair and motioned for her to take it. Alexis paused a moment and then stepped forward and sat, keeping a wary eye on him as he settled into the chair next to her and swiveled to face her. "Can I get you anything?" he asked, gesturing toward a tray at the other end of the table that held a pot of coffee and a pitcher of ice water.

She shook her head and folded her arms across her chest. "Talk."

"Okay." Lorenzo clasped his hands together on the table in front of him, took a breath and began. "When you told me that Jax obtained the government dossier on me from an old law school classmate of yours, I put two and two together and figured out that it came from John Schaeffer. I know John fairly well; we've worked together for several years."

Alexis pressed her thumb and forefinger to the pressure points on her cheekbones just below her eyes and drew them together, ending at the bridge of her nose. Whatever relaxation she had achieved with her self-indulgent bathing ritual and sound night's sleep had been draining away since she'd walked into the building at 8:30 that morning. "Small world," she muttered.

"Yeah."

"So this is what you meant that night at Luke's when you said that the government doesn't consider you a criminal."

"More or less."

"Go on."

"Okay. I gave John a hard time about giving Jax that dossier. He thought Jax just needed it for business; he didn't know it was really for you. Not that it would have mattered if he did; that dossier is the official version of me. I told John I wanted to tell you the rest, but he reminded me quite firmly that it wouldn't be permitted."

"Unless I was cleared as your lawyer."

Lorenzo nodded. "Yes. John suggested that he could ask you to represent me, and I thought it made sense. Now I can tell you everything."

"So when I called you yesterday and told you I had to go out of town, and you so kindly offered up your plane and made my travel arrangements, you knew I was really coming to see you?"

"Yes. I know you feel manipulated, but there wasn't any other way for me to tell you the whole story."

She squinted. The tension seemed to be moving up through her orbital sockets to the top of her head. "And that's why I'm here? I left Kristina and Jax and came down here so that you can tell me more about your business and show me that you're not really as bad a guy as I think because, hey, the U.S. government gives you its stamp of approval?"

"No, it's more than that. I really do need you to be my lawyer, Alexis. I'm renegotiating my entire arrangement with the government. I can set new limits, make demands, get out entirely. I'm at a point where I can decide what comes next for me, and I want you to help me do that."

She opened her mouth but no words came out. She tried again. "It's not my decision to make, Lorenzo."

Lorenzo nodded slightly. "You're right; it's mine. But the considerations that are most important to me affect you. I want to be someone you'll allow in your life, Alexis. You know this. I want to make whatever changes to my business are necessary to make that possible. But I also need to make sure I remain in a position to keep the people I care about safe, and that includes protecting you and Kristina from Helena and Sonny and whatever else. I don't know how to do both of those things, and I was hoping you would help me find a balance we can both live with."

She closed her eyes and rolled her neck around once. "That's a neat trick."

"What trick?"

"Making your problem mine. Enlisting me to solve my own riddle. Asking me to articulate exactly what I find objectionable about your business and daring me to find a better solution than the one you've adopted. You can't lose."

"I'm not trying to be clever or underhanded here, Alexis. I just want to fix this, and I need your help. I'm asking you to work with me to find a way for us to give it a try."

She opened her eyes again and looked at him. No matter what she did, it seemed he was always there, pushing her gently, waiting for her to wake up and join him on this path he thought was the most natural in the world. When she looked into his calm blue eyes, it didn't seem entirely crazy to her. "You're asking a lot, Lorenzo," she observed, her tone perfectly non-committal. "I'm not ready to throw in with you; I'm not ready to make that kind of commitment."

"I know you're not. I'm just asking you to preserve the possibility. If I'm going to make changes, now is the time when it has to be done."

She raised her eyebrows and shook her head. "This is a lousy time for me, Lorenzo."

"I know. I know you have things to work through with Jax. I'm not trying to pressure you, Alexis. If you need to walk out that door and go home, I'll understand. I'll hate it, but I'll understand. I had to ask."

Alexis stood up and walked to the window that occupied one wall of the conference room. She pulled back the drape and looked down at the courtyard several floors below. The crisscrossing pathways were lined with blossoming trees she couldn't identify at this distance, but the effect was that of an orderly explosion of pink and white and green. Washington was indeed beautiful at this time of year. Finally, she shook her head. "I don't need to go home just yet."

"You don't?"

"Jax and I have worked things through as well as we can. We've reached an impasse."

"What sort of impasse?"

Alexis gave a short, humorless laugh. Maybe it wasn't quite funny, but certainly the situation was ironic. Jax had insisted that she needed to explore her feelings for Lorenzo, and she had been so determined to prove him wrong, to prove that she could stay away from Lorenzo, and yet here she was. "A waiting game of sorts. The details are a private matter."

"Of course. I'm sorry."

She turned away from the window and walked to the other end of the table and began to pour herself a cup of coffee. "Oddly enough, I think Jax would tell me to stay. I know I wouldn't be doing him any favors by going home now. I came down here in part to clear my head and figure out what to do next, and I haven't done that yet." She stirred her coffee around and around, long after the swirls of white in brown had dissolved into a smooth ochre. "Obviously, neither one of us knew that the tensions of home were going to follow me down, but maybe this is for the best."

"You'll stay then?"

Alexis looked up from her coffee, pursed her lips, and nodded. "Yes." She walked back to her chair and sat down.

"And you'll help me try to find a business solution that you can live with? We'll see if we can find a way to knock down this last wall?"

"I will help you preserve the possibility for some future time. No promises, though."

"Understood. Thank you." Lorenzo couldn't quite contain his happy grin, and Alexis cracked a small smile in response.

"You're welcome," she said. "Just keep in mind that I'm agreeing to help you with your business issues during business hours. That's it. The rest is me time, and I intend to spend as much of it as possible in the very lovely bathtub and divine feather bed in my hotel room. Alone. This is as close as I get to a vacation."

Lorenzo laughed. "I thought you looked unusually well-rested this morning. You're pleased with the hotel?"

"Yes, quite. Thank you for arranging it. I had no idea I would find a little pocket of European luxury in the middle of D.C."

"The St. Regis is a favorite of mine. I thought you'd like it."

Alexis's smile faded and she eyed him suspiciously. "Oh, don't tell me. You just happen to have the room next to mine."

"Not at all," he said, rather proud of his restraint. "I'm at the Hay-Adams across the street. I won't deny that the thought crossed my mind, but I thought you would prefer having some space."

"I would. Thank you."

"I told you, Alexis. No pressure. I'm not going to push."

*****

He really wasn't trying to push. He certainly wasn't trying to start anything when he pulled his chair up behind hers and put his hands on her shoulders. It was just that she looked so tense, and he wanted to help her relax.

They had been in the conference room all morning and much of the afternoon, working straight through a lunch of deli sandwiches brought in on a tray. John Schaeffer came and went from time to time, but mostly it was just the two of them, working side by side to lay the groundwork for the negotiations that would begin the next day.

Lorenzo did most of the talking, describing in detail his relationship with the government and teaching Alexis things she never wanted to know about the gritty business of weapons distribution. Alexis read and read, skimming through endless pages of contracts, regulations and memoranda until her eyes blurred and her head pounded and her stomach ached. She wanted to pretend that Lorenzo's organization was just another company selling sprockets, but the documents were littered with reminders that his business was moving weapons into the hands of people who kill.

Alexis listened as Lorenzo explained why he believed he made the world a better place than it would otherwise be. With or without him, he argued, there would be guns and missiles and bombs moving around, and he helped ensure that the better guys, if not exactly good guys, had more; he provided the U.S. government with vital intelligence about the activities of those who would do it harm; and as a man with scruples and allegiances, he was vastly preferable to whatever amoral lunatic might fill the vacuum he would leave behind. Alexis withheld judgment. She was inclined to accept his claims, but she wasn't sure whether it was enough. He still did the things he did.

From time to time as they worked his hand brushed against hers, or he stretched his legs and bumped her feet under the table, or she touched his arm to get his attention, and each time there was that little spark, that low rumble of thunder, and their eyes met a little too long, but each time they moved past it without comment. Had there been less work to do and had the consequences been less weighty, perhaps there might have been time for a little flirtation, a personal exchange or two to break the tension. Had they indulged for just a moment in something more than passing contact, perhaps they might have dissipated some of the charge building between them. As it was, they did nothing but work, and the tension mounted.

When Lorenzo came back from the men's room a little after three o'clock, he found Alexis in a posture of weariness: she was sitting forward in her seat with her elbows on the table, resting her forehead on her open hands, focused on the small print of some obscure federal regulation laid out on the table in front of her. She had removed her suit jacket, and it now hung on the back of her chair. As he took his seat next to her, Lorenzo gave her hunched shoulders a quick squeeze. Gratitude for her help, sympathy for the hard work, apology for the stress he had brought into her life - that was all he was trying to convey, and any other feelings that ran through him he intended to keep to himself.

Alexis startled slightly at his touch, but she didn't look up. Her eyelids fell closed, and she murmured her appreciation for the momentary soothing of muscles she had forgotten to use for much too long. When his hands fell away, she sat up straight, rolling her neck and curling her shoulders to alleviate their painful tightness.

"More?" Lorenzo asked, trying to keep his emotion out of his voice. Tired, mussed, and stretching like a cat, she was entirely entrancing to him.

She turned and gave him a soft smile and nod. "Please." The simple act of accepting Lorenzo's kindness without argument was oddly intoxicating. Her burden felt lighter already.

Lorenzo kept his surprise over her easy acquiescence to himself. He was happy to give whatever she was willing to take from him, and he was determined not to take more than she offered. He rolled his chair into position behind her, rubbed his palms together to warm them, and placed his hands over the knotted muscles around her neck. Alexis settled back in her chair and took a slow, deep breath.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Alexis was aware that her usual inhibitions had gone missing, but she wasn't particularly worried. She was well-accustomed to the low current of electricity that hummed deep inside when she was with Lorenzo; she thought she could ignore it, even savor it quietly as he touched her. She was wrong. The heat of his hands melted away her tension and more, turning her internal barriers to liquid, and when his hands began to move over her, the current inside her surged, throwing her completely off balance. He didn't know it, but within a minute or two her body was entirely his.

Lorenzo tried to focus on the science of what he was doing, summoning vague memories of anatomical muscle maps. Working through the thin silk of her blouse, his thumbs dug deep circles into the base of her neck, into the aching notches between her shoulder blades, then down the columns of muscle on either side of her spine. He tried not to think about the delicacy of her frame, the warmth of her silk-covered skin beneath his fingers, the soft floral scent that still lingered on her, but all the sensations of her swam inside his head, and he was quickly drunk on her. With each uneven breath, it was more of a struggle to stay within the boundaries of propriety.

Alexis's eyes fluttered closed under Lorenzo's diligent attentions. Her breathing was slow and ragged, interrupted by occasional murmurs of pleasure or groans of near-pain. His hands were strong and worked her muscles hard, and she tried to relax, knowing that if she resisted, the pressure would hurt. She couldn't really relax, though, not when her stomach was fluttering and every nerve ending was buzzing. She wondered if Lorenzo knew how he was affecting her, if he was trying to do it, and she dismissed the possibility. He was giving her a simple, therapeutic massage; anything else was just a fantasy generated by her lust-addled brain, by her hormones on overdrive. It was all proper enough.

It was all proper enough, that is, until Lorenzo reached in front of her to unbutton her blouse. She knew he was doing it, and she knew a line was being crossed, but she couldn't move or speak, let alone resist. She sat perfectly still, barely breathing, watching his fingers slide down her chest, working one, two, then three buttons open. He slipped his hand beneath the silk and pressed his open palm against her bare skin, just below her collarbone, while his other hand worked the muscles in the center of her back. No doubt there was some sound therapeutic basis for what he was doing, but all she could think about was the heat of his hand over her heart, the way his bottom two fingers curved over the swell of her breast, and how much she wanted him to move lower. When he lifted his hand instead, exposing her skin to the cool air, her sigh of disappointment wasn't lost on him. It was his first inkling that she was as far gone as he was.

Lorenzo shifted forward in his chair and carefully slid her glasses off and set them down on the table. She closed her eyes again as he traced lighter circles over her temples and then the apex of her jaw. His fingers trailed down along her neck, tender now, and he pushed back the collar of her blouse, baring her neck, her collarbone, her shoulders to a gentler touch. She was soft and compliant in his hands, and he felt like the most powerful man on earth.

His hands felt wonderful as they moved over her now, but their path was unpredictable, and Alexis couldn't quite relax for wondering where they might go next. She still wasn't entirely sure he had sexual intentions, but she certainly did, and she willed his hands to be more daring. Perhaps she even encouraged him deliberately with the soft sounds she made and the way she leaned her head back against his shoulder and turned it slightly, brushing her cheek against his neck, almost nuzzling him. As if watching his hands work over her body and feeling his warmth all around her and hearing his jagged breath weren't enough, now she had the smell of him, the indescribably sweet, masculine scent of him, making her delirious. It took a conscious effort for her to keep from licking the delicate hollow of his neck.

As Lorenzo made his way around her upper body, sometimes caressing, sometimes massaging, he seemed to flirt endlessly with making a move, and it drove her to the edge of madness. She had to stifle a revealing moan when his hands traveled over her upper arms and his fingertips traced the gentle curve of her breasts. She wasn't even certain he was doing it intentionally; she still thought it might all be in her head.

She was about to make a move of desperation herself and beg him to get serious when his hands drifted to her chest and slipped under the loose silk of her blouse. She held her breath as his fingers traced slow circles over her bare skin, burning their path into her, moving steadily down. "Lorenzo … " It was a token objection; she had nothing more to say. She certainly hadn't the capacity to tell him to stop.

"Shhh … " His breath against her ear made her shiver, and she leaned back into his warm presence.

His hands crept slowly down, tracing their circles. On one pass his fingertips brushed the inside edges of her bra, on the next a finger slipped beneath the satin, then another and another, closer and closer until his intentions were undeniable and finally he captured her hard nipples between his fingertips. She cried out in relief and release. "Lorenzo … yes … "

Whatever boundaries they had tried to observe were obliterated. Lorenzo's warm hands wrapped around her breasts, cupping them, squeezing them, teasing her nipples, while his hot mouth nibbled on her ear, kissed her neck, devoured her. She fell back into him, melting into him, panting, as his hands played over her body. Everywhere he touched her burned, and everywhere he didn't ached.

She turned her head and sought out his mouth, claiming it when she found it with a warm, wet, furious kiss with lots of tongue. He tasted like him and he felt like him and she wanted him more than she'd ever wanted anything. "Lorenzo," she moaned into his mouth when she released him to catch her breath. She was lost, ready to beg for what she needed if only she could summon the words.

Lorenzo turned her chair around and pulled her forward to the edge of her seat, his strong hands grasping her waist, feeling her heat through the cool silk that still sheathed her. He fumbled for a moment with the remaining buttons of her blouse, but it was going to take too long so he slid her blouse up instead. He briefly admired the way the delicate cream fabric rippled between his fingers, but then the creamy flesh he unveiled demanded all his attention.

Lorenzo dipped his head and showered kisses across her stomach, from low in her belly to her navel and up, hungry and adoring and urgent, and then he pushed her blouse up farther and found the clasp to her bra, and his mouth laid claim to her breasts. She moaned as he latched onto her nipple, sucking and biting and licking, pushing her need for him higher than she'd ever thought possible. She held his head, her fingers wrapped tight around his short hair. "Please … " she begged incoherently. She pulled him up to her and kissed him hard, and together they slid to their knees on the floor.

His tongue invaded her without apology, probing her in a way that made her melt further into him, and she fumbled with his pants, desperate to free him to match his tongue's exploration more intimately. As she wrestled his pants below his hips, they fell to the floor, him on top of her, and he pushed up her skirt, pulled down her panties, and prepared to plunge into her. She curled her ankles around his legs and her hands around his neck and raised her hips in anticipation.

And then he stopped.

She dug her nails into his bare bottom, trying to pull him inside. "Now, Lorenzo. Please."

He shook his head, breathing hard, his eyes glazed over with desire and disbelief. "No, no, this isn't right. We're on the floor in a conference room."

"I don't care. I'm going to die if I don't feel you inside me right now. Take me now."

Something buckled deep in his gut and he almost pushed into her. Somehow he stopped himself. "Here, Alexis? Don't you want to do this right?"

"I just want to do it. We can work on getting it right later."

"God, I want you. But not here, Alexis."

"Yes, here. Now."

He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers. "Do you know how hard it is to say no to you?"

"Then don't. This is getting to be a bad habit with you. You started this, Lorenzo. Be a man and finish it." Her hand moved lower to provide encouragement.

He gasped at her intimate touch. "Ah … okay, okay … is it safe?"

"I don't know … no … but … Don't you have something?"

He shook his head no, and her shoulders collapsed and her struggle stopped as she absorbed the impossibility of getting what she wanted. She closed her eyes and let out a soft whimper of frustration.

Lorenzo sighed heavily and kissed her closed eyelids. "I'm sorry, Alexis." He drew his pants back up.

She sobbed lightly, once, releasing some of the agony of stopping short. "There are other things we could do," she offered weakly.

"True. But are you really ready to do this?"

She shrugged slightly, her eyes still tightly closed. "I don't know," she whispered. She draped her arm across her face, burying herself and her confusion and embarrassment in the crook of her arm.

Lorenzo brushed his lips lightly against hers and gently lifted her arm. "Look at me," he implored. She opened her eyes hesitantly and forced herself to meet his gaze, but she bit nervously on her lower lip. "I'm very sorry, Alexis. I should never have started this. As much as I want to make love to you, I don't want it to be like this. I don't want it to be out of desperation. I want it to be a choice. You told me this morning that you weren't ready to make that choice, and I promised you I wouldn't push."

She gave him a wan smile. "You didn't exactly push. If you did, I welcomed it."

He smiled back. "Good. I told you before that when we do this, I want you to be happy about it. We waited this long, Alexis. Let's do this right."

"What's right, Lorenzo? There's something to be said for just giving in to passion. Trying to get it right is a recipe for disappointment."

"It doesn't have to be perfect, Alexis. But there could be music, candles, a bed. Not a dirty tile floor and government-issue fluorescent lights and the little red light of a surveillance camera."

Alexis's eyes flipped up and scanned the ceiling nervously. "A surveillance camera?"

"Gotcha." Lorenzo smiled and kissed her nose and then wisely rolled off her.

With a threatening glare and a shake of her head, Alexis sat up and began to reassemble her clothing, growing increasingly agitated as her mind cleared. Lorenzo sat back on his heels watching her, enjoying the freedom to admire her body, until she gave him a dirty look. "Do you mind?"

He was genuinely taken aback. "What?"

"A little privacy would be nice. Look someplace else."

"Okay … " Lorenzo agreed hesitantly, turning around. "I'm sorry. I thought I was allowed to admire you."

"My body is not yours. It's mine," she snapped. "You're very good at taking my clothes off, but that doesn't give you the right to watch me put them back on. We are not lovers, Lorenzo."

"Yet. We will be soon."

"We'll see."

"What does that mean?"

"It just means that I need to clear my head before I make any decisions. You were right; I got carried away in the heat of the moment. That's no way to live. I'm eternally grateful to you for stopping me from making another mistake."

There was no mistaking the bitterness in her tone. He risked a glance over his shoulder and saw that she was fully dressed again, standing with her back to him and her hands on her hips. He turned around. "You're mad at me?"

Her tone softened slightly. "I don't know what I am, Lorenzo. I'm mad, I'm embarrassed, I'm confused."

He approached her and touched her shoulder gently. "Don't be embarrassed, Alexis. Be mad and confused, but don't be embarrassed."

She leafed idly through a stack of papers on the table. "I don't know how to make this choice, Lorenzo. I want to, but I'm scared. The only way I know to do this is to let myself get carried away. And I hate getting carried away; I hate feeling out of control. This embarrasses me."

He carefully wrapped his arms around her and turned her around. "I know. When you're ready, it will be different."

She buried her head against his chest. "What if after all this build-up it turns out to be just okay?"

Lorenzo laughed lightly and kissed the top of her head. "That's not going to happen, Alexis. Trust me."

*****

"Hey, you don't have any plans tonight, do you, Alexis?" John Schaeffer asked as the three of them packed up their papers for the evening.

Alexis looked surreptitiously over at Lorenzo, but he didn't look up. So determined was he not to push that he had barely looked at her since their misadventures earlier that afternoon. "Just a little pampering and a good night's sleep. Why do you ask?"

"There's this fundraiser dinner at the Hay-Adams tonight. It'll be a really swanky affair. Orchestra, dancing, view of the White House. I've taken a couple of tables with some of our old classmates. You should come."

Alexis grimaced slightly. "Oh, I don't know. I'm not sure I'm in the mood for a reunion. And I really don't have anything to wear."

"Oh, come on. There are plenty of boutiques right downstairs from your hotel. I know everyone would really love to see you. And you should come, too, Lorenzo."

Lorenzo smiled politely. "Thank you, but I have some other matters to attend to."

"How about you, Alexis?"

"I don't think so."

"You'll change your mind when you hear who is chairing the thing. A certain deputy attorney general from Harvard Law '84. On the short list for next attorney general if the mood in the administration ever moderates."

"Eric?"

"Yep. You've got to come. How long has it been since you've seen him?"

"Uh, twenty years."

"I know he'd love to see you, Alexis."

"I'm not so sure about that, John. I think I should pass."

"It'll give you a chance to thank him."

"Thank him?"

"He didn't want me to mention it at the time, but Eric was the one who pulled the strings to help out your brother-in-law that first time."

"Really? I had no idea."

"Yeah. You should come. I promise he'll be thrilled to see you, Alexis."

She nodded reluctantly, relenting on Jax and Jerry's behalf. "Okay, I'd love to go, John."

"Terrific. Eliza and I will stop by your hotel and pick you up at eight."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lorenzo clenching his jaw. She turned to him. "Lorenzo? Are you sure I can't convince you to come? You wouldn't really send me to a school reunion alone, would you?"

Lorenzo looked at her carefully, assessing her unspoken meaning. The genuine invitation in her tone was unmistakable. "Well, then, of course." He turned to John. "I would be happy to pick up Ms. Davis and escort her this evening."

"Terrific. I'll call now and make sure no one else gets those tickets." John picked up the phone and dialed a number. "Eric. It's John Schaeffer. Can I put a hold on two more seats to the fundraiser tonight? An old friend is in town. Someone I think you'll really get a kick out of seeing."

Alexis shook her head at John, trying to get his attention, but he ignored her. When he hung up the phone, she finally got her objection in. "John, I really don't think Eric will appreciate the surprise."

"Oh, I think it will do him some good. He could use some fireworks in his life." John turned to Lorenzo. "Eric and Alexis were co-editors-in-chief of the law journal. It was a fierce battle to see who would get it, and the outgoing board in their perverse wisdom decided the most just outcome would be to make them work together. Fought like cats and dogs every day. Disagreed about everything. Made the journal office a war zone until we told them they had to keep it in the back office, and then at least the yelling and book throwing was muffled. It was straight out of His Girl Friday. You guys must have spent twenty hours a day together. But it was the best volume the journal had put out in twenty years. Or since."

Alexis bit her lip and smiled self-consciously. "Our vocal cords were shot, but somehow we worked pretty well together."

Lorenzo looked at her with interest and a forced smile. "Really? Don't tell me. Just friends?"

She turned away and closed up her briefcase. "Um, no." When she turned back around, she headed quickly to the door. "I'll see you both tonight, then?"

"With bells on," John answered.

Lorenzo nodded slightly. "I'll pick you up at eight."

chapter 48