Playing a Game of Hearts

Marissa was attending work with Alex again, it had been awkward between them for the past three days after the cuddling incident. She'd busied herself with working out and cleaning the condo top to bottom everyday to keep her mind off the uncomfortable feeling that washed over her. Her thin fingers drummed against her door in the passengers seat, Alex didn't say anything about the incisive tapping. She looked at herself and cringed, her face looked pale and dead.
"Hey, you alright?" Alex finally broke the silence that was hanging like a fog bank.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Marissa lied.
"Okay, we have to go to the hotel today and be with John and Kennedy as they plan out shots and such. So I'll probably leave you at the office with their assistant, you might want to get a few pointers from him."
"Oh, uh alright." She said looking out the window to the large fluffy bits of precipitation falling from the sky. Alex was silent for the rest of the ride, the only noise was the music playing on the stereo.

"You don't mind giving her a few pointers, do you Jordan?" John said with a large grin on his face.
"Oh! Not at all, I'd be glad to share what I can with you." Jordan blinked and then smiled.
"Then it's settled, sorry about this. I really don't want her getting sick out there in the cold weather." Alex said with a worried look.
"Not a problem, have a good time." Jordan said seeing them off to the elevator. Holly leaned on her desk and laughed.
"It's kinda cute to see Lex all worried about someone."
Marissa wanted to scoff and roll her eyes but nodded and smiled, Holly was so naive. Jordan walked back to her and asked "So you ready to learn this stuff?"
"Yeah, sure!"
Holly looked up and said "You can use Alex's office, I doubt he'll mind because Rissy's there."
"Thanks Holly." Marissa said with a gracious smile.

"You look really nice today." Jordan said with an award winning smile.
"Oh, um thanks." Marissa felt a blush rise to her cheeks.
"That's part of step one, flattery gets you everywhere."
She felt her shoulders drop, "Oh."
"But you really do look nice." He quickly said trying to change any doubts she had about his sincerity. She smiled and thanked him again, he was adorable. He was like a little boy in a sense of child like humor and innocence, she felt compelled to like him. She saw him looking at her, she smiled and then saw his cheeks turn a shade of bright pink and he quickly looked away from her gaze. The pair sat in silence, it wasn't the uncomfortable silence she had with Alex. This silence was pleasant and peaceful, like they didn't have to say anything to stop from feeling awkward.

Jordan looked at Marissa again, she was so pretty. Her thin face was framed with long dark brown hair, she was pale with bright eyes, she looked to be slightly sad. How could someone dating Alex Gaskarth be sad? He seemed to be a very nice person, he was polite with everyone he spoke to. Jordan didn't understand why she seemed so uncomfortable with Alex, it was like they didn't know anything about the other.

Alex watched John and Kennedy do what they came to do, they were talking to each other about lighting and angles. Jack nudged him and asked
"Do you trust Jordan alone with your girlfriend? He seemed a little bit to excited to be alone with her for an entire day."
"I trust her, I don't think she'd do anything to hurt me." Alex tried not to get involved with her unless he absolutely needed to. He'd built a thick brick wall between them, they didn't interact unless they needed to. It was a little sad, but he didn't want his heart to be stomped on when she didn't even like him. She didn't make an effort to have contact with him during the day, he figured it was best like this.

Marissa laughed and then said "I don't think I'd survive working for them, they make you do the silliest shit!"
"Nah, they're really fun guys to work with. I enjoy my job, they make it interesting. I would say you should work with us, but that would take you to Arizona. I'm sure you'd like to stay here with Alex."
She fell silent and then smiled and said "Yeah." She felt so fake, it hurt her to lie to him. She felt like complete and utter shit about it, he grinned back and looked at his phone quickly.
"They should be back soon, is there anything else you wanted to talk about that they shouldn't hear?" He laughed to himself and then she said
"Well, I was going to say; I'm very glad I got to spend the day with you. It was fun to talk to you for an extended period of time without having to feel uncomfortable."
"Oh well, it was my pleasure. I'm glad I got to know more about you than that you're dating Alex Gaskarth."
She nodded then looked out the window, the snow banks were growing and growing. She felt like she would be buried if she went outside. She felt happy, it made her think of a time when her parents loved spending time with her. In the winter they would build a snowman and have a snowball war in the yard of their mansion they owned. It was always really fun, they were some of the best memories that Marissa had of her parents.

Marissa could feel the wall between them; they barely spoke, they didn't touch, they didn't look each other in the eye. She felt like she had done something wrong, but couldn't think of anything. As she laid on her bed her stomach growled in hunger as it had for the past two days, she tried to ignore it. She had done well the past two days to ignore the occasional rumble of hunger. As she laid on the bed thinking of why he might have pushed her away she could hear voices from another room.

Alex looked at his mother on the screen of his laptop, her smiling face warmed his heart. She laughed at him and said
"My goodness, do shave love! You look like a street urchin!"
Alex laughed and said "Oh thanks, mom."
"You're welcome darling, now where's this girlfriend I keep hearing about? I want to meet her tonight."
"Uh, hold on let me go see if she's awake."
"Okay."
He stood up from his laptop and went down the hall to Marissa's room, he tapped on the door and then heard "What's up?"
"Hey, come out here for a little bit."
The door opened and she stood in front of him, he led her to his room and his mother's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.
"You're stunning!"
"Oh. Thank you! I love your accent."
"Oh this old thing?"

Alex was impressed with her social skills over skype, she was engaging and funny. Her smile was stunning. He pulled her close to himself and then whispered
"Cuddle me."
With almost no hesitation, Marissa wrapped her arms around his shoulders and nuzzled her nose into his collarbone. He felt himself turn red and he saw it in the little box that showed his face, he laughed it off.
"I'm so glad to see you happy, Alex. It's been so long since Lisa pulled what she did, I'm so proud of you. You may have taken longer than most but I still admire and love you."
"I love you too mom."
"Okay love, well I have to go. Your father is breaking things trying to make breakfast."
"Okay, love you too." She ended the skype call, as the call ended

"Your mom is amazing, what happened to you?"
Alex rolled his eyes at her statement and said "How was your day at the office?"
"Fine. We didn't do much."
"Oh, that sounds like fun."
"Yeah it was pretty amazing." She looked excited and happy to share this with him. He felt a feeling he hadn't known in years. He couldn't put his finger on what it was, he didn't like feeling it. He heard her stomach growl loudly.
"You want something to eat?"
"No, no I'm okay."
"Your stomach just growled."
"No it didn't." She said defensively. He saw the alarmed look on her face and decided to drop it and make her something after she went back to her room.

Rissy heard a knock on the door, she sat up and called "Come in."
The door creaked open and she saw a bowel with steam coming off the top, a grilled cheese sat next to it. There were two bowels she realized as he got closer, and two sandwiches. He sat down on the foot of her bed. The invisible wall that usually loomed between them seemed to be smaller and thinner now.
"I got you some food. I swear you never eat, that's not healthy." He muttered.
"I'm really not hungry."
"Well, that's just to bad. I'm gonna sit here until you eat it all."
He looked at her with a challenging expression, she didn't argue anymore. She picked up the sandwich and dipped it into the tomato soup. Alex smiled and watched her eat it, he looked pleased with himself. Maybe the wall wasn't as tall as she thought it was.

Notes