Redefine Me, Redesign Me

Ellie doesn’t dream, or at least not when she was sleeping. Maybe she just never remembers her dreams, but for whatever reason she could not recall a single dream she’s ever had; until now that is. In fact, Ellie had been dreaming all weekend, especially after going over to Alex’s house. Alex. There was that name again. First he was haunting her dreams and now she couldn’t get him out of her thoughts.

Back on point: Ellie had been dreaming all weekend about one person. Alex. Her first dream was on Friday night while he was just a couch away from her. Sure the dream was nothing special and at the time she didn’t even realize it was about him. Now though, now she realized that the warm fuzzy feeling that she woke up with Saturday morning had actually been the after effects of a warm and fuzzy dream about Alex. Saturday night, after spending all day thinking about Alex and trying to dodge Lisa and Mallory’s questions about him, her dream was more easily remembered. Though, when she woke up with Lisa hopping around on her bed, she quickly pushed that dream aside hoping to forget about it.

This morning though, she was wide awake. She had been wide awake since waking up from a very vivid dream of Alex that she was trying to forget. It was hard to do considering she was pretty sure it was a memory from Friday night. How could it not have been? What, with all the hot and heavy kisses and rough needy touches. She shivered just thinking about it, though she was trying to convince herself that it was a shiver of disgust or distaste.

Ellie’s alarm sounded from beside her startling her a bit. She reached over slapping the off button harshly and sitting up in her bed.

Work. The thought of what was ahead of her made her wrinkle her nose. Ellie had been working since she had graduated high school; her dad had wanted her to learn the value of a dollar. She’d never really needed to work before now, though. Her dad had been putting money in her bank account every month since she was sixteen. He still did now, only she felt wrong using it for herself when she had disappointed him so badly by leaving Sycamore.

Ellie pushed herself off the bed not wanting to think about Sycamore or Alex. She had to get ready for work. She’d take on work over either of those things right now anyway. She stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen where she started her coffee. Maybe she should get a nicer coffee pot. One that would start whenever she set the timer to. They make those, right? Ellie shook the wandering thoughts from her mind as she looked over her work clothes choices in her closet.

She pulled out a button down white dress shirt and a high waist black pencil skirt. It was always best to keep to the basics when you were too apathetic to choose something different.

She could smell the coffee waiting for her down stairs as she zipped up the back of her skirt and grabbed her modest work heels. She stumbled down the stairs sitting her shoes down at the bottom and slipping her feet into them.

“Good morning,” a male voice that she immediately recognized as Alex greeted her from the breakfast bar.

“Alex,” Ellie sighed, “How did you get in here?” She couldn’t help but notice the surprise that was in her voice. It almost sounded like she was happy to see him. She didn’t want that. She couldn’t have Alex thinking that she was actually condoning him just showing up in her house out of nowhere.

“The door was open,” he lied easily rounding the breakfast bar and going into the kitchen.

“Sure it was,” Ellie chirped rolling her eyes, “even though I know that I locked it last night and I haven’t gone out today,” she added giving him a skeptical look.

“Maybe you shouldn’t hide your spare key in a fake rock surrounded by real rocks,” Alex said opening a cabinet and pulling out one of her travel mugs.

Ellie walked into the kitchen arms folded across her chest as she leaned her back against the island counter. “I’ll have to fix that,” she said mentally reminding herself to remove the spare key.

Alex smirked at her as he made his way to the refrigerator for the creamer. He frowned seeing that the mocha creamer was still untouched.

“So tell me, Elle,” Alex began, “Why would someone buy a coffee creamer that they don’t like?” The answering look that he received from Ellie was enough.

She was cursing herself. She had meant to throw that out after the first time he pointed it out. She hadn’t been in any hurry before, but now that Alex was here in her kitchen again and asking questions about a coffee creamer that she had absent mindedly purchased, she wished she would have gotten to it sooner. It was Hunter’s favorite… She still couldn’t figure out what had made her buy it. She and Hunter hadn’t been together in at least six months. Ellie pulled open the refrigerator and took out the mocha creamer throwing it in the trash without looking at Alex or saying anything. She didn’t want to tell Alex about Hunter, for reasons she couldn’t explain.

Alex frowned knowing that he had struck a nerve of some sort. He hadn’t meant to push her buttons this time. He was genuinely curious about the creamer and just trying to make small talk.

Ellie glanced at the clock and knew that she should be going soon. She didn’t want to go into work, but she didn’t want to be here to answer all of Alex’s questions either.

“Why are you here?” She asked leaning against the counter as Alex stirred her coffee. The look that crossed his face made her regret her words. She hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, or maybe she had. Maybe it was just that she hadn’t expected seeing him hurt, to hurt her in return. “I mean don’t you have two dogs at home that could use your attention?” she asked recovering quickly.

Alex chuckled and shook his head, “No not today,” he said, “Today they are with their Uncle Jack.”

Ellie couldn’t help but smile at how adorable every single aspect of that sentence was. Alex screwed the lid on her coffee and handed it over. She thanked him and took a sip. She was surprised that for the second time Alex had made her coffee absolutely perfect. She was very particular about her coffee and her tea. She sometimes had to add to her Starbucks orders before they would taste right.

“You do know that I have to leave for work, right?” Ellie asked looking over to Alex who she was feeling quite jealous of at the moment; he looked so comfortable in his skinny jeans and loose fitting t-shirt.

“Yeah,” he answered smiling, “I was thinking I’d just crash your place since mine is pretty empty today.” He seemed so at home already and Ellie couldn’t say that she would mind him being there; it was better than wondering if someone was breaking into her house to steal her things all day.

With one last glance at the clock telling her that she better get a move on, Ellie decided she didn’t care what Alex did. “I’m leaving,” she said walking towards the door. “Don’t eat all of my food,” she called over her shoulder as she picked up her purse and keys, “You break it you buy it!” She stopped with the door open and turned around almost coming nose to nose with Alex. She had to take a deep breath before she could continue her thought, “And please for the love of God, do not play with matches.”

Alex chuckled leaning in and kissing her cheek, “I’ll do my best to abide by your rules,” he said in her ear.

“It’d just be really nice to come back and have the house still standing,” Ellie said leaning against the door.

Alex smiled and Ellie honestly wanted to hit him for being so pretty. She groaned and rolled her eyes letting go of the door and walking out of her house. When she turned back to look at the door Alex was leaning against the frame watching her go.

She rolled her eyes at Alex’s ostentatious Audi that sat in her driveway next to her own car. It was some sort of huge SUV that she could never imagine driving. She climbed into her car and quickly made her way to work knowing that there was a good chance she would be late today.

--------------------------------------------

Ellie pulled into her driveway after work surprised to see that Alex’s Audi was still in the same place as it had been this morning. She climbed out of her car grabbing her purse keys and empty travel mug and walked into her house.

“You’re home!” Alex shouted from the couch.

She gave him a strange look slipping out of her shoes and setting her purse and keys on the table by the door. “Are you drunk?” she asked setting the travel mug on the breakfast bar and joining Alex on the couch.

“No,” he said frowning at her.

“Good,” she said smiling, “What did you do here all day?” she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know what he’d been up to but she knew that it was going to bother her if she didn’t know.

Alex smirked, “Raided your panty drawer, tried to hack your laptop, decided that daytime TV was shit, raided your DVD collection, ate everything in your refrigerator, and got a friendly visit from the community fire department,” he rattled off his list his smile growing whenever he got a reaction from Ellie.

“What did you really do today?” she asked after she had decided that half of the things he just said were lies or at least they better be.

“I did decide that daytime TV was stupid and I did raid your DVD’s, but I did not do the other stuff no matter how tempting they all were,” he threw a smirk at her, “However I also took the measurements for the two unfurnished rooms so I could help you shop for furniture this weekend,” he said tapping a notepad that Ellie didn’t recognize with numbers and words in what she was surprised to see was very neat handwriting.

Ellie was shocked that he’d taken the time to take the measurements of the rooms. She hadn’t planned on inviting him to go shopping with her whenever she found the time. She was actually thinking of asking Lisa to go with her. How could she deny Alex when he’d done something so nice?

“So we’re going shopping this weekend, huh?” Ellie asked relaxing into the couch looking over at Alex.

“The sooner the better,” he told her nodding, “after all you said you like to personalize them.” His face contorted into what Ellie could only guess was confusion. “How exactly do you personalize furniture?” he asked her.

She laughed at him and took out her phone. She clicked on her Pinterest app and showed him pictures of DIY projects that could transform old furniture into something new. She left him to look through more of the plans that she had made for the two bedrooms while she went to go get herself a drink.

Opening the refrigerator, Ellie found a six pack of Coors light that she knew was not hers. “I see you brought beer,” she called to Alex.

She heard Alex’s chuckle from the living room and decided to grab two, one for her one for Alex. She was popping the tops off when she heard her phone ring and looked over to find Alex answering it.

“Hello?” he answered.

“Alex,” Ellie complained.

But Alex wasn’t paying attention to Ellie he was busy. “Who is this?” Mallory asked the stranger that was answering her sister’s phone.

“I’m Alex, and you must be the little sister that I don’t get to hear anything about despite the fact you seem to be the only family member that Elle has that she actually likes,” Alex rattled out leaning back into the couch.

Ellie snatched her phone out of Alex’s hand and replaced it with one of the beers that she was holding in her other hand, fingers wound tightly around the bottle necks.

“You know for a second there, I thought I was actually going to learn something about you,” Alex commented before taking a sip of his beer.

“No such luck,” she told him before turning her attention to her sister on the phone. “Hey Mallory you’re calling early,” Ellie noted seeing that the time was nearing six thirty.

“Who is Alex?” Mallory asked skipping straight to the point.

She sighed sitting her drink on the coffee table and glancing over at Alex who was still smirking at her.

“I met him at that party I told you about,” she reluctantly told Mallory.

“Ouch,” Alex mock pouted, “You didn’t tell your sister about me?”

“I was trying to avoid you, if you remember correctly,” Ellie told him.

“Tell me about Alex!” Mallory demanded through the phone.

Ellie rolled her eyes, “Can’t, I’m busy, talk to you later!” she told Mallory before hanging up without letting her reply.

Alex gently took the phone from Ellie’s hand and sat it on the couch behind him. “So Elle would you like to tell me about yourself now?” Alex asked his fingers brushing against the soft skin of her arm.

Ellie frowned at him and picked up her drink taking a sip. “Alex when are you going to give that up?” she asked fighting back the goose bumps that threatened to erupt across her skin at the contact.

Alex smiled back, “I’m not going to, silly,” he told her leaning in and kissing her neck.

Ellie leaned back, “Alex,” she complained, “this is going to start getting really complicated if you keep doing that.”

Alex didn’t seem to mind the idea. “What good is life if it doesn’t get a little complicated sometimes?” he asked as Ellie downed the rest of her drink.

“I am really going to regret meeting you, aren’t I?” she asked giving him a cautious look.

Alex laughed but Ellie knew that it was true. She had come to Baltimore to get to be herself. She hadn’t come here for a guy. She didn’t need a man. She needed to be away from her family’s influence. She just wanted to be another nobody in another city for once.