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Sonny leaned back in his chair as he spoke on the telephone.
"Yeah, Benny, 20 minutes. I'll be here."
With that, Sonny hung up and let his eyes roam around his office at the coffee warehouse. He couldn't believe that after
spending seven hours in lockup at the PCPD he was here in his windowless office. In fact, the only thing more unbelievable
to him than that was that he was smiling.
She had come. He had pushed his luck and she had come, and when he saw her march into the PCPD to "save him"
Sonny felt something in him click into place that hadn't been there since Alexis had walked away from him that last night
in the corrider of the Harbor View Towers. She was wearing yellow that night. He remembered. Mostly he remembered the feeling
that a door had just slammed shut on him. He'd wanted to reach out and stop it, but he hadn't.
It hadn't taken long for Sonny to realize his mistake. Yes, he'd been angry when she helped Jax instead of him, but that
wasn't what made him realize it. It wasn't even Jason's discovery that Alexis was pregnant and his resulting though short-lived
suspicions that the child was his. No, what had made him realize how much he missed Alexis was, it turned out, Kristina.
When she'd come over and let loose on him, ranting about how he had broken Alexis' heart, Sonny had shut her down and
dismissed her. Kristina had a tendency to overstate what she thought she knew, and just as Sonny figured she had mistaken
Alexis' "love" for him as being "in love" with him, he figured Kristina was mistaking Alexis being upset
with him with her having been heartbroken.
But it got him to thinking about the fact that Alexis was upset with him, and instead of doing what she'd always done,
which was get in his face about it, she had simply packed up shop and walked away. Yes, he had let her, but still, he couldn't
get over the fact that she had done it. The more he thought about it, the more Sonny realized that he missed her. He missed
talking to her. He missed trying to follow her thoughts. He missed impressing her with his business acumen and he missed
being impressed by her brilliance. He just plain missed his best friend.
He had not gotten arrested on purpose, that had just been fate handing him the opportunity to see just how bad things
were between them. He still couldn't believe that Carly had seriously served him with a restraining order let alone actually
had it enforced. He should really be furious, especially because the incident had given Taggart so much damn pleasure.
But it had also given him his opportunity. He had called....and she had come.
*************************
Johnny was just returning from Doh-Nut Heaven with Sonny's rather odd breakfast request -- the boss rarely ate doughnuts
-- when he saw the black BMW convertible pull into the parking lot near the warehouse. He couldn't actually see the driver,
but he knew who it was. As she did in all things, Ms. Davis drove with a certain style all her own.
He stopped short of walking into the warehouse and waited for her. Johnny figured things were back to normal now. He
knew that Ms. Davis had gone to the stationhouse to get Sonny released, so that meant she was his lawyer again, right? Johnny
smiled as the lady lawyer approached and he opened the door for her.
"He's here?"
Johnny almost froze at her tone. Uh-oh. Sonny was in trouble. Johnny had heard that tone enough times to know it, and
he wanted no part of it. Rather than risk drawing any of her wrath, he simply nodded. Alexis was just about to step inside
when she noticed the bag in the bodyguard's free hand.
"For him?"
Again Johnny nodded. Alexis snapped the bag out of his hand and walked inside. Johnny simply closed the door and took
up a post outside. No one could pay him or threaten him enough to make him go back in that warehouse right now.
*************************
Sonny looked up as the door opened, expecting it to be Johnny with his breakfast. He couldn't believe he'd sent his bodyguard
out for doughnuts, but damn it if he didn't want them today. They reminded him of the good part of his childhood, the days
when something had gone right and his mother would treat him to one of the warm, hot sweets as an 'atta boy. He felt like
his efforts today were certainly worth the same sort of celebration.
But instead of Johnny standing in his doorway, he saw Alexis. She looked incredible. Glowing and beautiful like the
expectant mother she was, but she was also revved up and ready to pounce. She was pissed, pissed at him, and Sonny couldn't
have been happier.
Alexis looked at him, at that sense of smug victory she could read so easily on his face, and her blood boiled. Damn
him, damn him, damn him, she thought, quickly adding, sorry, little one, but you just don't know what your father does to
me. And he was doing it. She was furious with him, but despite that, she couldn't stop looking at him. Damn him for that,
too, she thought.
Anxious to distract herself, Alexis opened the white bag she held in her hands. Inside she saw an assortment of at least
six different doughnuts. Smiling, she reached into the bag and pulled out a chocolate cake sweet. Then she brought her eyes
even with Sonny's.
"Help yourself, counselor, you certainly earned it."
Alexis had known he'd provoke her. He was just too predictable when he felt like he'd won. That he HAD won was irrelevant
to her right now, she just wanted to vent, and she was going to.
"You are the most arrogant..."
Taking aim, Alexis drew back her arm and then threw, releasing the chocolate doughnut as it headed through the air and
straight at Sonny's head to punctuate her adjectives.
"...self-centered..."
A step forward. An old-fashioned glazed followed the chocolate cake.
"...insensitive...."
A step forward. Crumb.
"...manipulative..."
Another step. Cake with sprinkles.
"...selfish..."
Another step. Powdered.
"...infuriating man I have ever known!"
Alexis was standing to the side of his desk now, just a foot or so from where he sat. Sonny knew that he should start
apologizing, knew that he should beg her forgiveness and explain the real reasons he had called her. But he didn't. He couldn't.
That wasn't him, and it wasn't her. It wasn't Sonny and Alexis to make it that simple. So instead, he let the grin he was
fighting break out on his face as he said, "But I wanted a jelly doughnut."
The comment alone was enough to make Alexis want to smack him, but her hand still hurt from slapping Ned, so she was trying
to think of another revenge as she saw first one then the other notorious "Corinthos' Dimples" rise to the surface.
That was it. She looked into the bag and saw that the doughnut that remained was, in fact, a jelly doughnut. Carefully,
with Sonny's full attention fixed on what she was doing, Alexis pulled the doughnut free and dropped the paper bag on the
floor.
Sonny could read the mischief in her eyes, and it made his smile bigger. He was asking for it, big time, but he didn't
care. He had missed this more than he could say. And for now, for this moment, she was back. And she was moving closer.
Alexis was moving in for the kill, and as Sonny raised his hands to shield his face from what he thought was coming, Alexis
faked him out and brought the doughnut above his head. One furious squeeze of her hand later, Sonny had raspberry jelly dripping
down from the top of his head onto his face.
Satisfied with her work, Alexis tossed the now hollow doughnut onto the desk in front of her nemesis. She leaned forward,
putting her face closer to his so she could make her point. That the dimples were still in full force simply made her want
to scream. God, but this man was beyond infuriating. He was insufferable.
"Now, I don't now what part of 'I'm not your attorney anymore' you didn't get, but here we go again. I quit, over,
end of story, resigned, get it? I will not negotiate contracts for you, I will not help you and Jason with any more last
minute favors, I will not come down to bail you out every time you give Taggart reason to arrest you and I will not be dragged
back into the continuing yet horrifying soap opera that is your life with Carly. Are we clear?"
She paused a moment, and Sonny was about to make a comment when Alexis cut him off.
"And if you tell me to breathe, so help me God, Johnny's going to find you dead in this room because I will pick
up the biggest, heaviest thing I can find and smack you upside the head with it!"
Sonny fought hard not to laugh as his eyes stayed fixed on her face. Oh, yes, had missed this. He knew he was one of
the only people who could get Alexis this riled up, and it just proved that his gamble hadn't been such a gamble after all.
They couldn't let go of each other no matter what had happened. The angry words, the hurt feelings, they were just part of
the dance....and the dance continued.
"I am a pregnant woman! I am not supposed to be upset or stressed and trust me, coming to the PCPD to bail you out
and hear 'I told you so' from Taggart and listen to Carly rant and rave at me is not what I'd consider a low-stress environment.
So get this through your head, Corinthos, we are done. Don't call me anymore because I am through saving your sorry butt."
It was as she was summing up and getting ready to make her dramatic exit that Alexis realized that Sonny had not once
stopped looking at her through her entire rant. She suddenly felt uncomfortable, just as she had that morning in his bed...oh,
God, she thought, don't go there. Don't go there.
"What are you staring at?" She asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.
Sonny knew he was about to win the match. She had given him the perfect opening. But it was only the first of many more
to come. He knew it now. He had bet the farm, but he had beaten the house.
"Your mouth. What shade of red lipstick is that? Red Wine, I bet."
The look on her face was worth all of it. Her mouth dropped open half in disgust and half in shock. She couldn't believe
he'd said it, and yet, Sonny knew, she could believe it. He watched as she shook her head and turned, walking out of his
office. She slammed the door behind her as he went.
*************************
Johnny could hear the echo of Ms. Davis' heels moving toward the door, so he stepped aside, opening the door as he went.
She flew past him, her fury carrying her like the wind to her car. Wow, she had told him off and she was still pissed.
Johnny hadn't seen her that angry in a long time.
Figuring he better go check on his boss, Johnny started down the hall. He was still four feet from the office door when
he heard the unmistakable, though rarely heard sound of Sonny Corinthos howling with laughter.
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