“Come on in, Kade,” she called, and I opened her door to find her sitting on her bed, a novel open face-down on the covers. “Nice change of clothes.”
“Thanks,” I replied. “Uhm, I suppose you’d like to talk about Rita?”
“Another time, actually,” Alix said, giving me a smile. “Kade, I don’t understand it all, and maybe there will come a time that I might. But for now, let’s just say that it confirmed quite blatantly something you and I joked about yesterday. You are most certainly not gay.”
I grinned in relief. Maybe I could get out of this without being embarrassed too much after all. “Yeah, but after yesterday, I thought you might have questions.”
“Oh, I do,” Alix said, picking up her novel and putting it on her bedside table before getting up. “Like how you and I are going to enjoy spending a little time together this evening. I was kind of thinking that maybe we could forget about what happened and have some fun. Before our little incident yesterday, I was having the best time with you that I’d ever had.”
Her words were like cool water to a parched man, and I grinned. “How about we just stay in tonight? As much as going back down to the ocean would be nice, I’d feel more secure just hanging out here. Would you happen to know if there are any Indian delivery places around here? I’m still looking for naan bread and some butter chicken curry.”
Alix laughed and came over. “I don’t know, but I’ll find out. Give me a few minutes to find the yellow pages, if they still have one around here.”
For the rest of the night, I felt like I was in Wonderland. When we found the yellow pages, she used her greater knowledge of the area to help me pick out the closest restaurant, while still giving me the choice on foods. As we waited for the delivery, we sat outside on the back patio, enjoying the late reddish purple of the sunset.
“Alix,” I asked as we sat, “why didn’t you ever go to college?”
“I haven’t yet,” Alix said, “mainly because I knew I had to devote my time to my modeling career. Now that I’m three years removed from high school, though, I guess the idea of going back scares me a little. I wasn’t the student you were from what I remember, and besides, I’ve really gotten a lot of personal education just through my experiences.”
“Still,” I replied, “I’m just saying that you have all the smarts needed to get through college. Honestly the biggest challenge is just working hard. If you can get through what modeling has put you through, college isn’t any more difficult. Maybe a different type of difficult if you want to think about it.”
Alix smiled and looked over at me. “Maybe I could, but I know I couldn’t do it down here in Los Angeles. Way too many people who know me, I’d feel too out of place. When the time’s right, maybe I could go to school up in Oregon. Do you know any universities I could go to?”
“Lots,” I laughed. “Besides OU and OSU, there’s a pretty decent university just half a mile from my place, Portland State. It’s small, and it won’t be winning any NCAA titles in anything, but it’s a good school. They’ve got lots you could study there, and Portland is a super relaxed sort of place. You serious about it?”
“On one condition,” Alix said. “I’d need your help. I’m not saying we have to be roomies or anything, but it’d be nice to be close to someone I know. What do you say?”
I knew my answer even before the words left my mouth. “When you’re ready to retire from modeling, I’ll be there for you.”
The food arrived, and we shared our meal out on the back porch, just enjoying the sounds of what little nature still lived in the Los Angeles area. “This is delicious,” I commented, dipping my naan into my bowl of curry. “How about yours?”
“It’s good,” Alix replied. “I think I like the curry from this place better, but the bread is far superior where I would have wanted to go yesterday.”
“We’ll have to try it another time,” I replied. “Listen, Alix, are you serious about coming to Portland, or are you just jerking my chain?”
Alix shook her head. “I’m not saying I’m packing up and leaving tomorrow. But yeah, when I’m done with modeling I want to get out of Los Angeles. Portland sounds perfect, at least from what Derek says about it. I regret to say I’ve never gotten up there. Been to a dozen different states on shoots and modeling jobs, and five different countries, but not Oregon. It’s pretty far from the centers of the fashion and modeling world, which sounds like just what I’d want.”