• 1-Struggle For Control
• 2-A fateful accident?
• 3-I Knew You Looked Familiar
• 4-Can I see you again?
• 5-Late Night Conversation
• 6-When did this turn into seeing someone?
• 7-Paranoid, boy?
• 8-Awkwardness and Honesty
• 9-We'll Take It Slow
• 10-I Want...
• 11-You cook?
• 12-Writer's Block?
• 13-Hotel Rainey
• 14-That's Never Real
• 15-Alex Isn't Amy
• 16-I Love Him
• 17-I Think You Know Now
• 18-I'm Ready
• 19-Just Don't Change
• 20-I Just Need Time
• 21-You did what?
• 22-The Dream
• 23-Shooter Returns
• 24-I Missed You
• 25-Playing Hooky
• 26-The Story of John Shooter
• 27-He'll Be Fine
• 28-Therapy
• 29-You Never Have to Ask
• 30-Don't Leave
• 31-Missing a D1
• 32-Shooter and Alex
• 33-Are you O.K.?
• 34-Appointments
• 35-Lovesick Reasoning
• 36-Changes
• 37-I Won't Run Away
• 38-The Truth Comes Out
• 39-Sacrifice
• 40-Past and Present

Mort felt a bit embarrd abd about the state of his
bedroom, but opened the door anyway.
“Remember the mess I warned you about?”

Alex smiled.
“Don’t worry about it.”

Mort’s bedroom was, indeed, quite disheveled, but it
wasn’t as if it were filthy. An unmade
queen sized bed was pushed up against the wall on left side of the room. There were several pillows of different
sizes scattered about it. The sheets
were a plaid, flannel material and the comforter was a deep, forest green. Mort tried to shove some clothes out of
sight with his foot, but failed.

“Believe me, it’s fine, Mort.” Alex began to straighten out the covers and found a tattered,
striped bathrobe between the sheets.
“Comfy?” she asked.

Mort’s face reddened.
“I’m really not a, um, unkempt person,” he said nervously.

“I have a few security blankets of my own,” Alex
confessed. Mort was glad that she
understood. He watched as Alex arranged
the pillows to form a makeshift crib./spa/span>“You can put her down.”

Carefully, Mort placed Julia on her back – she never so
much as stirred. “Out cold?”

“Oh yeah. She’s
out for the night.” Alex pulled a pink
blanket out of the diaper bag and covered her daughter. “We’ll hear her if she wakes up.” They left the room.

Alex sat on the couch and Mort placed himself on the
other end. “I’m really glad that you
came,” he said nervously.

“You already said that,” Alex said, once again blushing.

“Well, I really mean it.
I don’t have many people over.”

“Why not?”

“I’m used to being by myself, I guess.”

Alex looked slightly pitying. “It has to get lonely.”

Mort settled himself into the couch a bit more before
answering her. “It does…at times. I used to have a dog for company, but he ran
off some time ago. I guess I never
really was all that social – seems stereotypical doesn’t it?”

Not wanting to jump to conclusions, Alex said, “What do
you mean?”

“It just seems that writer’s have to be loners. I mean, it’s assumed that so much is going
on inside their head that…” His voice
trailed.

“Well, one’s mind certainly isn’t enough company. It’s fine for a child to have an imaginary
friend and all, but ‘grown ups’ need a bit more, um, sustenance.”

Mort smiled.
“Your adult vocabulary has returned.”

“Yeah, that tends to happen after Julia’s asleep.” She looked down into her lap for a moment,
her voice becoming softer. “Mort?”

He thought for a moment.
“Well…the last story I had published was an updated version of ‘Secret
Window’ – that was almost two years ago.”

“And you’ve written nothing since?” Alex found that rather hard to believe.

“Nothing that I’ve been satisfied with. I tried a few times, but then I decided to
move, to give myself a break. To be honest,
I haven’t opened my laptop since I moved in here.”

“Nothing sparking your mind?”

Mort laughed.
“Every time I look at something my mind sparks some line or another,
Alex. I just need to live outside my
mind for a while. Adjusting to that
wasn’t going very well for a while.”

“No?”

He shook his head and smiled at her. “I’m getting used to it now though. I’ve missed the world outside of deadlines
and solitude, publishers and fiction.
What good is it to write about a beautiful woman if you can’t see one in
front of you? If you can’t smell her
perfume or hear her laugh?”

Alex felt her face grow terribly warm. Something he’s written before…or a
compliment? Hell, does it really
matter? “And how’s that ‘world
outside your mind’ going now?”

“Much better than I thought it would.” He moved a bit closer to Alex. “I never realihow how much I missed having a
conversation with someone.”

Alex furrowed her eyebrows. “You can’t tell me that you haven’t talked with anyone in so
long.”

“No, I’m not a total hermit,” he said, taking Alex’s
hand. “Meaningless conversations come
and go – even with myself – but to just sit with someone and talk about more
than the weather or…” Gently, he lifted
her hand to his lips, kissed it, and then lowered it. “…it’s nice.”

Impressive…

Alex found herself moving so that she was right next to
Mort. “If I told you that I felt like I
was in high school again, would you laugh?”

“No. I understand
what you’re feeling. I still mean it
though, we won’t rush innythnything.”

Alex sighed.
“Good. Wait, I mean…I didn’t
mean for…”

“Shh. You don’t
need to get nervous again.”

Alex pulled slightly away from Mort. “Nervous?”

“Your voice shakes.”

“It does?”

Mort smiled.
“Just a little – I bet nobody else ever notices. Details just happen to be something that I
tend to pick up on.”