Should you tell a fool that he is stupid. Don't you think it hurts?

 

"Why didn't you want to go?" Cyrus asked Pixie about the wedding shower.

She laughed at him softly and pushed him away before people thought he might be more than a friend. Of course, it was just the three of them at the moment in the pizzeria and Alex looked to be in another world.

"Oh, and let you two run this place, I don't think so." She hugged herself as if she would have nothing to do with a wedding. "Besides, I am not the marrying kind." She nodded trying not to be worried about Alex, but he really looked out of sorts.

"When did that happen?" Cyrus' brow wrinkled with worry.

She only smiled at him, thinking she should elbow him this time. How could she stop his corny jokes?

"I dunno." She shrugged and made a quick look at the tables. She pointed to a couple that it wouldn't hurt for Alex to disinfect again. He hopped to it as if he were her whipping boy.

"I wish you weren't like this," Cyrus told her. 

"Like how?" She assured him she was just fine.

"You should be happy for your boss," he nodded.

"Sure I am." She didn't look at him. 

"You're not as sassy as you think you are." He went to fold another pizza box and she scrunched her nose and made a face at him as if he were the fool. Not her.

Alex came back to the counter. She asked him if he wanted to go home. He shook his head, no. 

"Are you sure..you're not coming down with something?" Pixie was concerned. Usually, he was happy and friendly, but not today.

"It's nothing." But he could barely move his lips.

"What is it?" She wanted to know.

"Well..." his bottom lip just grew fatter with sadness. He sighed. "There's this guy I..I might never see again. I saw him last Saturday in here. Saturday night."

"Are you talking about Eric?" She asked. Of course, she gave a loose description of him being kind of short and really skinny, but she thought he was runner. Usually, he came in after a run.

"When?" Alex's eyes lit up.

"Right after we open."

"Seriously? How do you know him?" Alex looked at her blankly.

"Oh, he's a dancer," she said. "Well, he doesn't dance anymore."

"What kind of dancer?" Alex wanted to know, ever so eagerly.

"What kind of dancer would you like him to be?" Pixie teased, but then she could see this was no time to tease Alex. "Ballet. Modern dance. But you know, not much you can do with that in the midwest. He almost got on as an understudy at the University Ballet but they kind of left him hanging. I think he's still in college though."

"You sure do talk to a lot of people," Cyrus butt in before she could say any more to Alex.

"Me?" She scowled back.

"I bet she has a thousand lonely boyfriends and doesn't even know it." Cyrus walked away to check on the pizza dough.

Oh, Cyrus was hitting a nerve all right. She clenched her fist ready for a fight. Where was he coming up with all this talk?

She left the register and walked toward the end of the kitchen where Cyrus was doing his inspection. Cyrus turned to her ever so debonaire as if they might be ready for their own ballet debut.