Paradise Found

Cameron felt sick. He had blown it, and Alex had left. After drinking a couple glasses of wine to settle his nerves, he decided to hide in his cottage and pretend the rest of the world didn’t even exist. He had plugged his phone into the charger and crawled into bed.

He woke a couple hours later, still feeling like shit. His stomach rumbled, but he didn’t feel like eating anything. After going to the bathroom, he wandered into the kitchen to get a beer. Checking his phone on the way there, he noticed that he had voice mail. Most likely it was his Mom, or Braden calling to give him a hard time. He wasn’t really in the mood to talk to either of them, but figured he should check the message in case it was anything important.

The first message was from his Mom, as he suspected. She was worried about him and was just checking in. He smiled a half-hearted smile. She really did worry about him too much. The next message was from his publisher, checking on the status of his newest article. He had gotten quite a lot done on it, so no problems there. He would call him back later. The voice on the third message made freeze in place.

Alex.

“Cameron, if you get this and want to talk, please call me back, or come to my cottage. We need to talk. I realize I was awfully hard on you, and there has to be some room for compromise here. I love you too much to turn my back on what we have. Please, call me. If I don’t hear from you by this afternoon, I’ll assume you don’t want to talk to me. If that’s the case, I’ll go home and leave you alone. I’m packed and ready to leave, but I’m praying I don’t have to. Please, Cameron, call me.”

Shit.

The message was from early this morning, when his phone had been dead. He never got the message until just now. And Alex was gone.

Damn! Alex had to think that he didn’t want to talk to him, when nothing could be further from the truth. He listened to the rest of his voice mail, including two more calls from Alex, pleading with him to call. No wonder he had left. Alex had to assume that Cameron was ignoring him.

God, what a mess. He had to fix this! There had to be something they could do. The first thing he needed to do was call Alex. He had to explain why he hadn’t called him back. He had to tell him that he loved him, and that he wanted to make this work, somehow. Just how to do that, he wasn’t sure, but swore he’d figure something out. He had never felt about anyone the way he felt about Alex.

With shaking fingers, he dialed Alex’s number and held his breath. It rang several times and, just as Cameron thought it was going to go to voice mail, a sleepy voice answered.

“Hello?”

Cameron’s heart rate sped up considerably. “Alex…it’s me.”

Alex thought surely he was dreaming. He had fallen asleep and was not entirely awake yet. “Cameron?”

“Yeah” Cameron said quietly. “Alex, about earlier…”

“It’s okay, Cameron” Alex interrupted. “You didn’t have to call me if you didn’t want to. I figured you just didn’t want to talk to me after the way I acted.”

“No!” Cameron exclaimed. “Alex, my phone was dead. I didn’t get your messages until late this afternoon, and you were already gone! I’m so sorry. I came looking for you, but you were gone!”

Alex tried not to sound hopeful, but couldn’t quite keep it out of his voice. “So, you really did want to talk to me?”

Cameron laughed softly. “Yes, of course I did.” He sighed. “I love you, Alex. I miss you.”

“I miss you, too. I’m sorry our signals got crossed. I really thought you didn’t want to talk to me or see me. You can’t imagine how awful I felt!”

“Oh, I think I can” Cameron said quietly. “About as awful as I felt after I saw that you had left.” He paused. “So, where are you now, Alex?”

“I’m home, in Los Angeles. I got here a couple hours ago.”

Cameron sighed. “Well, I’m obviously still here. I’m not supposed to leave for a couple days, but I’m going to see if I can book an earlier flight. I don’t’ really want to be here now, since you’re gone.” He spoke softly. “I need to see you, Alex. We need to talk. I want to.”

“That’s fine, Cameron. But even if you come home early, you’ll be in San Diego and I’ll still be here. What about that? We’re still a couple hours apart.”

Cameron thought for a moment. “Well, I’ve almost finished the article I’m working on, and I don’t have any more deadlines at the moment. What if I go home, get things taken care of there, and then come and see you? I can drive to LA and visit if you would have me.”

“You’d really do that? You’d come here?” Alex felt flushed with excitement at the thought of seeing Cameron again. “I would love that.”

“Great. Let me finish up my article here. I think I should be finished tonight. I’ll call and see what flights are available. Perhaps I can leave tomorrow, and then come and see you the day after that. I’ll certainly try. Does that sound okay to you?”

Alexander couldn’t keep the smile out of his voice. “That is more than okay with me. I miss you terribly, Cameron.”

Cameron caught himself grinning. “Let me get to work and check on flights. I’ll call you later tonight before bed, okay?”

“Sure, Cameron. That sounds good. I’ll let you go for now, and I’ll be expecting your call later.” He spoke softly. “I love you, Cameron Ross. Don’t you forget it.”

Cameron smiled into the phone. “And I love you, Alexander Norrington! And don’t you forget it, either! Now, let me get off here and get busy. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, babe. Bye for now.”

“Bye, Alex.”

Cameron hung up the phone, his day suddenly much better than it was earlier. Maybe this would work.