Note: Dragon, you left me two LOVELY reviews but I can't send you a message back in thanks. So I'm dedicating this chapter to you & hoping you decide to come back for a re-read sometime. :)

CHAPTER 7

How had Alice talked him into this? Thanksgiving dinner with her mum? Oh, right. Because he couldn't say no to Alice.

"You must be David!"

You must be the mother. Carol.

He saw past her to Alice setting the table.

"It's so nice to meet you," Carol said. "Alice talks about you often."

Does she? In what context?

He gave Carol the dish he'd made and a bottle of red wine and was told to make himself at home.

Alice came over and looked pointedly at his head. She dropped her voice. "'I don't always wear a hat, you know,'" she said playfully.

"Is that supposed to be me?"

She gave him a coy smile and shrugged.

"Sod off." He took off his hat.

She guided him to the living room and introduced him to two of her family members. "This is my Gramma, and this is my Aunt Diane."

He nodded a hello, and Alice's aunt gave him a "pleased to meet you."

Alice's grandmother mistook him for Jack.

"No, Gramma, this isn't Jack. This is… David. We work together."

He'd never heard her say David. It made his ears warm.

"At that bar?" the aunt asked.

"Yeah," Alice answered for him. "He's our bartender."

He and Alice took a seat on the couch. He liked that she sat with him. Her aunt asked if he enjoyed his job at Wonderland.

Pouring alcohol for strangers — sure. Working for the Hearts? NO.

"Moderately." His response earned him one of Alice's elbows in his side.

"Don't mind him, Aunt Di. He's surly with new people."

She'd never let him live that down, would she?

Alice's mum offered him a glass of wine and complimented the dish he brought. After the wine, his nerves settled and he decided to just enjoy an evening of Alice's company with no work obligations and more importantly, no Jack.

Alice was more relaxed at home. Not that she was always tense at work… More like always on task.

Her family obviously meant a lot to her. Though she was visibly mortified that her grandmother kept mistaking him for the boyfriend. Hatter thought it was ten times more fun to not correct the woman.

"Gramma's not... No matter how many times we tell her, she's still going to think you're my boyfriend. Is that okay?"

More than okay.

Being the not-boyfriend meant he got to sit next to Alice and hear a few stories of her as a girl.

"So no to plants, but yes to cats," he noted to her. She kicked him lightly under the table.

After dinner, Hatter offered to help Carol clean up. Alice was deep in conversation with her cousin, and he didn't want to have to make small talk with the aunts or grandmother. Drying dishes with Alice's mother was a soothing alternative.

If Carol wasn't showing him where something went, she asked him questions, like when had he learned to cook?

"Ah, when I was a teenager." He could let it go at that, but he liked Alice's mother. He decided to elaborate and braced himself for the pity that always followed.

"That's when mum passed. So..."

Carol was putting a large pan into the sink and she halted, resting it against the counter.

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that."

She didn't linger on the moment, and for that he was grateful. She put the pan under the running water and said "I tried to teach Alice when she was about 12. A few years after her father left. I had to take second shift, and I wanted her to be able make herself a real dinner."

Carol handed him the pan.

"She didn't want to learn, though. I thought it was a pre-teen battle of wills, but now I wonder if it was just another way she didn't want to accept what had happened. And if Alice doesn't like doing something–"

"She doesn't do it," he finished for her.

Carol smiled at him appraisingly. "I see you know Alice."

CHAPTER 8

His friends made it before final call. After a round of good to see you, Ben wanted to know immediately: "Where's the girl?"

"What girl?" Hatter asked.

"The one you went to her place for Thanksgiving," Ben answered.

"Ah, Alice."

"He thinks you have a girlfriend and haven't told us," Matt explained.

"It's not like that," Hatter told them. "We're just friends."

"Because you've had so many of those. Female just friends over the years," Ben pointed out.

"Perhaps I have turned over a new leaf."

"We'll see. Is she here?"

Hatter sighed. Then he pointed across the bar. Ben and Matt swiveled to stare. Alice looked up and waved.

"Pretty," Matt commented.

"New leaf indeed," Ben said.

He thought they'd make it out of the bar without having to introduce them to her. To no avail.

"Ah, so this is your Alice!"

Ben, no.

But Alice took it in stride.

"You must be his friends. I was starting to think he didn't have any!"

He objected to that. As if Alice ever went anywhere but work, either.

His blood pressure spiked when Ben invited Alice to come with them. He'd never make it through an entire evening of monitoring his friend's big mouth.

But Matt helped him usher Ben out the door before too much damage could be done. Of course, it meant not saying goodbye to Alice before his trip.

He told his friends to head on to the subway entrance and that he'd catch up.

He stepped back inside. "Hey, Alice!" She turned.

"Have a nice Christmas," he said.

"Yeah, you, too! And a safe flight." She closed her eyes for a second and amended. "Flights."

He thanked her for the fingerless gloves and her whole face lit up.

"I knew it! I knew you couldn't wait!"

She looked so… happy.

If he wasn't going to see her for two weeks, that face was a good one to end on.

Three drinks in and he was telling them far more than he'd meant to. About Alice.

"I think I am in love with her."

"Really? That is interesting," Ben said.

And he tried to tell them about figuring it out, but he wasn't good at explaining things like this.

"I'm sorry," Ben said. "Try again. You were saying your heart is like a… hankie?"

"Yes!" He answered. "I mean no. Not exactly."

"Yes, it's all very clear," Matt said.

Hatter took a breath and started over.

"I got to her place, and I'm dressed like me, right? I have this purple handkerchief–"

"Sounds very manly," Ben noted.

"Sod off. It was cool looking," he countered. "She was dressed in this cream-colored thing, hair up all ballerina-style." He did a twisting motion near his head. "And she took my handkerchief and went off, and when she came back, she's in a totally different dress. Her makeup was different, her hair was different… she said it was 'branding' but what it was was she changed so we'd match. And then my 'kerchief didn't look like mine anymore. It looked like I was the one that matched her."

"Ah. I see. Well, I see what you mean about the outfits, but not the other thing."

"It's like she's done the same thing to my heart. Plucked it out of my chest and then gave it back, yeah, but like it's not mine anymore."

"Oh," Ben sat back and then forward again, for emphasis. "You are in love, aren't you?"

"I am a bit miserable is what I am. Because she's with Jack. And I think she should be with me."

CHAPTER 9

Hatter had sixteen days to think about how he could get Alice alone. How do you orchestrate moments with the girl you like when she has a boyfriend and the only time you see her is at work?

Being in England for Christmas got him thinking about his childhood and he remembered something his mother did every year. That was it; he knew just the thing.

On New Year's Eve, Alice had on a sparkly dark dress. His chest constricted as soon as he saw her. She was wearing her hair like she did the night they went to the art opening.

She was going over a guest list with Duchess when he came up and told her he needed to steal her away for a bit.

"How long will it take?" she asked, apprehensive.

"Five minutes. Ten at the absolute most."

She nodded. "All right. Come find me later."

He waited until it was nearly midnight.

He wouldn't tell her why she needed her coat or what was on the roof. He wanted to see how much she'd let him get away with. How much did she trust him?

"Hatter, it's freezing up here!" She pulled her coat tightly around her.

He pulled her out of the elevator by her sleeve. "We won't be long." He smiled at her. "You owe me a holiday indulgence after you made me eat that mushy piece of pumpkin-"

"It's tradition!"

"So's this. In my family anyway."

Alice fell silent. While he explained that his mum always got him sparklers for New Year's, he made a show of pulling them and a lighter out of his jacket.

"Ta-da."

When he looked to her face, he saw that he had her gaze.

"When's your birthday?" she asked.

"February 13. Have you not memorized all of your employees' data?"

"No." Her teeth began to chatter. "Should yours have a note about a tendency to play with fire?"

He laughed and lit the sparkler. But when he tried to hand it to her, Alice narrowed her eyes.

She wouldn't take it.

"I wouldn't let you do it if you wouldn't be okay," he promised. Only then would she accept it. But she still held it as far from her body as possible, stock still.

This was not going as planned.

"You're supposed to draw with it," he explained.

"What?"

He came to stand behind her and reached around to cover her right hand with his. When he moved her arm and sparks fell, she pulled her left arm back in alarm. He just laughed and covered that one, too. And she relaxed into him.

This was going so much better than planned.

He drew her name, the year and a smiley face before it fizzled out.

"Do you have another one?" she asked, her voice lower than he'd ever heard it.

Yes. Talk to me like that.

"Alice!"

Fuck. Jack.

At least Alice seemed disappointed to be leaving with her boyfriend.

Later that night, he wondered if she was having a good time at Jack's party.

That was the problem. He was always thinking of her. He sent her a text.

"Happy New Year, Alice."

CHAPTER 10

He barely saw Alice at all in January. He started coming in before his shift even began in the hopes of catching her and Charlie still at work. If she was, he'd bring her a cup of coffee (for the excuse to come over and chat a minute) or change the radio to the station she liked (for the way she'd look up and find him to smile).

But at the beginning of February, Kathy called and told him not to come in one night.

"I need you there on Saturday for a workshop. Some new craft beer we'll be carrying. So take tonight off," his boss instructed. After what seemed like a deliberate pause, she added that Alice wouldn't be at work that night, either. "She has strep, and we certainly don't want that spreading around. She'll be at home alone tonight."

Right, because Jack's in Vegas, checking on the casino.

After he got off the phone with Kathy, he remembered Alice saying her mom was visiting one of her sisters.

So she really is alone.

Hatter didn't like the idea of Alice spending the night all alone if she was sick. But if he texted her and asked if she needed anything, he knew she would say no.

Of course… who turns down soup when they're sick? He went to peruse his freezer.

In the several moments between him knocking on the door and Alice opening it, Hatter began to wonder if she would be angry with him showing up unannounced.

And then he laid eyes on her.

She was wearing a bathrobe, and her hair was pulled half-heartedly into a ponytail. She didn't have on any makeup, but despite the bluish circles under her eyes, she still looked happy to see him.

"Well, don't you look ravishing."

Alice pursed her lips but gestured for him to come in. She went over to a desk and opened a drawer — ah, a notepad. It must hurt to talk. She wrote something and held it up for him.

"Why aren't you at work?"

"Kathy wants me to work some sort of odd shift this weekend, so she told me to take tonight off."

Another question.

"Why are you here?"

Because I want to be where you are. Because…

"I came by to make sure you were okay." He cleared his throat. "I know Jack's gone and you said your mom was out of town this week, yeah?"

She nodded and pointed at the bag he was carrying.

"Ah. Soup." He walked past her to the kitchen and started placing things on the counter. He didn't think Carol would mind; he had sweat equity.

She came over to stand next to him and bumped her shoulder into his. He busied his hands to keep from putting an arm around her.

"If you don't feel like eating, I get it. But I thought-"

Alice popped a lid off one of the containers and sniffed. She looked up at him with those big blue eyes.

"Yeah, I made it. Not fresh, though. You have to boil a chicken for the stock and that takes time. This was frozen, so we need to heat it up."

She opened a cabinet door to reveal pots and pans and then wrote a note. She slid it over to him hesitantly.

"I might be contagious."

He looked at her. She was giving him a reason not to stay. As if he'd leave without her telling him to.

"Then I won't kiss you."

Did I really just say that?

"Or use your toothbrush."

Hatter could tell that it boosted her morale to have company. And also that it drove her crazy to not be able to talk. He saw many eye-rolls and hand gestures while they watched television.

He held up her notepad a few times, but she waved it off. As if the things she wanted to say were too fleeting to bother with writing down.

On their third episode of a cop show that had an insufferable protagonist, Hatter began to point out the most asinine aspects of each scene. If he managed to say what Alice was thinking, she would reach over and squeeze his shoulder. He found a lot of things to say.

But then they swapped to a drug show, and they both became so engrossed in the story that he quit with the commentary. At one point, he did want to say something to her and he realized she had fallen asleep.

As it got later and Alice didn't stir, he thought she probably shouldn't turn in for the night curled up on the couch.

"Hey, Alice," he said quietly, nudging her arm. "Is there some sort of medicine you're supposed to take before you go to sleep?"

She sat up and looked over at the wall clock. She nodded and got up.

He heard the water run as she brushed her teeth. Unless she wanted him to leave, he was going to stay on her couch the whole night.

He got distracted clicking through to see which British TV shows he could catch up on. Then Alice was behind him, holding the notepad over his shoulder. She'd written "Junkie."

He laughed but didn't look back at her. "If I kept the volume low, would you mind-"

And then Alice was in his ear, and his eyes closed on their own when he felt her breath.

"Stay as long as you like."

Forever. Though that's probably asking a bit much. We'll start with the night.

When Hatter woke up the next morning, he could hear that Alice was taking a shower. If he was still there when she came out, he was 100% certain he would say something he'd regret.

So he used her notepad to leave a sorry-I-crashed-here-without-asking message and slipped out. He'd see her later at work anyway.

CHAPTER 11

But at work, she avoided him. Pleasantly. She was pleasantly and consistently not talking to him, not stopping by the bar and barely looking at him. If he sent her a text, she would answer it… eventually. And briefly.

So instead, he texted Ben and Matt and told them he had managed to fuck things up. They could advise him when they arrived for his birthday.

When Charlie stopped by the bar, Hatter told him Alice must have figured out that he had a thing for her.

"And?" Charlie asked.

"And so now she avoids me."

"Oh. I thought… I guess I thought wrong." Charlie gave him a kind smile. "She lights up when you're around. I assumed."

He fiddled with his hat. "Yeah, I sort of hoped myself."

"Sometimes people miss what's under their very nose," Charlie offered.

"If she wasn't so fixated on Jack..."

Charlie said "speak of the devil" and Hatter turned to see Jack on his way to the bar.

"Better go see what his highness wants."

He was on his third shot when Alice arrived at Wonderland. She waved at him from across the room. He nodded at her.

She had on the blue dress. Because the first time he'd seen her in it was after he asked if she was going to start wearing blue dresses to work, every time she wore it felt like a secret joke between the two of them.

But she'd also said it was her favorite dress. "It has pockets!" had been her reasoning when he asked why.

The blue dress wasn't for him.

Alice wasn't for him.

Alice was holding a rose and following Jack up the stairs.

Hatter didn't even consider pouring a fourth shot. He just took the whole bottle and went somewhere he couldn't see them.

The clockwork wasn't ticking properly.

"This way. Right you go." What was Charlie talking about?

Alice. Alice was going to marry Jack.

Lights. The lights were moving. The whole… room? Was moving. Until there were stairs. And then it was soft.

Nope, the room was still moving, even though it was soft. Open your eyes, it's better if you keep your eyes open.

Alice.

Alice was there. Well, probably not. Where was there?

He put his hand out to see if she was real. Could be. Didn't matter. "Please don't leave," he asked her.

"You are going to vomit, aren't you? And you don't want to clean it up by yourself."

Alice. Always saying something he didn't expect. Alice. He didn't expect her.

"I love you," he laughed.

And then, spinning or not, the soft room-thing won.

CHAPTER 12

It was dark the first time Hatter woke up. He was home. How did he get home? Charlie? Charlie might have taken him home.

His head throbbed when he moved. There was aspirin and a glass of water by his bed. He forced himself to take both and went back to sleep.

The next time he woke, it was daylight. He stumbled on his way to the bathroom. Still somewhat drunk.

On his way out, his bare foot connected with something sharp and it slid across the floor.

"What the fuck?"

He looked down. Boots. Alice's boots. He blinked. Why were… That would mean...

"Alice?"

She mumbled from the sofa. "You're noisy first thing in the morning."

He moved slowly, and came to sit across from her on the coffee table. "Why are you on my couch?"

She sat up. "You asked me to stay."

He sat a little straighter. "Did I?"

"Yeah. You never struck me as the can't hold his liquor type." She stretched her arms over her head and he looked to the window to avoid watching her too closely. "Do you always drink so much for your birthday?"

Right. His perfectly plausible Alice.

"No. Ah, got some bad news yesterday. Did I... say anything else? Last night?"

"Like what?"

Confess my undying love or anything of the sort?

He shrugged. "Nothin.'"

"What was the bad news?" Alice asked. She closed her eyes swiftly. "Sorry, nevermind, that was too personal. I shouldn't have asked."

"'S alright." He looked at her hands. No ring. "Might not've... actually happened yet."

Alice nodded and they sat in a moment of awkward silence. She looked away.

He cleared his throat. "Your, um, dress is all wrinkled."

She ran her hands over her lap. "Yeah, I, uh, didn't plan on a sleepover."

"I could... I have an iron."

God, what a twattish thing to say.

She asked if he had any coffee, and he was relieved to have a task to focus on. Alice had spent the night. He wasn't firing on all cylinders.

He was watching the coffee brew when he heard Alice enter the kitchen. He turned toward her.

Holy fuck, she is wearing my shirt.

His mouth fell open and he covered it with a cough. That must have been in the bathroom hamper.

"I could have gotten you a clean one."

She shrugged. "Didn't figure I'd be in it long."

He was hallucinating, right?

"How about I make some toast?" Alice asked brightly.

"I thought you didn't cook?"

"Doesn't seem fair to have you make breakfast when you're the one with the hangover. I can make toast. Sit down." She shooed him out of the kitchen.

He had a moment to sit at his table, drinking his coffee and contemplating.

No ring. Was she just not engaged yet? Had she said no? Should he ask her about it?

She walked out of the kitchen and set a plate of toast on the table.

"Happy birthday, Hatter."

Oh. That was… Wow.

"Thank you," he managed to say.

"Don't expect me to sing," she joked. Her phone buzzed with a call, which she sat down with him to take.

Alice is not your girlfriend, he reminded himself.

He drank his coffee and watched Alice talk to her mother. She pulled one knee up to her chest.

"Yeah, I'm still at Hatter's. He's... hungover. I know!"

Alice is still with Jack.

"Mom says to wish you a happy birthday."

She stayed out of a sense of duty.

"He did? Are you crazy? No, if Jack calls again, DO NOT tell him I'm here. He-"

This doesn't change anything. To think it did would be–

"He proposed."

Hatter froze.

"No, mom. Congratulations are not in order. I... broke up with him. I was actually on the breaking up part when he did the proposal. Yeah. Yeah, he did. Y'know, I already feel like crap about it, so maybe you could? Thanks."

She's… not with Jack.

"Hey, you're getting some color back in your face!"

Could she possibly…

He didn't hear the rest of what Alice said to her mother. His brain lodged at the part where she'd broken up with Jack instead of agreeing to marry him. What did that mean? Did she just not want to get married?

Or did she not want Jack?

Alice set down her phone.

He couldn't wait; he had to know. "So you're… You're single then?"

When she choked on her coffee, he knew he'd moved too quickly.

He didn't have time to say anything else before the door to his apartment was banging open.

"Ho! Where's the birthday boy? Is he up? Hope you aren't trying to have a lie in-" Ben's booming voice cut off abruptly when he saw them.

"Alice. Good to see you." Ben gave her a huge grin and then turned to Hatter. "Happy birthday indeed, mate! It was about time you-"

Shit, no.

"Alice," he said too fast and too loud "was kind enough to bring me home last night when I had too much to drink."

Ben crossed his arms. "Is she wearing your shirt?"

"Ah, yes, I told her I'd iron her dress before she wore it home," Hatter stood. "Which I'm guessing will be shortly now."

He needed a moment to think. He grabbed her dress off the couch and headed to his room.

He heard her come after him, but he didn't turn around.

"You don't want me to stay?" she ventured.

God, of course I want you to stay.

"Hell, no!" he said lightly.

No, you can't say that. His shoulders fell. He might as well be honest with her. No doubt she already knew how he felt anyway.

"I... started drinking because I thought you were engaged to Jack."

"What?"

Hatter turned around.

"He came by the bar for a bottle of champagne yesterday, said he was plannin' on asking you something. Then you showed up in your favorite dress, and the two of you went off..." He waved his hand. "And I was just trying not to think about it. Alcohol seemed like a quick fix."

Alice bit her lip. "I didn't know Jack was going to propose. I was... waiting to break up with him in person, because I've known for awhile that I want something else."

If there was any way she could mean…

"The blue dress is my favorite, though. This guy once told me it brings out my eyes."

She took a step closer and the look she gave him nearly stopped his heart. "I wore it for his birthday."

He blinked. She what now?

"You-" he glanced back at the dress. "That's for-"

His heart started to hammer.

"Yep," she replied, popping the P on the end. She tugged on the hem of the shirt she'd borrowed. "And I didn't want a clean one because then it wouldn't smell like y-"

And he just stopped thinking. He moved forward and took her in his arms.

She held on to him and the sensation made him dizzy.

He set her down and looked at her. Alice. His Alice. He couldn't stop smiling.

"Finally."

He didn't wait another moment.

He kissed her.