Liz and Jack are sitting in the couch area of Jack's office going over the scripts for TGS this week. Avery arrives in the office dressed in her sports gear and is fidgeting with her necklace as she interrupts their meeting.
"Jack, will you please get this necklace off me? I have been tying for a half hour and the yoga class is waiting on me"
"They have been waiting a half hour for you? I wish I had that much power over…well anyone."
"Lemon please, they don't know that I am late because I cant get this GOD DAMN NECKLACE OFF"
Avery turns to face Jack and points to her inflated neckline hurrying him to rescue her.
"Liz, you don't understand. I can't show any kind of weakness in front of those women! Liz, you obviously don't have normal relationships with women. I mean, your best friend is, well, it's Jack."
Jack calmly walks behind Avery and sweeps the loose hair from her behind her neck to one side and quickly separates the clasp from the chain. Avery lets out a sigh of relief as her neck is now free from the constraints. Hearing the relived sigh come from Avery triggers a flashback from Liz's memory bank.
Flashback
Liz relives the whole scenario; it was the night of Gerhardt's 25th Birthday Party. She and Jack stood not even a foot apart from each other in the stillness of her apartment. She remembers how uneasy she felt as she watched Jack's eyes trace the movements of her lips to only briefly regain eye contact with him before her concentration was broken from the sight of Jack's hands nearing to cup her face.
She remembers the initial feelings of that night and how hideously wrong she had got it when Jack was merely making a gentlemanly move to retrieve the necklace that he had very generously gifted to her for that evening.
Looking at Avery and Jack together she observed how natural their interaction was and how quickly Jack managed to free the necklace from Avery. Jack made it look so effortless, as if this was a daily chore for him to liberate Avery from her jewellery. Then she began to think, how unnatural Jack had been with her. Questions began to augment in her head.
"Why would he retrieve the necklace from the front? Isn't it easier for him to retrieve from the back of my neck? With his shovel hands, surely it would have been easier?"
Instantly Liz brings herself right back to the apartment. She remembers how gentle Jack's approach was; his hands moved like slow motion as if scared to make a mistake and when she had made it clear that he had crossed the line how immediately defensive Jack got. Had he in fact tried to make a move that night? Not wanting to jump to conclusions Liz was eager to test out her theory.
"Jack, can I try the necklace on?"
Jack looks to Avery for approval and hands it over. Liz places the gold necklace around her neck and it rests nicely on her shoulder blades. Instantly Avery's back is up as she can see that Liz looks radiant in something so expensive. To hide her insecurities Avery blurts out a bitchy comment.
"You can't carry that off Liz…your more of a costume jewellery kind of girl, you know…something more your style would be…plastic!"
"Fine, why don't you take it off me?"
Liz walks over to Avery and initiates that she retrieves the necklace whilst facing her.
"What are you a crazy? How am I supposed to reach behind your neck? Who does that, retrieves a necklace from the front?"
"You're right, it's an unnatural position? Don't you think?"
"It's perverted, that's what it is!"
Avery puts both hands on Liz's shoulders and spins her round to reclaim the necklace and leaves the office.
XX