A/N: Ready for the second part of this mini story? Here it is!
Thanks for the great comments, it's always a pleasure to read your thoughts!
Part 2
Jeff's wise words had inspired Elizabeth to find a way to spend some time with Jason without taking him away from his work. Her dad was right, Jason's new garage was important to him and Elizabeth needed to support him in his new enterprise in any way that she could; and that was exactly what she would do.
Elizabeth decided to treat her hardworking boyfriend to an impromptu picnic at the shop. It was the perfect way to celebrate their six months mark; a spontaneous date just like they had started seeing each other, even though this time they would be surrounded by car parts, grease and the tingly smell of oil the woman thought about with a little grimace. But it didn't matter as long as she was with Jason. They would eat the tasty chicken wings and rich potato salad she had carefully packed in her basket and she would then let him work while she engaged in a little project of her own; armed of her camera.
Elizabeth was delighted when she arrived at the shop, highly giddy at the anticipation of surprising her boyfriend that evening. She sneaked inside the garage and quietly made her way to the back office, where she was sure Jason was busy crunching numbers; but the brunette was taken aback by the loud mix of laughter and animated words that reached her ears. She hadn't imagined he would have company that night, especially not of the female kind Elizabeth thought with a deep frown forming on her face as she recognized the voice of a woman echoing Jason's.
Elizabeth promptly dropped the picnic basket on the floor and decisively walked across the shop to swing the office door opened. "Jason?" She said, interrupting his seemingly entertaining conversation with no one else but Courtney.
"Elizabeth? What's up?" He said with a large sandwich in between his finger.
"What's up?" She repeated before sternly asking. "What are you doing?"
"Um… eating a sandwich." The young man answered, not noticing Elizabeth's growing annoyance. "Courtney came over and offered to help me finish unloading the last boxes we received today. And she nicely brought me a sandwich too. Hey can you imagine she is into kickboxing?"
Yes I can, Elizabeth though after studying the other woman's sturdy arms. She then gave her attention back to her boyfriend. "Can I talk to you for a second?"
Both Jason and Courtney stared back at her with puzzled looks.
"Alone!" Elizabeth then added as she noticed Courtney was too comfortably slouched in her chair while mindlessly tugging down a can of diet coke.
After a few seconds of Elizabeth's powerful glare weighting on her, the blonde woman finally took her cue. "O-K… I will be up front finishing on the boxes." She slipped out and then left the two lovers to talk.
"What's wrong Elizabeth?" Jason asked her, placing the sandwich back in its box and coming to stand in front of his girlfriend.
Elizabeth crossed her arms tight against her thin chest before she began explaining exactly what she believed was wrong with the picture she had just walked in on. "What is wrong is that I asked you to come and have dinner with me tonight and you canceled because you said you were too busy and here you are getting all cozy with her. I thought you had a lot of work to do?"
"I do, I just took a quick break to eat a bite, that's all. She came by, I happened to be hungry so I took the sandwich."
"Right… and of course all of a sudden you could spare a few of your precious minutes to hang out with her!" Elizabeth held outraged.
"Oh come on, not that jealousy thing again! This is so not like you Elizabeth." Jason told her, little did he know that these words would heat her up even more.
"Just like blowing me off to hang out with another woman is not like you!" The petite woman fumed.
"Ok, we are making this more than it is. I didn't blow you off so I could be with another woman! I was hungry so I took a short break to eat and she stuck around talking about herself and I listened. I wasn't going to be rude and kick her out." Jason tried to explain.
"Of course because you're mister diplomatic now!" Elizabeth threw out completely aggravated by the whole situation. "And for the record I'm not jealous, I'm just pissed off because I have enough of you having absolutely no time for me anymore and not even making any effort to see me."
"Elizabeth you know that if I could have it my way I would be with you all the time, but I am very busy with the new shop, I spend almost all of my time here." Jason let out a frustrated sigh before he went on. "I wasn't trying to avoid you, I would have rather had this break with you but I can't ask you to come all the way for ten minutes."
"Well that's exactly why I came over, to steal five… maybe ten minutes of your time and bring you dinner. But I guess that was already taken care of. Now I'll let you finish your work!" She threw at him then turned on her heels to storm out of the shop.
"Elizabeth wait!" Jason called out, but wasn't fast enough to catch up with his fierce girlfriend. The young man sent a closed fist flying in the air in frustration and then noticed the picnic basket she had left behind her. Jason closed his eyes shaking his head, crushed to see Elizabeth in this state… until Courtney's voice brought him back to reality.
"Hey don't worry, she'll get over it." The young woman casually shrugged, trailing a hand in her fair hair.
"Um… you know what, why don't you come back tomorrow with everyone else. Thanks for the food, but I really have a lot to do." Jason told her.
"Err… sure. I guess I'll see you tomorrow… good night Jase!" She said, slipping both hands in the back pocket of her pair of jeans then turned to exit.
*****
Jason had never seen his girlfriend this mad, ever. Elizabeth had always been a very level headed person, always able to get through life's obstacle with complete composure which fascinated Jason. He knew of her fiery side but had never been guilty of getting her this riled up; they were a great team, they worked so well as a couple that the usual petty quarrel many experienced on a daily basis was foreign territory to them.
Because this was foreign territory, the young man was clueless as of how to proceed; should he call her and try to explain once more that whatever she walked in one was nothing at all, or simply give her time to cool down. Jason wasn't sure what to do next so he decided to do a little bit of both. Knowing his Elizabeth, he realized that any attempt at reconciliation that night was pointless so he would give her some time to sleep on it.
The next day had come very fast for the busy young man who had tried very hard to stay focused on his work even with his mind continuously drifting to the image of a furious Elizabeth. He needed to talk to her. After his early morning staff meeting that he rushed through, Jason jumped in his car and made a bee line for her apartment to apologize and hopefully put this futile argument behind them.
The young man tried calling her cell phone on his way but was greeted by her voicemail message…
"This is Elizabeth, you know what to do… and if it's Jason don't even bother leaving a message because I don't want to talk to you!"
And then realized how mad she truly was. No, a simple sorry wouldn't do it Jason thought, getting her forgiveness would be harder that he had imagined.
Jason arrived at her apartment, only to find she wasn't home and then hurried to her parent's house where he assumed she must have stayed.
"Elizabeth? Elizabeth are you here?" The young man called out as he walked in the vast hall.
"Lizzie's not here… but why are you looking for her so adamantly?" Jeff appeared in front of the agitated young man.
"Dr. Webber… I… I… need to talk to her and well I thought she might have stayed over here yesterday night." Jason explained.
"Really? For some reason I thought she was supposed to be with you?" Elizabeth's father asked with a questioning frown.
"Well she was, but we had some kind of argument…" Jason began to say.
"Some kind?" Jeff repeated.
"Um…" Jason hesitated realizing he would now have to tell the whole story to Elizabeth's father and was now apprehensive of the older man's reaction. "We were supposed to spend the evening together yesterday but I had to cancel on her because of work and then she got mad because she tried surprising me at the shop and found me there with a new employee… a female employee."
"Wait? Don't tell me you…" Jeff began to say, already fearing the worst.
"Nothing happened!" Jason quickly reassured the older man. "We were just having a sandwich but Elizabeth got angry because I had time to take a break with this girl and I didn't have any time to spare for her."
Jeff let out a faint breath of relief before talking again. "I see… well young man; I do not blame you for having a lot of work on your plate, especially because I used to be right in your shoes. But you have to make an effort if you don't want to lose my daughter."
"I love Elizabeth Dr. Webber, but sometimes I have a hard time understanding her."
"Sometimes women just speak a different language than we do but all you have to do is act like you understand." Jeff advised the younger man. "But really, you cannot mess up this relationship, I have worked too hard for this."
"What?" Jason asked wondering what the older man meant by his statement.
"Nothing, nothing… listen, when Elizabeth came by yesterday she said that she just wanted you to make a little room for her and then she added especially today. Now you must surely know what she meant by that?"
"Um… no, not really. I know it wasn't her birthday or any holiday." Jason said while scratching his nose, completely clueless.
"How about your anniversary? That's always tricky to remember because we don't always agree on the right date… When we were just dating Carol always counted from the first kiss while I thought the first date was it… but we got married and that fixed everything." The older man said with a pronounced grin.
"But we haven't been together a year yet." Jason remarked.
"Six months?" Dr Webber offered.
"Six months…" Jason pensively repeated, as if he had just entered a completely new world. "There is such thing as a six months anniversary?"
"Whatever a woman wants there is… you should know that by now." Jeff let the younger man know.
"Wow!"
"You can say that again…" Jeff added, crossing his arms against his chest.
"I had no idea yesterday was special, now I understand better why she got so irritated with me."
"Yes but it's not too late, you can fix this. Come sit down… Let me tell you a little story." Jeff told the man he considered his future son in law. "Elizabeth doesn't know but she was just a child when I got into this terrible fight with her mother… I'm talking third world war here, it was really really bad…"
"Really? What did you do to make Mrs. Webber this mad?" Jason asked from the couch he had just claimed.
"You don't need to know this part of the story..." Jeff brushed his question away as he sat next to Jason. "Anyway, the interesting part here is how I managed to make this marriage last twenty eight years and counting."
Jason simply nodded, waiting for Elizabeth father to continue his tale.
"Well I will tell you my secret. It's simple, It's just one word… romance."
"Romance?" Jason repeated.
"Yes Romance, you know flowers, candy and stuff, but for it to truly work you need to put a twist on it. You have to… how can I say this... personalize it!" Dr. Webber declared.
"Personalized romance?" Jason asked, not following where the wiser man was going.
"Yes, I know my little girl and if you want to get her attention, you have to sweep her off her feet. Do something completely unexpected, crazy or even bold!" Jeff exclaimed, startling the younger man. "But don't get me wrong… Elizabeth isn't easily impressed by shiny things, she cares about meaningful things… And since I was telling you that story about Carol and I, I might as well finish it."
"What did you do to impress Mrs. Webber?"
"Do not rush me son, I am getting to the point…" Jeff said, taking all his time to tell his compelling story. "Anyway, what I did, is that I surprised her with a getaway to the Mediterranean Crete, and do you know why I took her there?"
"Why?" Jason asked.
"Because I remembered one time when we were much younger we had a conversation about places we would love to visit one day and I remembered her telling me that she'd always wanted to visit Crete, ever since she took a history class and learned it was home to one of the oldest Greek civilization." Jeff said, smiling at the memory. "Oh I remember how blown away she was, she couldn't believe I remembered this conversation and she was extremely touched. We finished the trip by renewing our vows and I can tell you she never forgot this surprise."
Jason attentively listened to Elizabeth's father, wondering what he could ever do to sweep Elizabeth off her feet in a similar way.
"Now you have to use your head, young man and surprise Lizzie with something completely unexpected and Bam! She will fall right back for you… or my name isn't Jeff Webber." The older man clapped his hands for effect.
"I believe you Dr. Webber, I'm just not sure I can ever do anything this remarkable."
"It doesn't need to be extravagant Jason, just show her how much you care, show her that you are here and not going anywhere, that she is the only woman you will ever love… reaffirm your commitment to her." Jeff said insisting on a few key words.
Jason let out a deep breath, already feeling the pressure.
"Tell me son do you love my daughter?" Jeff suddenly asked the younger man in an extremely serious tone.
"I do, I love her sir, more than anything." Jason sincerely answered.
"Then tell her that and you'll be fine."
"Thank you Dr. Webber!" Jason said then stood to his feet, ready to walk towards the door.
"Not so fast young man!" Jeff called out. "This other girl that is upsetting my daughter better be dealt with… if you know what I mean."
"I do…" Jason replied thinking that he should never have accepted to let Courtney work in the garage as a favor to Max. His friend had guaranteed him she would be quick to pick up on everything that needed to be learned but she wasn't; plus Jason was sure it was all about getting close to her but Max would have to find another way to get the girl. "Yeah… I don't think she was a great fit for the shop anyway."
"Good boy." Jeff added, taping on the young man's back.
*****
"You're not going to answer that?" Carol told her daughter who was seating across from her at Kelly's.
"Not just yet, I want to let him squirm a little longer." Elizabeth answered.
Carol shook her head from side to side. "Oh dear you are so cruel."
"I know!" Elizabeth added with a wicked smile. "But seriously Mom, you should have seen him having the fun of his life with this fake looking girl when just an hour before he was telling me how swamped he was and that he would be spending the whole night finishing up with work."
"Are you sure you aren't a little jealous here Lizzie?" Her mother asked her wound up daughter.
"Mom, I trust Jason, I know he would never do anything with her but I was still mad he would take some time to hang out with this girl and not me when it was our six months anniversary yesterday." Elizabeth explained. "I'm just giving him a little bit of a hard time that's all."
"As long as you know what you're doing." Her mother told her.
"I know what I'm doing." Elizabeth said before her ringtone interrupted their conversation. The brunette was ready to ignore the call thinking Jason was the one calling but saw her father's name appear on the caller ID.
"Hey Dad… yes I'm with Mom… tonight? Nothing why?... I really don't feel like going anywhere… well if you really insist… ok." She hung up after her father told her he would send a car for her that evening.