Chapter 11
"Elizabeth isn't here."
"Oh," Jason said surprised, coming to a stop in the doorway of her office, his hands instantly clenching into tight fists. It happened without him noticing – his body's simple reaction to being in close quarters with Carly Benson. "Uh, do you know when she'll…be back? We were supposed to, uh…" He swallowed hard, the neck of his t-shirt suddenly feeling too tight.
"Go shopping?" Carly snickered, leaning back in her chair and very slowly crossing her legs. "It's kind of cute."
He didn't reply, knowing she'd go ahead and tell him what was kind of cute whether he wanted her to or not.
"You being all domesticated," she laughed, arching her eyebrows at him. "You have lLittle Susie Homemaker to cook your dinners and buy clothes and do your laundry. Who would have thought the Jason Morgan I knew was capable of all this?"
This was precisely why when someone said to meet them at their office, they should always be there.
Elizabeth may have told him that Carly was going to be at the gallery today, but they'd been busy doing other things that morning. It was her fault for always reminding him of the worst possible things during sex. He almost hadn't come back from hearing his ex's name in bed, but Elizabeth had her ways of making him forget things.
One more week and the gallery would be open, Carly would be displayed and bought all over town, and hopefully disappear. After which he would tell Elizabeth the truth about her, and it wouldn't matter because she wouldn't be in their lives anymore.
Ha.
Even he wasn't stupid enough to think he'd get that lucky.
"Come on, Jase," she sighed, getting up and walking over to him, her hips swaying back and forth in a rhythm he unfortunately remembered all too well. "It's a little funny."
"Elizabeth doesn't cook. Or buy my clothes. Or do my laundry," he corrected, not bothering to add that he usually did all of that.
She just liked to come along and tell him how good he looked in a suit, and he liked her to come along with the hopes of getting her into the dressing room. So far, it hadn't happened, but he was wearing her down with every shopping trip.
"You still don't like to be teased, do you?" she pouted, sticking out her lower lip.
"Do you know when she's going to be back?" Jason asked, scratching his chin as he started past her.
"I can't believe after everything we've been through you're acting like you don't even know me," she said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I would have thought after everything we've been through-"
"I haven't seen or heard from you in years," he reminded her, pinching the bridge of his nose when she took a step towards him.
"Aren't you the tiniest bit sad?" she asked, touching his arm.
No, actually he liked it that way.
"Look, I don't know what you're doing here, Carly," he replied, stepping back and holding up his hands. "But this – I'm with Elizabeth, so you need to respect that and her."
"Geez, someone's awfully touchy," she muttered, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "I just wanted to catch up with my old friend. I moved out of town for a while after I got into some trouble."
"With Sonny?" he asked pointedly, reminding her of the other guy she'd slept with while seeing Jasonhim.
Supposedly he was the head of organized crime in New York City, and Jason wasn't about to fight him for a woman. BesidesHe he would have gladly handed Carly over to him, all wrapped up in a bow.
"How is he?" he asked, amused when her eyes darkened.
"We see each other from time to time," she shrugged. "We even lived together for a while, and we talked about getting married, but…Sonny loves Sonny."
Just like Carly loved Carly.
Whatever.
Why was he giving this the time of day?
"Well, I'm going to go wait in my car for Elizabeth," he muttered, backing out of the doorway, too afraid to turn his back on her. "I'm sure I'll catch her outside."
"Are you really going to marry her?" Carly asked, following him out of the office.
Son of a fucking bitch.
"Carly-"
"I'm just asking," she defended, resting her hands on her slim hips.
"It's not any of your business," he murmured, continuing towards the door.
"I'm curious about what she's got that no other woman has," she laughed, clearly not the getting point as she followed him to the door. "I mean, is Jason Morgan is really going to settle down?"
The F.E. was going to be the death of him.
"Look, Carly-" He stopped mid-sentence when he saw Elizabeth opening the door, a bag from Kelly's under her arm.
"Hey," she called out, grinning widely as she hurried over to him, stretching to brush her lips against his.
Damn.
It wasn't right that a woman in a peacoat and stilettos could make him forget everything.
"I know we were supposed to go shopping for you some new suits today, but I'm sort of swamped here," she grimaced, holding the bag out to Carly. "The opening is in a week, and we have to get the displays set up, and I have a couple interviews for café employeesfor some works in the café. Do you think-"
"Don't worry about it," he interrupted, failing to ignore Carly's smirk. "I'm sure I've got some at home that still have the tags on them."
"Are you sure?" she asked, arching her eyebrows at him.
"No problem," he replied, leaning over to kiss her briefly, pulling away when her mouth started to
linger on his. "Don't work too hard. I'll see you tonight."
**********
"You're still here?"
Jason's eyes lifted from the books he was going over and nodded at Johnny, who was stepping into his office and closing the door. "Why are you here?"
He shrugged, slipping his hands in his pocket as he walked over to the desk. "Didn't want to go home."
"Fight with the wife?" he teased, leaning back in his chair and grinning at him.
"Fuck you," Johnny replied, sitting down across from him. "I take it you haven't told Elizabeth yet."
"Nope," he answered, shaking his head. "And I'm not going to until after the opening."
"Jason," he started to scold, stopping when his friend glared at him. "I'm just saying that the sooner the better."
"What did you to do to piss Lulu off?" he asked, changing the subject.
"It's nothing," he replied, obviously not wanting to get into his problems, which Jason had to admire.
It was so unlike O'Brien not to bring everyone down with his problems like he used to, and Lulu was definitely the one who deserved credit for it. She forced him to grow up, or rather, he listened to her over everyone else in his life.
Stupid man in love with a stupid woman.
"I went to see Elizabeth today," Jason said, having needing to tell someone about what happened with Carly. "She was there."
"And Elizabeth wasn't," Johnny snickered, enjoying this more than he should.
"It's not funny, you asshole," he growled, rubbing his hands over his face. "She started talking about how I was domesticated, and she couldn't believe I was getting married-"
"She's getting in your head, Jason," he said seriously, his jaw tightening. "You know how women like her work. She's jealous because – well, she was the first woman to have some Jason Mor-"
"Oh, don't even fucking say it like that," he interrupted disgustedly.
"It's true," he defended seriously, leaning forward in his chair. "You know how you get when you sleep with a woman, and I know what it feels like to be the first-"
"You're creeping me the fuck out now," Jason cut in, getting up from his chair and gathering up the books. "Carly slept with Sonny. She ended whatever was there-"
"And you were relieved," he chimed in gleefully. "You even tried to pawn that psychopath off on me."
"Usually you don't care about having seconds," he muttered, opening the filing cabinet and taking his time as he filed the books.
"Don't get me wrong, I like my women crazy, but she was a real piece of work," he said, hanging his head. "God, we couldn't even go to Jake's for like a year because you were afraid of running into her."
"With good reason," he reminded him, slamming the cabinet closed. "I went. She was there. And then the first woman I talked to ended up with a drink in her face."
"This is why you should have been nicer to Elizabeth," Johnny laughed, getting up as Jason grabbed his leather jacket from the closet. "She would have gone toe- to- toe with Carly instead of doing paint-by-numbers."
"Fuck you," he hissed, shrugging on his jacket, not wanting to admit that that was exactly why he didn't want her to know about Carly.
**********
"What time is it?"
Jason looked over at the bed to see Elizabeth yawning and lifting her head as he set her sketchbook on the nightstand. "Late," he replied, sitting down on the edge of the bed and kicking off his shoes. "I didn't mean to wake you up."
"You didn't," she sighed, scooting across the bed as he pulled his t-shirt over his head. He shivered when he felt her hand on his back. "I was sketching. I must have dozed off."
"You mean waiting up?" he teased, standing up to shrug off his jeans.
"No – well, maybe," she grinned, curling up on her side.
He laughed softly as he slid beneath the covers, waiting for her to settle into the crook of his arm before getting comfortable. "Elizabeth," he groaned, his hand skimming over her bare back.
"What?" she giggled, her voice tired as she smoothed her hand over his chest, adjusting the covers over them so that her entire bare body was pressed against his.
"You're trying to kill me," he growled, gently stroking her back.
"You came home too late," she teased, tipping her head back to look at him. "I had big plans for you tonight, Morgan."
"Sorry about that," he replied, sounding as tired as she looked. Normally a statement like that would have had him rolling her over and taking her without thinking about it, but tonight, he was just exhausted.
"Your loss," she laughed, nuzzling against his chest. "I'm tired."
"Me too," he agreed, lifting his head to kiss the top of her head. "It was a long day."
"Yeah," she sighed heavily, her eyes fluttering closed. "Jason?"
"Hmm?" he grunted.
"I didn't mean to pull out on shopping this afternoon. Or dinner the other night. Or breakfast the day before," she apologized, looking up at him again. "This opening is driving me crazy, and I've been blowing you off-"
"Work's been busy for me too," he interrupted, shrugging it off. "Besides, I had a good time this morning."
Blushing, she curled back against his side. "All I wanted to do today was this," she murmured, starting to doze off.
She started snoring lightly a few seconds later, and he wondered if she'd even been awake for their entire conversation. "Yeah," he sighed, his stomach suddenly churning. "Me too."
