Chapter Eleven

"How is my beautiful wife?" asked Jax when he saw Carly sitting at a table in the Metro-Court restaurant. When Carly heard his voice, she jumped up and ran to him, so happy to see him. He had been gone for two whole weeks, and she had missed him so much.

"Jax, I'm so glad you're home!" she said, giving him a huge hug. He returned it, happy to see his wife after his two weeks in Hong Kong.

"I can see that," he said, finally pulling away. They both sat down at the table that Carly had previously occupied. "How were the last two weeks without me?"

"Eh," said Carly, not wanting Jax to know anything about her and Claudia's shenanigans. "Pretty boring. How was Hong Kong?"

"Well, business is business," said Jax. Something that was bothering him finally pushed its way out. "I, uh, got a strange phone call when I was over there."

Carly frowned. "Really? What about?"

"Well, Kate Howard called me in hysterics—" started Jax, and Carly felt her stomach do a somersault. Did Jax know about what she and Claudia had done? "Apparently, Crimson had had a total meltdown over the week and Kate couldn't take it anymore. She's quitting and is going back to work at Couture under Giselle."

Carly wasn't able to hide her happiness at that very easily, and Jax noticed as she tried to contain her smile. "What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing," Carly lied. "I mean, you know I don't like Kate, so it's hard to feel sorry for her." She suddenly realized something. "Wait. What happens to your shares in the company? Are you going to lose all that money?"

Jax shook his head. "No," he said. "Couture is buying Crimson. So, I'll still have my shares, just under a different name."

Carly breathed an internal sigh of relief. Kate was ruined and Jax hadn't lost his money. All was right with the world. Until—

"Actually, she said something else," said Jax, and Carly became immediately worried again. "She told some story that you and Claudia were behind everything that was going wrong."

Carly covered fast. She burst out laughing, as if the idea were impossible. "Yeah, right. Like me and Claudia would ever have a common purpose. C'mon, Jax, we hate each other."

Jax smiled. "I know. I knew she was just trying to make an excuse for her incompetence."

Carly took a deep breath again. She was out of the woods.

"Well, I'm sorry to cut this short, but I have a conference call in five minutes," said Jax. "Dinner tonight?"

Carly beamed. "Yeah, of course."

Jax returned the smile. "Great." He stood up from his seat, gave his wife a peck on the cheek, and made his way to his office.

Carly was about to get up herself when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She took it out, looked at the number, and smiled. "What's up?" she answered after pressing the green button.

"I am planning on cancelling our Fios, because I will never see anything on television that is even half as satisfying as what I'm watching now," said Claudia when Carly answered. She was peeking around the curtain of the living room window, creeping on the house next door.

"What is it?" asked Carly.

"Kate Howard is finally moving!" said Claudia, watching as mover after mover carried box after box of Kate's crap out of the house.

Carly could almost hear Claudia's smile through the phone, and smiled along with her. "That's great! And guess what Jax told me? Kate quit Crimson and is going to work at Couture with Giselle as her boss!"

Claudia gasped. "No way! That is beyond payback!" As she said this, she was still looking out the window. Kate had finally come outside, Gucci sunglasses on her face to protect her eyes from the sun, which had finally started showing itself again, as she ordered the movers around.

"I know, isn't it?" said Carly. "I mean, nothing could be worse than sending Kate back there to take orders from Giselle."

Claudia was about to answer, when Carly heard her laughing hysterically. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Kate just tripped!" laughed Claudia, and Carly laughed along with her, wishing she could have seen it, too.

"This has been the most fun week ever!" said Carly through her laughs.

Claudia stopped laughing, realizing something. "And now it's over," she said sadly.

Carly stopped laughing as well. Claudia was right. It was all over. No more drink lacing, rumor spreading, outfit cutting, or model tricking. Everything was over. Well, not everything…

"Hey," said Carly, thinking of something, "Jax is taking me out to dinner tonight, but do you wanna go to Jake's tomorrow night?"

Claudia grinned from ear to ear. "I would love to."