Thank you for the reviews for the last chapter...
Disclaimer: I am unfortunately just a broke university student so I don't own anything but this idea. Ms Clare does.

Enjoy!

"You have to say yes. I don't care about your arguments Clary. That guy used my eighty dollar lipstick to write his number on the bathroom mirror. Do you have any idea of how pissed off I am about that?"

Snorting loudly and almost choking, Clary replied, "That was good. I have to admit. Jace got creative there."

Maia and Clary were in the kitchen at work talking about the text message that Jace had just sent her. Clary had no intentions of saying no, but she was not keen on the idea of seeing him so soon. That might lead to things she was not sure she was ready for.

Maia shoved Clary playfully and Clary stumbled into the door dropping her folder. Swearing at Maia for it, she quickly bent down to gather her papers together. Holding the folder to her chest and more paper in her hands, she began to get up just as the door to the kitchen flew open.

Clary went sprawling back onto the floor to avoid being smacked in the face, and one of the delicate buttons on her blouse dislodged from the force of the folder being thrust up with her hands.

Looking up, Clary saw Maryse standing in front of her. "Clary! What on earth are you doing on the floor?"

"Hey Maryse! Oh nothing, I just stumbled, and then almost got knocked out by you opening the door. What's the rush?" Maryse rarely opened a door with the force that she had just opened the kitchen door, so Clary knew something was up.

"I was wondering if one of you are available to come with me tonight. I have a Law Society dinner tonight, and Robert bailed on me as usual. So I have a spare ticket if one of you are interested."

Clary was about to jump at the chance to avoid dinner with Jace and was about to speak when Maia quickly came forward and wrapped her hand around Maryse's arm. "Oh wow! I haven't been to one of those since Uni! I am definitely in!" She turned to face Clary, who was now on her feet brushing the back of her skirt with her hand, and gave a cheeky grin. "Clary has another date with your son tonight Maryse."

Clary mentally face palmed herself. She had forgotten to tell Maryse about their 'first date'.

"How was that anyway Clary? I was actually offended you hadn't told me earlier."

"I, ah, forgot. I didn't really expect him to show up in the first place, so it was kind of awkward."

"No, if Jace said he would be there, he would have been there."

"Clearly" Clary replied dryly.

"He has asked her to Taki's tonight apparently. Clary is going to go, so I guess your son and your employee are dating Maryse." The look Maia shot Clary as she said this was pure sly devil.

Maryse too was looking at Clary, however with a more thoughtful look, and Clary was beginning to feel rather uncomfortable. "What did you say you fed him again?" she asked suddenly.

"I didn't, but I fed him soup."

"From a can?"

Clary nodded sheepishly.

Suddenly Maryse started laughing. "Wow Clary. I am impressed. Usually when girls try to cook for Jace, they go out of their way to impress him. It's about time he was introduced to the world of women like you."

"Oh believe me, I wasn't aiming to impress him in the first place." Or maybe I was,she thought, thinking back to the night she had agreed to cook for him. "It was just what was in the fridge and he was complaining of being hungry. I gave him beer and soup and made him watch the news."

Maia started laughing at that, and Maryse turned to look at her with an amused expression. "I agree Maia. Jace must of been horrified at the idea of canned soup. I'm impressed he ate it without trying to drag you out to a restaurant."

"Oh, he did try originally before he even knew what I was going to feed him."

Maryse raised her eyebrows at Clary but did not get to say anything as they were interrupted at that moment by the ringing of the phone, and the secretary yelling that the phone was for Maia.

"Text him back yes!" she hissed under her breath as she stared pointedly at Clary's phone.

Clary waited until Maryse followed her from the kitchen before looking back at the text message.

Taki's, tonight, 7pm.

Ugh, she thought. If I'm going to go ahead with this I might as well keep up the attitude. With that she typed in her message and pressed the send button.

She hoped she was making the right decision.

Jace was making good time. He had exactly one hour until Clary would show up, and the restaurant was unusually quiet for a Thursday. He had left most of the day's work to his Chefs and kitchen hands and had instead focused on making the soup and other small dessert pieces to introduce into his menu.

He had deemed the soup acceptable enough to feed to Clary as part of their meal, partly in order to show her what a real soup tasted like. He was going for a three course menu, with the soup as the entree. He had seen her reaction to the Salmon that day they had first met, and so decided to stick to something he knew she liked. Because of her rather unfortunate fall at Isabelle's engagement party, Jace had decided to add some of the pasta Clary had enjoyed so much as a side, along with some green beans and asparagus fried in a pan with lemon juice.

Dessert was a difficult decision. He knew she liked chocolate after last night's chocolate sauce pudding she had made, but Jace himself was not a big fan of rich chocolate desserts. Instead he settled upon letting her choose something from the desserts he had spent the day making. He did need other people's opinions after all, and Clary did not seem the type to say something was good when it was disgusting.

Jace had chosen the table at the corner of the restaurant that overlooked the river and the setting sun over it for their meal that night. It was a popular position with his customers, and regulars often left big tips for that table, but he figured that since he owned the place, he could do as he pleased.

Deciding now was good enough to leave the kitchen, Jace made his way to his office to grab his clothes. He had decided to get changed for the occasion instead of eating with her in his Chef's outfit, and if Isabelle ever found out he had done something like that, he would never hear the end it.

Grabbing a pair of black slacks and a grey long sleeved shirt from his duffel bag, Jace made his way into the men's toilets. He changed quickly and inspected himself in the mirror figuring he could probably do with a shower after being in the steamy kitchen for the day. He instead resigned himself to running his hands through his hair and giving it a bit more attention than he normally would. Working in a kitchen was hot work, and his hair often took on the appearance of being oily because of perspiration and frying fat and oils. Jace splashed his face with cool water and quickly gave his teeth a brush. In all, it took him about ten minutes to deem himself satisfactory enough to pass tonight off feeling confident in the way he looked.

By the time she had managed to leave the office, Clary had fifteen minutes to make it to Taki's. This was plenty of time for her, so she set off on foot as she normally did. She did not know whether to be excited or nervous about tonight, the roiling in her stomach not giving her any indication as to exactly what her feelings were. Her and Jace seemed to get on well, but Clary was still scarred from her relationship with Sebastian, and so was not keen on throwing herself into something new.

And Jace was something new to her. This was a second date and something she had not done in a long time without harbouring ill feelings towards her date of the night. He was so laid back and down to earth that she could not help but like him. Hell, with his looks, any girl would like him even if he was an asshole who played with their hearts. But Clary no longer believed in pretty faces, and she was more than sure that Jace had played with plenty of hearts. In that sense, they had more in common with each other in breaking female hearts than he knew.

As she was walking across the road opposite Taki's, Clary stubbed the tip of one of her shoes on a piece of gravel and stumbled slightly. Turning to glare at the offending ground, Clary looked down to inspect her shoe, but got sidetracked by the sight of a startling amount of her exposed chest. Absently, she lifted her hands to her blouse to pop the button back in its hole but instead her fingers encounter a stray bud of cotton string. Glancing down, Clary realized that she was in fact missing the third button of her blouse. There was now only the first and second buttons which when done up, pulled her blouse together almost up to her neck. The fourth button was done up and this pulled her blouse closed so that a considerable amount of her skin was showing, but not her bra.

She then realised that the button must have fallen off after her graceless stint on the kitchen floor that morning. Stupid Maia.

Well there was no way she was turning up at this date looking like an uptight old lady with her blouse buttoned up almost to her neck. Jace had already seen her in a swimsuit and her workout clothes, so she figured him seeing her in a blouse that showed off more skin than normal was not all that bad.

She just hoped he did not think she was coming onto him. Because she really did not have those intentions.

Yet.

Jace was watching Clary walking towards him from across the road when she suddenly stumbled slightly, and smiled to himself as he remembered how clumsy she apparently was. He watched as her hands made their way to her blouse- which was showing a generous amount of the swell of her chest-, and watched as her mouth popped open and her head bobbed down, before she shrugged and quickly crossed the road.

He was looking forward to seeing her again he realized, and was excited to let her try the food he had made for her. He always took great pleasure in feeding people food, but he had never before had the dedication to cook the kind of meal he had planned out for her tonight for a girl he had ever dated in the past. Delving into the reasons why this was not so for Clary was something he was hoping to do at the end of the night. This would be the third time he had really spent time with her, and for Jace, three times was often enough to gauge the kind of girl she was.

He opened the glass doors as he saw her walk towards them and stood aside as she walked up looking at him and smiling. "Hey! I'm not late am I?"

Jace grinned and shook his head. "No, you're actually on time. You walked here?" Jace held his arms out as she walked up to him, and was happy to find she went into his embrace without hesitation and blushed as he kissed her cheek. "I've got dinner all organized, and the best table in the house for us."

Clary raised her eyebrows and smiled as she walked beside him towards their table. "Oh really? We must thank the manager for that then hadn't we by leaving a good tip."

Jace looked at her smiling face and smirked. "The manager has already received his night's tip."

Clary shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Such a charmer." Her eyes widened however as she took in the sky outside and her mouth fell open a bit.

Jace laughed and pulled her seat out for her as they reached their table. He had timed the night perfectly so that the sun would have already set so that its glare would be gone, but the colours in the sky would be in their prime. Maryse had told him that Clary enjoyed art and painting. In fact, it turned out that one of the pictures in the Lightwood house was given to Maryse as a gift from her.

"It's pretty isn't it?"

Clary nodded and turned to face him smiling widely. "Amazing. You really must tip the manager extra just for the view."

Jace felt like he had already been tipped just from watching her expression.

Clary was feeling awkward. She had not expected any of this to be so...romantic. Clary did not believe in romance anymore, but the way that Jace had planned the night out, she was beginning to think it must still exist. First Jace pulling the door open, giving her a kiss on the cheek, pulling her chair out for her, the table and the view, and now the food.

The food was amazing. Jace was a passionate talker when it came to food she found, and she was intrigued to find out more about him through his love of cooking. He had served her up some soup as the entree, and he had said she was the inspiration for it. She had glared at him for that one, but when she had tasted it, she felt like she had truly fallen in love with a man with the help of millions of tastebuds and her stomach.

It was amazing.

When she had told him that, he had grinned and given her what she was beginning to suspect was his signature look and agreed with her. Clary however got the impression that he was not so sure of how it went down with her from the looks he kept giving her and the number of times he asked her if she liked it.

Finally she got sick of having to tell him it was the best soup she had ever tried and so every time he asked her she shot him a glare and insisted he shut up or she would leave. Jace had held his hands up defensively and accepted her compliments of the soup without further questioning.

The main meal of Salmon and green vegetables and pasta further made her suspect her stomach was leading her down a path she was not sure she wanted to go down. Telling herself that it was men who had the 'stomach to their heart' and not women, did not help when Jace announced dessert was ready and she had the choice of choosing her own.

Stupid stomach acting like a stupid man.

One thing Clary definitely learnt from the food Jace served her was that she was never cooking for him in the future.

Jace believed the date was going better than expected. He had had the foresight to provide wine with their meal to help them relax and so far it was working. They were onto their second glass each by the time dessert rolled around and conversation was flowing freely, with Clary divulging more information to him about her than she had before. He learnt about her love of painting and they talked about some of the pieces in the Lightwood home that Clary had noticed while there for the engagement party.

They talked about Jace's family and what it was like growing up with the Lightwood's. Clary told him about her being an only child and how her mum was a small known artist now that her time was no longer devoted to raising Clary. He formed the impression that there was not a strong bond between her and her father from the way that Clary rather shortly said that "he's a scientist" and moved onto telling him about a show being held at an art gallery that was featuring some of her mothers work.

Over the meal Jace realized that Clary was the kind of girl he was interested in, but there was still one final little detail he needed.

A kiss.

It was just a shame that he was too chicken to actually kiss her.

Clary looked at her watch and frowned. "Oh man! It's past eight thirty! I'm so sorry I've kept you Jace! Do you have to close this place up? I don't want to make you have a long night because of me!"

Jace shook his head. "I've gotten one of the other guys to close this place tonight. It's not my night to be working anyway, or we wouldn't be sitting here babe."

A small crease formed between Clary's eyes but she nodded and smiled at him. "That was the best food I have ever eaten! You have talent Jace."

Jace grinned and indicated she keep talking by leaning forward and slightly cocking his head to one side.

Clary laughed, but continued talking. "OK! Fine then. You are really good. Actually that canned soup was pretty bad aye? Although considering it was in the fridge longer than it should have been, I'm impressed we aren't sick today."

Jace looked horrified. "You fed me days old soup? Women what the hell were you thinking?"

Clary looked at him laughing. "Oh grow up. Welcome to the real world where not all women can cook."

"Clearly. And it was such a warm welcome at that."

Rolling her eyes, Clary made to stand up. "Thank you for tonight, really. It was nice to eat a free meal."

Jace feigned hurt and put his hand on his heart. "Woman, how you scar me." He shot Clary a devilish grin and also made to stand up. He let her take the lead and followed her towards the glass doors. Before she could walk out them, he reached out and placed a hand on her arm. "Since you walked here, I'll give you a lift home ok?"

Clary turned to face him and pursed her lips. "You sure? I don't live far away, I can easily walk."

It did not take Jace long to make her accept defeat and agree to the lift.

The ride home was nothing remarkable. They just discussed small details about the conversations of the night but both seemed happy with the quiet interludes as well. Clary was feeling a bit nervous as they approached her place. She knew she ought to thank him and leave, but she had a strong desire to give him a kiss goodnight, although whether that was the friendly effects of the wine or what she really wanted she was not sure.

Jace pulled up at the curb outside the apartment building and looked across at her. "Tonight was good. We should do it again?"

A small part of Clary swooned as she realized he was nervous when asking that question.

Stupid romance.

Clary grinned and nodded her head. "Yes definitely..." She paused, took a breath and continued. "...Um, do you want to come with me to the art gallery thing with me to see my mum's stuff?"

Now she was nervous. What the hell was this? High school?

Jace did not hesitate in giving his answer. "Oh yea, that sounds good. The way you talk about her, she sounds amazing."

Clary smiled at this flattery of her mother but nodded her head all the same. "Ok, I'll text you details when I know them myself yea?" She moved her hands to pull open the door handle but stopped and turned to face him. "Really, thanks for tonight. I had fun."

It was with that little 'I had fun' that she threw caution to the winds and leant over to Jace. He seemed to know what she was intending to do, because his hand reached up and touched her cheek just as her lips landed softly on the side of his cheek, an inch from his mouth. That was all she had intended on doing, but was rather startled to find that Jace kept his hand on her face, thus stopping her withdrawal.

Jace was dumbstruck. She had leant in to kiss him, and had missed his mouth by an inch. No doubt it was on purpose, but having her so close to him and the fact that she had made the first move encouraged him to take over. He could feel her beginning to pull back, but kept his hand on her face. She did not try to fight his touch, but was looking at him questioningly. Trying to convey words with his eyes, Jace leant in ever so slowly towards her, maintaining eye contact the whole time until he lowered his eyes and his lips ever so slightly against hers and pulled back.

Clary who had it seemed also closed her eyes frowned and looked at him as he pulled away. He felt her let out a small sigh and saw her roll her eyes. She drew him back closer and he heard her murmur, "Idiot, that's not how you kiss" before her lips were on his.

It was with that final little 'kiss' that she allowed her lips to brush against his with more force than he had done to her. She could feel Jace's lips curve up in a smile and his other hand came up to touch her other cheek as they shared a short sweet kiss.

Clary found herself smiling as she drew away from him and winked as she pulled the door handle and pushed the door out. "I'll text you about my mum's thing. Thanks for tonight!"

Clary stepped out of his car and made her way towards the door to the complex. She turned around as she reached the doors and gave a small wave and smile to Jace's car and watched as he slowly pulled out and drove away.

She wondered how she could tell him that her mother's show was this weekend without sounding desperate. Because after that kiss, she was more than desperate to get to know him even more.

Who wants a bigger kiss? I do! Jace needs to man up!

So review?
;) until next time.