Note – I'm almost sad now that this story is wrapping up. I've only got like three pages left to my outline. It used to be eighteen or twenty pages long. Sad. Also, to be clear, Johnny is not in Port Charles, not in Crimson Pointe, and while he's definitely not halfway across the world or anything, he's still not close by. He's just...out and about.

The Right Girl 54

Damien Spinelli and Maxie Jones were such lousy, stinking traitors.

That – and the way she'd inevitably pay them back – was what was on Nadine's mind as she stood at the door leading in to Kelly's Diner. Spinelli and Maxie were supposed to have dinner with her tonight but something had come up and neither one could make it, so she was on her own.

Corwin stood at her side, throwing menacing glares all around, but it wasn't helping. Nadine knew she was being watched. Hell, she could see that she was being openly stared at because apparently, the people of Port Charles had a gross deficit of common courtesy.

A week had passed since Johnny left town, and the gossip spread like wildfire. The nurses at the hospital, the same ones she had angered by telling them that she would gladly put her foot in their asses if they spread such slanderous stories about Elizabeth, were speaking up about all the men in handsome black and grey suits that always seemed to be lurking around, carrying little boxes and scented love letters that the heir to the Zacchara family organization and fortune sent to the object of his affection.

Everyone had already decided, apparently, that Johnny and Nadine were madly in love and that she was his little girlfriend, his perfect little mob moll that helped him diffuse the situation with Sonny, Jason, and his sister Claudia and set things right. Of course, this image of a happy couple conflicted with the fact that Johnny left town the week before, but Nadine was certain that the busybodies at the hospital were working on a theory for that as well.

Spinelli and Maxie were supposed to be here to be her buffers and make this whole thing less awkward, but she'd gotten a text from them about ten seconds ago saying they couldn't make it. Of course, she received the text just as she stepped into the diner, and now everyone was staring.

Mike knew her order and was already putting it together, thank goodness, and for that Nadine was grateful. She did her best to ignore the looks and made her way over to the counter with Corwin at her side. She'd just get her food and get the heck out of her – that was the plan.

But per her usual style, Claudia Zacchara walked into the diner just then through the back door and decided to ruin that plan. She was taking a phone call and nodded at Nadine, then flipped her phone shut and slipped it into her purse.

"My order ready? I called it in ten minutes ago."

"Almost, Miss Zacchara," one of the waitresses promised. "We've just been so busy here-"

"Yeah, I didn't ask for your life story," she informed her dryly. "Just get me my food. Man, I'm going to have to wait, aren't I? I hate waiting. It's one of very few things I'm not good at."

Nadine smiled at that. "You? Naw, never would have guessed it."

Claudia smirked and glanced over when the back door to Kelly's opened again and this time, Jason Morgan walked in. One of the waitresses quickly grabbed a brown paper bag and began putting several containers into it.

"Hello, Mister Morgan, here's your order. French fries, steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, cheeseburgers, applesauce, chocolate milk, and…oh, yeah, brownies. Here you are, I've put it on your tab."

He took the bag from her and handed her a nice tip, and his expression was glacial as he glared at Claudia. Nadine gulped, seeing the hatred in his eyes, and took a step back but Claudia didn't seem at all concerned. She just sent him a sickly smile and batted her lashes.

"Kid-friendly food, I see. I mean, it has to be. I don't see you as the applesauce kind of guy. Unless you're into kinky things that I should know about." Her grin widened when he scowled. "So you moved the little knee-knibblers and their jam hands into your penthouse, huh? Hope you got those socket protectors, otherwise – ZAP! True story."

Nadine groaned aloud and covered her face with her hands, thinking that no one should ever doubt that Claudia was Anthony Zacchara's daughter. Her father had a penchant for sound effects, too.

"Oh, come on," Claudia laughed, while Jason looked close to violence. "You're still mad that I kidnapped the Fruit of your Looms and your Girl Friday, aren't you? Grow up, Morgan. My God, you hold a grudge like a woman."

He growled and stalked past her as Claudia chuckled, and when he was gone she turned around and found the little waitress behind the counter. "You. My food ready or what? If it's not in my hand in about two seconds, I might just unhinge my jaw and eat you instead."

"Charming," Nadine murmured, rolling her eyes. She turned away and realized her mistake when she found herself staring at Lulu Spencer.

The blonde arched a brow at her. "You gonna hide behind your guards this time, or are you gonna talk?"

The corners of Nadine's mouth tightened. "I have nothing to say to you."

"Not surprising," Lulu snorted. "Because nothing can excuse what you did. You had it all planned from the beginning – you wanted Johnny from the start, and now you have him. You make me sick, you two-faced slut-"

"Thanks for finally getting my food," Claudia remarked dryly, taking her bag from the waitress. "Here's a nice tip…that I'm not going to give you."

She turned away from the stunned girl and her expression darkened when she saw Lulu antagonizing Nadine. "Funny, and all this time I thought the Chupacabra was just a legend."

Lulu ignored her. "I was right about you from the start. You never cared about the consequences of your actions, you just wanted Johnny any way you could get him. And he was stupid enough to-"

"Hey!" Claudia slammed her bag down on a nearby table, not particularly caring that a young couple was trying to eat dinner at that particular spot, and cut her off right there. "The only time that John behaved stupidly was when he gave a glue-factory-hopeful skank like you the time of day. Don't be mad because he finally wised up and realized that bestiality was a crime."

Lulu stared at her. "What?"

"She thinks you look like a horse," Nadine explained loudly, unable to help herself. "Hence the bestiality remark. And she's right, our state definitely frowns upon it."

"If you've got a problem with her, that's just tough shit," Claudia continued firmly. "Normally, I'd love to see you two go at it, but my blood sugar's low and I'm way more interested in what comes out of this take out container here than whatever crap comes out of your mouth. So get lost before I beat your oversized potato head in with my shoe."

Lulu scoffed. "That's really sweet, protecting your brother's little skank, and I guess you guys have to travel in flocks, so that makes sense, but you can't do anything to-"

Her eyes widened when Claudia's expression turned grim. Lulu took a step backward when Claudia took a step forward, and then another when she saw her reach for her shoe. She had already turned on her heel and was halfway out the door when Claudia launched the new red stiletto that had just been biting into her toes all day at her head. It bounced off Lulu's back and fell on the floor, and the youngest Spencer was already gone.

Nadine stared at the door, her mouth completely open, and had absolutely no idea what to think, do, or so. So she settled on gaping at Claudia rather stupidly and sputtering, "You – You hit her! With your shoe! It, like, bounced of her head and everything!"

Claudia arched a brow as Nadine stared up at her in awe, continuing to balance elegantly on one foot, and pointed toward the door. "Go get my shoe."


"Oh, no, we definitely should." Nadine smiled into her phone as she let herself back into her apartment. "I had never been to the Clubhouse before, it was great. We have to get everyone 

together sometime and go there, Elizabeth, too, once things settle down for her. Yeah. Yeah, I know, aren't they cute together? He'd probably shoot you if he heard you say that, though. Yeah, yeah, okay. Talk to you later. Bye."

She tossed her phone on the couch and dumped her purse on the floor, already on her way to the bedroom. A leisurely lunch with girlfriends like the one she just had was best followed by a nice nap with the fan on. She slept very well on her full stomach and got up two hours later to do some chores around her place.

Nadine loaded the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen, picked all of her knick-knacks up and restored them to her bedroom despite the fact that they would only end up back in her living room in a few days, then dusted all of her furniture and wiped the windows clean.

Satisfied with her work but lamenting the fact that the sun was setting and it was dinner time, Nadine decided the best way to wind up her relaxing day off was to curl up on the couch with a movie and order some pizza. She placed the order for her jalapeno-pineapple pizza with extra garlic sauce and ranch dressing, was told she would have to wait thirty minutes, and then set about trying to pick out something to watch.

According to (honestly, who subscribed to the actual, physical publication anymore?), there was nothing good on television, so Nadine set about inspecting her vast DVD collection. She had tons of DVDs, mostly DVDs of TV shows, which was amusing, but she couldn't figure things out. Scrubs, Arrested Development, Black Adder, Jeeves and Wooster, Star Trek, Three's Company, All in the Family, and even Wishbone. So why couldn't she find anything to watch?

The knock on her door alerted her that her pizza had arrived, so Nadine got her purse and paid off the very nice delivery man, then went right back to trying to figure out what to watch. Another knock on her door interrupted her, and she got up to answer it.

"Hello?"

A tall man in a dark suit held a box in his hands. Next to him, Corwin was smirking and had pursed his lips together into what she called a kissie face. "Delivery for you, Miss Crowell."

She looked back and forth between the two men, her eyes narrowed, and took the box from him. "Not a word, Corwin."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Nadine smiled and disappeared behind her door, making her way back to the couch. She took the top off and found a box set of DVDs inside. Pulling it out, she let out a laugh when she saw Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola's classic trilogy about an Italian American family business. As always, there was a note enclosed and she pulled it out with a smile.

One of my favorites…for obvious reasons. Tonight's a good night to say in. There's a storm front moving in according to the news. Looks like you missed your opportunity for a relaxing evening in the park. Sad.

JZ.

Unable to help it, Nadine looked around the apartment. Was he watching her? It felt like he was watching her. He knew she hadn't gone to the park, and it was obvious that he was monitoring weather conditions in town when he decided on what to send her. The fact that she had been rooting around for something to watch was probably a happy coincidence, especially since Johnny knew that she often watched movies at night.

And Nadine couldn't quite explain what it was that sent a rush of blood to her cheeks and a goofy smile to her lips, but the feeling of being watched…it was exciting and dangerous and flattering all at the same time. No man she was kind-of-sort-of friends with had ever paid this much attention to her before.

And she quite liked it.


"Miss Zacchara, Miss-"

Nadine blew right past Reivers and stopped in front of Claudia's desk, throwing her hands up in the air. "Okay, seriously? What in the world did you do to Carly to get a lifetime ban from the MetroCourt?"

Claudia grinned and swung her legs off the desk, dismissing Reivers with a flick of her wrist. Her smile was wide and wicked. "Aw, you missed me. You came all the way out here to ask me that because you miss me. That's so pathetic of you."

"I did not miss you," Nadine snorted, flopping down in the chair right across from the desk and tossing her bag to the floor. "I found out in the cafeteria today that you did something to Carly and it got you banned from the MetroCourt for life and no one seems to know what it is. So spill!"

"It was unplanned," Claudia admitted, still grinning. "Very rash of me, actually. Basically I was having a drink at the bar and that banshee walks over to me and starts shooting her mouth off, just saying awful things, so I start to lose my patience. We get into it and then one of her floor managers comes up to her and starts asking her something, so she turned around."

Nadine cringed, enjoying herself thoroughly. She found, strangely enough, that she liked living vicariously through Claudia's wickedness. "Go on."

"The bar tender left a pair of scissors on the counter when he was opening one of those bags of toothpicks, so I grabbed it while Carly had her back turned." She shrugged demurely as Nadine 

choked on air, knowing what came next. "I just kept cutting chunks of her hair off until she noticed, and she freaked. Probably would have taken a swing at me, but I tossed my martini on her shirt and told her that my lighter was in my purse, and that I'd see myself out."

Nadine had her face in her hands. "Oh, you are so awful. You cut off her hair?!"

"The skank was asking for it," Claudia replied breezily, as if it truly didn't matter. And, Nadine supposed, to her it truly didn't. "So guess what I'm going to do now."

"Something involving another martini and another lighter?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I've already set up a meeting with Edward Quartermaine. I'm going to invest in and back the Port Charles Hotel and Grille and steal a huge chunk of Carly's clients. Stick around, it should be fun."

Nadine was laughing when a knock on the door announced Reivers's presence.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if either of you ladies would like some coffee or tea," he smiled, looking back and forth between them.

"I'll take tea, if you have it," Nadine said, drawing a curious look from Claudia. "Ooh, ooh, and did Cook make those little scones?"

"Just yesterday," Reivers affirmed. "I'll bring some out for you, Miss."

"Thanks bunches."

Claudia nodded that she wanted the same, and waited until Reivers left the room before frowning at Nadine. "I thought you were a coffee drinker. That's what John said."

The nurse shrugged. "I've been trying to quit, cut it out of my diet."

"Ah." Claudia turned in her seat slightly, moving back and forth lazily. "So, you, uh, talked to John at all recently?"

Nadine shook her head. "I haven't heard from him, no. Just the odd package here and there. Although, sometimes, you know, it's weird, I kind of feel like I'm being watched. That's kind of what I came here about, to see if you'd know anything about that."

"Nuh-uh." Claudia grinned triumphantly. "You came because you missed me."


The elevator beeped twice and the doors slowly slid open, allowing Nadine to step out onto the fifth floor. Epiphany Johnson and Amy Vining were already at the hub, going through their 

patient charts, and Nadine barely had time to smile hello before a tall man in a black suit came up alongside her, holding out a sealed white paper cup in a cardboard sleeve. "For you, Miss."

At first, she didn't notice the note tucked into the protective sleeve. "Oh, no, thanks, I don't drink-"

"I insist," he replied before turning and walking away. Next to her, Corwin snorted.

"Must be from Lover Boy."

"Shut up or I'll tell him you call him that. Care Bare."

He scowled and mumbled something far from complimentary about her under his breath, but Nadine had just noticed the folded cardstock tucked into the sleeve. She pulled it out, not particularly caring that Amy Vining was watching her like a hawk.

I heard that you were trying to cut back on coffee, so here's a nice herbal tea blend I thought you'd like. It's got a hint of pomegranate in it. I don't know what the hell that is, but it's a fruit with a fancy name, so I figure girls dig that kind of thing.

JZ.

Nadine smiled and tentatively inhaled, finding that she liked the warm fruity scent of the tea. Glaring at Corwin to keep his damn mouth shut, she took a sip and headed off toward the locker room, the note tucked away safely in her pocket.