Hey, beauties! Here's an update for the week :)
Isabelle left in the morning, after they had breakfast. She had a shoot in Malibu, and she was due on set at three that afternoon. The shoot had been the reason she had come to this part of the country anyway, and she had come down a day early so that she could come and see them, but it was still a business trip, and she couldn't by late. Clary was still getting it through her head that she had a girl staying in her house who literally got paid to look pretty.
She knew that there was more to it, and she didn't mean to demean what Isabelle did even if it was just in her head, but that was still a large part of it.
Surprisingly, Simon came by for breakfast. He usually wasn't a morning person, given he pulled late shifts at the bar and then they were up late last night, so Clary was guessing that it had something to do with the model. She was even more surprised when Isabelle reached out and gave him a tight hug before she left. It was already obvious that Isabelle was quite a tactile person, but Simon wasn't really. He seemed to be more than happy with it though, hugging her back and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. Jace raised an eyebrow at his cousin and Clary gave Simon a pointed look, but her bespectacled friend just blushed slightly and didn't say anything.
Simon left straight after Isabelle left, and Clary didn't say it to her friend, but she was glad that he did, because even though it had only been a day, it felt like it had been forever since her and Jace had gotten any time alone. She also knew that their time together was limited, she knew that it was going to be coming to an end soon, because they both had their own lives that they needed to return to.
Their own lives, which were hours apart, in completely different parts of the country.
They ended up on the quad bikes again, and Clary teased him lightly, saying that he wasn't doing too badly for a city boy. They drove back up the hill that they had gone to yesterday with Isabelle, leaving the bikes at the bottom and hiking up, almost to the top, stopping under a big tree that offered shade. They sat down, Clary taking in a few deep breaths as she braced her arms behind her and tilted her head backwards, the sun that was making it's way through the leaves and branches of the trees dappling her skin.
"It's weird," Jace begin, his voice quiet, so as not to break the tranquility of the moment. He was still adapting to being somewhere where there wasn't constant noise. The only thing he could hear right now was the wind ruffling the leaves and the occasional chirp of a bird. Every now and then, the voices of the workers down in the vineyard would catch in the wind and faintly reach them, but other than that—silence.
"What's weird?" Clary asked.
"Thinking that this time next week...I'm not going to be here with you," Jace didn't sound happy about that, and Clary wasn't either. She had been trying not to think about the fact that he was leaving in just a couple of days.
"I know," she murmured, opening her eyes again, inhaling deeply through her nose. "It sucks." Jace looked over at her, and she gave him a small smile, her eyes sad. She wasn't sure what else she could say, because it wasn't as though she could ask him to stay. His life was in New York. And she really hoped that he wouldn't ask her to go, because there was no way that she could say 'yes'. And then it wasn't even as though they were dating? Not really? Were they?
"You have any work that you've got waiting for you?" Jace asked as he moved so that he was sitting behind Clary, his legs on either side of her. She leaned back so that her back was pressed against his chest.
"Plenty," she snorted. "But I'm on top of it, I made sure I got ahead. I've got a couple of pictures due soon, so I'm gonna have to work pretty hard on those when I get back. Mum and dad want me to do another label for this wine they're bringing out for the Spring, and they want me to start getting ideas together for that soon, before everything starts going into production," she sighed. "These past few days have been so perfect they haven't felt real...But I'm gonna have to go back to my normal life soon." Jace nodded and they were quiet again. Her hair was tied up, in a messy bun on top of her head, some loose strands falling around her face and neck. Jace couldn't help but shift his eyes, looking down at her slender neck, and he leaned forward, pressing a few soft kisses at her nape. Clary giggled at the feeling. "That's ticklish," she told him in a light voice.
"Sorry," he murmured, still nibbling at the curve of her shoulder.
"No, you're not," she replied and he could hear the grin in her voice.
"No, I'm not," Jace agreed, leaving a few more kisses over her shoulder. He stopped after a moment, and rested his chin on her shoulder, his lips close to her ear. "I know," he murmured, going back to their earlier conversation. "I need to get back to real life as well."
"Oh yeah?" Clary teased lightly, trying to cover up the fact it hurt to hear him say that. "Big job back in the city? All that TV watching to get back too? Some secret girlfriend?" Jace gave her a squeeze and she let out a short laugh, although there was some tension then.
"No girl waiting back there for me, you should know that," Jace murmured. "And maybe I don't have a job in the most common sense, but I do have a meeting that I need to go to."
"For the restaurants?" Clary asked.
"Yeah," Jace nodded. "It's with some of the investors. It's a monthly meeting that happens, pretty much the only time I have anything to do with the restaurants. Sebastian has a few new ideas, wants to pitch them to the other investors as well as me. I don't really know what he wants to do yet, so we need to have a meeting beforehand to run through his thoughts. I'm happy with where we are now, but Sebastian always has big ideas, and they're usually good ones. That's a big part of the reason why we're in business together."
"I'm glad you've got something back there," Clary murmured. "I always...I don't know—I always thought you seemed kind of...Lonely. I mean, you're hardly ever out and you don't work everyday, so you're not with people there." Jace didn't say anything, because she was right. He just kissed the skin just below her ear.
"I wasn't so lonely once I started talking to you," Jace whispered and Clary lips curved upward, leaning back into him. His arms tightened around her and she felt him take in a deep breath, his chest expanding against her back. "I'm serious, Clary," and his tone definitely made it sound that way, and so she pulled away to twist her neck so that she could see at least half his face. "Messaging you, and then talking to you, and then meeting you...It's been the best thing that has happened to me in a really long time." Clary's heart beat faster in her chest and her eyes were soft as she twined her fingers together with his.
"Same with me, Jace," she murmured, and Jace looked as though there was something more that he wanted to say, his lips parted a couple of times, his eyes darting around her face before he let out a heavy breath. Clary smiled at him, not wanting to push him to say something he wasn't ready for, and also understanding that sometimes it was hard to find the words that you wanted to say. "Maybe next time I'll need to come up to New York to see you," she said lightly as she turned back around in his arms to look out over the vineyard.
"You'd really do that?" Jace asked, sounding surprised.
"Well, yeah," Clary let out a laugh. "I mean—I can't just drop everything and fly over in my dad's private jet like you did, and drive up from my Malibu home," she gave him a nudge with her shoulder to show that she wasn't making a jab at him. "So I'll need to wait until my work schedule actually allows me to get away and save up enough for a flight—but yeah. Yeah, I'd love to see your part of the city."
"I can pay for your ticket," Jace said quickly.
"No," Clary told him just as quick and Jace sighed. "No, that's okay," Clary reiterated in a bit of a softer tone. "I can pay for my own ticket." Clary knew that it wouldn't make any dent in Jace's bank account to pay for her ticket, but it was the principal of the thing. They were still so early into their relationship, or whatever it was, she wasn't about to let him start treating her to things this early on. It just didn't feel right, even if he was offering.
"Okay," Jace nodded, respecting her decision. He gave her a small smile and nudged her with his shoulder. "I could always just lend you the private plane," he teased her and Clary rolled her eyes.
"That would be even worse," she shot back at him with a grin on her own face. "Hey—you want food? We can go get a few things from the amazing bakery in town."
"Sounds good," Jace replied. "But first—" his fingers moved and tipped under her chin, bringing her face around. The awkward angle made the kiss a little difficult at first, but then Clary got up on her knees and turned around, kissing him properly, her hands keeping her balance by gripping his shoulders. They kissed until the grass was digging uncomfortably into Clary's knees, and she pulled away and grinned.
"Come on," she told him. "Let's go get food."
1) Wrong Direction - Hailee Steinfield. 2) Walls - Louis Tomlinson. 3) Alanis' Interlude - Halsey and Alanis Morissette. 4) See You Again - Carrie Underwood. 5) Brooklyn Baby - Lana Del Rey. 6) Blood - In This Moment. 7) Casual Sabotage - Yungblud. 8) She - Harry Styles. 9) Living Proof - Camila Cabello. 10) Monsters - James Blunt.
My husbands favourites change all the time, but he has said that today the ones he played the most are Adore You by Harry Styles and First Man by Camila Cabello. I think my playing of the HS2 album on repeat has gotten to him, and he wasn't too big of a fan of First Man by Camila, probably because I played it so much when the song first came out, it always just made me so emotional. After her Grammy performance last night, though, he was an absolute wreck, and he said he played it all the way to work, so I think he's finally on board with that song!
We had a How To Train Your Dragon binge in the weekend, which was amazing, and I've just started a new showed called Reprisal, which seems pretty good.
Also keep in mind, I am sending you guys PM's in response to your reviews! Please don't think I'm ignoring you guys! I absolutely appreciate all your beautiful words and support, just currently the alerts are turned off for any PM's, which is incredibly frustrating, so you're just not getting alerted by them when I send one!
Much love xx