"What are you doing?"
Kristina jumped up and quickly looked around. "Oh Miss Cassadine. Hi. Uh, good morning? Do you need me to get you anything? Coffee? Newspaper?"
"Already got both." Carly held up the paper cup and newspaper. "What were you doing?"
"Oh yes, I see." Kristina said nervously. She tugged at her wig, making sure it was still in place. "Well I was just trying do something nice for you."
"And that was?" Carly asked as she walked over to her desk and sat down. She leaned back as she pulled back the plastic top from the coffee and took a bracing sip.
Still tugging at her wig, Kristina smiled brightly at her. "Feng Shui. Have you ever heard of it?"
"Yeah…" Carly waved her hand indicating that Kristina should go on.
"Well, I dabble in it. Actually more than dabble." Kristina bragged. "Anyway this room is all out of balance. So I figured, why not fix it?"
"Why not." Carly murmured.
"But it turns it out that might be harder than I thought." Kristina continued. "I'm going to need help moving this desk. You wouldn't want to…"
Carly merely raised an eyebrow. "Look. I'm not into the whole Eastern philosophy yin-yang thing. So thank you for the offer but I'm not interested. And besides, if I wanted my office balanced I'd get a professional. Not a secretary. Now, were there any urgent calls for me?"
Hurt, Kristina stopped fussing with her wig and squared her jaw. "Just a Mr. Corinthos. He wanted you to call him as soon as you came in."
Carly sat up and reached for the phone. "Is that it?"
Kristina tilted her head to the side as she thought. "Um, just a few reporters wanting an interview about the shoot…" She trailed off when Carly narrowed her eyes at her. "I told them no comment. So, yes, that's all."
"Then…" Carly made shooing motions with one hand as she quickly dialed Sonny's office number. She barely noticed Kristina leaving. She was too busy hoping Lois wouldn't answer.
Sonny answered on the second ring. "Yeah?"
"Hey." Carly swung her chair around so she faced the windows. "Miss me?"
"Hey you." She could practically hear him smiling over the phone. "Me miss you? What about you missing me?"
Carly laughed. "Yeah I missed you. I miss your hands, the way they feel on me. I miss your mouth, the way it tastes. I miss…"
"Hold on a sec." Sonny told her. She waited. She could hear him put down the phone and then start walking around. A few seconds later she heard him come back and pick up the phone again.
"What did you just do?"
"I locked the door. If we're having phone sex I don't want anyone busting in on me."
Carly didn't miss a beat. "Good thing I skipped the underwear this morning."
Sonny groaned. "I wish you were here."
"I could be there…" Carly began. "When's Lois leaving?"
"When she wants." Sonny joked.
"Shouldn't she be gone already? You're fine, right? You don't need her to take care of you. Hell, I could it." Carly said.
"Some how I can't see you playing nursemaid." Sonny said.
"Come on…I could get one of those outfits. We've never role-played before. I bet you'd be into that." Carly murmured.
"Mmm, I think we should start making a list of things to do." Sonny suggested.
"We could, as soon as your wife is gone. How's the divorce proceedings going by the way?" Carly pounced on the subject.
Sonny heaved an aggravated sigh. "They're going. And it's none of your business, by the way."
"Oh really?" Carly said dryly. Their fun sexual banter moment was rapidly disappearing.
"Caroline, I'm not going to discuss my marriage with you."
"Really?" Carly said again. "I'm starting to wonder, Sonny, what's really going on here? Are you changing your mind about this arrangement?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"Don't act obtuse with me. You know exactly what I'm saying. Do you want to stay married to Lois and keep me on the side?" Carly snapped. "Just tell me now, straight out. But remember, you knew what the deal was when we decided to get back together. We both were going to be free of our relationships or we weren't going to be together at all."
"You're jumping to conclusions." He said simply.
"Then tell me what's going on! Either you're getting divorced or you're not."
"I'll get divorced when I damn well want to." Sonny finally snapped.
"Let me remind you that I've given up a lot for you. Jason-"
"Jason dumped on your ass." Sonny interjected.
Carly sat back in her seat, shocked. She sucked in a breath then said. "If I wanted him back I could have gotten him."
"You didn't love him." Sonny told her.
"I don't love you either." Carly snapped back. She took a brief and tried to calm down. "You need to decide what you want out of this whole relationship. Either your wife or you want me. But you can't have us both."
"I don't like ultimatums." He said in a dangerously soft voice.
"Then we're going to have a problem aren't we?" Carly taunted. His answer to that was to hang up on her.
Carly stared blankly at the receiver in her hand. Did he? Did he just hang up on her? The bastard! Rising out of her seat, she Impulsively grabbed the whole phone set, jerked out the phone line, and threw the set at the nearest wall. It hit the wall with a thud and landed on the floor with a clatter.
"That damn bastard!" She growled.
Kristina came hurrying into the office. She looked at Carly then at the broken phone on the floor and then back at Carly. "Are you…okay?"
"Get maintenance up here. I need a new phone." She said as she smoothed her hair back. She sat back down and closed her eyes for a moment. "If Mr. Corinthos calls again…" Tell him to go to hell, she thought.
"Yes?"
"I'm in a meeting. I've left for the day. Make something up, I don't care." Carly told her. "I don't want to speak to him again today."
"Well, well, well, look at you." Nikolas groaned at the sound of Luke's voice. Nikolas dropped the heavy bag he was transporting from the forklift.
"What do you want, Luke?" Nikolas turned around.
"Call me Pa." Luke grinned devilishly at Nikolas.
Nikolas shook his head. "I don't have time for this."
"Sure you do." Luke said. "I cleared you some break time."
Nikolas narrowed his eyes. "How?"
"I'm friends with the foreman." Luke waved in the direction of a man standing across the docks. He waved back. "Now come with me. We're going to have ourselves a little talk."
"I've got nothing to say to you." Nikolas said.
"Not me, sure. But your mother would love a few words with you."
"I've talked to her." Nikolas grumbled as he pulled off his work gloves. He followed Luke away from the rest of the workers.
"A five minute phone call three days ago is not talking to her." Luke said.
"Did she ask you to come down here?" Nikolas asked suspiciously.
"'Course not." Luke said. "She wouldn't want to push you into anything. Me? I don't mind pushing so much as long as it gets my wife what she wants."
Nikolas looked up at the sky for a moment. He would agree to anything to get Luke out of his face. "I'll give her a call after work."
"Dinner."
"What?" Nikolas quickly looked at Luke.
"She'll want dinner or at least a visit. Don't make an excuse to get out of it." Luke gave him a pointed look.
"Fine."
"And bring Rollerblades." Luke added. When Nikolas stared at him confused, he clarified, "Lulu's been going on and on about teaching you how."
"I don't have any." Nikolas told him.
Luke shrugged. "Buy some. If you can afford to on the salary they're paying you. Laura doesn't know about this job?"
"No." Nikolas shook his head. "Why?"
"Cause if she did she'd start hinting at both of us to get a job at the club." Luke paused then slid him a conspiring look. "How 'bout neither of us tell her about this job?"
"Agreed." Nikolas said.
"Where are you going?" Zander demanded from the middle of Hannah's bed. She'd just came out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her. She walked over to her bureau and pulled out some clothes.
"I gotta go to work." Hannah said as she picked up her hairbrush and pulled it through her dark hair.
"Work?" Zander snorted. "Blow it off."
Hannah looked over her shoulder with a smile. "I can't."
Zander slid out of bed and walked up behind her. He slipped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck. "I said blow it off. Whadda ya need to work for?"
Hannah leaned back against him. "I've got rent, bills to pay…"
"I can take care of that." Zander offered.
Hannah turned to face him, her eyes bright and a big smile on her face. She'd been waiting for him to offer something like this. "Really?"
"Sure, whatever will get you back in that bed." Zander laughed.
Hannah's face fell. "Oh, I thought you meant it."
"I mean it, sure. But if I'm paying rent for you, you ain't living," Zander looked around with a sneer, "here."
Hannah threw her arms around his neck in an enthusiastic hug. "Whatever you want, thank you!"
"You also gotta quit working." Zander added.
"Now baby, don't get jealous of me stripping for other men. You're my one and only, you know that."
"I'm not jealous." Zander scoffed, pushing her away. "I don't want you working for Corinthos."
Hannah propped her hand on her hip. "Sonny has been really good to me, why should I stop?"
Zander narrowed his eyes. "Why the hell do you want to keep stripping when I'm offering to pay your way?"
"Because I need the money I get from stripping for other things." Hannah said cryptically.
"What other things?" Zander threw his hands up in the air. "I've been buying you all sorts of shit that you beg me for. Now all of a sudden you're going to pull some independent woman crap on me?"
Hannah rolled her eyes. "I'm saving up cause in a couple of years I want to open a bakery. And I'm not going to owe anyone, not you, money for it."
Zander stared at her. He laughed slowly, then he started to gain speed. Finally he had to sit down on her bed because he was laughing so hard. He wiped at his eyes and tried to catch his breath, "A bakery? You?"
"Yeah, what's so funny about that?" Hannah demanded.
"It's just the idea of you and a bakery. You gonna run one of those that specialize in X-rated cakes or something?"
Hannah rolled her eyes. "You can be such a jackass sometimes, Zander Smith."
Hannah turned her back on him and went to put on her clothes. Zander jumped off the bed and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back to him, harshly. Hannah looked at him with wide eyes.
He growled, "Don't ever call me that again…"
Hannah tried to pull her arm away. "Don't make fun of my dreams."
"Who are you to be demanding anything from me?" Zander shook his head and released her with a hard push. "Screw this. If I needed this kind of hassle I'd be home with Gia."
"Yeah, your pretty model girlfriend, go run to her. Like I care." Hannah sneered.
Zander grabbed his clothes off the floor and start dressing, angrily pulling on his pants. "Keep saying shit like that and see what happens. You know how many girls at that cheap strip joint you work at that would kill to be where you are now?"
"Then go get one." Hannah snapped as she buttoned her shirt.
"Great idea. I will." Zander stood up, finally dressed and crossed over to the door.
Suddenly Hannah realized he really was going to walk out that door and her life. That could not happen. She wasn't in love with the man yet but she really did like him, at times. She rushed over to him touched his arm, "Now don't leave mad, baby."
Zander lifted an eyebrow and stared down at her silently.
Hannah continued, "It's just that…you really hurt my feelings laughing at me."
Zander looked at her blankly. She caressed his chest and purred softly. "You know I appreciate everything you do for me. And your offer? To take care of me and get me a better place to live? I would really, really love to take you up on that."
"And…" She paused and glanced down at the floor before looking back at him with a forced smile. "If you really want me to stop working for Sonny, I could think about it."
She waited for Zander to say something, anything. The longer she waited, the more worried she became. Finally she added, "I'm going to go call one of the girls and see if she can cover for me. And then we can spend the rest of the day doing whatever you want."
She started to move away but Zander stopped her. He shook his head. "Don't bother. I got a meeting."
"What?" Hannah said incredulously. "A meeting? Since when?"
"Since I said I had a meeting damn it." Zander growled.
"But what about, you know, us?" Hannah asked.
"I'll let you know." Zander said. He quickly left.
"Oof!" Emily exclaimed as she bumped into someone. She had just walked out of Kelly's, still talking over her shoulder at Brenda. She accidentally dropped the handful of Polaroids that she'd been carrying. As she stooped down to pick them up, she quickly apologized, "Oh, I'm so sorry, are you okay?"
Gia helped her out by picking up a few and handed them to her. She smiled, "It's okay. It was my fault also. Here you go."
Emily recognized her immediately. "Oh hi."
"Hi."
"Hi!" Brenda piped in behind them. She eyed Gia curiously. Emily turned to introduce them. "Gia Campbell, my cousin, Brenda Ashton."
"Emily, you didn't tell me you knew Gia Campbell." Brenda said.
"I don't. Know her that is. We just happened to be visiting Carly at the same time." Emily explained.
"How is Carly by the way?" Gia asked.
"She's back to her usual self, just more busy. I was supposed to have lunch with her yesterday but she didn't have any time." Emily told her. Gia nodded.
Brenda spotted a photograph still lying on the ground. She grabbed. "Oops! Forgot one." She flipped it over. "Oh and it was the one we liked the most."
She showed the picture to Gia. "Doesn't Emily look great in this wedding dress?"
"Brenda!" Emily blushed. "Please."
Taking the picture, Gia studied it and said. "No, she's right. You look really good. Are you trying to get into modeling?"
"Oh, no." Emily said shaking her head, taking the picture back. "I'm getting married soon."
"Really?" Gia's eyes widened.
"Trust me, that was the family's reaction also." Brenda told her.
Emily rolled her eyes at her cousin's wife, "Anyway. My mother was supposed to come with us today to look at some styles but she had to cancel. So we took some Polaroids of our favorite dresses so she could have a chance to look at them also."
"Good idea." Gia complimented her.
"Gia, babe." Gia thought she heard Zander call for her. She frowned slightly. Zander? He said he was going to be busy all day. She glanced over her shoulder and there he was, coming towards them.
"Zander, hi. Did we…what are you doing here?" Gia said confused. Zander wrapped an arm around her waist, making her frown even more.
He nodded towards Brenda and Emily who obviously recognized him. They watched him warily. "Didn't interrupt you and your friends?"
"We were just about to go, actually." Emily said quickly. She flashed a brief smile at Gia. "Nice to see you again."
"Really nice to meet you." Brenda said, her eyes on Zander the whole time.
Gia faked a smile. Damn Zander. "And hey, if you ever did want to get into modeling, let me know. I know some people who could help you out. Carly knows how to get in touch with me."
"Ok, sure." Emily said. "Bye."
Zander kept his hand around Gia's waist until Emily and Brenda were gone. He lifted his eyebrows. "I guess your friends didn't like me."
"They're not my friends." Gia said, tossing her hair back. "What are you even doing here?"
"I was in the neighborhood." Zander shrugged. "I saw you, I came over. Why the hell do you have so many questions? I don't spend enough time with you, you bitch. I try to spend some time with you, you still bitch. You can't please a woman, ever!"
Gia narrowed her eyes. She knew what this was. It'd happened before. There was trouble with Zander's new chick. Hmm, maybe he would start feeling guilty about cheating on Gia and buy her something nice. Real nice. Hell, he owed her that much. Gia linked her arm through Zander's and snuggled up next to him.
"Zander? Honey? How about we go home and see what we can do about getting you out of this nasty mood?" She suggested.
Zander nodded. "Yeah, let's do that."
It was getting harder and harder for Carly to concentrate. She kept waiting for Kristina to come in with a message from Sonny. But most of the day was already gone and she still hadn't heard from Sonny. She was hoping he'd call to apologize first. She wasn't going to be the one to take the first step.
An hour later and Carly was done. She wasn't going to set around in her office waiting for him to call. She gathered up her things, pulled her suit jacket off the back of her chair and strode out of her office. She stopped by Kristina's desk.
"I'm taking off." She paused, hating the fact that she was going to ask. "Any messages I should be aware of before I go?"
Kristina shook her head negatively. "Sorry. You know I might be able to help…"
Worried that Kristina's help would involve some kind of New Age crap and also not really wanting to discuss her man problems with her secretary, Carly abruptly said. "No. Thanks."
"Well, have a good evening then." Kristina smiled brightly.
Carly nodded, doubting that would happen. She walked over to the elevators and pressed the down button. Her wait was a short one. A few minutes later the elevator dinged and the doors opened to reveal Sonny.