THE VIEW FROM THE MOON
Set in season 6, same time as All the right moves.
Joey sat on her bed reading a book looking over at Audrey, who was sleeping on her bed, she looked around and turned back to her book. It was boring, she was bored, and the world seemed to revolve slowly. The book she was reading about the French revolution, with a very bad English translation. It was boring her beyond belief, she had nothing to do but read, she just wished that anything exciting would happen. For once nothing was happening, the week was quiet, no major crisis and it had driven her to boredom. The week before had been hectic, Audrey had a narrow escape, taking her to the hospital to have her stomach pumped was not a nice ordeal and it hadn't stopped her drinking. She said she wanted to stop and she believed her, drinking was a habit and the drugs was an addiction. She took a deep breath and continued to read the badly translated book that she was preparing to give a very bad view of to Professor Heston. The phone rang beside her; she thanked god for the interruption and put down the book, picking up the phone to hear a friendly voice on the other end. "Hello? Dorm of the living dead and badly translated French novels how can I be at your service?" she answered she heard a familiar chesty laugh on the other end and a smile crept to her Face. "Well, well, well Mr. Witter, long time no see, I thought that you had fallen into the flames of hell and been burned to a crisp," she told him, sweeping her long hair behind her ears. She was going to try to sound mad at him, she loved to tease.
"How did you know it was me?" Pacey questioned leaning back in his chair in his brand new office. She always knew it was him and he never knew quite how she knew before he spoke.
"Well your laugh just gives you away Witter. Why the phone call? You've been a stranger lately you better have a good reason for disturbing my education," she joked to him, sitting up in her bed and crossing her legs into the lotus position. She listened to him and his silence, it was almost giddy, she didn't know how but she could always tell if he was happy on the phone, his voice just came across so clearly to her.
"I am sorry I disturbed your reading hour Miss Potter, I guess I will just have to find someone else to interrupt and take for a champagne luncheon," he told her. He could almost feel her smile light up on the other end as he spoke, leaning back in his very comfortable chair and playing with his electronic pencil sharpener. He had sharpened many pencils today, it was just something about an electronic pencil sharpener that amazed him. The fact that you didn't even need to turn the pencil, just place it into the hole made him giddy, right now his whole life made him giddy. Well apart from the rush of guilt he felt every second thought, about how he had hurt Audrey, but right now speaking to Joey he was happy.
"Did you say Champagne luncheon?" Joey asked slightly amused. Those words did not come out of Pacey Witter's mouth - it was definitely a change from Pizza at 'the hut'.
"Yup Champagne Luncheon with a newly promoted stock broker, can you think of anything better. I mean I sit here in my office and think, in my very comfortable leather chair, looking out over the Boston skyline and playing with my electronic pencil sharpener and think. I think hmmm who could I possibly take out to a very expensive lunch to celebrate my moving forward in the business world and I thought of no-one better then you. But if you don't want to then I guess I'll just go down to the staff room and pick a very attractive, leggy secretary with huge breasts and ask her which I'm sure that she would love. So whaddya say. Do I need to walk all the way down to the secretary's lounge and make a very hard decision or do you want to come?" Pacey asked waiting for a while before she spoke, a smile spread across his face as the imagined her face. He could imagine her fingers sweeping her hair behind her ear, her lips turning up in the corner into a smile and a small laugh playing on her throat.
"Well aren't you arrogantly charming this morning Mr. Witter? Well if it means that it stops you from getting of your big obnoxious ass and..." Joey told him a smile was tugging at her lips but she knew she should disapprove. There was no way she could turn him down, his little speech was making her curious, electronic pencil sharpeners? That could not be resisted. As she was speaking, he cut her off mid sentence.
"I'll have you know that I have a very nice ass Miss Potter, it is obnoxious in no way. Anyway if it is it's really okay because being arrogant, obnoxious and being a general persuasive pain in the ass is in my job description," he told her. "Come on Potter time is money, you going to come or not?" he questioned her, looking through a file on his desk.
"Did you just actually mutter the completely unoriginal words 'time is money'?" she questioned laughing slightly in her throat, she heard him return it lightly as he spoke.
"Yes I did, but it is very true, right about now I should be making the company money. But instead I'm talking to a very financially broke student who is probably going to be eating yesterdays old pizza if she doesn't come out with me," he told her, leaning forward onto his desk awaiting her answer. He knew he wouldn't have to take that walk into the secretaries' lounge.
"Well it does sound like a much better option," Joey told him and paused, pretending to think. "I'll be over at twelve?" she questioned him. A smile playing at her lips as she closed her book and lay back onto the bed, closing her eyes and listening to his voice. His voice was like velvet to her, even when she was hating him his voice always made her happy again. His voice and his smile always put a light into her life, in a way she hated it, she hated the fact that he always made her smile by his voice. But she loved that he had the power.
"Twelve is perfect and dress up all nice now, you want to look just as good as m.e which I do not think is possible because I am looking marvelous today. But I'll see you later and let you get back to your absolutely riveting education," he told her, turning his attention to a file on his desk that he had to work on.
"Thank you but you really weren't disturbing anything that I didn't want disturbed," she told him looking out of the window at the sunshine that broke through the blinds. It was a nice day, possibly a day for a skirt, it certainly seemed appropriate for lunch with a stockbroker.
"Ok bye," He said before hanging the phone up and getting on with his work. Most people would consider it boring but as he saw it, it was an excuse to talk on the phone all day and flirt with very rich women.
"Bunny? Who was that disturbing my sleep?" Audrey asked with her hand on her head walking over to Joey's bed and sitting on it. She stared at her smile, she knew only one person was capable of giving her that giddy look, she frowned. "Oh god you look giddy, it must be a certain man with a horrendous beard that we both know a little too well for our health," she told her and Joey nodded. She didn't mind Joey spending time with a man that was at one time her beau. She didn't mind her spending time with him but when it meant disturbing her sleep with her very obvious banter/flirting, she wasn't as keen.
"Yeah, certain stockbroker whose name is not mentioned. It was him, don't worry he's not coming over," She reassured her. Getting up off her bed, she looked in her wardrobe thinking about what to wear. It wasn't a huge deal, she had had lunch with him many times, but she didn't know what to wear for a swanky lunch with a stockbroker. It was funny to think of him as a stockbroker when she had known him so long, but it was as close to a professional flirt and suck-up as humanly possible. She was stumped with what to wear, she was clean-clothily-challenged. It was washing day tomorrow and nothing was clean, usually she would ask the expert opinion of Audrey, live-in style coordinator, but considering who it was it just didn't seem appropriate. She listened to Audrey in the bathroom being sick again, she was always sick and Joey was beginning to worry.
Joey walked down the corridor, looking for Pacey, she couldn't find him, they said his office wasn't far from where he used to work, if she knew where he used to work then it would have been easier. She walked down the corridor, she couldn't believe she had worn this outfit, red button down shirt, black blazer and black knee-length skirt with some heels that were highly dangerous. Dangerous was the word around here; vultures that whistled at her surrounded her as she walked past. She rolled her eyes as she felt a presence behind her, a strong smell of forceful after shave and hair gel. Rich Rinaldi, plague of the stock brokerage, approached her. "You look a little lost, you seem to have misplaced the model agency," he said in her ear, she continued to walk and ignored him, looking around. "Look, seriously, you really do look lost" he told her.
"I'm looking for Pacey Witter," she told him and he nodded. "What?" she questioned him. She scowled at him, he was a slimy snail in her garden, she wished she could just stomp on him with her high heel.
"Oh yes I know Witter. Usually I would consider myself too important to chaperone you to his office, seen as I am his boss. But on this occasion, as you are so jaw dropingly gorgeous I will make a very welcome acceptation," he told her putting his hand on the small of her back and leading her around the corner.
"If I pour salt on you will you die?" she asked him sharply, narrowing her eyes at him and his unwelcome contact on her back. He really was slimy, and his hair had more gel than was acceptable or essential, he was a true Neanderthal.
"Ooh razor sharp tongue, be careful you don't cut me and with your quick as lightening whit I think I may burn up," He said sarcastically, laughing at her insults, he had been called a slug before. "Salt? I mean really. Is that the best you can do?" he questioned her. He rolled his eyes at her and laughed as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Well a much more creative option would be to castrate you with my nail file," she told him and watched him as he swallowed hard, admitting defeat. She smiled with satisfaction, "so are you going to tell me where to find my friend who has the misfortune of having to work in an environment that resembles a reptile house at the zoo?" she questioned him.
"If you're referring to Witter his office is just here. But I must warn you that I am much more attractive than he is, and it may be hazardous to your health not to go out to dinner with me tonight," he told her. He leant on the doorframe and looked at her with a smile and a wink.
"Oh puhlease come up with a better line than that, I mean have some originality for gods sake. You make a living out of being persuasive and I just... I feel like I want to be sick. If I was in the market for buying stock you just wouldn't be motivating me, I mean the way the markets are right now nothing would motivate me but your little clever talk you have is just pathetic. You call yourself a salesman come on I've seen a guy at a yard sale with more of a sales pitch then you," she told him, stopping when she heard a voice from behind her.
"Be careful Rinaldi, this ice queen will set her saber-tooth tiger on you," he told him and laughed with him. Joey turned around slowly and glared at him. It was hard to keep the glare when she saw the grin on his face; his smug smile and he stood outside his office putting on his coat.
"Bite me jackass," she retorted walking over to him and hugging him affectionately. It had been too long since she had seen him, almost two weeks. She looked at his face, his facial hair had grown on her, she might actually think about saying that maybe it was alright. It was trimmed and smart at least, but she still missed his face.
"Maybe over lunch, You look ravishing," he responded releasing her from his grip and looking at her, raising his eyebrows at her. She looked beautiful in the outfit she was wearing, it accentuated every curve whilst still leaving a lot to the imagination.
"In your dreams Witter," Joey told him, folding her arms over her chest and glancing at him. He was back to being the Pacey she knew, recently he had been a little different, but he was back as close to normal as he could get. Although she did have the irrepressible, urge to shave his beard off. It's not that she didn't like the beard but she missed his chin, she loved his chin and she missed it.
"Every night, you know that. You, Victoria secret and a pair of handcuffs," he joked as he put his scarf around his neck and buttoned his coat. It was January, it was bright outside, but it was still cold.
" Now that is how you banter," Joey said pointing at Pacey and turning to Rich. "You could learn something from Pacey, I never thought I would ever say that but then again I never met such a lousy flirt. I mean seriously come on do you ever get laid?" Joey asked him, shaking her head at him. Pacey had told her his boss was a pain in the ass but never how much of a pain in the ass, he was painful to look at he was so sleazy.
"You burn me," Rich retorted, turning to Pacey and looking at him with a gaze if question. " Witter are you going to introduce me to your sharp tongued witty friend or should I just call her the angel of death?" he asked. He backed away from her slightly when he felt her eyes on him, stabbing through him with her look of ice.
"Rich this is Joey Potter, Joey this is Rich Rinaldi," He told them, looking at his watch at it hit 12.02, he had 58 minutes for lunch and he was wasting it standing refereeing between his boss and his friend.
"Nice to meet you," Rich told her, shaking her hand. He reeled in her touch; she had soft hands and a witty tongue, very attractive. Pacey Witter was a very lucky man.
"Yes well I wish I could say the same but unfortunately the irrepressible feeling that you give me of nausea kind of diminishes it into obscurity," Joey told him with an innocent smile. It was true; he actually made her feel sick. She hated him, she had only met him but she hated him, she hated the way he looked down her blouse, the way that he smiled and especially the way that his cold touch made her skin crawl. "Come on Witter, take me to lunch, wine me, dine me, feed a starving student," she ordered, taking his wrist and looking at his silver watch that clung to him.
"Ok, ok I'll feed you. See you later Rinaldi," Pacey said, draping his arm around Joey shoulder and walking along the corridor with her. She had outsmarted Rich Rinaldi, he didn't think it was possible, she was very commendable.
Joey sat in a restaurant with Pacey, eating her lunch and drinking her champagne, the bubbles were going to her head, she was a very light drinker. She looked at Pacey and smiled, laughing lightly and looking back to her food. This was more than bizarre; she was sitting in a very expensive restaurant with Pacey Witter, who was wearing a suit. "What?" Pacey questioned looking up at her with a quizzical glance.
"It's just... I was just thinking how bizarre this is, you're wearing a tie, you're in a suit, and we're drinking champagne. What is with this? You're Pacey Witter king of the combats," she told him and he laughed. His transformation was unbelievable, very different from the Pacey Witter who used to bug her and put frogs down her shirt when they were young.
"Well I guess some people just need to change, I thought it was time Pacey Witter grew up a little bit. Y'know I like it that people see me a different way, instead of saying hey punk kid get outta here they say excuse me sir. It just feels like if you want a little bit of respect you have to change," he told her. He hung his head low and felt her eyes on him looking at him curiously. He gazed back into her and questioned her glance.
"And is this new Pacey Witter, respected Pacey Witter, is he happy?" she asked him, putting her fork down and looking over the small table at him. He seemed happy but his eyes were troubled, he was incasing his pain within his tough exterior.
"I am happy, it's a good job, amazing earning potential, gives me that adrenaline rush that I always wanted. Gives me a chance to really show my communication skills and passing the series 7's was a huge boost to me, proved I wasn't completely stupid," Pacey told her. He took a deep breath, wiping his mouth with the napkin and looked over to her. "It's just it's hard to be happy when you've ruined someone's personality. I mean I do not deserve to be happy after what I did to Audrey, how I hurt her and made her feel miserable all the time. I drove her to drink, drove her to drugs somehow, I made her feel that miserable Jo. I hurt everyone I touch," he told her sadly, it was true. Every relationship he ever had ended is disaster.
"Pacey that's not true, it's not just you, Audrey has loads of issues apart from you. You aren't the basis of her drink problem Pace," Joey told him, furrowing her brow and taking his hand across the table. She rubbed her thumb over the soft skin of his knuckles and looked to him. His eyes were full of guilt and pain. "You don't need to feel guilty, it is not you. You are a great guy, you care about her if you didn't you wouldn't have that look in your eyes that kills me to see. You have to know that it isn't your fault," she told him and watched him shake his head. He didn't believe her, Audrey had said it was his fault and if she said it then it must have been true.
"She said I was too involved with work and not enough with her. She was right, I got too preoccupied but all I wanted was to be successful, to make something of myself and to have something more. I didn't want to be the person she wanted me to be, I didn't want to be a guy who parties all he time and works for minimum wage in a restaurant his whole life. I wanted people to be proud of me and by doing that I pushed her away. But I did it deliberately, and that's the worst thing, I wasn't in love with her anymore and I think she knew that. Everything I touch, everybody I touch gets hurt," he told her sadly, looking up at her. He recognized her look, he knew that look, she was shaking her head and looking at him with that look.
"Pacey, you are so wrong. Everyone who knows you loves you, you inspire people to be better people and sure you might screw up sometimes, you might say and do things that go wrong but everyone does. Look at me, look at my relationships, I'm hardly wonderful I make more mistakes than you do. What I did to you I could never forgive myself for, the way I hurt you was unforgivable, but you forgave me." she told him looking into him. He creased his brow and looked at her with confusion.
"You didn't hurt me Joey, I hurt you. I hurt you by saying all those things I said about how you made me feel ands they weren't right. It was how I felt but it wasn't you. Then there was Andie, that's great that one, I actually sent her to the asylum. Tamara? I drove her out of town. I'm a failure at relationships and now I drove one to the drink. How can I let myself be happy when I've done so many bad things," he told her. Joey could see the guilt he was feeling. It felt like he had caused Audrey to break and shatter, at a time when she needed support he didn't give her it. He didn't support her and he didn't treat her as well as he should.
"Pacey. You have to get past this feeling of guilt, not all of those things were your fault, most weren't your fault. You have to gain some perspective and get past it. Audrey is troubled, it's not just you, it's everything. You have to let yourself be happy. I know you want to be happy, I mean the promotion is so, so great and I am so proud of you. Don't think you can't be happy because of what happened with Audrey, these things happen Pacey," she told him softly, she looked at him and his smile widened a little. He still wasn't happy.
"Joey I want to be, I mean I love the job and everything that comes with it I just feel this heavy feeling of guilt that I hurt her," he said, playing with the ring on his finger. He watched Joey as she looked at him; her brow constantly furrowed for him and she shook her head. Everything he said she disagreed with, she would argue black was white.
"Pacey, you have to look at this differently. You need to be happy, Audrey is working things out on her own, but she is working things out. You just have to see the view from the moon," she told him. His expression was perplexed. She couldn't believe she had to explain the view from the moon to him, they all knew about the view from the moon, it had been a story they were told in kindergarten. "You don't remember view from the moon do you?" she asked him. When he shook his head, she rolled her large eyes at him. "Don't you remember it at all?" she asked him. Pacey tried to think but he couldn't, it wasn't making any sense al all. Joey sighed heavily and leant forward towards him. "Do you remember in kindergarten we had that teacher... Miss... Miss..." Joey snapped her fingers trying to remember. She couldn't believe she had forgotten her name, she needed to remember it.
"Miss Williams... she had great legs," Pacey told her. Joey laughed at him, trust Pacey to remember her, even in kindergarten he was a lecherous toad.
"Yes, Miss Williams. Anyway she told us this story about the man in the moon and every night when the sun would set the man in the moon would watch over the world as everyone slept. And every time anyone wished for something, he would try to make it come true. So one night this one girl wished that her mother would buy her a cat, a black cat with green eyes. The man in the moon looked down and saw that her mother had no money so he shone his light down and searched for a cat. He saw this one cat that had no home, no mom and no dad cat. So he led the cat to the door of the little girl and made it meow in the night," she told Pacey who leant forward on the table, still with a perplexed look in his face. "So the girl heard the meowing and went to the door to see what was there. She opened the door and was disappointed to see a ginger alley cat, it was not cute, it was not fury it was just on old cat that smelt. And she rejected it, but the man in the moon wouldn't let this happen, they needed each other. So night after night the cat came back and night after night, she rejected it. Anyway after a month of the cat calling at the door the girl still didn't want the cat so one night when it had been raining he put a deep mud puddle outside the girls' door. Anyway the cat walked through the puddle and walked to the door, scratching on it like every other night, the girl answered and saw this black cat with green eyes. So she smiled and picked it up, falling in love with this cat straight away, when she put the cat down her hands were clean. The cat had turned black with green eyes like she had wished. So the man in the moon was happy," Joey said finishing her story. Pacey opened his mouth then closed it again. He didn't understand.
"So the morale of the story is what? Change to get what you want?" Pacey asked, it didn't seem like a very deep message to him. It seemed like a very shallow message.
"No, it just means that.... Well... okay yes that does seem to be the point but that's not what I mean, I mean that the man in the moon gets this view over everything, over the whole world. The little girl got her cat and the cat got a loving home. So the view from the moon is this different perspective, something more than you can see, something that only the world can see, the moon because its so high in the sky. So what I'm saying is that you should look beyond what is in front of you. Audrey needs help and you need to be a success for your own self worth. So you should just forget about the guilt and concentrate on getting yourself to be happy because before you are happy you cant make Audrey happy. I mean you made me happy but in the end, it finished because you weren't happy with yourself. So just concentrate on yourself right now, concentrate on your career and making Pacey happy," Joey told him. Pacey smiled at her and shook his head, taking a drink of his champagne and placing it down slowly. He said nothing for a few moments and then he spoke.
"How the hell do you get such a deep meaning out of such a crappy little kids story. I don't know how you do it, how you can be so amazing and turn things around," he told her, taking her hand and stroking it softly with his thumb, letting the warmth of her skin dissolve into his. He looked to her dark eyes and stared into them, a smile playing on her lips from his complement. She had learnt to take a complement in the last few years; sometimes she might even mutter a thank you instead of producing a scowl.
"Well what can I say I'm a English lit major," Joey said shrugging her shoulders at him and continuing to finish her glass of champagne. Pacey looked at her for a moment, a moment too long and kicked himself forever letting her go. She deserved better than that Eddie guy, someone that really appreciated her and knew her, someone like him.
Joey sat on her bed reading a book looking over at Audrey, who was sleeping on her bed, she looked around and turned back to her book. It was boring, she was bored, and the world seemed to revolve slowly. The book she was reading about the French revolution, with a very bad English translation. It was boring her beyond belief, she had nothing to do but read, she just wished that anything exciting would happen. For once nothing was happening, the week was quiet, no major crisis and it had driven her to boredom. The week before had been hectic, Audrey had a narrow escape, taking her to the hospital to have her stomach pumped was not a nice ordeal and it hadn't stopped her drinking. She said she wanted to stop and she believed her, drinking was a habit and the drugs was an addiction. She took a deep breath and continued to read the badly translated book that she was preparing to give a very bad view of to Professor Heston. The phone rang beside her; she thanked god for the interruption and put down the book, picking up the phone to hear a friendly voice on the other end. "Hello? Dorm of the living dead and badly translated French novels how can I be at your service?" she answered she heard a familiar chesty laugh on the other end and a smile crept to her Face. "Well, well, well Mr. Witter, long time no see, I thought that you had fallen into the flames of hell and been burned to a crisp," she told him, sweeping her long hair behind her ears. She was going to try to sound mad at him, she loved to tease.
"How did you know it was me?" Pacey questioned leaning back in his chair in his brand new office. She always knew it was him and he never knew quite how she knew before he spoke.
"Well your laugh just gives you away Witter. Why the phone call? You've been a stranger lately you better have a good reason for disturbing my education," she joked to him, sitting up in her bed and crossing her legs into the lotus position. She listened to him and his silence, it was almost giddy, she didn't know how but she could always tell if he was happy on the phone, his voice just came across so clearly to her.
"I am sorry I disturbed your reading hour Miss Potter, I guess I will just have to find someone else to interrupt and take for a champagne luncheon," he told her. He could almost feel her smile light up on the other end as he spoke, leaning back in his very comfortable chair and playing with his electronic pencil sharpener. He had sharpened many pencils today, it was just something about an electronic pencil sharpener that amazed him. The fact that you didn't even need to turn the pencil, just place it into the hole made him giddy, right now his whole life made him giddy. Well apart from the rush of guilt he felt every second thought, about how he had hurt Audrey, but right now speaking to Joey he was happy.
"Did you say Champagne luncheon?" Joey asked slightly amused. Those words did not come out of Pacey Witter's mouth - it was definitely a change from Pizza at 'the hut'.
"Yup Champagne Luncheon with a newly promoted stock broker, can you think of anything better. I mean I sit here in my office and think, in my very comfortable leather chair, looking out over the Boston skyline and playing with my electronic pencil sharpener and think. I think hmmm who could I possibly take out to a very expensive lunch to celebrate my moving forward in the business world and I thought of no-one better then you. But if you don't want to then I guess I'll just go down to the staff room and pick a very attractive, leggy secretary with huge breasts and ask her which I'm sure that she would love. So whaddya say. Do I need to walk all the way down to the secretary's lounge and make a very hard decision or do you want to come?" Pacey asked waiting for a while before she spoke, a smile spread across his face as the imagined her face. He could imagine her fingers sweeping her hair behind her ear, her lips turning up in the corner into a smile and a small laugh playing on her throat.
"Well aren't you arrogantly charming this morning Mr. Witter? Well if it means that it stops you from getting of your big obnoxious ass and..." Joey told him a smile was tugging at her lips but she knew she should disapprove. There was no way she could turn him down, his little speech was making her curious, electronic pencil sharpeners? That could not be resisted. As she was speaking, he cut her off mid sentence.
"I'll have you know that I have a very nice ass Miss Potter, it is obnoxious in no way. Anyway if it is it's really okay because being arrogant, obnoxious and being a general persuasive pain in the ass is in my job description," he told her. "Come on Potter time is money, you going to come or not?" he questioned her, looking through a file on his desk.
"Did you just actually mutter the completely unoriginal words 'time is money'?" she questioned laughing slightly in her throat, she heard him return it lightly as he spoke.
"Yes I did, but it is very true, right about now I should be making the company money. But instead I'm talking to a very financially broke student who is probably going to be eating yesterdays old pizza if she doesn't come out with me," he told her, leaning forward onto his desk awaiting her answer. He knew he wouldn't have to take that walk into the secretaries' lounge.
"Well it does sound like a much better option," Joey told him and paused, pretending to think. "I'll be over at twelve?" she questioned him. A smile playing at her lips as she closed her book and lay back onto the bed, closing her eyes and listening to his voice. His voice was like velvet to her, even when she was hating him his voice always made her happy again. His voice and his smile always put a light into her life, in a way she hated it, she hated the fact that he always made her smile by his voice. But she loved that he had the power.
"Twelve is perfect and dress up all nice now, you want to look just as good as m.e which I do not think is possible because I am looking marvelous today. But I'll see you later and let you get back to your absolutely riveting education," he told her, turning his attention to a file on his desk that he had to work on.
"Thank you but you really weren't disturbing anything that I didn't want disturbed," she told him looking out of the window at the sunshine that broke through the blinds. It was a nice day, possibly a day for a skirt, it certainly seemed appropriate for lunch with a stockbroker.
"Ok bye," He said before hanging the phone up and getting on with his work. Most people would consider it boring but as he saw it, it was an excuse to talk on the phone all day and flirt with very rich women.
"Bunny? Who was that disturbing my sleep?" Audrey asked with her hand on her head walking over to Joey's bed and sitting on it. She stared at her smile, she knew only one person was capable of giving her that giddy look, she frowned. "Oh god you look giddy, it must be a certain man with a horrendous beard that we both know a little too well for our health," she told her and Joey nodded. She didn't mind Joey spending time with a man that was at one time her beau. She didn't mind her spending time with him but when it meant disturbing her sleep with her very obvious banter/flirting, she wasn't as keen.
"Yeah, certain stockbroker whose name is not mentioned. It was him, don't worry he's not coming over," She reassured her. Getting up off her bed, she looked in her wardrobe thinking about what to wear. It wasn't a huge deal, she had had lunch with him many times, but she didn't know what to wear for a swanky lunch with a stockbroker. It was funny to think of him as a stockbroker when she had known him so long, but it was as close to a professional flirt and suck-up as humanly possible. She was stumped with what to wear, she was clean-clothily-challenged. It was washing day tomorrow and nothing was clean, usually she would ask the expert opinion of Audrey, live-in style coordinator, but considering who it was it just didn't seem appropriate. She listened to Audrey in the bathroom being sick again, she was always sick and Joey was beginning to worry.
Joey walked down the corridor, looking for Pacey, she couldn't find him, they said his office wasn't far from where he used to work, if she knew where he used to work then it would have been easier. She walked down the corridor, she couldn't believe she had worn this outfit, red button down shirt, black blazer and black knee-length skirt with some heels that were highly dangerous. Dangerous was the word around here; vultures that whistled at her surrounded her as she walked past. She rolled her eyes as she felt a presence behind her, a strong smell of forceful after shave and hair gel. Rich Rinaldi, plague of the stock brokerage, approached her. "You look a little lost, you seem to have misplaced the model agency," he said in her ear, she continued to walk and ignored him, looking around. "Look, seriously, you really do look lost" he told her.
"I'm looking for Pacey Witter," she told him and he nodded. "What?" she questioned him. She scowled at him, he was a slimy snail in her garden, she wished she could just stomp on him with her high heel.
"Oh yes I know Witter. Usually I would consider myself too important to chaperone you to his office, seen as I am his boss. But on this occasion, as you are so jaw dropingly gorgeous I will make a very welcome acceptation," he told her putting his hand on the small of her back and leading her around the corner.
"If I pour salt on you will you die?" she asked him sharply, narrowing her eyes at him and his unwelcome contact on her back. He really was slimy, and his hair had more gel than was acceptable or essential, he was a true Neanderthal.
"Ooh razor sharp tongue, be careful you don't cut me and with your quick as lightening whit I think I may burn up," He said sarcastically, laughing at her insults, he had been called a slug before. "Salt? I mean really. Is that the best you can do?" he questioned her. He rolled his eyes at her and laughed as she narrowed her eyes at him.
"Well a much more creative option would be to castrate you with my nail file," she told him and watched him as he swallowed hard, admitting defeat. She smiled with satisfaction, "so are you going to tell me where to find my friend who has the misfortune of having to work in an environment that resembles a reptile house at the zoo?" she questioned him.
"If you're referring to Witter his office is just here. But I must warn you that I am much more attractive than he is, and it may be hazardous to your health not to go out to dinner with me tonight," he told her. He leant on the doorframe and looked at her with a smile and a wink.
"Oh puhlease come up with a better line than that, I mean have some originality for gods sake. You make a living out of being persuasive and I just... I feel like I want to be sick. If I was in the market for buying stock you just wouldn't be motivating me, I mean the way the markets are right now nothing would motivate me but your little clever talk you have is just pathetic. You call yourself a salesman come on I've seen a guy at a yard sale with more of a sales pitch then you," she told him, stopping when she heard a voice from behind her.
"Be careful Rinaldi, this ice queen will set her saber-tooth tiger on you," he told him and laughed with him. Joey turned around slowly and glared at him. It was hard to keep the glare when she saw the grin on his face; his smug smile and he stood outside his office putting on his coat.
"Bite me jackass," she retorted walking over to him and hugging him affectionately. It had been too long since she had seen him, almost two weeks. She looked at his face, his facial hair had grown on her, she might actually think about saying that maybe it was alright. It was trimmed and smart at least, but she still missed his face.
"Maybe over lunch, You look ravishing," he responded releasing her from his grip and looking at her, raising his eyebrows at her. She looked beautiful in the outfit she was wearing, it accentuated every curve whilst still leaving a lot to the imagination.
"In your dreams Witter," Joey told him, folding her arms over her chest and glancing at him. He was back to being the Pacey she knew, recently he had been a little different, but he was back as close to normal as he could get. Although she did have the irrepressible, urge to shave his beard off. It's not that she didn't like the beard but she missed his chin, she loved his chin and she missed it.
"Every night, you know that. You, Victoria secret and a pair of handcuffs," he joked as he put his scarf around his neck and buttoned his coat. It was January, it was bright outside, but it was still cold.
" Now that is how you banter," Joey said pointing at Pacey and turning to Rich. "You could learn something from Pacey, I never thought I would ever say that but then again I never met such a lousy flirt. I mean seriously come on do you ever get laid?" Joey asked him, shaking her head at him. Pacey had told her his boss was a pain in the ass but never how much of a pain in the ass, he was painful to look at he was so sleazy.
"You burn me," Rich retorted, turning to Pacey and looking at him with a gaze if question. " Witter are you going to introduce me to your sharp tongued witty friend or should I just call her the angel of death?" he asked. He backed away from her slightly when he felt her eyes on him, stabbing through him with her look of ice.
"Rich this is Joey Potter, Joey this is Rich Rinaldi," He told them, looking at his watch at it hit 12.02, he had 58 minutes for lunch and he was wasting it standing refereeing between his boss and his friend.
"Nice to meet you," Rich told her, shaking her hand. He reeled in her touch; she had soft hands and a witty tongue, very attractive. Pacey Witter was a very lucky man.
"Yes well I wish I could say the same but unfortunately the irrepressible feeling that you give me of nausea kind of diminishes it into obscurity," Joey told him with an innocent smile. It was true; he actually made her feel sick. She hated him, she had only met him but she hated him, she hated the way he looked down her blouse, the way that he smiled and especially the way that his cold touch made her skin crawl. "Come on Witter, take me to lunch, wine me, dine me, feed a starving student," she ordered, taking his wrist and looking at his silver watch that clung to him.
"Ok, ok I'll feed you. See you later Rinaldi," Pacey said, draping his arm around Joey shoulder and walking along the corridor with her. She had outsmarted Rich Rinaldi, he didn't think it was possible, she was very commendable.
Joey sat in a restaurant with Pacey, eating her lunch and drinking her champagne, the bubbles were going to her head, she was a very light drinker. She looked at Pacey and smiled, laughing lightly and looking back to her food. This was more than bizarre; she was sitting in a very expensive restaurant with Pacey Witter, who was wearing a suit. "What?" Pacey questioned looking up at her with a quizzical glance.
"It's just... I was just thinking how bizarre this is, you're wearing a tie, you're in a suit, and we're drinking champagne. What is with this? You're Pacey Witter king of the combats," she told him and he laughed. His transformation was unbelievable, very different from the Pacey Witter who used to bug her and put frogs down her shirt when they were young.
"Well I guess some people just need to change, I thought it was time Pacey Witter grew up a little bit. Y'know I like it that people see me a different way, instead of saying hey punk kid get outta here they say excuse me sir. It just feels like if you want a little bit of respect you have to change," he told her. He hung his head low and felt her eyes on him looking at him curiously. He gazed back into her and questioned her glance.
"And is this new Pacey Witter, respected Pacey Witter, is he happy?" she asked him, putting her fork down and looking over the small table at him. He seemed happy but his eyes were troubled, he was incasing his pain within his tough exterior.
"I am happy, it's a good job, amazing earning potential, gives me that adrenaline rush that I always wanted. Gives me a chance to really show my communication skills and passing the series 7's was a huge boost to me, proved I wasn't completely stupid," Pacey told her. He took a deep breath, wiping his mouth with the napkin and looked over to her. "It's just it's hard to be happy when you've ruined someone's personality. I mean I do not deserve to be happy after what I did to Audrey, how I hurt her and made her feel miserable all the time. I drove her to drink, drove her to drugs somehow, I made her feel that miserable Jo. I hurt everyone I touch," he told her sadly, it was true. Every relationship he ever had ended is disaster.
"Pacey that's not true, it's not just you, Audrey has loads of issues apart from you. You aren't the basis of her drink problem Pace," Joey told him, furrowing her brow and taking his hand across the table. She rubbed her thumb over the soft skin of his knuckles and looked to him. His eyes were full of guilt and pain. "You don't need to feel guilty, it is not you. You are a great guy, you care about her if you didn't you wouldn't have that look in your eyes that kills me to see. You have to know that it isn't your fault," she told him and watched him shake his head. He didn't believe her, Audrey had said it was his fault and if she said it then it must have been true.
"She said I was too involved with work and not enough with her. She was right, I got too preoccupied but all I wanted was to be successful, to make something of myself and to have something more. I didn't want to be the person she wanted me to be, I didn't want to be a guy who parties all he time and works for minimum wage in a restaurant his whole life. I wanted people to be proud of me and by doing that I pushed her away. But I did it deliberately, and that's the worst thing, I wasn't in love with her anymore and I think she knew that. Everything I touch, everybody I touch gets hurt," he told her sadly, looking up at her. He recognized her look, he knew that look, she was shaking her head and looking at him with that look.
"Pacey, you are so wrong. Everyone who knows you loves you, you inspire people to be better people and sure you might screw up sometimes, you might say and do things that go wrong but everyone does. Look at me, look at my relationships, I'm hardly wonderful I make more mistakes than you do. What I did to you I could never forgive myself for, the way I hurt you was unforgivable, but you forgave me." she told him looking into him. He creased his brow and looked at her with confusion.
"You didn't hurt me Joey, I hurt you. I hurt you by saying all those things I said about how you made me feel ands they weren't right. It was how I felt but it wasn't you. Then there was Andie, that's great that one, I actually sent her to the asylum. Tamara? I drove her out of town. I'm a failure at relationships and now I drove one to the drink. How can I let myself be happy when I've done so many bad things," he told her. Joey could see the guilt he was feeling. It felt like he had caused Audrey to break and shatter, at a time when she needed support he didn't give her it. He didn't support her and he didn't treat her as well as he should.
"Pacey. You have to get past this feeling of guilt, not all of those things were your fault, most weren't your fault. You have to gain some perspective and get past it. Audrey is troubled, it's not just you, it's everything. You have to let yourself be happy. I know you want to be happy, I mean the promotion is so, so great and I am so proud of you. Don't think you can't be happy because of what happened with Audrey, these things happen Pacey," she told him softly, she looked at him and his smile widened a little. He still wasn't happy.
"Joey I want to be, I mean I love the job and everything that comes with it I just feel this heavy feeling of guilt that I hurt her," he said, playing with the ring on his finger. He watched Joey as she looked at him; her brow constantly furrowed for him and she shook her head. Everything he said she disagreed with, she would argue black was white.
"Pacey, you have to look at this differently. You need to be happy, Audrey is working things out on her own, but she is working things out. You just have to see the view from the moon," she told him. His expression was perplexed. She couldn't believe she had to explain the view from the moon to him, they all knew about the view from the moon, it had been a story they were told in kindergarten. "You don't remember view from the moon do you?" she asked him. When he shook his head, she rolled her large eyes at him. "Don't you remember it at all?" she asked him. Pacey tried to think but he couldn't, it wasn't making any sense al all. Joey sighed heavily and leant forward towards him. "Do you remember in kindergarten we had that teacher... Miss... Miss..." Joey snapped her fingers trying to remember. She couldn't believe she had forgotten her name, she needed to remember it.
"Miss Williams... she had great legs," Pacey told her. Joey laughed at him, trust Pacey to remember her, even in kindergarten he was a lecherous toad.
"Yes, Miss Williams. Anyway she told us this story about the man in the moon and every night when the sun would set the man in the moon would watch over the world as everyone slept. And every time anyone wished for something, he would try to make it come true. So one night this one girl wished that her mother would buy her a cat, a black cat with green eyes. The man in the moon looked down and saw that her mother had no money so he shone his light down and searched for a cat. He saw this one cat that had no home, no mom and no dad cat. So he led the cat to the door of the little girl and made it meow in the night," she told Pacey who leant forward on the table, still with a perplexed look in his face. "So the girl heard the meowing and went to the door to see what was there. She opened the door and was disappointed to see a ginger alley cat, it was not cute, it was not fury it was just on old cat that smelt. And she rejected it, but the man in the moon wouldn't let this happen, they needed each other. So night after night the cat came back and night after night, she rejected it. Anyway after a month of the cat calling at the door the girl still didn't want the cat so one night when it had been raining he put a deep mud puddle outside the girls' door. Anyway the cat walked through the puddle and walked to the door, scratching on it like every other night, the girl answered and saw this black cat with green eyes. So she smiled and picked it up, falling in love with this cat straight away, when she put the cat down her hands were clean. The cat had turned black with green eyes like she had wished. So the man in the moon was happy," Joey said finishing her story. Pacey opened his mouth then closed it again. He didn't understand.
"So the morale of the story is what? Change to get what you want?" Pacey asked, it didn't seem like a very deep message to him. It seemed like a very shallow message.
"No, it just means that.... Well... okay yes that does seem to be the point but that's not what I mean, I mean that the man in the moon gets this view over everything, over the whole world. The little girl got her cat and the cat got a loving home. So the view from the moon is this different perspective, something more than you can see, something that only the world can see, the moon because its so high in the sky. So what I'm saying is that you should look beyond what is in front of you. Audrey needs help and you need to be a success for your own self worth. So you should just forget about the guilt and concentrate on getting yourself to be happy because before you are happy you cant make Audrey happy. I mean you made me happy but in the end, it finished because you weren't happy with yourself. So just concentrate on yourself right now, concentrate on your career and making Pacey happy," Joey told him. Pacey smiled at her and shook his head, taking a drink of his champagne and placing it down slowly. He said nothing for a few moments and then he spoke.
"How the hell do you get such a deep meaning out of such a crappy little kids story. I don't know how you do it, how you can be so amazing and turn things around," he told her, taking her hand and stroking it softly with his thumb, letting the warmth of her skin dissolve into his. He looked to her dark eyes and stared into them, a smile playing on her lips from his complement. She had learnt to take a complement in the last few years; sometimes she might even mutter a thank you instead of producing a scowl.
"Well what can I say I'm a English lit major," Joey said shrugging her shoulders at him and continuing to finish her glass of champagne. Pacey looked at her for a moment, a moment too long and kicked himself forever letting her go. She deserved better than that Eddie guy, someone that really appreciated her and knew her, someone like him.