Duane hung out in the parking lot, walking around it. He hated it. He felt like a teenager stalking Sarah. But he didn't feel right about seeming to ignore her, either.
Sarah and the other three people she had been with finally came out, and all four had their own cars. Duane could pass hers walking to his. All very well and good, if she'd just say goodbye to them and head for her car. The young man had, unfortunately, a compunction to walk Sarah to her car.
He wondered if he should call her instead. But then, luckily, when she pulled out of the parking spot and turned her car in the direction he could use to walk back towards his car.
Though it was dark, she recognized him, and braked.
"Need a ride?" she asked, in that tone of hers. Like a "ride" was something sexual.
He sighed and got in.
She pulled into another spot. "You gotta love this parking lot," Sarah said. "They built it because of the accident. Who says you lawyers aren't a force for good?"
"I saw you in the club," he said, ignoring her comment deliberately. "It felt wrong not to say hello."
"But you could not," she said. "It's OK." She took his hand. She kissed it, slowly. He felt like he was melting. "Whatever you are comfortable with. You don't want to talk to me in front of Elizabeth, don't. You don't know her yet." She leaned over and kissed his mouth, sweetly, for once, gently rather than passionately. "Take you time, baby," she murmured. "It's OK."
He didn't know what to say, so he kissed her back with the same kind of gentleness. It was absurdly ironic that she did all the leading and that she was the one to be so reassuring. Maybe his age did not have quite the effect that would seem most obvious. Usually younger people didn't have the upper hand. Maybe they did in this type of relationship.
"A client gave me tickets to the Buffalo Symphony," he said, presently. "Would you like that?"
"Yes," she said, still holding his hand.
"For real?"
"Yes, for real."
"Classical music."
"I know that the Buffalo Symphony would play that kind," she smiled. "I know it's not Buffalo Springfield. Mozart or Tchaikovsky? Debussy or Ravel? Shostakovich or Copeland?"
"You know more than I do about it," he said, realizing. "Though I have a terrible feeling I grew up listening to the same rock music as your parents. OK."
"Are you going with me?" she asked, smiling wickedly.
"Maybe I will," he said. "If you like."
"I would really like that," she laughed. He smiled in spite of himself.
She leaned over and kissed him slowly, again. "For the record," she said, "My parents were not in such a rush to have children as you and your ex must have been. My parents are around fifteen years older than you."
"Thank God," he said. "Thank you." He pulled her back to another kiss.
Taryn met Clay at his brother's house. The party was in full swing. Everyone there was way past high school. Really cool, Taryn thought.
"This is my brother Hugh," he introduced her. "He's the one giving the party. This is Taryn."
"Hi, Taryn," Hugh said. "It's good to meet you, finally."
"This is my brother Matt," Clay said.
Matt said hello to Taryn in his turn.
"Such a big family," Taryn said.
"Taryn is in Bran's class," Clay said to his brothers.
"She's the youngest, right?" Taryn asked. "Where do you guys fit?"
"Branwyn is the youngest," Clay said. "Then me, I'm second youngest, then up to Hugh, then up to Matt. Or say, first there is Jim, then Jackson, then Melinda, then Colleen, then Mary Ellen, then Matt, Hugh, me and finally Branwyn."
"Holy cow," Taryn said. "You're lucky you can remember all their names."
The three of them laughed. Matt and Hugh talked to her while Clay went to get her a beer. She felt spoiled, a center of attention. By the time Clay came back with the beer, she had learned that Matt was a high school teacher, at Port Charles High.
Clay took her around and introduced her to other people and then got her another beer. She was feeling a little woozy by the time she thought she met one of his other sisters, but she wasn't sure later which one it was.
Later, she saw Clay talking to another guy, and found that she herself was talking to someone else. This someone else seemed to laugh at her jokes, but did not make a big impression on her memory. Someone gave her another beer.
Finally, it seemed Clay came back to her. "Hey, I'm going to drive you home," he said.
"Am I drunk?" she asked. She giggled. "I must be. You look better, you know." She laughed at her own wit.
"Yeah, I always look better to a girl after she's had a couple beers," he said.
"This is my parents' car," Taryn said. "One of them, anyway."
"I'll drive you home in it," Clay said.
"They how are you gonna get home?"
"I'll call one of my brothers."
"You've already done this before. I remember you called a brother then."
"I have plenty of brothers to call," he said.
"You guys are always there for each other," she said.
"And for you," he reminded her.
"Thank your brothers for me," Taryn said. "Your sisters, too, while you're at it," she giggled and hugged him.
He just grinned and belted her into the car.
Alexis smiled, stopping at the threshold of the Outback.
She could see her future parents-in-law, sitting at a table with Nicolai and Anna. The four of them were amazingly companionable. Then at the bar, there was Jerry. The sight of Jerry making drinks always made Alexis smile. And then his brother Jax sitting there, teasing him as usual, and Oksana sitting next to Jax.
It was the family she had made for herself. She hugged herself, as if to hug the baby. "These are your people," she said to the baby. "You are going to love them."
"Good, you're here," Jax said, seeing Alexis. "The double wedding concept. What do you think of it?"
"I like it if you and Oksana are the other couple. What do you think, darling?" she asked Jerry.
"It is all right with me," Jerry said. "It is all right with Jax. It is not totally right to Oksana, because we've all been married before, but Jax never has, and because of that, she thinks Jax should have his own wedding. Did I say that right, Oksana?"
"Yes," Oksana said. "And I am still not sure this is not a joke from him," she said, looking at Jax.
"She thinks I'm kidding her about marrying her," Jax said. To Alexis it seemed that he was delighted rather than panicked.
"You should find that unsettling, Jax," Alexis said out loud.
He only smiled. "I'm going to do this right," he said. "Everyone knows we're getting married, but I haven't done the proper proposal yet. A mere formality. Which I will do right, too."
"Oh, yes," Jerry said.
"With you to help me, brother, how could I go wrong?"
"We don't usually have help for these things," Jerry said.
"You did," Alexis reminded Jerry.
"Oh," Jerry said. "That was motivation, not detail. All right. You helped me Jax, I'll help you."
"I knew I could count on you Jerry."
"You need help," Oksana said to Jax. "You really need a lot of help."
Alexis was laughing by now. "You can't know how much I love this family!" she said.
Clay was driving Taryn home in her mother's car. It was an older car, and hadn't been tended to properly since Taryn's father had moved out.
It stalled a couple of times, and Clay made a remark about spark plugs. Taryn looked drunk enough not to know what spark plugs were, as she just looked at him blankly. Finally, he got it started.
They came to the railroad tracks. Clay slowed down to go over them. The car stalled right over the tracks.
"Damn," he said.
"Hot damn," giggled Taryn.
He tried to start the car, but it wouldn't start.
"We have to get out of the car," he said.
They got out and went to the sidewalk. There was a convenience store on the corner, about one hundred yards from the tracks.
"Let's go there and get help," he said.
"Somebody should stay with the car," she said.
"Oh, come on, Taryn. What can happen? If a train comes are you going to flag it down?"
"Maybe. If a train plowed into that car, I'd be in big trouble."
Clay walked to the store, continually looking back at her, until he disappeared into it.
She liked him for not being such a he-man that he wouldn't allow for her to take care of herself.
She went over to the car and tried it again.
Then she heard a train whistle, and looked up – to her horror, a train was coming.
She tried one more time, realizing she would have to get out in one second. But the car actually lurched forward. She limped it across the tracks and over to the shoulder of the road.
A few seconds later, she heard the train going by. She breathed a big sigh of relief. Then she giggled. "You're one lucky girl, Taryn," she said to herself.
Then she saw Clay walking back, in the rear view mirror and a police car pulling up behind her.
She got out of the car, just as Clay came up and the officer came out of the police car.
"I got it started, Clay," she said. "See, and it's still running. Everything is OK, officer," she said, half laughingly and half mockingly. She stepped back towards the car, but stumbled.
"I have a tow truck coming," Clay said to the officer. "Are you just stopping to see what is going on or responding to the call?"
"I got a call," he said. "But it looks like you've got the problem taken care of." He looked at Taryn. "Have you been drinking?" he asked.
"Um, yeah," she said. "That's why Clay was driving me home. He's really a responsible person, officer."
The officer asked her to touch her finger to her nose. She couldn't quite.
"I have to arrest you for drunk driving," he said.
"I wasn't driving!"
"No, officer Enright," Clay said, reading his name off of his badge. "I was driving."
"Not off the tracks," Officer Enright said. "She just said she was driving."
"But that wasn't driving!" Taryn argued.
Officer Enright just handcuffed her and read her rights to her.
"Call my lawyer!" she yelled to Clay.
At the police station, Taryn was subjected to further indignity, which was, that she had to blow into the breathalyzer or lose her driver's license. "Oh, I admitted I was drinking," she said. "I just wasn't really driving."
By this time, Alexis Davis had come to the station. Clay was with her. He had told her what was happening on the way over. She had told him not to try to drive Taryn's car, but to wait for her to pick him up.
"This is silly," Alexis said to Officer Enright. "Taryn and Clay were specifically trying to comply with the law. Then this series of mishaps occurred. Taryn pulled over right away."
"She was still in a moving vehicle drunk," Officer Enright said. "And she could have been killed trying to get that car off the tracks."
"It was a bit of a risk, just for a piece of property," Alexis said to Taryn, sternly.
"I would have left it to be hit if it hadn't started," Taryn said, starting to wake up.
"Blood alcohol is over the legal limit," Enright said. ".12 reading."
"That's pretty drunk," Alexis informed Taryn, as they went out to a private meeting room. When they got to the room, Alexis closed the door. "If you hadn't been that drunk you would probably never have taken that chance."
"I thought I had avoided getting into trouble over wrecking the car," Taryn said. "I thought I had pulled it off. I even told the cop I was drinking at the party, that was why Clay was driving me home. It is ridiculous. I wasn't driving, driving. But would this go into juvenile court?"
"Probably not. When it comes to driving, you're doing an adult thing."
"Oh," Taryn said, another hope that things would go easy shot down. "I just can't wait for my parents to find out."
"Well, it you're tried as an adult, in theory they don't have to," Alexis said.
"I have money to pay you from the settlement," Taryn said.
"That's locked up under your mother as trustee, until you're eighteen."
"Which is so close now."
"OK, you'll be able to pay me from there. But that has me starting to work first. I will have you sign something."
"Thanks, Alexis."
"Even though you are a minor and could get out of it the day you turn eighteen," Alexis said. "I'll have to trust to your sense of fairness."
"I wouldn't be unfair with you, Alexis!"
"OK," Alexis said. "I think you may have some sort of defense, here. I'm going to look at some cases."
"Thank you!"
"I'll drive you home, so you can deal with the car tomorrow."
"Thank you so much," Taryn said, truly grateful. She felt like Alexis was an angel who had saved her from who knew what fate?
Clay was in the car too, again lecturing Taryn about not going with him and that she had tried to avoid getting into trouble only at the expense of worse.
"I just never looked at it as drunk driving," Taryn said. "If I had thought it would be, I wouldn't even have considered it for a second. I pulled over and I wasn't going to drive one more inch."
"That cop wanted to teach you a lesson," Clay observed.