Tommy leaned against the back of the door of Georgia's office and sighed heavily. 'That would have ruined everything', he said silently. He needed to get his thoughts together before he could approach Jude. Seeing her, even for a brief moment, put him in a world wind of emotions. Before he could think anything else, he heard voices coming towards Georgia's office. He quickly hid behind the desk and wondered what the hell Georgia was doing.
"Come into my office," Georgia said loudly as she twisted the knob on the door, hoping Tommy had time to find a hiding spot.
"Okay, Georgia." Jude laughed wondering what had gotten into her. First she basically dragged her out of the building, and then a few minutes later she dragged her back in.
Georgia quickly looked around and deducted that Tommy was hiding behind the desk 'Good' she thought as she laughed silently. 'I think it's time to play a little game called 'Let's make Tommy Q jealous''. She leaned against her desk, to shield Tommy even more in case he stuck out anywhere.
When Jude stepped into Georgia's room, a flood of memories hit her like a ton of bricks, dispelling her happy mood. This was the room where Tommy told her good-bye, the room she last saw him in and the room where she got her heart broken for real. She wondered why all of a sudden she was rushed with the memory. 'Because it's your 18th birthday idiot.' She rationalized, as she aimlessly roamed around Georgia's office, thinking about Tommy.
Jude walked around Georgia's spacious office, looking distracted. She picked up a music award and toyed with it. "OK what gives, Jude?" Georgia asked, being able to sense something was up with her. She prided herself on knowing she was one of the few people who could read Jude. "Two seconds ago, you were bursting at the seams with joy, than all of a sudden you step into this room-" She stopped when she realized it herself. "Oh..."
"Yeah, "Jude softly said as she absently shifted the statue from hand to hand. "Sometimes it hurts to be in this room, in this building. Sometimes I can forget about it though, you know? Like when I'm with Chris, but other times it's overwhelming. Like now." She murmured as she gently placed the award down. "I use to drive myself crazy thinking about why he left, why he was sick of me. I never understood, I never got why I could be discarded so easily."
"Oh honey," Georgia started.
"No, I told myself, I wouldn't do this today that Tommy Quincy was going to be the last thing on my mind." Jude said firmly. "God, sometimes I act like a jilted girlfriend, I make it to be such a big deal, I mean I was just someone who worked with him."
"You were much more than that, and you know it. I bet you wherever Tommy is right now, he's thinking about how much he hurt you, what a complete and utter fool he was, and how he can make it up to you." Georgia said as she shot a look behind her desk, and hugged Jude.
That's exactly what Tommy was thinking, as he crouched low behind Georgia's desk. He never realized the power his words had on her. By a few careless comments that day, he broke Jude's heart into pieces. He could curse himself for it, his intentions were never to do that.
"Come on girl, smile, in 12 hours you're gonna be surrounded by people who love you and have the hottest guy in town on your arm." Georgia said as she pulled away from the hug. 'Take that, Tommy.' She silently thought.
"Yeah, Chris is gorgeous isn't he?" Jude laughed, feeling better.
"And he's all yours." She grinned like the Cheshire cat.
Tommy turned from remorseful to peeved when Georgia brought up Christopher. His jaw clenched as he heard Jude dub him as 'gorgeous'.
"I gotta know, Jude..."
Jude looked at her, puzzled. "Know what?"
"Come on, don't hold out on me now. Just because I'm a,uh, mature woman doesn't me I don't wanna know what it's like kissing that fine specimen of a man." Georgia prodded as she elbowed Jude and winked.
She burst with laughing almost keeling over. "Oh, god, you really know how to make a girl laugh." She got out between giggles.
"Hey this isn't any laughing matter, I'm serious. I want a detailed play by play, of what it's like. Come on, you owe me that much."
Jude pondered this for a moment. "True, if it wasn't for you and E.J insisting that I see him I probably never would have gone out with him."
Tommy turned from peeve to down right fuming. So, he had Georgia to thank for Christopher Line...
"So..." Georgia began.
"So..." Jude parroted. When Georgia gave her look, Jude conceded. "It's...," she started nonchalant, "okay." She casually finished.
Tommy turned from down right angry to giddy. This guy couldn't even kiss, good? Tommy chuckled silently, and relaxed a little, the proverbial cat was already in the bag.
"Just okay?" Georgia questioned, incredulous. "Just okay?"
Jude shrugged than turn to Georgia, " Okay I'm lying it's amazing." She gushed, beaming a megawatts smile.
Tommy shifted back to fuming so fast, he thought he'd topple over.
"It's like fireworks, Georgia, " Jude began than blushed, "Omg that's so cliché, isn't? But I can't help it the things he does with his tongue..." Jude was cut off as E.J came whirling into the door.
"Jude!" EJ yelled, excited "Happy 18th Birthday! Is that your new Audi out there? It's fabulous!"
Tommy had never ever been so happy to hear EJ's voice in his whole life.
"Hey EJ, thanks and yes that is my brand new car." She smiled as she hugged her.
"Jude? Why don't you go show EJ the car, maybe give her a test spin? I have a few loose ends to tie up in here, okay?" Georgia suggested.
"Sure, what do you say, EJ?"
"I'd love to! You know I wasn't surprised in the least to see the color of your car was red it's so you, but me personally I would have gotten pink..." E.J's voice trailed off as she and Jude left Georgia's office, shutting the door on the way out.
"You can come out now Tommy, the coast is clear." Georgia mildly called out.
Tommy instantly sprang up from his position, "I could kill you for that Georgia..."
"What?" Georgia began as she perched herself on her desk again and picked up her pocketbook rummaging through it for a nail filer. 'Might as well do something useful while Tommy rips me a new one.' She figured silently. "You didn't enjoy the... what did I call it?" She pretended to ponder her previous words. "Oh 'play by play'." She continued, chuckling as she found it and began to file away.
"He sounds like a pretty damn good kisser to me; you should have seen her face when I mentioned it. She got excited just thinking about, he must be good---wooo, am I ever jealous." Georgia, fanned herself with her other hand.
"That was a low blow. You purposely steered Jude into that line of conversation. The last thing I wanna hear is how good some kid is at kissing my gir-" He stopped before he finished the word. He ran his hand through his hair, clearly frustrated. He was surprised at how easy it was for him to consider Jude 'his', even though he had no right to her, he never did.
"Your what, Tommy? Come on, you can say it. You were gonna say 'my girl'. I don't know what rock you've been living under lately that you haven't heard about them from the press. You act so shock. You didn't need me to let you know that Chris and Jude were serious, pick up any glossy, any grocery store magazine and it would have told you flat out, in images." She added the last part to drive the point home, as she continued on her nails.
"I know what's been going on between them. For god's sake I saw the kid on Good Morning Canada when he asked her out on television. How pathetic." Tommy laughed then continued. "He didn't even have the guts to ask her out in person."
"You saw that?" Georgia stopped filing her nails, finding Tommy a lot more interesting right now. "I would have loved to be a fly on the wall that morning. You probably blew a gasket."
"It wasn't what I wanted to see first thing in the morning while I was eating breakfast." Tommy's face darkened as recalled the memory. He glared at his watch and figured he better get out of here to avoid bumping into Jude. He made his way towards the exit.
"Ha ha ha, you got it bad, Quincy. I hope she puts you through the ringer, tonight." Georgia commented as Tommy stalked out the door and slammed it on his way out.
"Yep, he's got it real bad." Georgia chuckled as she went back to her nails.
Goddamn Georgia, Tommy silently fumed as he shoved his hands into his pants pocket. He was walking through the park, with sunglasses and cap on so no one recognized him. He had called a cab that morning to get him to G Major because Kwest was baby sitting the viper while he was away. He couldn't trust to leave it at his house, alone for 8 months, so he appointed temporary guardianship to Kwest. He should have woken him up in the morning and got his car, he thought ruefully. He shrugged, he needed a walk anyway.
So it wouldn't be as easy as he thought it would be, he figured as he walked around the park. Chris definitely complicated things. He thought he was some punk Jude was wasting her time with like the others. He figured Jude would be so happy to see him that she'd forget about what he said to her 8 months ago. "Apparently not," Tommy murmured out loud. He'd always liked a challenge, and there was no way in hell he'd give up Jude without a fight. Tommy began planning the things he was going to say, unaware of the person who was jogging towards him, equally unaware of him.
"Ow!" Kat exclaimed, as she collided with Tommy, sending them both to the floor. Kat jumped up and shook herself off. Jamie always told her not to wear headphone while she was running. "Watch where you're going mister-Tommy?" Kat asked, astonished.