Hey, guys! I hope you're all safe! I hope you're all sane! I hope you're all blessed with brilliant house companions and high speed internet! I am trying to stay positive because the world is fucking scary, and on with the chapter!

"Have you got any plans for tomorrow?" Jocelyn asked from the computer screen as she watched Clary move around her room, not really tidying, exactly, but definitely cleaning and just kind of...Moving her stuff from one place to another. There was a method to her madness and as long as her room was clean she didn't care if there were piles of clothes in the chair or on her tiny desk, and her make up was spilling out of the bags on top of her drawers. "You're working tomorrow, right?"

"I've got classes in the morning, and then yeah, work in the afternoon slash evening," Clary made a face and did a weird chopping motion with her hand when she said the word slash, even though she was facing away from her computer and her mother wouldn't be able to see her hand movements. She reached forward when she caught a glimpse of something sparkly behind her dresser drawers, missing part of what her mum said as she let out a soft oof as she stretched to grab at the material trapped behind the drawers. "Ah ha!"

"Clary?" Jocelyn called her attention back and the girl spun around with the sparkly top in her hand—she was pretty sure it was actually Izzy's at some point, but she'd borrowed it when she had worn it to a party and then brought a guy back here and it had been thrown into the fray of her room and been missing ever since. It was always funny and a little nostalgic when clothes that she thought she had lost in the pursuit of an orgasm popped back up. "I asked if you were seeing anyone."

"Why do you ask that?" Clary asked, pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes a bit, tightening her grip on the top as she watched her mothers facial expression.

"You look like you're tidying up your room," Jocelyn shrugged a shoulder, trying to look casual, but there was an interested glitter in her eyes that Clary knew meant Jocelyn was onto something and not planning on letting it go any time soon. "You don't really tidy your room unless you have a reason to, so I was wondering...Maybe you're doing it for someone." Clary didn't say anything for a moment before her lips curved upwards in a smile and she flopped down onto her bed on her stomach, bouncing a few times as she got herself comfortable and moved her laptop so that it was in front of her.

"Okay, so..." she began and Jocelyn let out a laugh as she propped her chin up on one hand, obviously settling in as well for Clary's story. "There is a guy, but it's all really new, so I'm going to tell you some stuff about him, but you can't go and tell Luke and Jonathan because you know how they can get."

"Luke will run a background check on him and ask the local police department to drop in, while Jonathan add him on every single social media platform and spam him," Jocelyn said knowingly and Clary finger-gunned as best as she could while laying on her stomach.

"Exactly," Clary stated and Jocelyn laughed easily.

"Don't worry, sweetheart. I'm a vault," she mimed pulling a zipper over her lips and locking it, something that she had done for years, since Clary was little and she had done something that she didn't want anyone to know about but that she had to spill to someone, and so she had confided in her mum. As far as she knew, her mum had never let her down, had never leaked a secret, including the time when she had peed in the fancy dress that she had been brought for her aunts wedding because she had gotten so drunk.

"He's...He's a little bit older," Clary began, not wanting to disclose just yet how much older that was. "And he's...He's really nice," she trailed off and then scrunched up her nose before looking back at the computer and meeting her mums eyes. Jocelyn had her eyebrows raised and a flat look on her face.

"That is the most generic description in the world," Jocelyn stated and Clary couldn't help but snort out a laugh. "It sounds like every outline of a serial killer that Luke hates," she continued and Clary's laughter bubbled in her chest as Jocelyn put on a deep voice that sounded nothing like her husband. "He was a little bit older, tall, dark haired, handsome. Really nice. Couldn't believe he would do something like this." Clary couldn't help her laughter and Jocelyn's face relaxed again, smiling along with her daughter.

"Okay, well, to be fair—he's got golden hair," she corrected and Jocelyn nodded encouragingly. "He...He runs his own business. He doesn't care that I use heaps of emojis and send tons of texts. His house is really nice. He won't have sex with me. He took me for dinner at Nino's on our first date and then he walked me to the door. He worries I don't eat proper food. He makes my stomach squidgy." She cut herself off because she was starting to say weird things now and she wrinkled her nose and jerked her face back, running through everything that she had just said and then squinting at her mother, who was looking at her with an amused expression.

"Huh," Jocelyn uttered. Clary frowned, because like her, Jocelyn wasn't usually one for not saying much. She waited for more, but Jocelyn didn't add anything and so Clary just frowned deeper until Jocelyn let out a laugh. "Well, when you're ready to tell me more, and maybe even send me a picture, I'm interested."

"Yeah, yeah," Clary mumbled, incredibly grateful that her mother was throwing in her face the fact that she had admitted that a man she wasn't having sex with was making her stomach squidgy. Some people might think it was weird talking about sex with their mothers, but she had always had a very open relationship with Jocelyn. They were very similar and had clashed a lot when Clary had been growing up, especially when Jocelyn and Valentine Morgenstern were going through their divorce because the whole household had been tense, but they had always been close through it all. "Anyway, I'm gonna go. I have editing and stuff to do." And maybe she didn't want to talk anymore about Jace.

It was clear Jocelyn knew that as well, given the small smile on her face as she nodded.

"Okay, sweetie, well, keep me updated, okay?" Jocelyn's voice was soft and motherly and Clary always felt better after talking to her.

"I will, mum. Love you," she smiled widely at her mum.

"Love you more, darling," she replied and Clary made kissing faces at the screen before reaching forward and cutting off the connection. She sighed as she looked around, making a face and then decided that she really needed to tidy her room, and she could edit later on. With another sigh, she dragged herself off her bed and started sorting through the clothes on the chair in the corner.

I'm actually thinking it's time for me to get something for dinner.

Clary pursed her lips out in a pout as she read the latest text message from Jace. She was just closing up the computer lab and planning to walk home, and as far as she knew, all her roommates were going to be there, but they had probably all just had toast and noodles for dinner, even though they actually had full cupboards and a fridge now, courtesy of Jace. By the time she got home, she really couldn't be bothered cooking, after uni and then work all day.

Wish I was having real food for dinner...

Clary pouted again as she sent off the text and tucked her keys into her laptop bag and started walking away from the doors of the lab. It had been a quiet night tonight, which was good, because she had spent most of it editing the photos that she had taken the other day when she was working at the wedding, so she had been able to get through a lot, and then she had also been able to do some work on a theory paper that was due next week for a class. She was walking out of the building when she felt her phone vibrate again. She pulled it out of her pocket and had to stop pause as a group of students walked past her, probably coming from the library, and then she looked at the message.

I'm in the student parking lot. Come meet me and I'll take you for real food.

The redhead froze, stopping so quickly that her laptop bag jerked on her shoulder, and then she let out a tiny squeal that she tried to suppress it given how still and quiet things were in the middle of campus this late at night, despite the fact that there were still some students around.

Yes

YES

IM COINGGGG

Shit - COMINGGGG

YES

Clary changed her direction slightly, so that she was no longer heading toward the side gate where she was going before, but toward the parking lot.

Then she saw Jace's car—one of his cars, she now knew that he had three cars—but this was his SUV, which is the one he most commonly drove. The Dodge Challenger that he had been driving around the first few weeks that Clary had been getting to know him had been when the SUV was getting 'detailed' because apparently it had 'scratches', even though Clary had put a massive dent in the back of her mums car nearly six years ago when she was learning to drive, and it was still there.

"Jace!" Clary's voice was a little bit louder than the almost empty car park really called for, but his smile was bright and she didn't feel the least bit embarrassed about it.

"Clary," Jace had been leaning against the side of the car, waiting for her, as usual, because unlike every other person in the entire world, he didn't wait inside the car when he was waiting for someone, he always got out, opening the door for her, closing it behind her once she had gotten in. "I remembered you saying you had work tonight, I thought we could maybe get a late dinner," he suggested and Clary couldn't help the little bounce in her step as they reached each other and she pressed up on her toes, getting her hello kiss, firm but sweet on her mouth with his hand briefly cupping the back of her head, as always, as she fucking loved.

"That sounds amazing," Clary agreed, with a bit more energy that she was really entitled to have at seven in the evening, but she was pretty sure she was actually just over-tired, given how late she had been up the past two nights, editing because she wanted to keep up with Layla, since she was trying to get the photos all finished as soon as possible.

But then Clary stopped short, eyebrows flying upward as Jace opened the car door, chattering about some bar that he went to quite a bit with some people from work.

Because she had rang Jace right after she had opened up all the packages that had just appeared in her apartment, and she had text him a lot since then, but they hadn't actually seen each other.

She couldn't just dramatically drop her laptop and camera bags, because there was no way in hell she could afford to replace that stuff, but instead of getting into the SUV, she put her bags on the seat and then she spun around and cut Jace off halfway through whatever he was saying by pushing his lips against his.

It was a little abrupt, yeah, okay, especially since they had been taking things almost painfully slow on the physical side of things, but the way Jace started responding almost straight away seemed to show it was okay. He put one hand on her hip and the other hand to the small of her back, gathering her in against his body in the way that he had of making her feel even smaller than she usually did, and that was really saying something, given her height came in at round 5'2. But he also made her feel safe, and tingle all over, and her cheeks flame red, and when they pulled back, Jace rested his forehead against hers and didn't let her just pull away and get hurriedly into the SUV.

"What was that for?" He asked, smiling down at her, looking genuinely confused, as though she shouldn't still be thanking him for all the money that he had spent on her in the weekend.

Clary rolled her eyes and tutted under her breath, and thanked him again, and he acted as though it was nothing, just smiling and shrugging and saying that he liked making things easier for her, and then he was holding the passenger door open wider for her and waiting for her to get inside, so she did. She moved her things carefully onto the ground before putting on her seat belt, and then Jace was getting into the drivers seat next to her and turning on the car and the heater started going and it made her sink comfortably into the leather seats, tugging her fingers through her hair and cringing at how flat it was after everything it had been through throughout the day.

"Honestly, Jace," Clary said as they pulled out of the universities parking lot. "What you did...What you brought for me—you didn't have to." They'd already had this conversation on the phone, and by text, multiple times, but Clary felt the need to say it out loud when she was seeing him in person as well.

"Clary," Jace arched an eyebrow that she could just make out in the street lights as they came to a stop at a red light. "I wanted to buy you some things to make your life easier. I just wanted to help. That was it." There was so much more to it, and Clary knew that, but she didn't know what to say, so she just shrugged.

"Thank you," she murmured, for the umpteenth time in the week.

"It's okay, sweetheart," Jace hummed out, and it was a term of endearment that Clary hadn't heard from him before, and it made her shoulders feel hot, and she chewed down on her bottom lip so that she didn't break out in a massive, stupid smile as they drove to whatever bar Jace had chosen out. Jace found a park around the back, and Clary was about to slide out of the car, her fingers reaching for the handle after she had taken off her seat belt when Jace suddenly appeared at her side, opening the door and giving her a smile as he waited for her to get out.

"Is this whole relationship thing that we got going on just going to be a combination of me saying thank you and you saying it's okay?" Clary asked as she got out of the car and Jace closed it behind her.

"You don't need to saying thank you so much," Jace said softly as he slid a single strong arm around her middle and tucked her in close to his side as they walked out of the small, rather tight parking lot around to the front of the building so much.

"Then you don't need to keep doing things for me," Clary pointed out, although her heart was fluttering in her chest and her stomach was squeezing tightly at the feeling of him keeping her so close, and as they approached the bar, there was just something different about the way that the men outside glanced over at them as they smoked, it just felt different from the way that men looked at her when she was with, well, anyone else. It kind of felt as though they would part in the middle if that was what Jace asked, and it was a nice feeling, knowing that other people looked at him as though he was that powerful as well.

"I like making your life a bit easier," Jace repeated again, shrugging a shoulder, acting as though he hadn't just gifted her thousands of dollars of equipment, and that was on top of all the groceries he had brought her, and the fact that he paid for all of their food and drinks whenever they went out.

"You don't need to do that though," Clary mumbled as they stepped into the bar, which was warmer and a bit loud, but not unpleasantly so, and there were quite a few people inside. There was a flat screen turned on behind the bar with some sports game playing, and Jace lead her through the crowd of people toward one of the empty tables and barstools, pulling one of the stools out for her to get on and then tapping his fingers down on top of the wooden table top.

"I'm just going to go get us some drinks and menus. You happy with Rosé?" Jace asked and Clary blinked at him in surprise, because she was pretty sure she had only mentioned her love of Rosé in passing once.

"Uh, yeah," Clary smiled widely as she propped her elbow onto the table top and rested her chin on her hand. "It's perfect." Jace leaned in to kiss her forehead, and then he was striding toward the bar.

It was nice to watch him walk away.

He had a nice ass.

Clary tipped her head to the side as she watched him go, and then as she straightened back up to pull out her phone and flick off a quick text in the flat group chat, letting them know she had finished work but would be home a bit later, she noticed that she definitely wasn't the only one watching Jace. It wasn't surprising, but it made her smirk to herself as she took in the two attractive women who were probably closer to Jace's age than her own, who were wearing low cut tops and big smiles as Jace looked over his shoulder and over their heads toward Clary, who wiggled her fingers in a wave.

By the time Jace got back, Clary had shrugged out of the army green jacket she was wearing, given how warm it was, and he slid her wine glass across to her and put down a craft beer before slipping into in the barstool next to her, rather than the one opposite her, which was nice.

"So," Jace took a pull from his beer, and then his eyes were almost laser-focused on Clary, a gentle smile on his pink lips. "How was your day?"

It was just. So. Easy. When it came to Jace.

Stupidly easy.

He was funny and sweet, and she actually blushed when some hair fell forward and he reached out to brush it back behind her ear as though it was the most natural—and painfully cliché but so, so sweet—thing in the world to do.

She told him about her classes that day, and how her editing was going, and her work, and then she asked him about his work, and Jace didn't brush it off, act as though she was too young or like she wouldn't understand, even though there were some things that she didn't. But she got most of it, and a lot of it was about his frustrations with how slow one of his projects was progressing forward because apparently the firm that he had was working with in New York was slowing things down a bit. His lips got tight in the corners and he didn't look happy and Clary didn't like that, so she shifted the conversation to something lighter and leaned over to rest her hand on his knee.

As much as Clary wanted to stay and drink and talk and eat, when Jace checked his watch and saw that it was after eleven o'clock, he made a regretful face and quickly finished off what was left in his bottle.

"Sorry, I should probably get you home. I need to be in the office by six," he said and Clary pouted.

"Isn't one of the perks of having your own company the fact that you get to choose your own hours?" She asked, her voice coming out almost in a whine, because she was having a good time, and maybe she'd had three glasses of wine and so her cheeks were a bit flushed and her knees were knocking against Jace's since they were now turned to face each other completely, and their hands that weren't resting near their drinks were overlapping each others on Jace's thigh, fingers all laced together, but she just wanted this night to keep going.

Jace just looked endeared as he lifted the hand by his beer to rub his thumb gently across her cheek.

"It should be," he agreed with a smile. "I'll put that on the agenda to look into." Clary couldn't help but smile back at him, and then he leaned forward and gave her a soft kiss. "Come on," he murmured when he pulled back, nose nudging hers for a few gentle moments. "I'll take you home."

I have a few TV recommendations few guys, since we've been inside doing almost nothing else for the past few weeks. Breeders is really funny in a total black comedy kind of way, although there's definitely a few things that hit a little close to home. And then there's Car Masters: Rust to Riches which is this car show where they take cars and do them up into something crazy. Me just writing that sounds bland as shit, and I never watch this shows! Haha. We never watch car shows or anything, but this one is just different, the whole group is just really entertaining. There's two seasons, so yeah, just check it out to see if it's your thing!

My top ten songs that I would recommend this time around are;

1) Smiling When I Die - Sasha Sloan. 2) Forever - Fletcher. 3) On - BTS. 4) Kissing Other People - Lennon Stella. 5) Pretend You're Missing Me - Betty Who. 6) Not In The Same Way - 5 Seconds of Summer. 7) Paper Hearts - Tori Kelly. 8) Cruel Intentions - Delacey and G-Eazy. 9) Ophelia - The Lumineers. 10) Highway To Heaven - NCT 127.

I hope you guys enjoyed the update! And the recommendations! I hope they provided a little bit of distraction in these...Weird times we're living in. Leave a comment, let me know what you thought of the update and please recommend songs and movies and TV series and whatever! I've heard from a few people that they've looked at other peoples recommendations and really enjoyed them, so it's not just me you're being a hero for right now! Haha.

Much love from me to you x

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