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Julie comes to stay

Sandy was sitting in his study when his phone rang. He reached for it and answered. "Hello."

"Sandy?"

"Well, if it isn't the wicked witch of the west." He exclaimed.

There was an awkward silence and Sandy was starting to wonder if he had actually managed to offend her. He wouldn't have thought it possible.

"I guess I deserve that." Julie replied.

"Yes you do. And a lot more I figure." He answered.

Julie hesitated. "You're probably right." She hung her head wondering where this all would end. If it wasn't for Marissa she would like nothing more than getting back on a plane and going back to England. She really didn't want to have to face everyone else but she knew if she was to have any chance at all with Marissa then she would have to make things right with the Cohen's. "I was just wondering if Kirsten and you were home. I figure I owe you an apology about yesterday. If it's okay, I'd like to come and see you."

Sandy was stunned. What had happened to her in less than 24 hours. She didn't sound like the same person. "Okay. I'll come and pick you up."

"I don't want to bother you. I can just get a cab." Julie replied.

"Are you coming to stay or is this just a short visit?" Sandy asked.

"I guess that depends on whether Kirsten will have me. Maybe I should just talk to her first and then we'll see how things go from there."

"Well if you are prepared to apologise then I'm sure Kirsten will give you a fair go. So why don't you pack up your things and I'll be there in about 15 minutes." Sandy suggested.

"Are you sure?" Julie asked.

"No. Not really. But I figure I can always take you back there if things don't work out." Sandy really wasn't sure just how Kirsten would react. "Kirsten should be home soon anyhow. She's just gone to the gym." He explained. "I think the punching bag could have gotten a work out today. So you may be safe….at least for a while."

"Very funny." Julie commented, knowing it was just Sandy's way of having another dig at her.

"I thought so…. I'll just let her know what I'm doing. See you soon." Sandy replied and replaced the phone. He kept looking at it wondering what had brought about the change in Julie. He guessed he would just have to go and get her and find out.

---

When Sandy got to the Mermaid, Julie was standing outside her room with her bags beside her.

"All set?" he asked.

"Yes. Thank you for this." Julie replied obviously on her very best behaviour.

"No problem." Sandy put the bags into the back of his Beemer and opened the door for her. He got into the driver seat and pulled out of the motel.

As he drove, Julie sat in silence looking out the window taking in all that was Newport. He realised that it must have been about 7 years since she had been there. A lot had changed. They drove passed a new estate that had magnificent homes all perched on the side of the hill with views of the ocean. Julie looked at them and smiled. "Newport has certainly changed since I was last here. I thought the house I shared with Caleb was big but those homes up there are amazing." She commented indicating the houses further up on the hill.

"Ryan designed them all. It was one of his earlier projects." Sandy said with pride.

Julie continued to look at the houses. Some perched precariously on the side of the cliff looking out at the ocean. "I'm impressed." She said quietly.

"You should be. He won a number of architectural awards for them. He even developed some new structural process where they cantilevered the slabs or some such thing because of the difficulties associated with the steepness of the sites. That was why those blocks had never been built on before. It would have been too expensive. But with Ryan's new way it all became feasible. And wallah beautiful homes. They are probably the most sought after in Newport now."

"I can see why." She continued to look out the window. "I guess I underestimated him."

"So what's new? You always have. I don't know why you can't see what an exceptional person he is?"

"Maybe I'm just starting to realise." Julie stated.

"What?" Sandy was amazed. He couldn't imagine what had brought about the change in Julie. Only yesterday she was running him down and know this ...?

"He came to see me." Julie stated plainly.

"He what?" Sandy was stunned. He had imagined that he would have to try to talk through things with Julie first and then ... depending how things went, he would try to get Ryan to come over and they could all go through it together. He knew Ryan wasn't easily intimidated but he had never imagined he would take on the dragon lady alone. "When?" Sandy asked.

"This morning." Julie tried not to think about what had happened in her room. She could just imagine what Sandy would say if she told him about that. "We…um… went for a walk… on the pier."

"I can't notice any blood. I'm hoping that he is in as good a shape as you?"

Julie smiled at Sandy's attempt at humour. She just wasn't finding anything very funny right now. "Yeah. He's fine. We just had a talk."

"And how did it go?" Sandy asked dying to know what had gone on between her and Ryan.

"Um. I guess you'll have to ask him." She said as they pulled into the Cohen's driveway.

Sandy got out and retrieved Julie's luggage from the car. "Come on in. Kirsten's obviously home now." He said, noticing the other car in the drive. He started to feel a little nervous about what Kirsten would think about him bringing Julie to their home after yesterday. "I'll just leave your things at the door until we decide what's going on."

Julie just nodded and followed him through to the kitchen.

---

Kirsten looked up as Sandy and Julie entered. She had been sitting with a coffee reading the paper. Although to be truthful the words in front of her weren't sinking in. She had really just been waiting for them to arrive. Ever since she'd gotten home and found the note Sandy had left she had been on edge. She stared at Julie wondering why she was even letting her into their house after what she had said about Ryan yesterday.

"Look who I found enjoying the luxuries of the Mermaid Inn." Sandy said trying to break the tension.

Julie and Kirsten looked at one another both waiting for the other to speak. Eventually Kirsten's good manners won out. "Would you like a coffee Julie?"

"Thank you. That would be great." She knew she owed Kirsten an apology but she didn't know where to start. An awkward silence followed, as Kirsten got a mug from the cupboard and filled it and then placed it in front of Julie. Julie looked into its depths and said "The cup I had with Ryan this morning left a little to be desired."

Kirsten's head shot up. She didn't know that Ryan had seen Julie. She wondered what had gone on between them. She wanted to excuse herself and call Ryan but she knew that wasn't possible right now. If Julie had upset him Kirsten would never forgive her. She'd kick her out of the house immediately. "When did you talk with Ryan?" Kirsten asked Julie, whilst looking at Sandy to try to gauge how much he knew about all this. He just shrugged.

"He came by the motel this morning." Julie answered.

"Why?" Sandy asked making it clear that he knew no more than Kirsten.

"Well he didn't beat me up obviously. What do you think? He wanted to talk." Julie replied already tired with the feeling that she was somehow on trial.

"And?" Kirsten looked at Julie knowing that something had happened between them because this was a different Julie to the one they had collected from the airport yesterday.

"I apologised for what happened in New York. Is that what you wanted to know?" Julie asked. She didn't know if she was going to be able to go through all this again. Going through it with Ryan was hard enough. She already felt emotionally exhausted. Admitting it to Kirsten and Sandy might be even harder. If that was possible?

"Well that's a start. Would you care to explain to us just what you were doing in lying to them?" Kirsten asked.

Julie hung her head. She had hoped that she may have been able to put this off for a while. That maybe they could pretend that it had never happened and that she could just catch up with them as if she was a long lost friend. No such luck.

"It was complicated…. You wouldn't understand…." Julie started.

"Try me." Kirsten said. She could see that Julie was a defeated woman. Whatever had happened with Ryan this morning had changed Julie.

"I don't know where to start." She shook her head.

Kirsten looked over at Sandy. She thought about asking him to leave, thinking it might make things easier for Julie if she only had Kirsten in the room. But then she wondered why she should try to make things easy for Julie, after what she had done to Ryan and Marissa. "Take your time. We're not going anywhere."

Julie looked at them both. "Well it was all a combination of things." Julie hesitated.

"Such as?" Kirsten prompted her.

"Do we really have to do this?" Julie asked her eyes pleading with them. "I've already explained myself to Ryan. And apologised. Do I have to go through it all again?"

"You don't have to. But right now, Sandy and I are having a hard time being civil to you. If you expect us to have any compassion for you, you are going to have to tell us what could have possibly got in to you for you to do that to them." Kirsten looked at Sandy wondering what to expect from Julie. This was certainly a different person from the one she wanted to strangle yesterday. There was actually a part of her that felt sorry for Julie. She seemed so …… defeated?

Just then the phone rang. Sandy looked down and realised that it was Ryan. "I ..um…need to take this call. I'll just leave you to it and go and take it in my study." He said leaving the room. As he got to the door he turned and added "Just remember…play nicely you two." He left as two sets of eyes glared at him.

Julie looked up hoping that they could maybe change the subject now that Sandy had left the room. No such luck. From the look on Kirsten's face, Julie knew she wasn't getting out of this so lightly.

---

There was another uncomfortable silence.

"I'm still waiting." Kirsten said.

"What do you want me to say. I broke them up because I needed Marissa's money. Isn't that what you think?"

"I don't know what to think that's why I'm asking you to tell me." Kirsten replied quietly trying to encourage Julie to continue.

Julie looked at Kirsten and thought back to how good a friend she had been. If she had any hope of getting Marissa to forgive her she knew she would need Kirsten's help. She took a deep breathe and began. "I'm not proud to say it, but that was definitely a big part of it. When Jimmy left after..." she looked at Kirsten to see if the thought of Caleb still upset her.

"My dad died….. I'm sorry he left you in such a state. I know that Sandy and I should have done more to help you out. But with me being fresh out of rehab and all of the problems with the Newport group I guess we just had a lot on our plate. And you seemed to be coping so well."

"Yeah. I'm pretty good at acting. Maybe I should have given that a shot as a career." she smiled as she looked at Kirsten. Julie was surprised that Kirsten seemed to be giving her excuses and trying to take some of the blame herself. Maybe she would be able to get Kirsten on her side. But she also knew that ultimately she had no one to blame but herself. "As I was saying, when Jimmy left, Marissa and I had nothing. We were being evicted and we had no where to go. So it was the obvious thing to do, to go where the high paying jobs were. And of course, it helped me in my quest to put as much distance as possible between Ryan and my daughter. I had always thought that he was not good enough for her and before you bite my head off I'd just like to say that I think I've changed my mind. The man that came to see me this morning was not at all as I remembered him or at least how I'd allowed myself to remember him."

Kirsten smiled. Ryan never ceased to amaze her. "Go on."

"But as I tried to tell Ryan. It was not only the money, although yes that was a big part of it. But Marissa was all I had. Everyone else in my life had deserted me. It was as if we had somehow put our differences behind us because it was us against the world. She was my best friend. My only friend. Even so, I knew that when Ryan graduated, Marissa would want to make a life with him and then what would I have done. I was her manager but I knew that she could have replaced me in an instance and even I couldn't kid myself that I was very good at it. People chased Marissa because she was so good. All I did was keep her diary." Julie looked to Kirsten trying to gauge how she was taking all this. "I would never have been able to get another model to manage. I even tried for a little while. But no one was interested. And how could you blame them. I really didn't know what I was doing. So… I had started to get concerned about what would happen when Ryan finished college. Not only would I lose my source of income but my best friend as well. I would be all alone. When he called to say that he was coming to surprise her for New Years it seemed like it was meant to be. It was so easy. I just had to tell a couple of lies and destroy the letter he sent her. Then I paid someone to fix her laptop so that any mail to or from either Ryan or Summer were deleted. I even broke her phone so that she needed to get a new one and of course I made sure that no one here would have the number." Julie looked at Kirsten and realised that she was clenching her fists waiting for Julie to finish.

"How could you do that to them?" Kirsten pleaded.

"I did it because I loved her and I didn't want to lose her."

"Bullshit. If you loved her you would have wanted to see her happy. And if that meant with Ryan then so be it."

"You don't understand. She was doing so well. She had numerous offers from Europe to work at all of the most important fashion shows and she kept knocking them back all because they would take her further away from him. He was holding her back. Once I'd got rid of him then her career really took off. She should be thanking me for all that I did for her."

"Thanking you? I don't believe even you could honestly believe that. Should she thank you for living on anti-depressants as well?" Kirsten asked.

Julie went quiet. Did everyone know about that? "If it makes you feel any better then no. I didn't enjoy the fact that she took the move so badly."

"It wasn't the move. It was the thought that she had lost Ryan. And that was just a contrived lie of yours. I didn't see what Marissa went through, but I know what Ryan was like and for that I don't think I can ever forgive you. To think that they have lost so much time together... The only reason I'm even able to speak to you is because I know just how happy they are right now. If you could see them together?" Kirsten smiled thinking about the change in Ryan since Marissa had come back. "They are so in love it's almost blinding…..To think that you did all in your power to destroy that. The only thing that you have destroyed is your relationship with your daughter."

"Please don't say that. I have to make her understand."

"Understand? What is there to understand? That her mother is a manipulating conniving liar. How could you blame her for wanting nothing more to do with you?"

"But Kirsten you have to help me. I didn't realise that he meant so much to her. I thought it was just some teenage crush that she would grow out of."

"I don't believe you. You made it difficult for them from the start. I think you always knew that Ryan would be the reason that Marissa would leave you. You pushed them both to the verge of breakdowns trying to keep them apart. And all because you were worried about yourself. If you really had become that close with Marissa do you think she would have just taken off with Ryan and left you destitute? The Marissa I know would never have done that. All you are doing is trying to justify what you did. And you can't."

Julie looked at Kirsten. Was she telling the truth? Had she really been that selfish? She hung her head as she realised that a lot of what Kirsten said made sense. She wasn't game to reveal to Kirsten that she had also realised that maybe she had been jealous of her own daughter. She didn't think Kirsten would understand that at all.

Sandy had been watching and listening from the doorway. He decided to let them know he was there and re-enter the room. "Um…I've just spoken with Ryan. He has agreed to try to get Marissa to come to lunch tomorrow but he isn't sure if she will be prepared to come. She still seems convinced that she wants nothing more to do with you."

Julie looked at him and she could feel the tears welling in her eyes. "What should I do?"

"I'd suggest praying for forgiveness. I think you'll need help from above to have any chance with her." Sandy said.

Julie looked at Kirsten. "Would I be able to lie down somewhere for a while? I have a headache and I'm not feeling very well."

"Take the bed in the guest room." She said still angry with Julie.

"I'll bring your bags up." Sandy offered and looked at Kirsten trying to convey to her that he thought she could be a little more sympathetic..

"Do you want a Tylenol?" Kirsten asked, ever the gracious host.

"Thank you. But I don't think that will fix it." Julie replied.

"Nor do I." Sandy added.