A month had passed since Taylor had confessed to Tommy her reason for leaving. Since then, their relationship had taken a dramatic turn. They were no longer avoiding each other, but instead taking every opportunity they had to hang out. Taylor had even been helping Tommy out with some of his ever growing workload in her free time. But as Taylor and Tommy rekindled their brotherly-sisterly relationship, another relationship was getting lost in the midst of it all. Jude and Tommy's. Things between Tommy and Jude had gone from good to bad in a matter of weeks, but Tommy had been so occupied, little did he know that today it would take a turn for the worst.
As Jude entered G-Major that morning, her body language was reflecting exactly the way she was feeling. Anything but happy. She was hurt, frustrated, angry and exhausted. She spent the previous night tossing and turning, dreading the meeting she was about to have with a certain someone. Jude began to make her way to Tommy's office, but then decided at the last second to take a quick detour to hospitality for some very much needed caffeine. She needed to be awake and alert for the meeting she was about to have.
Finally reaching Tommy's office, she lightly knocked on the door before entering, contemplating whether or not she should go in. As she walked in, she quickly took in the room's surroundings, noticing nothing had changed since the day before, not even Tom's clothes.
Since Tommy accepted the vice-presidency promotion at G-Major, he had more responsibilities than before. And now that Taylor was back in his life, she was another important person in his life that he felt responsible for, other than Jude.
Tommy looked up beyond his mountain of paper work to see who entered his office. A smile spread a across his face, replacing the look he had of concentration, once he realized it was Jude. 'God, I miss her!' his heart shouted. But his smile quickly faded when he felt Jude's stare burning a whole in his head, like when placing a manifying glass directly aligned with the sun and then above the object you want to burn. Yes, that is how Tom Quincy felt at that very moment. And then the scowl he saw on her face, that was just even more torture for him.
"Girl, what's wrong?" he wondered, still oblivious to his girl friend's visit and forlorn mood.
"Don't 'girl' me! Where the hell were you last night, huh?!" Jude shouted at him with anger evident in her voice.
But Tommy was still clueless. "I was here working late. Why?"
"Because you missed Sadie and Kwest's engagement dinner!"
As realization finally dawned on him, Tommy mentally slapped himself. 'How could I forget my best friend's engagement dinner?' He said to himself. At that moment the weight of guiltiness finally hit the pit of his stomach.
"Jude, I'm so sorry," he pleaded, hoping he would forgive her. But he knew that would be less likely impossible to happen. "Darius wanted me to have Hope's first single ready to be released today. I was here till 3 a.m. mixing it." Tommy explained the situation as best as he could, hoping she'd understand since Jude had once been in Hope's shoes.
"Don't worry, I covered for you. I told everyone that you had a last minute meeting with the investors." Jude spat with the anger still lingering in her voice. It was something that she was going to let go of that easily. She was Sadie's maid of honour and he was Kwest's best man, and it was their duty to be there for the bride and groom.
"Jude, I'm sorry I missed the dinner. What else can I do? What can I do to make it up to you?" Tommy asked hoping that she'd see his sincerity.
Jude let out a deep sigh as she roughly ran her hand through her hair while walking in a scattered manner in his office.
"Tommy, it's not just about dinner. It's more than that. Do you realize that we haven't spent any time together at all in the last month? You're either too busy, working late or hanging out with Taylor."
Tommy could hear the anger in her voice, but he could see that her eyes were showing much more. Disappointment, pain and most of all...sadness. Making Jude feel the way she did was the last thing that he ever wanted to do and it pained him, too.
"Jude, I'm sorry, but what do you want me to do? This is my job and Taylor's my sister."
"Tommy, I know that. I'm not asking you to give any of it up. I know your job is important to you, just as mine is to me. And I know you and Taylor are rekindling things between you two and I'm not stopping you. I know how important family is; I have a sister, too. So don't think that I don't understand what you're going through for one minute. I've grown to care about Taylor, too, as if she were my own sister." Jude took a final breath before she continued. "All I'm asking is…if you could spare just a little time for me, at least once a week, maybe even a few hours…that's all," she softly requested as few
tears began to slowly slip, but she quickly wiped them with back of her hand before he could notice.
Tommy rubbed the back of his neck to relieve the sudden pressure that he was feeling. He looked at his Jude and didn't to fail to notice her wiping her cheeks and he knew they were tears.
He gave a defeated sigh. "Jude, I barely manage to get out of this place before 4 a.m. I don't know if I can promise something like that. And even if I were to make you a promise, I don't want you be mad or hurt because I broke that promise unintentionally. The last thing I want to do is hurt you."
"You're worried about hurting me. Don't you think it's a little too late for that Tom? A relationship is supposed to be about understanding, being there for one another, sacrifice and compromise, Tommy. So far for the past month, actually since we met, I've done all of it. I was there for you when Taylor came back and listened to you when you were hurting, I've been understanding about your job and family, and I've sacrificed my heart for you in the past and endured all the pain that you've caused. And now through it all, I'm willing to find a median between all of it. But YOU, have done nothing, Tom. Nothing whatsoever. I honestly don't know how much longer I can keep doing this or take the pain."
Without another word, Jude stormed out of Tommy's office slamming the door behind her, leaving a stunned Tommy sitting behind his desk. He cradled his face in his hands and couldn't believe what just happened. Actually he didn't know what just happened between him and Jude. He thought things were going great with them. But then again, 'How would I even know, we haven't spent real quality time together in weeks. How did I let this happen?' He wondered. All he knew was that…unexpectedly…his life had gone from great, to good and then jumped from bad to worse, within a matter of seconds.
Taylor was busy in studio-A putting the final touches to the song Jude recorded the day before. She was so focused on the task at hand that she didn't even notice the crowd of staff that gathered around Tommy's office. Everyone was dying to know what the "IT" couple could possibly be fighting about.
The last month she had kept herself as busy as possible. She wanted to put Speed's voice, the words he told her on the day of his wedding to a stop. "You know sometimes I wish she was more like you"…. "Why not your funny, love music and not so wrap up in yourself that you forget about everyone that matters."They kept replaying in her mind over and over again like a broken record. And Speed himself wasn't helping the situation either. Since he had left for his honeymoon a month ago, he had call Taylor a total of 140 times. Of course she had ignored all of his calls, but it still didn't help her any less, when he was subconsciously he invading her thoughts. She needed space, and now that Tommy was speaking to her again she wanted to work on there relationship.
Taylor was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts by Sadie who was standing in front of her waving her hands in front of her face trying to get her attention. "Earth to Taylor. Anyone there?"
"Huh? What? Oh, sorry Sadie. I must have zoned out there for a sec. What's up?"
"There's a guy at the front desk and he's here for a meeting with Darius, but asked if he could see you first. He said he is an old friend or something."
Taylor was now curious as to who wanted to see her. "Oh, okay... well I'll be out in a sec, just let me turn off the soundboard."
"Okay, I'll tell him you're on your way," a rather chipper Sadie replied as she walked out of the room.
Taylor stepped out of the studio and made her way to reception area. She noticed the large crowd gathered around Tommy's office that she didn't pay attention to earlier. She also heard the shouting that was coming from it. Without thinking, Taylor walked to the front of the crowd ordering everyone to get back to work and to let the couple have some privacy. Once everyone cleared out, she headed to the reception area to find out who on earth this 'old friend' was.
Before she could think about it anymore, she froze at the sight before her. Her heartbeat quickened and her stomach was filled with butterflies. As she stared into the piercing blue eyes of her 'old friend,' and she finally gained enough composure to speak.
"Jake," Taylor spat out in barely a whisper. She knew he heard her when she saw a slight form across his face. It was like he feared that she had forgotten all about him, as if he never existed in her life, not knowing that's what she exactly wanted.
As Taylor looked up a the 6 ft. blond haired, blue eyed beauty, a part of her began to pray that this wasn't happening, not here, not now. Things were going so great. She thought that once she left, she would never have to see him again.
When he saw that she got over the initial shock of his presence, he stepped towards her and motioned that he was going to pull her into a hug. She immediately anticipated what he was trying to do and hastily took a step back. She quickly replaced the look of disbelief on her face with a cold icy one.
"What are you doing here?" Taylor coldly asked masking the slight anger she was feeling.
"I don't think that's anyway to speak to your fiancée now," Jake smugly replied.
"Ex fiancée," Taylor firmly retorted. She didn't want him thinking that there would be anything between them.
"Look, I can't really talk about 'us' right now. I'm about to go into a meeting with Darius. But I'll find you afterwards and we'll talk then, okay."
Knowing Jake and how stubborn he could be, and her not wanting to cause a scene in the middle of G-Major, Taylor simple responded, "Fine Jake, but there is 'no us.'
Jake teased her with his gorgeous smile before left to Darius' office. As she watched him walk away, she began to panic. She wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready to deal with him; she didn't want to deal with him. She thought she was over him, but after what just happened, it was clear as daylight that there were still some lingering feelings. But before she could start thinking about those feelings, about him, she headed towards the front doors of G-Major.
"Sadie, umm...can you let Jude know that something has come up and that I've cancelled our session for today?" A now much calmer and collected Taylor asked.
"Umm, sure, but I don't think she'll be coming back for the session anyhow. She stormed out of here about ten minutes ago."
Taylor had been so wrapped up in Jake presence that she didn't even notice that Jude practically ran passed her. 'What did you do now my dear brother?' she wondered to herself. She knew he did or said something wrong to Jude or she wouldn't have left the way she did.
"Oh, okay. Well, then don't worry about it."
With that, Taylor exited G-Major. Once outside she took a deep breath as a single tear slid down her cheek.
Taylor walked into her suite and had a strange feeling that she was not alone. She could hear movement coming from the lounge. She picked up her guitar case and she crept down the hallway. Once she reached the end of the hallway she took a deep breath before getting ready to jump out and face the intruder of her suite.
"AAARRRGGGHHH!" Taylor screamed as she ran around the corner with her trusty guitar case in hand.
"Holy shit!" the intruder shouted, except, it wasn't exactly an intruder.
"Jude? What are you doing here?"
"I – I, needed to get away for a bit. I didn't want to go home and I didn't know where else to go. I'm sorry," she quietly explained.
"No, it's cool. But how did you get in?"
"I told receptionist that I was your sister and that I lost my key card, so they gave me another one. What are doing here anyway? It's only 11:30 a.m. Shouldn't you be at the studio?"
"Well, considering my artist bailed, I didn't really need to be there. But then my ex-fiancée showed up and I definitely knew that I needed to get out of there."
"Ex-fiancée? Wow! Do you want to talk about it?" Jude asked with great concern.
"No, not really, at least not right now. Do you want to talk about why you and Tommy were fighting?"
"Ahh, so you heard that, huh?" A slightly embarrassed Jude responded.
"Uh, yea! I'm pretty sure the whole office heard."
"Great! Next thing you know, the tabs will have a story out on it, 'Trouble in Paradise for Rock Princess Jude Harrison and Prince Producer Tom Quincy.' Darius would love that,' and Taylor laughed at Jude's sarcasm. "I'm not really up for talking about it right now. Can we just do something that does involve work and love lives?"
"Sure, sounds good to me. Tell you what, you pick out a movie and I'll get room service to bring us up two pints of ice cream." Both girls smiled at the sound of the word 'ice cream.' "Sounds good," Jude agreed.
Taylor called room service while Jude checked out her abundant DVD collection. After the morning both girls had, it was definitely going to be a long rest of day for the both of them.