Duke had gotten her rather inebriated call at around four that afternoon, and couldn't make it to her place until about six. So when he knocked on her door and heard loud crashing just on the other side of the door, he wasn't all together surprised.
Concerned, but surprise had sort of left long before he'd headed for her apartment.
Luckily, the door was unlocked so he opened it to see Jennifer slumped against the far wall, a bottle of strawberry flavored vodka in her hand and a smile on her face.
"Hey!" She greeted, all wide smiles and grand hand gestures, "You got the door open!"
"Yes I did." Duke smiled at her. He crossed the room to her–carefully, seeing as the living room looked at if a war had happened in it, with stray books, pieces of clothing, and what looks like more than a few broken pieces of flatware. When he reached her, he crouched in front of her, tucking a strand of hair out of her face and behind her ear and smiling back at her when she moved her head with his hand to look up at him and smile, and took the bottle of vodka from her, "And what have you been up to, dear?"
She rolled her head from her right to her left in a wide head shake so she could look at him as he set the vodka bottle to the side, "Oh Duke. You're so great. Why couldn't I have been engaged to you?"
"We ask ourselves that question everyday." He smiled at her before standing and holding his hands down for her to take so he could help her to her feet, "But it does make one ask–why you didn't call the actual man you're engaged to?"
She let herself be pulled up, only to sway into his arms as she went, and mumbled, "Jason's been cheating on me."
She stumbled out of his arms towards the kitchen, leaving Duke to nervously rub at the back of his neck, "Oh."
She turned back to him, a dangerous fire in her eyes, "'Oh'? 'Oh'? Jesus, did everyone but me know?"
Duke grabbed at the air for a moment before going, "Well 'everyone' is so many people–"
"Oh my God." She moaned, slumping against the counter. She continued to lament into her arms on the counter, "Oh my God oh my god–and I was going to introduce him to my family this weekend and spend a week with them at the lake! And he was going to–oh my God!"
"Aw, Jen," Duke said gently, crossing the room again to stand next to her at the counter. He rubbed her back, "It can't be that bad, can it? So you just tell them it didn't work out–what's the worst that can happen?"
"I spend basically two weeks with my family giving me sympathetic looks and trying to fix me up with my cousin's former roommate's ex or something equally convoluted." Jennifer commented, sitting up slightly.
"Where's that bottle of vodka?" She asked, starting to move from the counter.
Duke wrapped his arm around her shoulders, "No no no,"
"Yes yes yes, he's my friend." She protested, weakly trying to get out of his arms.
"No he's not." Duke said, turning her towards her room, "The bed is your friend. C'mon, let's go."
"Duke I am so fucked–how am I going to explain this to my parents?" She let herself be led towards her room.
"I'd open with 'Turns out my fiancé was a cheating bastard but the good news is that I learned that before I met him at the alter.'" Duke tried to help.
She narrowed her eyes at him, tripping over a book for a moment, "Be serious."
"As a heart attack." Duke said solemnly, opening the door to her room and setting her on her bed.
She started lying down, pulling a blanket around herself as she went, "Oh what am I gonna do?"
Duke shrugged and tucked her in, "You'll figure something out, dear, you're smart like that."
Jennifer sighed as Duke kissed her forehead. He was about to leave when she grabbed his hand, "You could be Jason."
Duke gave her a confused look, "What?"
She sat up more in her bed, "You could be Jason. I mean, you don't have to be Jason, they don't really know him or anything about him–but you could be my fiancé!"
Duke shook his head, "That is a terrible idea."
"Oh c'mon, Duke!" She said, sitting up completely in her bed, suddenly shockingly sober, "You're great! And no one knows me better than you! We could be engaged!"
"Jennifer no." Duke shook his head, gently pushing her back into her bed.
"Duke please?" She asked desperately, grabbing at his shirt and hitting him with her heart-melting Bambi-esque doe eyes. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him down onto the bed with her, "Please please please? I can't face my family fiancé-less! I'll never live it down! And it doesn't have to mean anything–we just smile and greet family members and answer questions–c'mon, you're a con man! You lie to people for a living! How is this any different?"
'Cause it's you, he thought, but bit his tongue. He looked at her doe eyes and sighed, "Fine! Fine. Just get some sleep, we'll talk more about it in the morning."
She squealed and hugged him tightly, pulling back down again and kissing his cheek, "Oh thank you thank you thank you, Duke!"
"Yeah yeah," He chuckled, gently pushing her off and back into the mattress. He kissed her forehead, "We'll talk in the morning."