Ned Ashton opened the door to The Recovery Room for his wife and noticed that his cousins, Chloe and Amy Morgan, were seated at a table by the west wall.
"See, Ned is playing hooky too," Chloe's voice floated across the room.
"Ned is exercising some flex time, since Carly had a doctor's appointment, and since I got an early start thanks to a 7:30 conference call."
"Isn't that just one of the joys of being executive vice president for an US based international conglomerate?" Chloe asked.
"That is what they tell me," Ned said. He punctuated his words with a forced laugh. He wondered if Chloe realized how hollow it felt. He hoped she didn't.
"Why don't you join us? We haven't ordered yet," Chloe offered.
Ned glanced towards Carly warily. He was afraid she had probably had more than enough of his family after Sunday Brunch at Monica's. It was Quartermaine tradition but Ned understood how it could be exhausting and overwhelming for those who hadn't grown up in the family. Frankly, he found it tiring at times himself.
"That sounds lovely," Carly said as she took a step forward and pulled out the chair next to Chloe."
His wife's move surprised him. Of course, maybe that was the point. After all, Carly had been the one to tell him that part of her charm was to always keep people guessing. That had been the night he had gone looking for Jason after the Warehouse Fire and found Carly in his room at Jake's.
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Brenda Barrett finished pouring Katelyn's milk and then placed the jug back in the refrigerator. She crossed over to the breakfast nook where she set down Katelyn's milk and then sat down across from her young charge. Lila was attending a lunch time meeting of the PCGH Auxiliary so it was just her and Katelyn for lunch. As they ate Katelyn chattered away about swimming and her cousin Serena's extended sleepover.
Brenda decided if she was fortunate Katelyn would be tired out from her morning swimming lesson and would nap and allow her to get in more studying for her statistics exam. She was contemplating that when an excited squeal invaded her thoughts.
"AJ!" Katelyn squealed.
"Hey Katelyn, how was swimming?"
"Great! I swam from one end of the pool to the other without stopping. I might get to do the real swim team like Alli and Kirk soon."
"Good Job! How would you like to go apple picking after lunch?" AJ asked.
"Yes!"
"Ok, then finish up your lunch so we can go meet Keesha at Ward House and then we'll go over to Carter's Orchard with the rest of the kids," AJ said.
Brenda met AJ's eyes above Katelyn's head. She had a pretty good idea what he was doing but she was desperate enough for study time that she decided to just go with it.
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When Jasper Jacks opened the door to Bensonhurst Records, the silence surprised him. Silence was not a word he associated with Lois Cerullo or really anything she touched. He found that spark of life invigorating. Julia had that same spark, although she kept hers more cloaked.
A young woman with dark hair and dark eyes looked up from filing her nails. "Can I help you?" she asked.
"I am here to see Lois Cerullo."
Dark eyes raised with incredulity, "Who?" she asked.
"Lois Cerullo, your boss," Jax asserted.
"I think you are mistaken. I was hired by Tucker McCall," the young woman said as she picked up the phone on her desk.
While the woman in front of him mumbled words he couldn't quite understand into the phone, Jax realized that it was possible Lois would sell her music label. It seemed highly unlikely though. She had basically walked away from any claim to the Quartermaine fortune in exchange for Ned's equity share of Bensonhurst records and full custody of their daughter. Why would she go through all of that to sell less than a year after their divorce had finalized?
They were joined by a man likely in his mid-forties with sandy brown hair. Although he was dressed in a three-piece suit, his features were rugged and he had a scar across his right cheek. "I am Tucker McCall, the managing producer of Bensonhurst Records, Ms. Cerullo won't be back in the office until next week, but perhaps I can help you in the interim," he said.
"I find that unlikely, I'll just reach out to Ms. Cerullo directly," Jax said and then he turned and exited before anyone could verify his identity. That left him the option to surprise Lois at home later.
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Brenda Barrett rinsed and loaded her and Katelyn's lunch dishes into one dishwasher while AJ unloaded and put away the dishwasher full of dishes from breakfast. As was typical, AJ had given her the easier job. "I owe you for this, so, thanks," she said as she closed the dishwasher.
"You owe me for putting away the breakfast dishes? Don't tell my mother that, she's had a rough past few days and she likes to believe that she raised me with a much more egalitarian perspective on household chores."
Brenda laughed. "No, I meant for taking Katelyn this afternoon. I am still so unprepared for this exam in Statistics."
"Are you taking Stats 301? I took that last year with Professor Mason. He tells everyone that at least two of the ten questions will come from an old exam. I think he thinks if you go through all his old exams you're actually working through a ton of problems and must be learning something which is kind of the point."
"They're supposed to be in the library but someone has had them signed out since last week, so, yeah, not exactly an option for me."
"There is also an old test file at Delta Tau Delta. We have a house meeting tonight anyway so I can grab copies for you."
"Really?"
"Sure, the meeting probably won't be over until nine though so how about if I drop them off sometime around 6:30 and then head to the meeting. That may work better anyway because I think I am going to stay in my room at the fraternity house tonight," AJ offered.
"Wow, thanks! I'm going to go up and see how Katelyn is doing with changing into the jeans I laid out so she can go with you."
"Thank you, and for the record, although I completely don't mind giving you some extra time to study, I really did invite Katelyn because I thought she would love to come. I'm a lot busier with school, student teaching, et cetera, this year so I haven't had as much time for her and I'm trying to rectify that."
"You're a good big brother," Brenda said as she turned to start up the kitchen stairs to the East Wing.
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"Aunt Lila tells me you also know our other cousin, Jason Morgan, very well. Is that how you and Ned met?" Chloe Morgan asked before she took another bite of her Cobb Salad.
Carly's face flushed a little. She seemed to drag out chewing the bite of her cheeseburger, conveniently sparing herself from answering.
"Technically, I think we originally met at the Nurses' Ball. It seems that the newest PCGH volunteers always end up being Lucy Coe's assistant for the Nurses Ball," Ned joked.
Carly smiled at her husband but, at least from Chloe's perspective, the smile seemed a bit more forced than genuine.
"However, we really didn't have our first significant conversation until five months after that when we both helped serve at the Charles Street Community Thanksgiving held at Ward House," Ned said.
"Yes, we debated cranberry jelly versus cranberry relish as a Thanksgiving staple," Carly said.
"You did?" Chloe asked. She could not understand why anyone would voluntarily eat that congealed cranberry mess from a can.
"To be fair, Carly has never tried Grandmother's Cranberry Relish. I am confident that we will have another convert to the relish camp after this Thanksgiving," Ned said.
"Also, to be fair, I never said I liked that cranberry stuff from the can, I merely told Ned it had graced my family's thanksgiving table for years," Carly said.
Chloe laughed. "So, you grew up in Florida, what brought you here to Port Charles? Did you move for school?" she asked.
"Perhaps this will sound silly, but I grew up in Florida which is pretty much oppressive heat most of the time. I really wanted to experience the four seasons so I started looking for physical therapy aide positions in the northeast. PCGH advertised that employees got a credit towards tuition at PCU so I thought maybe that would be a good option," Carly said.
"I don't think it sounds silly. It is incredibly resourceful. Have you decided what you want to major in at PCU?" Chloe asked.
"Well I did a year of nursing and unfortunately I mostly learned that nursing is not my calling," Carly said. She punctuated her words with a laugh but once again Chloe found it more forced than free.
"Maybe you're too hard on yourself. Or maybe your talents and passions really do lie elsewhere and you'll figure that out. Just give yourself a chance. Give yourself some time," Chloe said.
"That is what I keep telling her. It is important to hold yourself accountable but sometimes it is equally important to cut yourself some slack," Ned said.
Carly met Ned's eyes and smiled. For the first time, Chloe sensed the smile was genuine.