People Will Say We’re in Love-Chapter 1

 

"Dara!" Marcus shouted trying to hail her down in the hall way before she had a chance to make it to her office and shut him out. She had been avoiding him since that mix-up at PC Grill the other day. He needed to talk to her about this and give her an explanation.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. There would be no way for her to ignore him; he already knew that she heard him. What reason could she give for not wanting to talk to him? She smiled and stopped and waited for him to catch up to her.

"Dara," he said. "I’m glad that I was able to reach you. I think that I owe you an explanation about the other night. I’m really sorry about the mix-up."

She sighed and gave him a smile. "I told you that was perfectly all right. Sure, I was a little embarrassed; it was an embarrassing situation, but I told you that it was okay. Can’t we just drop this, all right?" she asked as she walked towards her office.

He followed her in and closed the door behind him. "I think that there are some things we need to talk about, Dara."

She sat down behind her desk and busied herself with one of the files lying there. "I honestly don’t know what we have to talk about."

"I think that you do. You’ve been treating Hannah terribly. She doesn’t say anything about it, and she doesn’t think anything of it. But, I want to know what you have against her."

"Okay," she said putting the file aside. "I’ll admit that I was a little mean to her. I’ll also admit that it was totally unwarranted treatment. The woman has never done anything to me. I think that it was a little jealousy on my part. Before you jump to any conclusions about me being jealous of you, let me finish," she interjected before he had a chance to say anything.

He sat down now. "Okay, I’m listening."

"I think that I was jealous of the fact that you seemed that you were moving on with your life, and you were happy with someone, while I wasn’t. I felt that if I was alone, then you had to be, too. But, that’s not fair. The reason that I’m alone is of my own doing. I did this. I pushed everyone out of my life, so there is no reason for me to be upset with you."

He was obviously impressed by her realizations. "When did you come up with all of that?"

She laughed. "I’ve had plenty of time to think about these types of things. It’s not like I have anything else to do. So, I just think and work. But, you know what, Marcus, I’m a little tired of thinking and working."

"Really, so what are you going to do now? Thinking and working are not always bad things, but too much of it is."

"It’s Friday night, and I’m going to do something for myself. I’m going to the Outback tonight, by myself, and I’m going to be open to any possibilities."

He frowned slightly. "That doesn’t sound very smart, Dara. What possibilities are you going to be open to?"

"Don’t worry, Marcus, I’ll be very careful. I’m just going to enjoy myself. Mac says that he has some signers booked for tonight, so I’m just going to enjoy their singing."

"Will you be singing tonight as well?" he asked teasing her.

She shook her head and laughed. "No, not tonight, but I will not rule out the possibilities of another time, though." She stood up and quickly packed her briefcase. "Would you care to escort me to my car?"

He stood and offered her his arm. "It would be my pleasure."

 

"Is there something wrong?" Alexis asked as Jax sat down at the table with her, obviously upset.

"You could say that. How are things going with you?" he said not wanting to discuss what was going on with Chloe right now.

She shrugged. "Helena has just been arrested, that’s all," she said nonchalantly before laughing.

That was enough news to break Jax out of his sour mood. "I would say that’s great news. How did it happen?"

"Stefan made it happen. He’s also broken all ties with Laura. Maybe his obsession with her is finally over. He says that it is, and I hope that he’s right. So, does that good news put my ex-husband in a better mood?"

"Actually, yes, it does. It’s good to know that things are working out for one of us," he said leaning back in the chair.

She leaned forward and folded her arms on the table. "Come on, Jax, talk to me. I will not have you sitting here and look glum all night. Now, tell me what’s wrong. Why isn’t Chloe here with you?"

He relented realizing that he couldn’t keep anything from Alexis for long. "I’ve always striven to keep my personal and business lives separate, and I’ve only juxtaposed the two once in my life, and that was I first got to town. I’m sure you know the history of my alliance with Tracey and our plot to take-over ELQ."

She nodded. "Yeah, Ned told me about that. I guess we both did things when we first got to town that we weren’t exactly proud of."

"Well, the only reason that it didn’t work was because I pulled out of it. I did that because of Brenda. She felt that the Quartermaines were her family, so I didn’t want to hurt then because it would hurt her. That’s not the way I usually do business, Alexis."

"I know it isn’t. Is that what’s happening now? I know what happened with that company Edward took from you, and I know that you’re going to retaliate. Does Chloe not approve of it?"

"No, she doesn’t, but I cannot help that. She went behind my back, Alexis. That is something that I simply cannot tolerate. She had no right to do that. This is business, pure and simple."

"So, what are you going to do about it?" Alexis asked. She had a feeling that she knew what he was going to do. Trust was very important to Jax, and Chloe had just breached that. She wondered what was going to happen there.

"What can I do? I told her that we needed to be a part for a while. She agreed, so, I guess that’s all I can do. We’ll see how things turn out. How’s Ned?"

She frowned slightly. Things with Ned weren’t the way she wanted them. "They’re things."

"What’s that supposed to mean?" he asked frowning at her. "The two of you aren’t having problems, are you?"

She shrugged. "I really don’t know what’s going on. He’s going to scout out potentials for L&B in a week or so. I’m glad that he want’s to get the business started up again, but I kind of wish that he wasn’t doing it right now. We just got back together as a normal couple, and now he’s leaving. Fitting, don’t you think?"

"This may seem odd, but it seems that our relationships were better when we were cheating," he noted laughing.

"In an odd, sick, kind of perverted way, that’s true," she said also laughing. She lifted her glass of water, and he did the same with his. "Well, here’s to relationships."

 

Carly sat up in her room at Bobbie’s brownstone. She rested on the bed rubbing her stomach and thought of the promises she made to keep Michael and her unborn child safe. She would let her children be taken away from her by neither AJ nor Sonny.

She promised Bobbie that she would take care of herself, and stop relying on a man to fulfill her needs. She would stand on her own two feet and take care of her children. She sighed and sat up against the headboard. "Well, Carly," she said out loud. "How are you going that?"

"Do what?" Bobbie asked standing in the doorway of Carly’s bedroom.

She smiled. "Hi, I didn’t know you were standing there."

"Well, obviously not," she said coming into the room and over to the bed. "If you did, I don’t think that you would have been talking to yourself. So, how are you going to do what? Get out of this bed and eat. You haven’t eaten at all today, and that’s not healthy for the baby."

"I will eat something later, I promise," she said hugging one of the pillows on the bed. "Thank you again for letting me stay here."

"You’re quite welcome. I love my grandchildren, and although you don’t always believe it, I love you, too."

Carly gave her a small smile. "Right. Somehow, though, Mama, I think that if it was just me, you wouldn’t let me stay here."

She sighed. Carly could always find a way to ruin any mother/daughter moment they had. She got up from the bed to leave. "I have to go to the hospital for a little while, so I left some dinner for you. Heat it up whenever you want. Good night, Carly."

"Good night," she said before sulking again.

 

"I invited Stefan tonight; I hope you don’t mind," Alexis said to Jax after they had given the waiter their orders.

He shrugged. "Why should I mind. Actually, I want to speak with Stefan about some things."

"No talk about business tonight," she said gesturing. "It’s Friday night, and the work week is over. I just want to eat and talk about stupid, silly things."

"Calm down, Alexis," he laughed. "Okay, fine, we will not talk about serious things. Wow," he said looking towards the door at the woman who just came in. "Talk about leaving work behind."

Alexis turned around and saw that Dara had walked in the Outback in a stunning dark blue dress. She turned back to face Jax and smacked him on the arm. "That’s no way to look at your ADA. But, I must admit, that dress is beautiful."

Jax smiled and made a big show of rubbing his arm where she hit him. "What can I say? You see a beautiful woman, you react. I’m surprised that you’re complementing your rival, though."

"She’s not really my rival, Jax. We just don’t always see eye to eye. What are you doing?" she said as she saw him wave her over to their table.

"Well, you said that the two of you weren’t rivals. It would be in bad form not to talk to her."

She spotted them and came over smiling. She was not going to let Alexis Davis ruin her night. "Hello, are you here to hear the singers Mac has lined up for tonight?" she asked as soon as she arrived at their table. It was a little odd to see them eating together considering the fact that they were divorced.

"Yes," Jax said smiling. "It’s been a while since the Outback has had live entertainment, so we thought we might sample a bit of it tonight. Are you waiting for someone?"

"No, I’m flying solo tonight."

Jax frowned. "Well, we can’t have that, now can we. Why don’t you join us? We have an extra chair."

Dara looked over a little uncomfortably at Alexis. Alexis shrugged. "Yes, why don’t you join us. I’m sure that we can manage to put any bad blood behind us for one night."

"I don’t want to intrude," she began her protest.

"Nonsense, you won’t be intruding at all," he said getting up to pull out a chair for her.

"I would assume you are expecting some other people," she said taking the chair.

"Only Stefan," Alexis said smiling. "Look, here he is. I’m glad you could make it," she said when he arrived at the table.

"Yes, I’m sorry I’m late, but some last minute business came up. Good evening Mr. Jacks, Ms. Jensen," he said as he sat across from Dara. He knew that Jax was going to be there, but finding Dara there was somewhat of a surprise. He knew that Alexis and Dara weren’t exactly friends, and he did not think that she and Jax were. "Will you be performing tonight, Ms. Jensen?"

She smiled and shook her head. "No, not tonight. And please, just call me Dara. Ms. Jensen makes me feel like I’m at work, and that’s the last thing I want to think about tonight."

"Really," Jax said. "That’s the exact same thing Alexis said earlier. You know what they say about great minds and all."

Alexis smiled. "Yes, that’s exactly what I said. Work should not be the most important things in our lives, don’t you agree?"

"Exactly. It seems like it’s completely taken over my life, and I will not allow that to happen again. That’s why I will not rule out the possibility of performing here again some time in the future."

 

"I’m glad that we decided to come here tonight," Hannah said as they entered the door. "It’s been a rough week, and I could surely use a night out."

"Well, Dara said that this was something we didn’t want to miss, so I thought that we might check it out. I’m just glad that you’re not too tired to come here tonight."

She sighed. "Well, this has been a busy week, but I’m sure I can last for a little while. Look," she said pointing. "Dara is over there sitting with Jax, Alexis, and Stefan."

He laughed. "Well, that’s a sight. The ADA is sitting with some of the shadiest characters in Port Charles, and she and Alexis don’t get along that well."

"Well, I don’t know. Jax seems pretty nice to me," she said pulling her wrap closer. "Let’s go say hi." Before he could object, she was already walking over to the table. "Hi, everyone," she said in greeting.

"Ms. Scott," Jax said smiling. "It’s good to see you again. Are you sure to stay away from frozen ponds lately?"

She laughed about the memory of that day on the pond. "Yes, I’ve been trying to stay on my own two feet lately. Thank you again for that. Dara, thank you, too. Marcus told me that you suggested that we come here tonight."

She returned her smile. "Yes, I’m really enjoying myself so far, and Mac says that it only gets better."

"Well, since you did suggest it, why don’t you sit with us?" Marcus suggested eyeing Stefan and Jax.

She shook her head. "I think that I’ll be fine here. The two of you have a good night."

"If you’re sure," he said trying to convince her to change her mind.

She laughed. "Yeah, I’m having a good time; I’ll talk to you later. Hannah, make sure this man enjoys himself tonight."

She grabbed his arm. "I will try my hardest."

 

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