Alexis tapped the pencil against her legal pad, and bit her lip nervously. Her meeting was soon, and she was at a loss, as to what the best way to handle it was.

She smelled his expensive after shave before his hands crashed over her face covering her eyes. "Guess who."

"Chloe Ashton’s husband." Alexis said succinctly.

~~~

"What?" Jax responded, staring at Chloe who stood in front of him armed with chocolate and a token broken high heel.

Chloe smiled gleefully and stepped closer to him. "Ned and I divorced. We decided this plan was not worth ruining him and Alexis, and possibly derailing you and me. So Ned is going to help me rebuild my customer base, with publicity, and you and I are free to date. Once you and Alexis get an annulment as well."

"You what?" Jax said again, running his hands through his hair, and backing away. He thought he would have to break her heart a little, but he had no clue.

~~~

"Chloe and I got an annulment for the Millennium." Ned stated beaming as he sat down in the chair closest to Alexis. "We are free to make up for all the time we lost, and to work on getting back on track."

Alexis felt her heart pound, and she started fingering her wedding band. "But Chloe’s company."

"That is no problem. We have press conference tomorrow, to talk about the will, Chloe will own up to trying to fool herself into a real marriage, but it not working. And she will state that she is going to be opening Chloé Creations, and hopes that her clientele will stay with her, and new clientele will begin. I will help her, and I am sure Jax will too… and you can of course be her lawyer. Aren’t you happy about this. This is good news."

Alexis wondered how it was one breathed, she had seemed to have forgotten how.

~~~

"Your dream?"

"I can rebuild the company. My dream isn’t dead yet. It will be a challenge." Chloe said, and looked at the broken shoe and looked back at him playfully. "I am quite offended, you have yet to offer to fix my shoe."

Jax fell to his couch and started fingering his wedding band, and looked at the glowing happy woman before him. He cared about her, but she wasn’t his wife. "Chloe you need to sit down."

~~~

Alexis exhaled and started coughing.

Ned started to stand up to help her, but Alexis waved him back down. "Sit! You need to be sitting. You and Chloe should not have acted so rash."

"We had a break down in communications Alexis. Chloe was pinning for Jax. We made choice, or rather Chloe made a choice, and I went with it. She is willing, well she and I have already done it."

"I am falling in love with Jax." Alexis blurted out, unable to think of an easy way to explain to Ned what was happening to her.

~~~

"Chloe, I am so sorry." Jax said, looking her in the eye. "I thought that… Well it doesn’t matter what I thought this summer, because my heart knows exactly where it belongs now and always… and that is with my wife. Alexis and I belong together, we don’t ever want to get a divorce."

~~~

"What?" Ned asked staring at Alexis, his face blank as if he was a student who just couldn’t quite grasp the concept of long division.

~~~

"You love Alexis." Chloe said her eyes blinked and she dropped the shoe, and then the chocolate she was still holding. "Alexis?"

~~~

"I am falling in love with Jax. He loves me." Alexis said softly.

"That good for nothing back stabbing….."

"Ned, that is not true."

"He is using you to finish an old grudge, about not being able to steal Lois away from me."

"Ned!"

"That is it isn’t it. He has just broken Chloe’s heart, not mention destroyed her dream."

"You and Chloe made that decision… Ned, I didn’t mean to hurt you, Jax didn’t want to hurt Chloe. We both thought Chloe was over him."

"Over him! Chloe is totally enamoured of him."

~~~

"I need to go." Chloe whispered standing up to hurry to the door.

"Let me walk you out." Jax said feeling at a loss.

"No, you have done plenty already, Mr. Jacks." Chloe said, bitterness and hurt in her voice. "Good bye."

Jax sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Hope it is going better with Ned."

~~~

"We didn’t know. We couldn’t help it, it just happened Ned. You must’ve known what we had was not just a lack of communication, it was the end of us. Silent and swift, but we ended, and I am falling in love with Jax."

Ned shook his head. "You and I belong together, Alexis Davis."

"Jacks. Alexis Davis Jacks." Alexis corrected without thinking.

Ned stared at her. "I don’t know you?"

"Ned, I am so sorry."

"I am sure you are. Tell it to Chloe, she destroyed her dream for nothing, Jax is probably breaking her heart right now." Ned muttered walking off, feeling dazed.

Alexis fell back into her seat, she had somehow ended up standing. "Oh that did not go well." She muttered to herself sarcastically.

~~~

Jax looked at his watch. Hopefully she and Ashton are done. He thought, and he dialed her cell phone number.

"Alexis Jacks."

He smiled as she said her name, his name with a confidant certainty to her voice. "I love you." He said.

"They got an annulment." They both said at the same time, letting their guilt show.

"I think we should let them cool down, then offer to help Chloe rebuild."

"It is worth a shot, and precisely what I was thinking." Alexis replied. "I feel so bad."

"Me too."

"But no regrets."

"None at all." Jax assured her.

Alexis smiled and waved over her waiter. "I am on my way home."

"Thank God, I miss you."

~~~

Somewhere in California

"Phoebe Laurence." A tall man stated looking down at a group of four teenaged girls.

"I am Phoebe, stated the only brunette." Her voice cautious, one of her friends kicked her.

"I am a friend of you mother’s."

"Really."

"Yes. You look just like her."

Phoebe smiled. "Dad and Mom say that all the time, that I have her brown eyes, and I twist my hair the way she used to do when she was fifteen like me. She and Dad are just inside, want to come in."

"No, no, that is not necessary, just wanted to see if you were her daughter, you do have your mother’s wide brown eyes. Good bye now."

"Bye." She said and turned back to her friends.

The man gave a small smile, and pulled out a cell phone and walked away dialing a number. "I made contact, she is clueless."

To be continued….