Chapter Four
Liz grasps her hands around Jason’s muscular abs for all she’s worth. This is the most exciting motorcycle ride of her life! Jason revs the engine and picks up speed…..50 mph, 60 mph, 70 mph. They are now on country roads, long, wide opens spaces with blue skies full of puffy white clouds and a glimpse of the occasional bored cow chewing cud and raising a lazy eye to watch the two speed by. Liz begins laughing and shouting like she is on an amusement park ride, ready to take the biggest roller coaster plunge of her life. Breathless, she snuggles her head into Jason’s strong back, her cheek taking in the warmth of the sun absorbed by the smooth black leather of his riding jacket.
~*~*~*~
Quartermaine Dinnertime
Monica enters the Quartermaine living room, walks over to the bar and pours herself a healthy gin and tonic. As she adds the twist of lime to her glass, Alan enters the room.
"Should you really be drinking alcohol with a baby on the way and an alcoholic son in the house?"
"First of all Alan, I’m not pregnant—yet. So, let me enjoy the pleasure of a good stiff drink before I go through that again. Secondly, AJ isn’t even living here anymore. He’s shacking up with Hannah, remember?"
"There’s no need to take that tone with me, Monica. I’m only looking out for the welfare of this family." Alan sidles up to the appetizer tray and begins downing one rich canapé after another.
Edward enters the room and snorts, "In that case, you’d better start looking out for the welfare of your waistline, Alan. You don’t want to have a heart attack before that baby comes, do you?"
"Shut up, Edward, Shut up, Father!" Monica and Alan chime simultaneously.
Edward adopts his hurt look and exclaims, "Well, where’s my granddaughter? Where’s Emily? Don’t tell me you’ve chased her out of this house, too. Then, I’ll really have to start praying for a new grandchild. I don’t know how much more of this over-hormoned middle-aged sex talk I can take. " Edward makes a disgusted look with his face and shakes his head.
Monica looks questioningly at Alan, "Do you know where Emily is? I spoke to her at breakfast, and she assured me that she’d be on time for dinner."
"No, I haven’t seen her all day, Monica. Father?"
"REGINALD," Edward bellows.
Reginald appears at the doorway. He states in a bored tone, "Your majesty?"
"Can it, Reginald before I order your execution," Edward retorts as he makes a slashing motion at his throat. "Has Emily phoned or left a message?"
Reginald replies, "I haven’t spoken to Emily since breakfast. Is that ALL?"
"Get out of here you ungrateful…." Edward fades away as he waves a hand in Reginald’s direction.
"Gladly," sniffs Reginald as he exits the living room.
The room grows quiet (for once) as Alan, Monica and Edward exchange worried glances.
~*~*~*~
Llanview Country Club Gym
"Hey there, hootchie mama! Work it baby."
The woman stops her curls with free weights to glance in the direction of the speaker.
"Finally got your attention, Blair." The man raises an eyebrow as he smirks and chuckles at his own words.
"Tooodd," Blair drawls icily.
"Why are you hanging out at this gym all the time anyway? Shouldn’t you be doing something like watching our daughter or working? Oh, yeah, that’s right, you married the fake Buchanan so that you could pump it all day."
"Well, you look like ‘you’ could use some help ‘pumping up’, Todd." Blair gives him a scathing look.
"I seem to recall that you used to like my athletic build just fine. In fact, you used to come up behind me and …"
"Shut up, Todd. Now why the hell are you here? Have you finally killed that computer virus?" Blair sighs in exasperation while mentally she smiles in recollection of an earlier time.
"Okay, so let me review this. You still want me, your hated ex, to erase the virus that you had planted as a time bomb on your current husband’s computer network for revenge because he cheated on you with the bimbo redhead from Pine Valley. And, I’m supposed to help you save your marriage to a cheap grifter who’s impersonating some poor old rich b**tard’s son in order to gain all the money that you want to get your little hands on. Because now you’ve changed your mind and want to forgive him and have his spawn. Am I missing anything, Blair? Because this sounds an awful lot like a soap opera to me."
"You’re forgetting that I’m allowing you to see your daughter and helping you get your newspaper back, you criminal," Blair snaps.
"Criminal? I think not." Todd assumes his righteous indignation slash little lost boy face. Look, I’ve paid my debt to society – I spent time in Statesville, thank you very much. And I was acquitted on those hostage charges, remember?" Todd’s on a roll now.
"Yeah, because you were found ‘Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity’," Blair yells.
"I was misunderstood. The dynamite was fake, anyway. You were there, you remember, Blair."
"Let’s not go there, Todd, okay? Now give me a progress report on this virus situation."
Todd shrugs and hems and haws. "I have the situation under control. I’m reviewing…uh…the log files and updating the…registry. You know, technical computer stuff. It’s coming along, Blair."
"It better, Todd. It better." Blair turns her back and resumes her gym routine.
~*~*~*~
When the country club valet hands him his keys, Todd hops into his black Lamborghini. Peeling out of the parking lot, Todd turns onto the highway and drives 90 mph to the Llanview Mall.
After a brief stint in the mall, Todd walks back to his sports car with a package. Sitting in the gray leather seat, Todd nervously fiddles with the package and removes a book: Networking for Dummies. This better work, he thinks as he turns to the table of contents.
Laura and Monica connect
Emily’s joint trick
Luke and Laura sing the blues