V., dressed in jeans, a casual shirt, a hat, and dark sunglasses, sat outside of Kelly's talking on a cell phone. Jax came by and was about to go inside when V. caught his attention. V. hung up the phone.

"I hardly recognized you," Jax said.

"Good." V. told Jax that she had come to the conclusion that Simon was here on a bet to seduce her.

"You've got it all figured out, haven't you?"

V. laughed.

"And you, of course, have proof of this?" Jax asked.

"Who needs proof?! It is *so* obvious!"

"You don't think there's actually a chance that Simon might like you?"

"You sound exactly like Ned."

"Well, how about hiding out at my place tonight?" Jax suggested.

V. shook her head. "I'd love to, but I'm swamped."

"Well see, why I'm asking is because, uh, I invited Chloe over for dinner and I don't want it to seem like a date."

"Oh! You want me to run interference?"

"Yeah, something like that." Jax told her that she, of course, did not have to arrive in disguise.

"Why would I? Your place is the one apartment I know that Simon will never be at."

Jax chuckled. "Right."

So V. agreed.

Jax walked away, and as he did, he felt a twinge of guilt.

Jax and V. waited for Chloe at the penthouse. Jax offered V. a glass of champagne.

"Aren't we going to wait for Chloe to get here?" she asked.

"Nope."

V. laughed. "I'm not going to make much of a chaperone if I'm tipsy!"

"That's the idea. Drink up."

Just then, someone knocked on the door. V. went to the kitchen to check on something. Jax answered the door and Chloe and Simon walked in.

"All I ask is the real name and address of my one true love, and I will never show up at your door again," Simon said.

"Did uh, did Chloe mention the concept of backing off?"

"I tried." Chloe gave Simon a chastising look. Simon promised he would be on his best behavior.

It was then that V. came out and saw Simon.

She looked at Jax, fuming. "You set me up!" After a few more angry words, she marched out of the room. Jax went after her.

He caught up with her in the hallway about to go in the elevator. He begged her to listen to him, so V. reluctantly agreed to.

"What exactly is it that you find so terrible about Simon?"

V. thought for a moment. "He cheats at cards."

"Okay," Jax said, "so do I."

"What about the fact that the man's clearly insane? He flies halfway across the world proclaiming his undying love to someone he's barely laid eyes on! Does that seem like a normal person?"

"Look, what's he's doing isn't different from some of the stunts I've pulled, and you've never held them against me."

Jax asked V. if she could be so sure that Simon's feelings were not real. V. refused to believe that and said she was not the kind of woman that men cross continents for.

"Hold on a second. If you find Simon obnoxious, that's one thing, I'm not going to argue with you on that and I won't try to change your mind, but if you're worried that you'll disappoint him, then there's no way I'm letting you get on that elevator."

Back inside the penthouse, Simon was convinced that Jax was helping V. get away.

"If he wanted to help V. escape, why would he agree to host a dinner where the two of you could get acquainted?" Chloe asked.

"Because you asked him I should imagine. Oh, come on, Chloe, be reasonable. The man doesn't care about me. He doesn't care that I have found the only woman I'll ever love."

"This is your problem, Simon! You're overwhelming her! You've met the woman twice. It's too soon to be declaring undying love."

"This from Chloe, the hopeless romantic?! Who's only response when Lady Wexley left her fiancée at the alter to run off with his cousin was 'Well of course. They saw each other and they just knew.'"

"Under the circumstances, yes. Simon, I believe in falling in love at first sight, and I believed it happened to you. But unfortunately it hasn't happened to V. You have to give her a chance to catch up, you have to let her get to know you." Chloe urged Simon not to try to win her over by buying her flowers or calling her ridiculous names like 'enchantress,' but rather, to just be himself.

Finally, Jax came back with V.

"Everyone ready for dinner?" Jax asked.

"Absolutely!" Simon said.

"I can hardly wait," Chloe said unenthusiastically.

At the dinner table, V. was completely silent. Jax and Chloe did most of the talking, discussing how wonderful the food was and about the upcoming Nurses Ball.

"What exactly is a Nurses Ball?" Simon asked, turning to V. She didn't answer.

"From what I understand, it's some kind of charity event combined with a talent show," Chloe answered.

"Most of the entertainment is quite good," Jax added. "And the cause is HIV/AIDS related services, so even if it's not, you feel quite noble sitting in the audience. And Lucy is the Mistress of Ceremonies. She'll probably wind up in her underwear sometime during the night up on stage." Jax chuckled.

Chloe threw him a bemused look. "Excuse me?"

"Oh, you'll see for yourself. I assume your going?"

"The Quartermaines are insisting. I think it sounds like great fun. Are you?"

"Yeah, I don't really have a choice. I'm one of the sponsors. Among other things I have a special table at the Nurses Ball. Would you like to uh, sit with me? I just uh, you know, don't want to make small talk and polite conversation with the other hospital benefactors."

   

"It seems to me like you've done enough by being a sponsor. You shouldn't have to make polite conversation. I would be delighted to sit with you."

"Well that was pretty easy," Jax said, trying to give Simon a hint on how to ask a lady out properly.

Jax asked Chloe how things were going at the Quartermaines and if she was getting used to them yet.

"No!" Chloe replied, and told him that the minute she started to figure them out, they did something unbelievable. "Do you know that they are not allowed in their own kitchen?"

"Why not? The cook of theirs is a remarkable woman, she's so nice!"

"That's what I thought! Until she caught AJ in the pantry the other morning, she refused to make breakfast, and threatened to resign!"

"Well how would you feel trying to do your job with the Quartermaines hovering around?"

"I have tried," Chloe said, but then added that she may not be the best person to ask that because she loses track of the real world when she's sketching. "You should ask Felicia. She has been over to the house fairly often working on Lila's memoirs." Chloe said that both Lila and Felicia seemed to be enjoying it.

"Did you know that V. helped Felicia write her first book? It was a mystery novel, right?"

"It was really more of a crime novel." V. said. "And my help was limited to grammar, punctuation corrections. Felicia has the tendency to confuse the contraction is apostrophe s with the possessive is."

"God! Don't you just hate that?! Misapplication of a basic rule!" Simon said, and went on to explain how misplaced commas were the worst.

"Misplaced semicolons are just as bad!" V. said.

And suddenly, Simon and V. were going on and on about their grammar pet peeves.

Jax and Chloe exchanged glances. They were having a lively conversation together, about grammar no less!

After dinner, Simon and V. sat on the couch and looked at one of Jax's contracts, full of punctuation errors.

Jax looked on as he walked over to Chloe and handed her a glass of champagne. Together, they watched Simon and V. Jax held his glass up to Chloe's for a toast. She hesitated.

"I hate to jinx it with a premature celebration, but I will say that Simon and V. seem to be getting along very nicely."

"Who would have thought? Punctuation and grammar!" Jax laughed.

"It's strange, isn't it? The things that bring people together."

Jax told Chloe that he knew she agreed to go to the Nurses Ball to set a good example and that it was okay if she had changed her mind.

"Have you changed yours?" Chloe asked.

Jax smiled. "No, actually looking forward to it."

"Well so am I."

   

Chloe then glanced over at Simon and V. "Oh no," she muttered.

Over at the couch, Simon was on his knees and holding V.'s hand.

"I love you, V. Marry me."

"JAX!" V. screamed and jumped up from the couch.

Jax politely told Simon to back off. Simon kept insisting that he loved V. and that the one thing he wanted to do most was to marry her and make her the happiest woman ever.

"Okay, I get it, alright?" V. hollered.

Simon was persistent in making V. understand the depths of his love for her. "All I will ever want is to marry you."

"How can you say that when you don't even know my name?"

Simon then made several guesses. All he had to go on was that it started with the letter V.

"Wait! Of course, who else could it be? The goddess of love-Venus!"

V. gave Jax a suspicious look. "You told."

"I didn't!" Jax swore.

"Venus is a wonderful name!" Chloe said.

V. shook her head. "Venus Ardnowski is a ridiculous name."

Jax decided that he needed to establish some ground rules. He warned Simon to back off because he had invited him over for dinner to get acquainted and nothing more.

Simon told V. that he had never met anyone who shared his love for grammar.

"Grammar is not romantic!" V. said.

"Well why not?" Chloe said. "Romance is where you find it. What about Lord Byron and Mary Shelley who were bound by their love of poetry and nature?"

V. looked at Chloe questioningly. "Didn't she end up writing Frankenstein?"

"People find each other all the time, everyday, in supermarkets or airports or, getting caught in rainstorms." Chloe smiled at Jax.

He smiled back.

Simon begged V. to stay. V. was still upset about the marriage proposal.

Jax decided that this matter called for a negotiation. "And lucky for you, I'm a master negotiator." And this of course, meant that there needed to be a compromise. Jax "hired" himself as V.'s negotiator. "And Chloe?"

"I now officially represent my good friend Simon," Chloe said

"Thank you," Jax said. "See, that wasn't that hard? We agreed on something, and it didn't even hurt."

"I haven't agreed to anything!" V. said.

Jax looked at V. "You don't trust your own personal advocate?"

"Why should I trust you?" V. asked. "You tricked me into coming here."

"Okay, you're absolutely right. In fact, you know what, I think you should leave right now."

V. started to leave.

"Unless," Jax continued, "you can honestly say there isn't one thing about Simon that you like."

V. was silent.

"Well?" Jax asked.

"I'm thinking."

"Okay, fine," Jax said. "My client will agree to one more encounter with your client as long as they are not alone."

"I never said that!" V. said.

"Do you trust me?" he asked V.

"Less and less," she replied.

"My client accepts your offer," Chloe said.

"Wait a minute! No, no, no, no, no-" Simon said. Chloe quickly covered his mouth.

"With one proviso," Chloe continued. "That the evening includes dinner and dancing."

"Oh, hold on!" V. said.

"No wait a minute, this is a great idea!" Jax told V. "And it should be a very public place and uh, support a good cause perhaps even, and should be attended by my client's many friends."

V. laughed. "If you think that I'm going to the Nurses Ball with that guy-"

"Your client doesn't support good causes?" Chloe asked.

"I never said that either!" V. said.

Jax spoke up. "Well then I must propose an intimate dinner for two at Café Mattisse."

"Yes!" Simon cheered.

"No possible way!" V. said.

"Well uh," Jax said, "you're giving us a choice here right? It's either the very intimate dinner or it's the public Nurses Ball."

"That's right!" Chloe said.

"I would have to advise for the private dinner," Jax said.

"No! It's the Nurses Ball or nothing!" V. said.

Jax decided that they would all meet at the penthouse and go together.

"Fine," V. said and started to head out.

"Venus?" Simon said.

V. turned around.

"You never actually answered my question. Will you mar-"

"SIMON! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Jax and Chloe shouted in unison.

V. stormed out.

"I was kidding! I was just kidding!" Simon said, laughing.

"I've never fallen in love before. It isn't what I expected."

"It never is," Jax said.

"Well maybe I've made mistakes, but when you find someone who makes you feel glad to be alive, you're a fool if you don't hang on."

"Hello," Chloe said to Edward and Emily as she walked into the living room.

"Hello," Edward said.

"How's the project going?" she asked Emily, who was working on a project for the Nurses Ball.

"I'm drowning in videotapes!" Emily replied.

"So, you look like you've had a wonderful evening," Edward said to Chloe.

"Have you ever been to Jasper Jacks' apartment?" Chloe smiled.

Edward's jaw dropped. "You went to his penthouse?!"

"He has a splendid view of the lake."

"Did you stand near a window?"

"Oh, Edward." Chloe laughed. "It was a dinner party, nothing more. Nothing less either," she added with a grin.

"Did he ply you with champagne?" Edward demanded. "Did you discuss ELQ? You didn't sign anything?"

Emily looked up from the table. "Grandfather is a total romantic."

"Didn't I tell you to stay away from that scoundrel?"

"You certainly did," Chloe said, grinning.

"That sneaky Australian wrangled his way onto the ELQ board against everyone's wishes. But make no mistake about it, he is planning a takeover. Underneath all of that so called romance, Jasper Jacks is a master manipulator."

"Well you know what they say, takes one to know one," Emily said.

"That will be enough young lady."

"You know what, I have to agree with you," Emily said, pointing to Chloe. "I like Jax. He makes me laugh. He's great."

"Just a minute-"

"Bye!" Emily said and walked out of the room.

Chloe laughed. "Your granddaughter is very astute."

"Mmm-hmm. She is also a teenager. She is impressionable, and she is inexperienced."

"But she has great taste in men!"

"Have you listened to one word that I've been saying?"

"Every word," Chloe assured. "And I should warn you, I usually do the opposite of what I'm told."

"Oh! That's because you come from Lila's side of the family."

"I think for myself."

"Oh, I see. Well then, I think that Jasper Jacks is the most honest and reliable and trustworthy man I've ever met and I think you ought to spend every possible minute with him!"

Chloe laughed. "Too late!"

"He's a cutthroat rogue, dear, who will bring us all nothing but trouble."

"Perhaps, but that cutthroat rogue is taking *me* to the Nurses Ball." Chloe then sauntered out of the living room.

"Oh," Edward grumbled to himself.

To be continued...