The taxi stopped in the street in front of JC’s LA house. Heather pulled some money from her wallet to pay the driver, collected her suitcase, and stepped from the car. She would have to navigate this situation very carefully. Squinting against the sun, she punched in the code to let herself into JC’s house.
She set her suitcase to the side and headed toward JC’s voice. “Hey Justin, I thought you weren’t coming for another half hour. What are you doing here so early?”
He looked up and realized that Justin wasn’t standing in the doorway. Heather was.
She rushed to explain as anger crossed his face. “Listen JC, I’m sorry for the way I acted before. I was going to come over and apologize in person, but then you text that you were heading to LA and I couldn’t let this come between us.” Her voice turned casual as she pretended to search around the house for Liz, checking down the hallway and glancing up the stairs. “Where’s Liz; I want to apologize to her too.”
Wary, but wanting desperately to believe that Heather was sincere, he spoke carefully. “Liz stayed in Florida; they needed some help at her job so she agreed to help out for a couple of weeks. Justin wanted some help in the studio and this was the only time that worked for him so I came out here.”
Biting the inside of her lip, Heather tried to contain her reaction. She noticed that JC hadn’t said anything about missing Liz or that he even appeared to be upset to be parted from his wife for two weeks so soon after their marriage. She immediately played for the advantage, moving towards him with arms outstretched.
JC only briefly hesitated before he accepted her hug. “Heather, what problem do you have with Liz? I’ve never seen you act that way with any of my other girlfriends, why now with Liz?”
Heather stepped back from JC and headed over to look out the window down at LA, giving herself a moment to try to bring tears to her eyes. “I don’t know why really, I guess it all has to do with the fact that you said you weren’t sure you were ever going to get married. Then one day out of the blue you show up with this woman that you introduce as your wife and we’ve never even seen her before. It was a pretty big shock.” She wiped a stray tear from the corner of her eye as she turned back to face JC.
He was watching her very closely.
“So what changed your mind?”
“I don’t want to lose my brother – I mean then I’m left with only Tyler and who wants that?” Heather sniffed. “Please forgive me JC, I didn’t mean it.”
“I told Liz that you weren’t acting normal…my sister would never treat anyone like that let alone my wife.”
JC was too relieved to look for another motive in Heather’s actions. “Wanna come to the studio with us today? It’ll be just like old times.” He picked up his phone and shoved it in his pocket as Heather watched silently. She was so intent on JC’s phone; she was surprised when Justin entered the room.
“Hey C, you ready?” Justin looked up and saw Heather standing across the counter. “Heather! JC didn’t tell me you were in town. What have you been up to?”
With a bright smile on her face, Heather rounded the island to give Justin a big hug. “Jace didn’t know it was a surprise. I flew out to apologize to his –” Heather paused forcing the word out. “Wife.”
“Wife?” Justin helped himself to a soda from the fridge. “JC wouldn’t get married without telling anyone and besides he’s only known Liz for a couple of months.”
JC held up his left hand in response, showing off the ring that matched Liz’s wedding band. They had shopped for official rings though they had each left the original ribbon they used at the wedding underneath the new ring.
“What is that?” Justin popped the tab on his Pepsi, unfortunately it was pointed directly at JC when it exploded and raindrops of the soda fell down over JC.
Chuckling, JC wiped the drops from his face. “Is this replacing the traditional rice thrown at weddings?”
“Wait – she’s serious?” Justin looked back and forth between the siblings. “You’re really married?”
With a large smile on his face, JC nodded. “Yep, we eloped after one of Liz’s charity events just before Christmas. She was having a hard time the night before so I flew in to surprise her and make her feel better. I was planning on popping the question over Christmas anyway, but the time was right and the ring was burning a hole in my pocket so…” He pulled the items from his pockets and set them on the counter so he could change out of his wet clothes. “Anyway she said yes and neither of us wanted to wait so we found a church and made it legal.”
“So where is she?”
“Well, I made these plans to come out here without telling her and she told her boss she would work in Florida thinking we would be together there…so she’ll fly out here in a week or so and I can show her around.”
Justin didn’t notice the quick glance that JC shot at Heather, but Heather saw it knowing on some level that JC still didn’t believe her change of heart. She knew that she had to get them both out of the kitchen as quickly as possible so she could change Liz’s number. “I hate to break up this love fest but don’t you have to be at the studio soon.”
They both sent a look at the clock above the sink. “Yeah, let me go change and we can head out.” JC left the room already tugging off his wet shirt.
Heather casually pulled JC’s phone over to her, hoping Justin didn’t ask any questions. Instead, he grabbed a paper towel and wiped up the soda splatters that had somehow missed JC.
With just a few swipes and taps, Heather had changed Liz’s number to one she knew was disconnected, and erased any texts from Liz. As a precaution, she erased all the text messages from JC’s phone knowing he would assume that his phone was at fault.
With a confident smile on her face, she walked out to the car behind Justin and JC. She had bought more time to convince JC that Liz was not the woman for him.
This may be easier than she thought…
