We won’t know what we’re missing
If we don’t go out for Christmas
Maybe we should stay in, baby
Won’t know what we’re missing
If we don’t go out for Christmas tonight
– Christmas Tonight, Dave Barnes & Hilary Scott

---

December 9

ELQ: Jason’s Office

Elizabeth stepped over the threshold and closed the door before leaning on it. “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”

Jason sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I know. I know. I’m sorry about last night. This is just—a crazy time of the year.” He rose from his desk and crossed the room to her, dropping a kiss on her mouth. “The board didn’t like one of the projections for next quarter, so I had—” He shook his head. “Never mind, it’s not important.”

“Hey, you date the CFO of a worldwide conglomerate during the end of the year, you take what you get.” Elizabeth arched a brow. “We don’t actually have to meet every day—”

“I want to meet every day,” he murmured, dipping his head to slip his tongue between her lips. She parted for him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Not going to argue with that,” she replied when he drew back. “Besides, I had fires of my own to put out last night.”

He led her across the office to the sofa where she curled up next to him. “What’s up?”

“Oh, well, I’m juggling my usual duties in addition to the stuff Emily usually does,” Elizabeth said. “So I have to secure the venues for the next six months of events. The Metro Court wanted to renegotiate the price for the AIDS benefit in June.” She rolled her eyes. “If their ballroom weren’t perfect for the performances during the Nurse’s Ball, I’d swear, we’d go elsewhere, but I managed to talk them down.”

“AJ’s ex-wife runs the place, so she likes to get her digs in when she can,” Jason explained. “They got pregnant in high school, she saw dollar signs and they were married for four miserable years until AJ finally paid her to go away. She bought into the hotel and has been plaguing us ever since.”

“Oh, that’s Michael’s mother?” Elizabeth asked. “Emily has photos of him on his desk. I wondered why AJ had a son in his early twenties.” She shrugged. “Though Carly being the first wife explains why he’s never remarried. I’d swear off marriage after that.”

Jason laughed. “Well, we don’t do that in our family that often. My grandparents have been married nearly seventy years.” He hesitated. “My…parents closer to forty-five. Ned’s been married four times and taking his fifth round.”

“Five?” Elizabeth smirked. “Someone’s a glutton for punishment.”

There was a light knock on the door. They both got to their feet, and Jason answered it. “Spinelli—” He stopped. “Ah, Mo-Monica.”

Elizabeth straightened the bottom of her skirt as Jason’s stepmother swept in the room, in a perfectly pressed pink Chanel suit, pearls at her ears and her neck.

“Can we speak alone?” Monica Quartermaine asked, eying Elizabeth.

“Monica, this is Elizabeth Webber. She’s Emily’s executive assistant.” Jason hesitated. “And I mean, we’re—”

“I don’t particularly care. You can go,” she told Elizabeth, who bristled.

“Elizabeth and I are going over plans for the ELQ parties this month, so if there’s something you need to say, Monica, then maybe you should say it and go.”

Elizabeth wrapped her arms around her waist, an ache in her chest. Jason’s shoulders were so tight and he looked so miserable. She was sure he’d been about to tell the woman who raised him they were seeing one another, but Monica had swept it away.

“Fine.” Monica lifted her chin. “As you are in a position of personally working on the holiday parties this year, I wanted to assure myself that our usual arrangements will be honored.”

Jason flicked his eyes to Elizabeth who wanted to shrink back. “Of course, Monica. I didn’t suddenly think I’d be invited. Elizabeth will be the ELQ rep at the hospital.”

“Good.” Monica cast another eye at Elizabeth before exiting.

“You’re not going to the hospital parties?” Elizabeth asked.

“Ah, I have those final decorator contracts you wanted.” Jason rounded his desk and reached for a pile of paperwork. “Accounting already cut the checks.”

“Thanks.” Elizabeth took the contracts from him and set them on the desk. “Jason, what’s the usual arrangement?”

He shook his head. “It’s not important, Elizabeth—” He lowered himself into the chair and reached for a pile papers on his desk. “I should get some of this work done if I wanted to be free tonight—”

He cut off his words abruptly when Elizabeth climbed into his lap, straddling his waist in one of her looser dresses. “I still have twenty minutes of my scheduled meeting.”

Jason hesitated, his hands automatically going to her waist to keep her steady. “Elizabeth—”

“In fact,” Elizabeth said, slowly undoing the buttons of her silk blouse and drawing the sides apart to reveal the pale red bra she wore underneath. “Maybe you should ask Spinelli to give us another ten to make up for the interruption.”

A smile tugged against his lips. “Elizabeth, you don’t have to—”

“Jump you the way I’ve wanted to since the moment you stepped off the elevator my first day of work?” Elizabeth let the blouse fall from her shoulders to the floor before reaching for his buttons. “I nearly swallowed my tongue the first time you said my name.”

“Then you’ll come with me to the ELQ parties?” Jason asked, dancing her fingers up her thigh.

Her eyes nearly crossing from the sensation, Elizabeth attempted a scowl. “That’s dirty pool, Jason Morgan.”

“Turnabout’s fair play.”

She unknotted his tie and tossed it aside. “Well, if those are the terms, I suppose I have no choice.” She dipped her head to find his mouth. “You drive a hard bargain.”

“You have no idea,” he responded, his voice low and gritty. He reached out blindly for his intercom. “Spinelli, push any meetings back. And no interruptions.”

ELQ: Elizabeth’s Office

There was something to be said for a quick office romp, which was half the reason she’d worn her hair loose today. Elizabeth entered her office suite, only to find Maxie Jones and her sister waiting by her assistant’s desk. “Oh, was today the final fitting?”

“Please, Liz, like I didn’t confirm this a hundred million times.” The perky blonde rolled her eyes. “Kate wants to make sure everything looks perfect, since these are going to be in the January issue.”

“Fine.” Elizabeth set the paperwork Jason had signed on Kiki Jerome’s desk. “Kiki, get these back to the vendors. Georgie, Maxie, come back into my office so I can try these on.”

“I love working at Crimson,” Maxie bubbled. “I get to borrow a dress for the New Year’s Eve gala.”

“And I get to hem it,” Georgie sighed. “I hate this job.”

“It’s paying for college,” her sister retorted. She drew out the first garment bag from the rack. “This is your Oscar de la Renta. The red silk with the ruffle back bow and mermaid silhouette.”

Elizabeth sighed and disappeared behind the changing screen. This was not her first fitting with gowns from Crimson Magazine, nor would it be her last.

“So, gossip on my floor is that you’re the new hottie seeing Jason Morgan.”

Elizabeth emerged from the screen, her back to Maxie for zipping. “We are. How did it get down there so fast?”

“Oh, news travels in the ELQ building. Nothing ever stays a secret.”

Elizabeth sighed and stepped up on the stool so Georgie could check the hem and the fit. “It’s…nothing serious, Maxie.”

“Well, duh.” Maxie rolled her eyes. “No one’s ever known Jason to do anything serious. He’s not like the rest of his family.”

Elizabeth wasn’t sure which part of that sentence disturbed her more. “What?”

“Oh, they all go for marriage within like the first five months. It’s why they rack up marriages so fast.” Maxie jerked a thumb at her sullen sister. “She’s Dillon Quartermaine’s first wife. Well, only wife at the moment. They got married straight out of high school. Lasted a whole year.”

“I’m going to stick you with this pin,” Georgie threatened.

“Tracy—that’s Ned’s mom—married at least six times, though I don’t think anyone’s kept up with the names. Ned’s been married four times, AJ got married that once. Alan and Monica have been married for ages, but whoo, did they have the affairs. Well, of course you know all about that.”

“Hmmm…” Elizabeth murmured stepping down. “What’s the next dress?”

“The Badgley Mischka.” Maxie reached for the second garment bag. “People are going to ask you, Liz. You gotta tell them the right names. It’s got the emerald draped chiffon, one shoulder with the a-line.”

“Right.” Elizabeth moved back behind the screen. “Ah…what else do you know about the Quartermaines?” she asked, hating to pump Kate’s assistant.

“Oh. Well, there’s Emily. She was married once, too. To Zander Smith, though that ended in a great deal of tears. We all like her Greek prince much better. But you know, as far as I know, Jason’s never been married.” She pursed her lips. “I’d like to think I would have heard if he had.”

Elizabeth handed the red dress back to Maxie who put it back in the garment bag and hung it on the rack. “Well, I guess that’s good.”

“I guess. I mean, there’s always gossip on who’s sleeping with who but it’s hard to know who to trust to be honest. I mean, if you believe half the tales, Jason’s slept with most of the women who’s passed through the ELQ doors. There was even a rumor about me and him once.”

Elizabeth stepped out in her green gown. “And…that’s just a rumor.”

“Yup. Not that I wouldn’t have jumped him because you know, hello! But people just talk. Don’t have anything better to do.” Maxie pursed her lips and stepped back. “Take up the right side just a bit, Georgie.”

“Um, if you could not…confirm the rumors about me seeing Jason.” Elizabeth hesitated. “I mean, it’s not like I’m keeping it a secret. But we work together, and I just….I don’t want people talking about me.”

“Then less hickeys on the collar bone,” Maxie said. Elizabeth clapped her hand over the red mark she hadn’t noticed until then. “Or I can send over this super duper powder that works wonders.”

“Thanks, Maxie.” She eyed herself in the mirror in a designer dress she was borrowing from the magazine publisher in order to fit in at a party where the jewelry would be real and the dresses owned.

Yeah, this was going to end well.

← Part Two | Part Four →