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The Quintessential Q
Chapter Fourty Five
TGIF
Hearing a car coming up the drive, Carly pushes stop on the VCR and races over to pull the tape out and hides it away in her desk. Quickly wiping away the tears of mirth, she goes to the window to see who was just dropping by. These visitors are definitely more welcome than Cassadine had been this morning. She throws wide the door to the office crossing her hands infront of her to ward off the chill of the autumn wind. "Yo Rita!"
Rita hops down from her brother's van barely waiting until it had some to a complete stop. "Yo Carly!" Never one to stand still, Rita goes racing over to the office. "Is it done? Is it done?"
"Oh yeah. I already have it all pressed and ready; final alterations complete. Go try it on." Carly brushes back a strand of hair that had escaped from Rita's long braid behind her ear and then looks up at Johnny. "I didn't expect to see you. Don't you have a restaurant to run; it is Friday night?!"
"Francois' timing is perfect." Johnny smirks. "He quit the Quartermaines the weekend of Rita's horseshow. I have the whole weekend off."
"So he came groveling after probably stopping to put in his resume at Cafe Matisse only to find that you had already driven them out of business about six months ahead of schedule."
"They lost their lease." Johnny says modestly but can't contain his grin.
"Yeah, cause they couldn't pay the rent!" Carly puts a hand up for a high five. Johnny slaps her hand and holds it out for another. Carly laughs and slaps it. "Congrats Johnny, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. It's a long way from Moreno almost driving you out of business to King of the Hill in the Port Charles fine dining scene." Both of them do a happy little endzone dance right there in the middle of the office.
Johnny laughs and catches his breath but then frowns as he looks at Carly. "Have you been crying?"
"Oh what?" Carly wipes her eyes again. "Tears from laughing my ass off. It's been a great day. I got my tape of the Deception press conference today. But you know all about it. You were a supporting player on the tape. Standing right beside Emily when Katherine took that lame swing at Em knocking her own turban off." Carly starts chuckling again.
"I didn't realize I was on bodyguard duty that day." Johnny shakes his head. "That could have gotten messy. And you have a tape of it?" Johnny adds suspiciously. "I thought I felt your style of chaos that day."
"Nope. Not mine. Mine never quite go off as planned. Emily style. Perfect." Carly crows. "So perfect. Damn I wish I had been there."
"Well, that would have blown the whole scam. Kind of like you showing up when Evans was arrested. Excellent execution blown by a clumsy dismount."
"The world is full of critics." Carly wrinkles her nose at him. They stop sparring when Rita comes into the room dressed in her horseshow finery.
Johnny whistles. "Holy cow, Rita! Is my little hellion sister in there somewhere?"
Rita blushes. "It looks okay?"
"It looks better than okay, baby." Carly comes over. She tugs at the jacket a little bit smoothing it down Rita's back. She stands back and frowns. "But it's missing something..."
Rita looks in the mirror. "What? I put on everything you had layed out."
Carly goes around to the desk and pulls out a little wrapped present. "This."
Rita tears into the pretty wrapping demolishing it to get to the box within. She opens it up. "Oh man, Carly! It's so pretty."
"Let me." Carly takes the brooch from the jeweler's box. She fastens the booch at the lace neck of the shirt. "There. Now what do you think?"
"It's perfect." Rita looks in the full length mirror. From the safety helmet to the polished to the max boots. Now all she had do to was not screw up the ride tomorrow 'cause she already looked the part of a competent rider.
"Okay, why don't you get changed back into your grubbies." Carly suggests. "I rode Mr Roberts this morning so he is all loose and ready to rock tomorrow but you might want to go brush him down, he never seems to get enough of that... and check your gear see if there was anything I missed."
"Kay, I'm on it!" Rita races back into the bathroom to get changed.
"She's really excited." Johnny understates but with some concern.
"Rita's been working toward this all summer. And my little brother, Lucas, hasn't been helping. He's been goading her whenever they get together. Even before your parents' wedding." Carly frowns. "There isn't going to be a problem with the Judge is there?"
"I talked to Ma. The case is still going on but nothing is going to keep the Judge away from his little girl's show. This will probably be the best guarded junior horseshow Port Charles has ever seen." Johnny says wryly.
"I have a driver all lined up for o'dark thirty tomorrow. Rita will probably want to be there early too. Make sure Mr Robert is all gussied up before the show starts and that nothing went wrong in the trip across town to the arena."
"We'll be there."
It seemed like the final bell would never ring. Like the teen flicks, Emily swears the clock was actually going backward. Between everything that had happened at the mansion before school and then Grandfather showing up at lunch it had been a long, long day. After Grandfather had left campus the principal had showed up at her table again in the cafeteria trying to pump her for information as to why Edward Quartermaine had shown up PCHS, the bell had saved her then and it would save her now if it would just ring.
In all of her afternoon classes she had been questioned as to exactly why her grandfather had come to the school. Now if the damn bell would ring the day would be over. She could dump her books and get the heck out of here and start on her weekend. This is the weekend of the big horse show. Rita had been working toward this since before Carly bought Mr Roberts. Carly had hacked into AJ's computer schedule at ELQ blocking the whole weekend as untouchable and then threatened his secretary with dire consequences if anything interferred with the show.
AJ had teasingly offered to take Carly to the city this weekend for some early Christmas shopping and darn near gotten smacked. This horse show had turned into a big deal. Everyone's going to be there: Quartermaines, Spencers, Jacks, all of Rita's family ofcourse. Everyone turning out to support Rita and Lucas. Emily knows even Grandfather's looking forward to it. He'd muttered something about a good place to make business contacts with the parents of the junior horsey set this morning when he drove her to school. It might have something to do with still never having seen the gelding that Quartermaine money had bought for Carly. The final bell peels out. "Thank you, God!"
"Ms Quartermaine!" The teacher protests over the sounds of students making a rush for the door.
"What?!" Emily protests right back. "I meant every word."
"Well in that case." The teacher looks toward the heavens. "Thank you, God!"
Emily laughs. "See you Monday, have a great weekend."
"You too."
"It's in the cards." Emily says confidently. She swings her bookbag onto her shoulder and wades into the stream of students crowding the hallway. Easing her way around the logjam by her locker, she presses against it trying to work the combination while not get swept away. Getting the locker open, she grabs just what she needs for the weekend, dumps the rest and steps back into the flow heading toward the parking lot allowing it to carry her along. Maddy sits on the railing outside the backdoors to the school.
"Hey."
"Thanks for waiting."
"Not a problem." Maddy hops down from the railing adjusting her own backpack. "Ready to get out of high school hell?"
"I passed ready at noon." Side by side they make their way out to Maddy's van.
Maddy is the one that notices first and whistles. "Eye candy at twelve o'clock."
"Scuse me?" Emily looks over and sees Nik parked next to Maddy's van. He is out of the jag and leaning up against it. His hair is mussed and he actually has his sleeves rolled up to expose powerful forearms. They walk up to Nik. "What are you doing here?" Emily wrinkles her forehead. She didn't think she'd forgotten any plans.
"I missed you." Nik says simply. Reaching out, he pulls Emily to him and plants a kiss on her that sets the world rocking.
"Wow." Emily says breathlessly.
"Wow is right." Maddy mutters fanning herself.
Nik keeps firm hands on Emily's hips, keeping her close to him. "I didn't see your bike around anywhere."
"Grandfather gave me a ride to school." Emily answers automatically. Something was up-- but what?
"Is Reggie coming to pick you up?"
"No, Maddy's going to give me a ride home. Reggie has a concussion."
Nik starts slightly. There was a story in there somewhere. "Maddy, if I may?"
"Not a problem. I'll call you later, Em. Have fun." Maddy winks at Emily and then climbs into her van to head home. "I know I would."