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The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Chapter Seventy Seven
Luke's
The limo drops Carly, Emily and Michael at the front of Luke's. Carly pauses before opening the front door. "Okay. Do you know how to do this?" Emily looks at her blankly. "The way to walk into a bar? There is a method to it. Especially if you're female and flying solo. You got to project confidence. Don't slink in and find the first available seat. You walk in like you own the place. Stop inside the door, then survey the scene-- check it out. You get better service close to the bar but you can only hear yourself think further away from the bar and the speakers. So you have to pick your spot."
"I've been in Luke's before." Emily reminds Carly.
"Not dressed like that you haven't. Michael and I will go in first and find a table. Then you come in. I'll let you know how you do."
"You know that Monica would die if she knew the stuff that you were teaching me." Emily quips.
"Nope, she'd kill me-- then die." Carly grins. "See you in a couple of minutes." Carly walks into the bar finding a table over by the fireplace. Claude behind the bar looks twice at the redhead with the baby walking into the club. Then he goes into the back office. Emily takes a deep breath and counts to ten. Putting on a bored expression she walks into the bar. She pauses inside the door and looks around casually blanching slightly as she sees Cook sitting at a nearby table. Seeing Carly finally she makes her way across the room. Having watched Carly on the prowl, she imitates Carly's strut.
"How was that?" She asks in a whisper. Carly gives a thumbs up.
"You order. I'll have a whiskey neat." Carly encourages Emily. The barmaid comes up to the two women. Emily orders a whiskey and, chickening out, a coke. The barmaid doesn't even look at Emily as she takes the order back to the bar. "Oh Luke's going to be ticked." Carly teases. "She didn't even look at you to card you. Just saw the suit and went on her way."
"Cook is here." Emily declares glancing over her shoulder. Cook is involved in a heavy conversation with a man.
"Whoa. That guy with her is Judge Porter. He's the one that decided Michael's case. He was at the housewarming, remember?"
"Yeah, How does she know him?"
"Well there are a couple of theories on that one." Carly says discretely for once. "You're going to have to ask her." Luke comes out of the back room and getting the order from the barmaid brings it over to the table.
"You know this is a private club but we frown on people bringing their kids.... Caroline?" Luke finally realizes who is sitting at the table and looks at the blonde with her. "Emily?"
"Hey Mr. Spencer-- Luke." Emily grins. Luke puts the coke down in front of her. And pours himself and Caroline a whiskey.
"Little early for Halloween isn't it, Caroline?" Luke inquires with a quirked brow. "To what do I owe this honor?"
"Who says?" Carly looks at the black clad Luke. You're still wearing your Cassadine disguise." Carly relents slightly. "Emily and I had some business down at the courthouse today but didn't want to be recognized. I'd say it worked."
"Oh yeah," Luke pulls up a chair backwards and takes a sip of his drink. "So what hell have you been raising today, Caroline?"
"I've been a good girl." Carly claims defensively. "Haven't I?" Carly looks to Emily for confirmation. Emily shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head.
"Now I'm really scared." Luke quips. He turns his attention to his great nephew. "Is that the best disguise that you could come up with for the kid?"
"Well they don't actually make wigs in his size and I didn't want to confuse him." Michael is checking out the bar with wide eyes at the funky lights and decorations. "I think he likes it here."
"Why wouldn't he?" Luke asks insulted. "He's a Spencer. Smoky blues clubs are our milieu."
"Thankfully not tooo smoky."
"It's early yet." Luke surveys the thin too early for happy hour crowd and his eyes narrow as he sees Judge and Cook. "Well, well, well."
"Yeah, exactly." Carly leans on the table. "Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall over there? We're waiting on someone else but in the meantime, Dearest Uncle Luke, any chances of getting some free food around here?"
Luke laughs. "I'll see what the cook can whip up, Dearest Niece Caroline. Who are you waiting on?"
"Someone new in town so don't scare her off. Irene Chang, she works at ELQ with AJ. Neither of us has seen the other before so I don't think that she'll be too put off by the wig."
"Unless Junior described you. I'll have Claude keep an eye out. And let him know that you minors are okay." Luke rises from his seat having a quick word with Claude before circulating the room making sure that Cook and Judge are the final stop on his route. "Hey Judge, Decided to give the club a try?"
Judge looks up from his conversation with Cook to Luke standing by the table. "Yeah," Judge holds his hand out to Luke who shakes it firmly.
"If you're looking for a bit of quiet," Luke suggests glancing over his shoulder to where Carly and Emily are watching with interest. "The back room is empty. My pool table isn't as nice as my niece's but I'm available for a rematch when you're ready to lose some money."
"Not a good idea, Mr. Spencer. JD is pretty good." Cook interjects studying the two women at the far table. There was something about them-- something familiar.
"Call me Luke, honey." Cook bristles at being called honey and her eyes narrow ready to let him have it with both barrels.
"Call me COOK, sweetie." Cook snarls. Judge winces. Some things never changed. He'd made the same mistake with Cookie years ago and barely escaped with his head.
Luke looks Cook over and grins. "Cook huh? Didn't get to see much of you at Caroline's party before you flew out of there like your tail was on fire. Caroline's got nothing but good things to say about you which is a change where my dear niece is concerned. Normally she's looking for the best place to stick the knife in a person, especially a beautiful woman such as yourself." Judge starts bristling at Luke flirting with Cook. Damn, he'd just found her again and now Luke was horning in before he could find anything out. Maybe they should have gone for coffee somewhere else, somewhere quiet. "How's Johnny doing? Don't see much of him anymore since he opened his own place."
"Johnny's fine." Cook says tersely watching JD out of the corner of her eye to see how much he is paying attention. Luke looks over to the door and sees a new customer: slender, average height with long dark hair. The woman is looking around confused not finding what she is looking for.
"Excuse me, I think I found someone looking for the their party." Luke walks over to the woman at the door. "Welcome to Luke's. You looking for Caroline Benson?"
"Carly Benson, yeah." Irene says thankfully as she had begun wondering if she was in the right place.
"Well some little girls never get over that dressup phase, and Sweet Caroline is one of them." Luke leads Irene over to the table where Carly and Emily are chowing down on the cheesefries Claude had just brought over. "She's a red head today."
Carly looks up and sees Luke leading a woman over to their table. She quickly wipes the goo from her fingers. "Irene?" At the woman's cautious nod Carly smiles. "I'm so glad to finally meet you. Now I just have to decide whether or not to be jealous. AJ talks about you a lot. You really saved his bacon in Jakarta. This is my son, Michael, and AJ's sister, Emily."
"I think that he has that one backward. AJ was the one that saved my bacon. He made sure I was the first one out of there. I'd been living there for six months. Six months of living under guard afraid the whole time that I'd be raped or murdered. Jakarta was suppose to be a fast track to getting a promotion. I didn't know what I was signing on for." She says ruefully.
Carly's pangs of jealousy die an instant death. Irene was somebody she could get behind. "That's terrible. I didn't even get to see anything of Jakarta but the airport. My mom's boyfriend called AJ right there in the airport and ripped into him but good for bringing me. AJ had me on a helicopter out as soon as the phone call was done. I had to wait things out in Darwin. You missed a good party in Darwin though."
"Carly throws great parties." Emily says loyally. "Grandfather is still talking about the housewarming.
"You're AJ's sister? He said that his sister was fifteen?" Irene looks at Emily curiously. "And a brunette." Irene looks at Emily more closely.
Emily giggles giving away her age. She looks over at Carly. "Well I'd say that the wig has been a winner all the way around. I'm going to get changed though." Emily decides. "This thing is starting to itch." She grabs the briefcase and makes her way back to the ladies room.
"So what have you seen of Port Charles so far? Have you been settling in okay? This town can be a bitch when you're here on your own. I've never stayed at the Port Charles Hotel but I know that it's crawling with Q's. Have Ned or Edward given you any problems? Have you ever had cheesefries? I never did until I moved here." Carly pushes the basket of fries toward Irene. Irene looks slightly taken aback riding on the fringes of Hurricane Carly. "So did you want an apartment or a house?"
Emily plops back down in the chair across from Irene. "Car or motorcycle. Carly was suppose to take me shopping for a motorcycle today but we kept getting delayed."
"My word." Irene's jaw drops. "That's a change." Emily's hair is now dark, long and curly. She'd lost the suit jacket and was wearing a rose colored camisole with the short suit skirt. She'd lost the flats and put on some heels. "How did you get all that hair under that short little wig?"
"Braids. Which is why it's all over the place now." Emily blows the hair out of her eyes. and fingers it behind her ears.
"EMILY BOWEN--QUARTERMAINE, you get your ass over here pronto!" Cook calls from across the room.
Carly and Emily look at each other with matching winces. "Busted." They say together.