Left on the Cutting Room Floor-Edition #2

by Tyra

Thursday - April 9th - Jax, Ashley

~ Foolish Games ~

"I'll be back in a just few minutes." Jax then escorted Ashley out of his suite. Thank God she's leaving. He had spent the last hour trying to get her to leave. She had been in the bathroom touching up her overdone makeup when his parents made their surprise visit. Ashley had just shown up at his door this morning. Thinking that Brenda was launching her next assault, he had eagerly opened the door anticipating the game to commence. Instead of his beguiling 'genie', he found Ashley with her big-toothed grin standing there. Couldn't this woman take no for an answer?! He had not returned her calls for over three weeks, yet here she was.

The last time he had seen Ashley was when she had followed him to town after he had saved Jerry from his latest escapade. At the time, he found her interest in him a welcome diversion. He soon realized as the evening progressed that she was shallow and dull beneath the surface. As "Fool's Gold" looks precious from a distance but pales under closer scrutiny, so did Ashley.

He foolishly let it appear that Ashley was more than a date at his Dock Renovation kick off party last month. Thinking it would dissuade Brenda from trying to rekindle their romantic fires, he did nothing when Ashley waltzed around acting as his hostess. He endured an evening with this human coat hanger latched to his side. The culmination of his misery came when after bidding goodnight to Brenda in the candlelit lobby, he returned to find Ashley in his suite with champagne glasses filled. It took him 30 excruciating minutes to convince her he was exhausted and needed to retire to his bed alone. She reminded him of the boomerangs he used as a young boy. No matter how far or hard you threw it, that 'thin wooden stick' would always come back.

A shrill irritating noise drew him out of his introspection. "Jax, I asked you a question! Why didn't you stand up for me in front of your parents? It was so humiliating. Especially compared to how they welcomed Brenda. How can they still feel so warmly towards your ex-wife?"

They stopped on a landing between floors and faced each other. His voice reverberated up the stairwell in anger, "Ashley who do you think you are? You invite yourself into my home, you presume you have the familiarity to refer to my parents as 'Mom and Dad Jacks', you insult their choice of residence which is a place I adore, and as for Brenda, it is not any of your concern how they or I treat her." "Now as a past paramour of Jerry's I have attempted to be cordial to you. However, you are greatly mistaken if you think being one of Jerry's many castaways makes you 'Queen' in this 'House of Jacks'!"

As they continued down and through the lobby he hailed a cab and opened the door. He handed $100 to the driver, "Take the lady wherever she wants." He then assisted Ashley into the back the cab. "I trust I don't have to tell you where you can go" he quipped as he slammed the door behind her.

Jax headed back into the hotel contemplating how to approach what was awaiting him. It was apparent that his own parents were taking Brenda's side. Maybe he could use their perception of Ashley to his advantage. He decided to take the elevator back to the penthouse. The wait would give him time to formulate a plan of attack.

As Jax approached his door, he paused and took a deep breath. Bursting into the room his eyes twinkling with delight he joyfully declares, "Hey, you'll never guess what happened. I was in the lobby saying goodbye to Ashley and suddenly I had a revelation. I have an announcement to make folks, or more accurately a proposal...