IN WHICH IT ALL WENT WONDERFULLY WRONG
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SHE moved with grace. Understated and enigmatic but simultaneously somehow with daringly obvious elegance. The clack of her heels echoed as she strode along, back straight, trench flapping with the sway of her hips. Pausing at the elevators, the woman brushed a hand through her hair, curls bouncing back to their original position as the doors pinged open. Manicured fingers pressed the button for the second floor, a long, slow breath escaping her as she took a step back, fixing her gaze on the doors. With another ping they opened and she stepped out, pale blue eyes scanning the room for the man who was waiting for her. She locked on, already walking over, the heels that adorned her feet announcing her presence before she could.
"Jules!" Derek beamed, stepping forward with open arms to envelope the woman before him.
"I'm under strict instructions not to talk to you." She breezed back, lips pursing up into a smile.
"Oh really?"
"Yep," she popped the p as it fell out of her mouth, smile growing, "no idea how she thinks that's going to work out."
"I don't care." Derek sighed out with an ease she wasn't sure she could remember seeing, "I'm starting afresh."
"Oh yeah?" She asked, one perfectly shaped eyebrow arching in question.
"Yep." He placed a hand on her back as they walked off, him guiding her through the halls. "Your late, by the way."
"Only 6 weeks." He laughed at her remark as she grinned at him before adding a tart, "and anyway, you've only got yourself to blame."
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A bottle deep into a far too good Malbec to be drinking it like there was no tomorrow was not how Jules had pictured her first night back in New York to go. She also hadn't imagined she would be spending the night squashed onto the sofa with a now sleeping but previously sobbing half-sister, the angle causing an ache in her back that she could already tell would not be nice tomorrow.
Neither would be the headache inducing task of once again preparing to move to another city. The opportunity that a few months ago had seemed like the perfect option, now rapidly sliding down the ranks of decisions made so far in life as the thought of more and more paperwork filled her mind.
What was New York was now not. Seattle, maybe? But Addison had still been sobbing at that point so she wasn't sure. What was the dream team of neuro and fetal now down to neuro only. The mere mention of potentially getting their marriage back on track met with more sobs. And whilst attempting to console an apparently inconsolable sister did have its merit regarding building their relationship that had been mostly missing for the last 10 years, the fact that they would once again be timezones away from each other wasn't exactly promising.
Ache inducing indeed.
Although it had turned out to be the boyfriend that was more of a problem than any paperwork. With his job starting in a few days and no way of backing out without loosing everything else that came with uprooting one's life for a girl, Jack certainly was not pleased with the news that actually, she wouldn't be in New York for the foreseeable.
And so there had been arguments. Heated ones with words hurtling around, exasperated limbs and doors left rocking on their hinges. The worst ones too. The quiet ones, where actually, no words are spoken. But the air thick and movements tense. Jaw held, eyebrows raised, teeth grinding.
