Wife for Hire

Chapter 22

(Karmen) 

    Christmas Eve was finally here and I could barely contain my excitement. I had dropped off Joe and Maxine’s presents already and would hopefully get to see their reactions tomorrow night. I wanted to invite them to Jason’s dad’s party, but they both had to work considering there were a lot of people that still needed to eat Christmas Eve. Luckily enough though they had tomorrow off and I could at least stop by and visit them in the morning. I was excited to see my mom as well, I wanted to watch her face light up as she saw the gift I had gotten her. Jason on the other hand, I was nervous about both of his gifts, I was very proud of them, but at the same time I was very worried that he wouldn’t like them at all. I shook off that concern and looked myself over in the mirror. 
    I was wearing a sparkly red strapless number with white stilettos, my santa hat was placed firmly on top of my head and I had to pin it there so that it didn’t fall off. I twirled in the mirror and watched as my earrings sparkled in the light and smiled, I was ready to go. 
    I closed the door to my room and went downstairs to wait for Jason. I had sent Maxine a picture of my outfit and she sent heart eyes in return. I smiled at the text and put my phone back in my purse as I waited for Jason. It wasn’t long before he came downstairs and I smiled. He had worn a red button down shirt and black suit pants with a white and red striped tie, his suit jacket was thrown over his shoulder and I had to say, he looked like a model coming down the stairs. 
    “Sorry I took so long, you look amazing.” He said, kissing me on the cheek. I blushed, but thanked him. He grabbed both of our jackets out of the hall closet and handed me mine before ushering me out to the car and heading over to his dad’s. 

(Jason) 
    I thought I would be more nervous for some reason. This is the first time in a long time that I would be socializing with my dad in a long time and it would be in front of other people. I also knew that tomorrow would be the day that I would have to give him his gift and I was not mentally prepared to handle his reaction if it was one of rejection. I glanced over at Karmen and looked at her outfit again. Amazing was an understatement, she looked beautiful, I just didn’t know how to say that without getting flustered. 
    “Are you nervous at all?” She asked as we pulled into my dad’s driveway. I looked at all the cars already lined up in the front yard and smiled. There was already a big turn out, I wasn’t the only one that had missed these parties. I parked the car in the garage and looked over at Karmen. 
    “As long as you’re with me, I should be fine.” I could tell she was blushing and it brought a smile to my face. I climbed out of my side of the car and walked over to hers and opened the door. She grabbed my hand for assistance climbing out and we walked inside to loud music and dancing bodies. 

(Karmen) 

    I smiled at the turnout that Jason’s father had managed. His house was huge so I doubted that every corner was filled with people, but I could say that there were a lot of people and they all seemed to have a good time. A couple of people came up and said hello to Jason and were introducing themselves to me. Jason kept his arm wrapped around my waist at all times and made sure to keep me included in any conversation that he was having. If someone didn’t acknowledge my existence, he made a point to introduce me and I couldn’t express how much I enjoyed their faces when they saw how serious he was. 
    “Daughter in law! Son! I’m so glad you’re finally here!” Jason’s dad came up to us and pulled us both into hugs. I smiled at his enthusiasm and could tell that he had already had a couple of drinks in his system. 
    “Glad we could make it.” Jason said, I could tell he was trying not to become too flustered, so I decided to jump in and break the ice. 
    “Everything here looks great Mr.Aldridge, you did a great job.” He smiled and pulled me to him, his arm going around my shoulder. 
    “Karmen, you’re my daughter in law, call me dad. Here let me introduce you to everyone!” Before I could even protest or look back at Jason for help he was whisking me through a crowd of people and introducing me as his favorite daughter in law. He even got emotional and teared up a bit as he talked about me bringing light back into him and Jason’s lives. I could only awkwardly smile and wave each time. 
    “Dad, if you don’t mind, I would like to dance with my wife.” His dad looked at him and smiled before patting Jason on the back. 
    “Of course son, just don’t hog her all night, I have others she needs to meet.” Jason rolled his eyes, but grabbed my hand and began walking me over to the dance floor. I sighed in relief. 
    “Thanks so much for saving me back there, I love your dad and the connection y’all have built, but I was not expecting that.” Jason laughed and I couldn’t help but notice the twinkle in his eyes. 
    “Yeah, I haven’t seen him like that since I was a kid.” We made it to the dance floor and for a minute we were awkwardly shuffling from side to side before someone bumped into us, pushing me into him. Jason glared at the person at first and after making sure I was okay, he got a bit more comfortable. 
    “You know,” I started, trying to find the words to say what I was going to say next. I pulled him a little closer so he could hear me over the music and the crowd dancing. “I feel really bad for your dad when our contract is up, you don’t think he’ll be too disappointed do you?” I said. We both looked over at his dad to see him pointing at me and Jason, tears streaming down his face. Jason winced. 
    “Well, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.” He said, I tilted my head to the side, waiting for him to explain what he meant. 
    “What do you mean?” Just as he was about to say something, someone came onto the microphone. 
    “I don’t mean to make this speech a very long one, but I just wanted to thank you all for coming and to make a toast” We both looked up and saw that it was Jason’s dad. A couple of waiters were walking through the crowd with champagne glasses on trays and handing them out.  I glanced at Jason as I took one, but he just shrugged he didn’t know what was going on either. . “I also wanted to make a toast/introduce for the first time officially my daughter in law Karmen to all of our friends and family. She has been such a huge help and inspiration in our lives since joining our family and I hope she’s here for many years to come. To Karmen!” Everyone raised their glasses and began to drink, Jason looked at me and smiled and I just knew that if I was any lighter my entire body would be red. I buried my face in Jason’s jacket, I was so embarrassed. He laughed and pulled me close to him, rubbing my arms up and down. 
    “Don’t be too embarrassed, he’ll forget all about this by tomorrow morning.” I scoffed. The problem wasn’t him forgetting it, it was me remembering it for the rest of my life. The music started back up and Jason held out his hand to bring me back onto the dance floor. I smiled and took it, before allowing him to twirl me into his arms as we swayed back and forth to the music. We danced like that for a while, talking and laughing inbetween. His dad came and stole a couple of dances, as well as Derek. I saw Annaliese and we got to talk for a while before I was handed back off to Jason. 
    “I’m getting a little thirsty, do you want anything?” I looked over at the drink table and nodded. 
    “Yeah, water would be good actually, I’m going to run to the restroom while you do that.” He nodded and kissed me on the cheek before making his way to the punch table. I had only been to the bathroom here once and I vaguely remembered how to get to it. I walked down a couple of corridors and up some stairs before I realized I was completely lost. Last time I had only been in Jason’s dad’s office and the dining room. I had yet to receive a full tour of the house. I opened a couple of doors, behind some were couples making out or more, others were empty guest rooms. I stopped at one in particular. It had a lot of band posters and caution signs on the outside and surprisingly enough it was painted blue. This must be Jason’s old room. I looked up and down the hallway before pushing the door open. 
    “It wouldn’t be too cringey to look around his room, would it?” Before I could second guess myself, I took a step inside and found pitch black darkness. I fumbled around for a light switch and flipped it on. His walls were painted a navy blue and he had band posters all over his walls. I took a couple steps further into the room and looked at the black comforter and sheets, I see that hadn’t changed. I smiled as I ran my hands across the sheets and walked over to the bedside table. On the table was a picture of a younger Jason, he was sitting in the lap of a woman I didn’t recognize and his dad was sitting next to her laughing at something, they all looked so happy. I smiled at the picture and ran a hand over it, I’m glad that they could rediscover this happiness. I looked around the room again and then smiled when I realized he had his own private bathroom in here. I rushed over and used the bathroom before continuing my snooping, but got distracted by the fact that his room was huge. His tub was the size of a jacuzzi and the shower, the shower alone might as well have been a walk-in closet with shower jets on every wall, and here I thought Jason’s house was fancy. His sink had enough counter space for three girls to be in the bathroom doing their makeup at the same time. I shook my head, I wished mom was here to see this. I couldn’t even imagine how far her eyes would pop out of her head. 
    Once I was done in the bathroom, I opened the door to head back out only to find Stefan. I stopped dead in my tracks. He was sitting on the bed and when I opened the door he looked at me, a creepy smile coming onto his face. 
    “Oh, it was just you. I thought some random partiers came into Jason’s room.” I nodded and turned to make my exit, I didn’t like being alone with this guy. He made me uncomfortable and the way he was looking at me right now, was causing my skin to crawl. 
    “Yeah, I was just looking for a bathroom and then got lost, I’m heading back downstairs now.” I turned to leave the room, but was stopped by him blocking the exit. I came to a halt, trying not to panic. 
    “You’re so quick to leave, I just wanted to do a little talking. My uncle had so many nice things to say about you, I wanted to get to know you myself.” I looked at him and then the door behind him. There was no way I was going to get out of here without making a scene. 
    “Um okay, but you can get to know me out there.” I said. I didn’t want to get any closer to him, but he was blocking the only exit. I had left my phone downstairs with Jason, so there was no way I could call him and have him come up here and save me. I sighed, I would have to play whatever dumb game he was playing. 
    “Well, I don’t really want to ask this question out there, it’s a bit private. You know, family wise.” I nodded waiting for him to ask whatever dumb question he was about to ask. 
    “What did you mean earlier, about your contract being up?” I froze. He’d heard that? I had made sure to say it low enough for only Jason to hear and I knew no one around us was paying attention to what was going on around them, they were too drunk to do so. I laughed and shook my head. 
    “You must have heard me wrong Stefan. I said nothing about a contract, now I should get back downstairs before Jason comes looking for me.” At this point I was willing to push past him if I needed to. I didn’t want to be trapped in this room any longer with him asking me these kinds of questions. He began to walk past me, a dark smile stuck on his face at this point. I began to back away from him, but managed to stumble back into the bed. Stefan stopped in front of me and leaned forward, close enough that if I moved forward at all our noses would touch. 
    “The thing is Karmen,” He said tilting my chin up. “I don’t think I heard you wrong at all.”