This is an adaptation of Judith McNaught's novel, Double Standards.

Secrets and Love

Chapter 2

After the cab had taken Brenda to her car, parked three blocks from the J&J Enterprises buildings, she drove to the address that Edward had given her that morning.  It was the address of where she would be living for as long as she worked for J&J Enterprises. 

She was more than a little surprised when the turn off for the driveway came upon a luxury condominium community.  As she looked for the corresponding street, she couldn’t help but be amazed at the buildings around her.  Each one looked like an individual townhouse, each three stories tall.  There was even a garage at the bottom level of every apartment.  She wouldn’t know how to tell Edward he had gone too far, she thought as she finally found the house that was to be hers.

The front door was unlocked when Brenda tried it and she walked into the grand hallway that reached all the way to the third floor ceiling.  The rooms were bright and airy, with a lot of space so that the house felt open and welcoming.  Even the dim light from the rainy skies outside made the hallways seem bright.  It was decorated in light and neutral tones with the exception of a few bright colors in pillows on the couch or in the drapes on the windows. 

A look in the top-floor master bedroom made her almost giggle like a school girl.  There was a king-sized bed that didn’t even begin to dominate the entire room.  Keeping in the contemporary style of the house, the headboard was a light wood color that matched all the other accents in the room.  A small sitting area filled one corner by a picture window that looked out to the west so that she could see the setting sun from it.  A huge walk-in closet was in the far corner of the room.  She flipped the light on and found not only her own clothing, but it was about half full with every type of clothing she could imagine.  It was all her size and most of it was even something she would have picked out for herself.  She had to wonder where it came from.  The bathroom was magnificent with its sunken Jacuzzi bathtub and lighted vanity mirror with a cushioned seat in front of it.  A steam shower with clear glass doors filled the back corner of the bathroom.

Brenda was grinning as she walked down the steps again to the front hallway.  As she came to the front door again, she heard a knock at the door.  She opened it quickly to find Edward standing behind it, smiling at her.

“How do you like it, dear?” he asked as she held the door open further, inviting him inside.

“Oh, Edward, you really did go too far.  You shouldn’t have done all of this for me.”  She tried to look ashamed that he would, but her pure joy over the magnificence of the house made it almost impossible.

“But I can see you love it,” he teased her, a gleam in his eyes as he enjoyed her reaction to it.  He didn’t tell her the true purpose of keeping the condominium.  He figured this naïve girl from Small town, USA would probably be appalled to know his last three mistresses had stayed here.

“I do,” she said.  She couldn’t deny it.  She really did and was more than overjoyed that these would be her living arrangements for the next few months.

Edward followed her upstairs and sat down on the chair that she indicated when she sat on the couch across from it.  Almost immediately, she got up again.  “Would you like a drink, Edward?” Brenda asked.  And then she said, “Actually, I don’t even know if I have something to offer you.”  She was laughing.

“Just check the bar over there, dear,” Edward said as he nodded toward the far wall.  He knew full well that the refrigerator as well as the two bars in the house were fully stocked.

Finding everything she could possibly need there, Brenda poured them both a drink and returned to the couch.

“All right, suppose you tell me what I really want to hear now, Brenda,” Edward said.  There was no tone of impatience, just an inquiring expression.

“Oh, you mean, did I get a job at J&J Enterprises?” she asked.  When he nodded, she said, “I think so.”

“You think so?  You don’t know?”

“No, not really.  When I left there this afternoon, I was almost sure I didn’t get the job.”

“Why not?” Edward demanded, his tone turning harsh for once.

“Oh, it’s not important,” she soothed him.  “But then I talked to someone who practically guaranteed that I’d be working for J&J Enterprises come tomorrow morning.”

“You did, did you?  And how do you know he was telling you the truth?”

“Because, Edward, he told me he is very close to Jasper Jacks, like an advisor to him or something to that effect.  He said that if I wanted to work there, he could get me a job doing whatever I wanted to do.  So I told him I did.  I’m supposed to get a phone call about it tonight.”

“Well, I’ll just believe it when I see it, if you don’t mind,” Edward said when she was finished.

Brenda didn’t like his tone, but she couldn’t fault him for feeling the way he did.  She knew it was important to him that he find out who was leaking the information to J&J Enterprises.  It seemed like the words that he wanted proof had barely come out of Edward’s mouth when she heard a phone begin to ring in the house.  She had used the phone number Edward had given her that morning on her application.  Spotting a cordless phone on the table across the room, she hurried to pick it up and answer it.

“Hello?”

“Ms. Barrett?”

“Yes, this is she.”

“Ms. Barrett, this is Mike Whitman with J&J Enterprises.  You interviewed with me this morning.”

“Yes, I remember.”  She noticed he didn’t sound very much like he was enthusiastic about having to hire her and she smiled to herself.

“I didn’t realize this morning that we had an opening that you are qualified for, but as soon as I did, I called you immediately.”  He sounded as if he had almost choked on the word ‘qualified.’  “I’m calling now to offer you a position with J&J Enterprises.”

“Why, thank you, Mr. Whitman.  I was hoping you would call.  I would be very pleased to begin working for J&J Enterprises as soon as I can.”  She made sure to play up her tone so that she sounded almost as bad as she had that morning in his office.  She couldn’t go too far with Edward in the room, but she had purposely repeated the offer so that he could hear it.

She was told to report to the seventeenth floor receptionist’s desk the following morning at eight o’clock to begin work.  Mr. Whitman hung up as soon as he possibly could.  No doubt because he couldn’t bear the thought of Brenda working at J&J Enterprises with him.

“See, Edward?” Brenda said as she turned around to face him after hanging up the phone.  “I start tomorrow.”  She sounded nonchalant to Edward, but inside, she felt so much more than that.  She was excited at the prospect of being able to work with Jax every once in awhile. 

Edward stood up and crossed the room to her.  He held out his hand and she placed hers in his.  He grasped it firmly and smiled like the cat the smiled the canary.  “You did excellently, my dear,” he said.  “I look forward to hearing of your progress.  But now, I’m afraid I must be going.  Lila will be terribly upset if I’m late for our dinner appointment.”

Brenda saw Edward to the door and then closed it behind him.  A smile broke out on her face and she raced up the stairs into her new bedroom.  She stood in the closet seriously contemplating what she would wear the next day on her first day of work for J&J Enterprises.  On the off-chance that she would see Jax again the next day, she wanted to make sure she looked her absolute best.  Now, she only wished she’d gotten a phone number for him so that she could call and thank him.

Jax opened the door to his penthouse apartment from the private hallway that led from the elevator.  The luxury apartment building where he lived was full of apartments that looked like his in size and shape, but none had the view that the one on top did.  From his living room wall of windows, he could see out over all of Port Charles.  In the near distance, he could even see the outlines of his two office buildings in the settling dusk. 

Without turning on a light, he moved easily through the apartment to the couch in the slightly raised living room.  Silently and without thought, he watched the last of the sunset as the sky darkened completely around the city.  The rain had stopped long ago, sometime after his meeting.  He looked out across all the different buildings with their lights on now and wondered which one Brenda was in at the moment.  He didn’t even know where she lived.

But he had gotten her the job he’d promised her.  He chuckled to himself as he recalled the conversation he’d had earlier with Mike Whitman.  The man had practically exploded at the prospect of hiring the incompetent woman who said she wanted his job.  Jax had calmly told him that Brenda would have a job at J&J Enterprises by the next day or Mike Whitman would find himself in the same boat she was in.

That had been the last highlight of his day, though, he thought wearily.  Shortly thereafter, his lawyer had called him and told him the latest stunt that Edward Quartermaine was pulling.  He had known it would happen eventually, he was just hoping to have avoided it.  Edward had called the Trade Commission on him and Jax was now being investigated for fraud, misrepresentation, and every other illegal business dealing Edward had accused him of.  It was throwing his lawyers into a panic, no matter how Jax reassured them that he had done nothing illegal to acquire any businesses he owned.

Nevertheless, he was furious with Edward for stooping so low.  He had never guessed that Edward would go so far in the name of revenge.  He had expected some kind of retaliation, but sending the Trade Commission in on him was a headache that he would have to deal with for a very long time.  They would go back as far as seven years to investigate his dealings.  And while Jax was sure he had nothing to be afraid of, there was a small seed of doubt budding in his mind the more he thought about it.  Edward was capable of a lot of things, even manufacturing evidence.

Deciding to stop dwelling on it for the night, Jax got up from the couch, poured himself a drink, and went into his kitchen.  His housekeeper, who doubled as his cook, had prepared several plates of food for several different meals for him.  He chose one and heated it up in the oven for a few minutes while he sipped his drink slowly.  When he pulled his plate out of the oven, he sat at the island in the center of the kitchen on a stool and began to eat.

He quickly became distracted by thoughts of Brenda Barrett again.  He couldn’t get the beautiful brunette out of his head.  Ever since he’d run into her that afternoon in the side lot of his building, her face and her smile had dominated his thoughts.  He’d never been drawn to a woman like this before.  The feeling was scary while at the same time exhilarating.  He couldn’t stop himself from wondering if she might feel the same way, or if she could feel the same way about him.

Foregoing his food altogether, Jax was lost in his ideas and imaginings.  Like no other time, he was picturing spending time with Brenda.  He actually felt a slight ache in his chest when he realized he was just daydreaming right now.  He barely even knew the woman and there was an inexplicable feeling that he belonged with her and only her, and he didn’t have any idea where it came from.

In the past, women had not been one of Jax’s weak places.  In an hour’s time, he could have a date for anything, whether it be a picnic in the park or the annual Nurse’s Ball in June that he always attended.  But every one of the women in his ‘little black book,’ as his mother enjoyed calling it at one time, meant very little to him.  There were few that were his friends when he didn’t need a favor from them and even fewer that he’d had any semblance of feelings for.  Finding a woman to occupy his bed was not a problem either, but it was a practice he had stopped in the recent months.  It didn’t amuse him anymore.  More and more, he was realizing that he wanted to settle down with one woman and have a committed relationship with her.  It was what he had told his mother would never happen.

And here he found himself fantasizing about having that kind of relationship with a woman he had known for less than twelve hours and had talked to for less than an hour and a half.  He just couldn’t explain it.

His food grown cold, Jax stood up and dumped his plate in the sink.  His housekeeper would take care of it for him in the morning.  He wandered slowly through his apartment in the direction of his office.  He didn’t have any real intention of doing work, but his office was one of his favorite rooms in his house.  It was where he went when he wanted some time alone to think, even when he was alone already. 

He turned on the lights in the room when he walked in and sat down at the big leather chair behind his mahogany desk.  The chair rolled back slightly when he sat and leaned back in it, crossing one leg over his knee.  He picked up a pen in his hand and absentmindedly drew on a legal pad on the desk in front of him.  All the while, his thoughts were occupied by the mysterious Brenda Barrett.

Brenda walked up to the glass revolving doors of the J&J Enterprises building the following morning.  She was wearing a conservative navy blue pinstriped suit with a white blouse under the jacket.  Her hair was pulled back in a loose clip at the back of her head.  She hoped she looked professional enough as she pushed her way through the doors and went into the building.  Even though she’d given Mr. Whitman the opposite impression, she had every intention of giving this job everything she had while she was there.  She liked Jax too much to let him think she messed up a favor he had called in for her.  The elevator opened immediately for her and she pressed the button for the seventeenth floor where she’d been told to go.  She bounced nervously from foot to foot as the elevator ascended rapidly to the floor.

The elevator doors opened silently to reveal a small receptionist area with two desks, one currently empty.  There were two office doors on either side of them, obviously leading to the two executives’ offices who occupied the floor.  A woman with shoulder-length raven-colored hair sat at the desk on the right side of the room.  She was typing furiously as she listened to a dictation tape from the player in front of her.  She looked up after Brenda stood quietly in the doorway for a few moments.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked politely.  She had a slight accent that Brenda was rapidly trying to place.

“I hope so,” Brenda said, smiling and stepping forward.  “My name is Brenda Barrett.  I was told to report here for a new job this morning.”

The woman got up from her desk and came around the side, offering her hand to Brenda as she did so.  “Oh good!  I was hoping that’s who you were.  I was told this morning there would be someone new reporting here and I was just waiting for you to show up.”

Brenda was finally able to place the other secretary’s accent.  She had obviously grown up in Brooklyn.  It wasn’t overly dominant, but it was apparent on quite a few words that came out of her mouth.  “I’m not late, am I?” she asked, somewhat nervously.

“No, no, I’m just impatient.”  She gasped suddenly then.  “And rude, too.  Why didn’t you tell me I hadn’t introduced myself yet?!  My name is Lois Cerullo.  I work for the man behind that door,” she said as she pointed to the door directly behind her desk.  “His name is Nikolas Cassidine.  He’s the director of Public Relations for J&J Enterprises, been here about a year now, fresh out of college when he came here.  But I tell you, he’s one of the best they’ve got.”

Brenda nodded and tried to keep up as Lois spoke quickly to orient her to the office.  “You’ll be working for the man behind that door,” Lois continued as she pointed to the opposite door.  “Both of them are in a meeting with the boss right now, so you can’t meet them, but you will.”

“And his name?” she asked.

“Oh right!  His name is Ned Ashton.  He’s the director of financing for the company.  He’s always busy and he always has work for you to do.  Usually, his secretaries complain about the amount of work and that’s why they quit so often.  This last one could barely keep up for one full week before she’d had enough.”

Lois was moving on to show her the desk she would be working at while Brenda was trying to figure out if she was trying to scare her into not taking the job or warn her what was involved.  Either way, she was sure she’d be capable of keeping up.  For the next hour, Lois showed Brenda what she was responsible for every day and what needed to be done every week for their office.  That didn’t include what Mr. Ashton would want her to be doing, too.  Most of it was routine paperwork and some of it she would have to learn.  She was surprised and nearly laughed when Lois pointed to a watering can and assigned her three plants in the office windows to take care of and make sure they didn’t die.

After the whirlwind tour, Brenda settled into her desk and began to organize her things into places where she wanted them.  The woman before her hadn’t been very strategically organized, so Brenda set to work making a new system for everything she was responsible for around her area.

“Wow, how do you do that?” Lois asked suddenly after she’d been watching Brenda for a few minutes as she worked.

“Do what?” she asked as she quickly alphabetized a series of papers and placed them neatly into a file folder.

Lois checked her watch and laughed.  “Well, last I’d checked, you’ve only been here two hours and already you’ve gotten almost more work done than that previous secretary did in a day.”

Brenda laughed along with Lois.  “It’s no wonder she didn’t get any work done, then.”

Just then the elevator doors slid open and a tall man with dark hair strode quickly out of it towards the office behind Brenda.  He didn’t even glance at her as he walked by, instead he looked directly at Lois with a stern look.  “Lois, I need that file I asked you for this morning and I need it right now.  When I ask you for something, I want it immediately not when you feel like it!”  His last comment was followed by the perfunctory slamming of his office door.

Brenda gazed silently at Lois for a few seconds before she said something.  “I take it that was Mr. Ashton?”

Lois smiled sheepishly.  “Yeah, that was him all right.  Usually, he’s in a better mood, but I’m guessing his meeting with Mr. Jacks didn’t go very well this morning.  That’s the only thing that puts him in this bad of a mood.”

“LOIS!” the voice bellowed from behind the office door again.

She got up and hurried into the office with the file he was asking for.  Within seconds, she had escaped him again and was back at his desk.  “Wow!” she exclaimed.  “Mr. Jacks really did a number on him this morning.  If I were you, Brenda, I’d stay out here until he calms down.”

“Fine by me,” Brenda said, holding her hands up slightly to indicate she was already wary of Mr. Ashton.

Again, the elevator doors slid open and Brenda found herself holding her breath, afraid it might be another person who’d been adversely affected by Mr. Jacks this morning.  Already, to her, he was sounding like a real tyrant to work for.  She could see why Edward believed he would do something as underhanded as steal bids.

Instead, a smiling younger man walked off the elevators and toward their desks.  He was tall with dark hair like Mr. Ashton, but he seemed to be in a much better mood.  “Good morning, Ms. Cerullo,” he said cheerfully.  “How are you today?”  He paused by her desk and waited for her answer to his question.

Lois smiled warmly up at him.  “Good morning, Mr. Cassidine.  Everything was fine here while you were in your meeting.  You had one phone call.”  She handed him the pink slip with the information on it.  “And this is the stack of files you were looking for earlier.  That letter you gave me to be transcribed will go out in this afternoon’s mail as you asked.”

“Sounds great.  You do a wonderful job.”  He turned slightly and saw Brenda at her desk.  “And who’s this?”  He walked towards her and held out his hand.

Brenda stood from behind her desk and took his hand, shaking it firmly.  “I’m Brenda Barrett.  I’m Mr. Ashton’s new secretary.”

Nikolas laughed at that and said, “Well, good luck to you.  I’m Nikolas Cassidine and let me tell you what.  If Ned there gives you a hard time, just let me know and I’ll take care of him for you.”  He was grinning as he spoke and laughed.

“Thank you,” Brenda responded as Nikolas began to walk into his office and close the door.  “I think I can see which one you enjoy working for more, Lois,” she teased.

“No kidding,” Lois replied, rolling her eyes and smiling.

Jax was pacing the length of his office furiously after his meeting with the department heads was adjourned.  Everyone seemed to be in a panic over this whole investigation that Edward had started.  No matter how much he reassured each and every one of them that there was nothing to worry about, they were insisting that he not make any bids on anymore companies until the matter was resolved.  The moment Ned had even suggested it, Jax had erupted.  He still heard his shouts echoing in his head.

“I will not let anyone tell me how to run my business, Ashton!  Edward Quartermaine is nothing but an old man with nothing better to do with his time than try to ruin my business since he can’t run his own.  We have been putting up with him for years and now all of sudden, since he’s called in the Trade Commission on us, you want me to stop fighting him?!  You want me to just stop my business so that Edward can have his way?!  That is exactly what he wants, dammit!  I will not let him stop me from running my business and neither will you, Ashton!  You will do as I say or you will find another line of work!!”

He had let the meeting go a minute later, too furious to think straight anymore.  He refused to let anyone, least of all Edward Quartermaine dictate his actions.  If Edward wanted a war, he would get one.

Done with his silent rampage to himself, Jax dropped wearily into his leather chair behind his desk.  He put his hand beneath his chin and rested his elbow on the arm rest of the chair, slouched in the chair and turned away from the door.  He just couldn’t believe that Edward could hate him so much.  He knew that the past they shared was not a pleasant one, but when he’d known him before, Jax had never thought that the man could actually hate someone so much as to make his life such a living hell.

Knowing him a few years ago, Jax could see that Edward was a different man now.  At least with him, he was.  Before, Edward had gone to Jax for business advice and Jax to him.  They’d been acquaintances and almost good friends for a few years after Jax met him.  But then, he had gone and done something so stupid as to fall in love with Edward’s daughter, Tracy.

Even now, he didn’t know what he’d seen in the woman.  She was sneaky, underhanded, and an all-around unpleasant woman to be with when she wanted to be.  But she was her father’s favorite child and she could do no wrong.  So when Jax had broken their engagement and, in Edward’s eyes, Tracy’s heart, Edward turned on him and started this war of revenge on him.  For over two years now, he had been trying to make Jax’s life hell and he had finally succeeded all with one phone call.

Now, Jax’s own business advisors were telling him not to do business.  They were afraid that there was some illegal deal somewhere in his past that would send them all to jail in a matter of moments.  Jax was positive that wasn’t the case and would also remain to be that way, but the fact that his advisors consistently thought otherwise was beginning to concern him some.  He wouldn’t even put it past Edward now to have paid someone to set it up so that it did look like there was something illegal in Jax’s past.  One thing, just one, could ruin his career and everything he had built for himself.

The intercom buzzed on his desk and Jax depressed the button to answer it.  “Yes, Addie?” he asked, distractedly.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, Mr. Jacks, but Mr. Whitman from Human Resources is on the line for you.”

Hearing that, Brenda was the first thing that came to Jax’s mind and he actually began to smile for the first time since he’d walked in that morning.  “Put him through,” he ordered and picked up the phone.  “Mike, what is this about?”

“It’s about that young lady you asked me to hire, sir,” he began tentatively.

“Brenda Barrett.  Yes?  What about her?”

“It’s just that she hasn’t checked in yet this morning, sir.  She was supposed to be told to call down here after she came in, but we haven’t heard from her.  We can’t reach her at her desk either, sir.”

“Why are you telling me this, Mike?” Jax asked sternly.  “If you need to speak to Miss Barrett, then you need to find her.  Why are you calling me instead?”

He could hear Mike beginning to get nervous as he responded with, “Well, sir, I just wanted to verify with you where I was to put her.  I want to make sure we’re trying to contact the right person here.”

Jax sighed and wondered briefly if, in fact, Brenda would be more qualified for the job she’d said she wanted.  He smiled to himself and then resumed his stern tone.  “She is to be working for Mr. Ashton, on the seventeenth floor.”

“Thank you, sir,” Mike said meekly over the phone.  “It just seems that one of my assistants wrote down Mr. Ashford’s office extension, not Mr. Ashton’s.”  He began to hang up the phone when Jax stopped him.

“Mr. Whitman,” he began, using the tone he only used with his employees when he was beginning to get aggravated with them, “let me know when you find her.”

Jax hung up the phone before the other man could reply and buried his face in his hands on his desk.  He didn’t know whether to laugh or be upset that the man seemed to be so completely incompetent.  The only good thing that would come out of it was knowing that Brenda had reported to work and that he would have the chance to see her again.

“Jax!  Jax!” Brenda shouted as she exited the revolving doors at the front of the building when the day was over.  She saw the blond man walking across the street towards the new building and she wanted to stop him to talk to him.

Jax turned around at the sound of someone calling his name and was delighted to see it was Brenda calling him.  He crossed back over to her side of the street and came to stand beside her.  “Brenda, hello,” he greeted her, smiling genuinely.

She grinned up at him.  “Hi!  I hope you don’t mind me stopping you.”

“Not at all.  Were you at work today?”  He knew she was since he’d received the phone call back from Mike Whitman that she was exactly where she was supposed to be.  He’d had to resist the urge to fire the man all over again.

“Yes!  And I wanted to thank you for helping me get this job!  I don’t know who you called, but I am so grateful to you for it.”

“I take it you like your job then.”

She nodded enthusiastically.  “I really do.  I work with the most amazing woman who’s the other secretary there.  And Mr. Cassidine is just the best.”

“Is that who you’re working for?”  He tried to look as if he were merely asking instead of already knowing the answer to the question.

“No, I work for this bear of a man, Mr. Ashton.  Do you know him?”  She didn’t wait for the response before she continued.  “He’s just this awful man who did nothing but yell at Lois all day long today.  He didn’t even come out to meet me.  I saw him twice.  Once when he came in and once when he was leaving.  Let me tell you, I couldn’t have been happier to see him go.”  She laughed in spite of what she was telling him.

Jax was almost appalled to realize that he was responsible for making Brenda’s first day working for Ned go as it had.  No doubt he’d been in a bad mood all day after Jax had spent the morning yelling at him.  “Actually, Mr. Ashton is a very nice man.  I’ve known him for quite a few years and he really is very easy to get along with.  Today must have been a bad day for him.”

“Yeah, that’s what Lois said this morning after he came in.  She said he’s only really like that after Mr. Jacks gets done yelling at him.”

Jax nearly laughed out loud at her comment, knowing she was a hundred percent correct.  “I’m sure she’s right,” he said.

“Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for getting me the job.  I’ll let you go back to work since that’s where it looked like you were going when I stopped you.”  She started to walk away towards the direction of her car and the employee garage.

“Actually,” Jax stopped her, “I wasn’t going back to work.”  He pulled an envelope from his pocket and showed it to her.  “I was just going to drop this off and then I was leaving for the evening.”

“Oh, okay, well, then have a nice evening.”

“Brenda,” he called as she began to walk away again.

She stopped in her tracks and turned around.  “Yes, Jax?”

“I was wondering if you might like to have dinner with me this evening.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, feeling her body begin to tingle with excitement.

“Absolutely.  I would love it if you would join me.”

She walked back over to him and looked up into his clear, blue eyes.  “In that case, I would love to join you then,” she smiled.  “What time?”

“I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.  That gives you an hour and a half.  Is that enough time?” he asked after he glanced at his watch to see what time it was.

“That’s perfect.  I live out in the River Condominium allotment.  Number 1437.”

“All right, then I will see you at six-thirty.”  Jax could feel his voice starting to shake slightly as he felt his enthusiasm building.

“See you then,” Brenda replied softly as they parted ways.

 

Chapter 3

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