Through the Darkness, Chapter Eight

CHAPTER 8

August, 2013

Blair was just about to pack up for the night when the door to her office opened and Dorian sauntered in.  “Well, this is an interesting change of scenery for you, darling,” she cooed.

“Dorian, what are you doing here?” Blair asked, a little stunned by her aunt’s entrance.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?”

Blair rested her fist on her hip.  “What are you trying to say?” Blair returned, trying to stall while she came up with a reasonable excuse.

“Well, I went to Shelter for dinner with Carl and I was rather surprised when Cutter told me you had decided to take a more hands-off approach to the club you’ve been working night and day to get off the ground and come here and run this place while that reprobate ex-husband of yours is away on business,” Dorian commented with contempt.

“Why shouldn’t I care about this place?  It is my children’s legacy.  I should care that it’s maintained in some way for them while their father is away,” Blair replied, steeled by Dorian’s attitude.

“But must you be actually here to do it?” Dorian questioned.  “Darling, I’m just worried that, by being here, when he gets back, he will ensnare you again.”  She walked over to Blair and put her hands on Blair’s arms.  “He’s a drug you have successfully purged from your system.  You need to stay clean, and being here won’t do you any good.”

“A drug, Dorian, really?  Yes, let’s look at the list of men I tried to replace Todd with,” Blair huffed, stepping back from Dorian.  That thought actually made her shutter.  “On second thought, let’s not.”  She walked to the door and held it open.  “I’m leaving for the evening.  Do you want to be locked in this office overnight?”

Dorian sashayed passed her.  “This conversation is not finished,” she told her niece, as she exited.

Blair walked down to the parking garage and got in her car.  She knew that if she went back to La Boulaie, Dorian would continue to drop comments and Blair wasn’t up to it.  A part of her wanted to shut her aunt up with her secret, but Todd’s request for not telling Dorian and Viki’s insistence on being the one to inform Dorian stopped her.  What Blair needed was a place to hide from Dorian, if only for a few hours.  That left few places in Llanview.  She thought of Todd’s room at The Palace, but she was sure the room had been checked into by someone else.  She was very tempted to run to Viki and commiserate with her.  If anyone understood Dorian’s bitchy tendencies, it was her.

In the end, she found herself at Rodi’s.  She walked in and was taken back for a minute to a time when the bar was darker and more of a dive.  She sat at the bar and half expected a long-haired rogue to plop down next to her.

“What’ll it be?” the bartender asked.

Blair paused for a minute before responding, “Single malt scotch, neat.”  The drink appeared before her and she raised her glass in silent toast. 

The bartender noticed and asked her, “Who you toasting?”

It was then that Blair finally got a good look at her.  Her eyes narrowed and then widened suddenly.  “Jonesy?”

“Yeah, that’s my name,” the older woman answered.  “We know each other?”

“I was fairly a regular here, back in the Nineties.  I don’t know if you’d remember, but I borrowed a tray and went sledding with Todd Manning,” Blair reminded her.

Jonesy nodded.  “Yeah, I remember you.”  She gave Blair an appraising look.  “The years’ve been good to you.”

“Thank you,” Blair replied.  “You just returned to town?”

Jonesy nodded.  “Yeah, thought I’d move on a long time ago.  But, well, I decided to come back.  Found out this place needed a bartender.  When I walked in, I was shocked at how different it looked.  But, it’s a job.”  As she worked, she asked Blair, “Whatever happened to that scoundrel you hung with?  Didn’t he find out he was related to the muckety mucks in town?”

“Todd Manning, son of Victor Lord,” Blair said.  “I married him,” she held up three fingers, “three times.”

“True love or glutton for punishment?”

Blair laughed a bit.  “My aunt Dorian says he’s a drug I need to purge from my body.  And maybe he is.  But he is the best drug.”  Blair pulled out her cell phone and flipped past the picture from the judge’s chamber.  “We have two kids, Starr and Jack.”  Then, as if processing something the other woman had said, she commented, “You’re right, this place has changed.”

“Lost its character, if you ask me.  It’s too…warm.  The old place, it had character,” Jonesy commented.

“It was a place you could hide away if you wanted to.  If you didn’t want to be found, you came to Rodi’s,” Blair explained.  Just like one night.  One night when a heartbroken young woman shared drinks with a guy who had his heart had also been stomped on.  Who would have thought where she’d be now back then.

She was brought out of her thoughts by her phone ringing.  She looked at the caller ID and answered it.  “Jack, hey…I’m at Rodi’s…Sorry, I had a run in with Dorian…Okay, I’ll wait for you.  See you in a bit.”

It was only about fifteen minutes later that Jack came in.  Blair had moved to a corner table for some privacy.  “What happened?” she asked when he sat down.”

Jack went into detail about what had gone down at the police station.  “So Bo’s going to be looking at the video.”

“Well, it’s not much but it may give them a lead,” Blair said as she sat back.

“Why’d you detour here?” Jack asked as he looked around.

Blair let out a sigh.  “Dorian showed up at The Sun and made disparaging comments about me working there.  I couldn’t take continuing the discussion so I figured I’d lay low and hope she forgets about it before I get home.”  Then, Blair pointed to the bar.  “See that woman there?”  Jack turned and nodded.  “She worked here years ago.  So far back, it was before your dad and I got married.”

Jack looked around.  He knew that Rodi’s was a long time hangout, but the idea of either of his parents coming here was weird to him.  “This doesn’t seem the type of place you or Todd would come to.  Too…bright.”

“Well, back then, it was very different.  Quite frankly, it was a dive.”  Blair pointed to the bar.  “And I met your daddy right over there.”

Jack thought for a minute.  “You wanted to me to remind you about something about fireworks?”

Blair laughed and launched into the story about setting up Skye for shooting Max and Todd’s little celebratory show afterwards.  “The whole town was blacked out.  It was beautiful display, like the Fourth of July in the winter.  We watched from the windows in the penthouse.”  At the memory, Blair had a thought.  “In the morning, I’m going to go look for another place.”

Jack turned to her.  “Why?”

“Well, I get a feeling things are going to get uncomfortable around La Boulaie now that Dorian knows I’m at The Sun.  And another, when Todd comes back, can you picture him under the same roof with Dorian?” Blair asked, giving her son a look.

“Why would Todd be under the same roof as Dorian?” another voice asked.  Blair looked up and saw David Vickers standing there.

“David!” Blair exclaimed.  “What are you doing here?”

“Meeting with Jo.  Strategy session for the ‘Anatomy of a Divorce’,” he answered.  “You didn’t answer my question.  Why would Todd even go to La Boulaie?  I mean, besides the obvious.”

“Well, I live there,” Jack said. 

Just then, the woman who came to the dinner with David a few nights ago showed up.  “Hello David,” Jo said.  Then she noticed Blair and Jack.  “And believe I met you,” she pointed towards Blair, “but not you,” she said to Jack.

“Ah, this is my soon-to-be ex-niece, Blair and her son Jack.  They’re not important for the show though,” David said dismissively.

“Wait, Blair, I remember hearing that name,” Jos said as she tapped her chin.  “Yes, I remember.  I was reviewing what you’d already filmed with Leo and you were talking to a man at the bar at Shelter.  Handsome in an untraditional way, kind of a far off look, lamenting about a woman he’d hurt.  I think he said her name was Blair.”

  

David had the deer in the headlights look about him when Blair said, “Todd talked about me…to David?”

“Oh, yes,” the producer answered.  She pulled out her tablet and brought up the footage.  Blair was amused when Todd was yanking David’s chain with the ‘four question’ method.  But then, when David asked Todd about Blair, she was surprised by his answer.  

“All I can seem to do is break her heart.”

She remembered that night.  She’d laid into him again when David had left.  She couldn’t help but touch the image on the screen.

David narrowed his eyes at Blair’s reaction.  “Jo, can you excuse me.  I need to have a conversation with my niece.”  Jo took the tablet back and went to the other side of the bar.  “Blair, are you and Todd – “

“I caught them together,” Jack interrupted. 

“Eww,” David came out with.  “You went back to him?  Does Dorian know?”  Then, his eyes brightened and his smile widened.  “Can I tell her?”

“David, look, they’re…not together, so there’s nothing to tell Dorian,” Jack said, a note of desperation in his voice. 

“Sure, kid, they’re not together,” David replied with the wink of an eye.  He looked at Jo.  “Well, I need to get back to my meeting.  Buh-bye.”

Jack turned back to his mother, who offered him a weak smile.  “Thanks for the save.”

“I hope it holds.  David’s not a dumb as he looks,” Jack commented.

“Oh, I don’t know about that.  He still hasn’t figured out who Madeleine Helmore was,” Blair commented as she looked towards David’s table.

“Madeleine…” 

With a smirk, Blair said, “Halloween, just before Todd and I got remarried at St. James’.  Dorian needed to have him caught in flagrante delicto for a divorce, so we set up a sting to catch him.”  Blair waved him off.  “Look, I am serious about finding a new place you all of us.  I’m going to start looking tomorrow.  I want it all set up for when your father comes back.  I want a home for all of us.”