Run-Ins and Recognition

Jo checked the scores from the night before. Oh ouch! She knew Sid wouldn’t be happy with how the Jets game ended but she just had to let him know she had been rooting for them anyway. She was in Nashville for Halloween, which she needed after Night of the Fallen. A chance to recharge before she headed to New York and the Fantasy Bra Announcement.

Opening her phone she first checks the time zone Sid should be in and then texted him. ‘Sorry about the Jets.’

It doesn’t take long to get a response. ‘Me too. Hate losing!’ That makes her snort, everyone knows he hates losing.

‘You’ll kick McDavid’s ass!’ she sends back as she works through the few things she needs to do here. Sorting invitations to various things here in Nashville and elsewhere. Sighing she decides that she needs to cut back on where she goes for a while, something Alexander will hate but it’s what she needs. A chance to breathe before Valentine’s season hits.

“Jo? I’m home! I brought some friends!” Jo sighed heavily. Of course he brought people into the house when she was trying to lay low, just so like him!

Her phone pinged. ‘Hope so! Called up Jarry and sending DeSmith back to WBS. Is it too late to bring Flower home?’ That put a smile on her face, she knew that Sid hated losing Flower much more than he would publicly admit.

She wrote back quickly as she called out to Alexander. “I’m in the office!” ‘Yes, but I’m sure he misses you guys too.’ She then send Sid another message. ‘My A is back, gotta go for now. Talk to you later.’ She pocketed her phone as Alexander came in.

“I know you said you wanted a chance to chill before having to go back to New York, but I ran into some of the gang and they wanted a chance to spend some time with you before you jet off again.” Jo tried not to let the disappointment she felt show on her face but failed. “You don’t want to see our friends?”

Another heavy sigh exited her lips before she could stop it. “Alex, I’m only here for a couple days. I really just needed a chance to relax before flying out tomorrow night.” Did he just not get it or was it a deliberate attempt to annoy her? “I wanted a quiet Halloween for a reason. To recharge myself a bit before things start winding up again.” Besides being far away from New York meant her nerves about the Fantasy Bra Announcement, that she _really_ wanted, wouldn’t be as bad.

He sighed and turned around in a circle. “I know you said that but what you say and what you mean aren’t the same!” It was his turn to sigh. “You always _say_ you want a quiet time to recharge and then you get bored and we end up going out.” He flailed his arms about as he spoke loudly.

That’s when she noticed his outfit, some of it was definitely new. His shoes and jacket specifically. She felt her blood boil. “I always say that because I always want it! _You_ are the one who gets bored and cajoles me into going out and then uses my name to get things!” As if she hadn’t noticed a lot of the things she got weren’t things she had ever asked for but that he seemed delighted with.

Alexander seemed to hit a wall mentally. “Please, let’s not fight with everyone out there. Can we put this on hold and go try to have a good night?” Jo was still angry so he kept pushing. “Just this last party and then whatever you say goes from now on. Please my goddess.” He reached for her hand as if willing her to fall into his arms to make everything fine like before.

Deciding that fighting with an audience was not a good idea, Jo tersely responded. “Fine, but don’t expect me to be happy until we finish this.” She slapped his hands away. “I said I’d go, I didn’t say you had permission to touch me. No using my name to get things for yourself or your friends and I mean it!” She got up from the chair and waved as she passed into the master bedroom. Fuck, this was the last thing she wanted to do but she said she’d go.

She changed into something, she didn’t even care what really and then met the group in the living room. Of course Alexander drove as he knew where they were going.

Once there Jo got one drink and began nursing it. She then decided to let Sid know she would be out and unable to respond. ‘Out with A at the last party I am going to in October. Would rather be at home.’

Sid replied. ‘At least you aren’t in Edmonton. It’s 4℃ and might snow tonight. Try to have fun and sleep late tomorrow!’ She snorted, fat chance of that. She had a million things to do already and her list grew with every hour she spent _not_ doing them. At least Sid tried to make her smile though, which is more than Alexander had done in a long time if she was honest.

After her one drink she switched to water. She sporadically texted Sid which made her smile. For some reason he had become a good friend, even if he did play for the wrong team.

Hours after they got to the party she went looking for Alex, she wanted to go home. It was late and she really wanted to have a nice quiet day tomorrow before she left for New York. They had started out together but had separated as the night went on, not unusual for them. She heard him before she saw him. “Of course Jo is wonderful but so frigid lately! Not you though!” She heard a feminine giggle turn into a moan as she turned a corner in the house they were in. There he was with his tongue down some random girl’s throat and she was enjoying it!

“Alexander!” Jo shouted to be heard above the music. The girl jumped at the name but Alex didn’t budge until he was finished.

He turned with a stupid grin and a mouth covered by lipstick that wasn’t hers. “Oh look, there’s my goddess now.”

She stalked up to him and rifled through his pockets. “I am leaving, if you want the _remote chance_ of staying with me, you will come now!” She found his keys and started towards where they had parked, taking the keys for the house off of them as she moved. This was the other reason she never drank a lot, so someone could get them home safely.

Before she could leave without him, he was in the passenger seat looking a little chagrined. “Angel, I’m sorry. What can I do?”

“Just shut up, I’d rather not crash as we fight.” Jo was beyond furious but to get home safely she didn’t speak, only looked at the road while she drove. Alexander tried to beg for forgiveness but she ignored all attempts. “Shut up.”

Once they got to the house she parked outside of the garage and opened the garage door. Pocketing the opener she went into the house while he stumbled along behind her. She tore off her jacket and heels as she stalked into now _her_ bedroom. She was through with him, he just didn’t know it yet. Once he was in there she lit into him. “How could you Alexander?! I know you get drunk at the parties we go to but deep throating another girl?! This wasn’t the first time either.”

Alex stumbled a bit as he tried to sit on the bench at the end of the bed. “How could I? You were being such a frigid bitch I had to! I have needs too you know!”

Jo rolled her eyes. “You and your needs, really?! That’s all you _ever_ think about!” It was true too, she had heard from her friends that he was a lot different when she wasn’t around. “When _was_ the last time you thought about someone other than yourself?”

Alexander struggled out of his jacket. “Well maybe if my girlfriend would think more about me I wouldn’t have to!” He flung the jacket onto the floor. “If she wasn’t so busy jetting off to everywhere but here that is!”

Oh that made her go off! How dare he say that her work wasn’t as important as he was when she did everything in her power to make time for him! “Well at least I _have_ a job! One that I love and am good at too! You work so hard at making it seem like I am never around when half the time I am, you aren’t!”

He stood upright and immediately listed a bit. “I’m always here! I do _everything_ for you! Half the places we go, I work to get us into! Most people don’t know who you are so I have to work to make sure they give us everything I deserve!”

She was almost positive the ‘I’ was a slip on his part, but it also showed where his heart truly was. Her friends had been right, he was nothing but a user! “So telling everyone everywhere who I am, that I’m a model and work for Victoria’s Secret is for _our_ gain? Cause to me it sounds like it’s for _your_ gain! I don’t need bottle service! I don’t need the most expensive jacket and shoes in the place either! Yeah, I noticed your jacket and shoes and I know who paid for them! No more Alexander!” She picked up the jacket and found his wallet. “You don’t deserve using me to get what you want instead of what is needed!” She then went through it and took every credit card that he was joint with her on out of it. “There! Now you won’t have my money to use!”

“You bitch! GIve me the jacket before you ruin it!” She snorted and flung it at him. Let him have it, it was the last thing he would be able to get with her money. Thankfully he was drunk enough that he couldn’t hit her without taking himself out. “Damn it! Why are you such a frigid bitch?! I have to beg for what I should have to only take!”

She walked into the closet and grabbed his suitcases. She knew better than to respond to his accusations, that was the road to madness and her mind was crystal clear now. “I am a human being Alexander and deserve better treatment than you have been giving me.” She said calmly as she packed his stuff for him. Halfway through she felt her phone vibrate. She took it out and glanced at who it was from, Sid of the wrong colors. Just seeing that made her smile. Even with all of the innuendo they flung at each other he had never once tried anything.

Alexander of course took her smile the wrong way. “You want me, admit it. Let’s do it, right now baby!” He started to tug at his clothes and hers, which popped the bubble of serenity she had going.

Jo hadn’t even heard what Alexander had said before he was tugging on her blouse half undressed. “What?! Stop it!” She slapped his hands away from her and stepped out of his reach.

“Oh come on Angel, you know you want me.” he said trying to sound sexy, but failing.

“No, I don’t and to be honest I haven’t for a while. You’re leaving Alexander and you’re never coming back.” She moved into the closet and grabbed his clothes in there. Coming back she threw them in the suitcases, not caring if they wrinkled or such. “You’re leaving because you don’t respect me, what I do, or what I might need. You only think about what you need and want and I’m sick of it!”

Jo thumbed open the message from Sid. ‘Hope you made it home safe.’ Again she smiled.

‘Home and ending it with A.’ She sent back.

“Who are you always texting? It’s not the damned girls again is it?!” He tried taking her phone, but being sober still she easily outmaneuvered him.

“No, it’s not the girls. It happens to be Sid checking that I made it home safe. You know like _good_ friends do!” She had told Alexander how she had met Sid and that he wasn’t the asshole she thought he was in June.

“Oh good, just the guy you’re going to run to. That makes me feel _so_ much better. To think I wanted to marry you!” There was her final straw!

“Wanted?! Yes you have said that a lot but never done anything about it! Sid is _nothing_ but a friend! I spent exactly one evening in his company and other than that have only texted him! Even during that evening we weren’t alone, he invited me to go out with some of his friends! Why is this even an issue?! You were too busy to come to Pittsburgh for that shoot and I told you everything that happened!” She had too. She was a good girlfriend and while she and Sid used a lot of innuendo, nothing ever came of it. He had told her that he was getting over his own breakup after she told him about Alexander. Sid was no threat to she and Alex.

That seemed to sober Alexander up as he roared at her. “It’s an issue because I know he wants you!” That zipped down her back and thrust it ramrod straight. No one accused her of cheating if indirectly! She woodenly stalked to the window and opened it. She then began throwing everything of his she could reach out it.

When she ran out things in reach she went to the suitcases and picked them up. “You just can’t handle that he is better to his _friends_ than you are to the woman you supposedly love! Get out Alexander! Get out and _never_ darken my doorstep again!” She chucked out the suitcases onto the front lawn, not caring who might see them.

He stood there. “You, you don’t mean that.” To test her, he sat back down on the bench at the end of the bed.

She whirled on him. “Yes! Yes, in fact I do!” She picked up the landline and dialed the non-emergency number for the Nashville Police. “Yes, I am trying to throw my Ex out of my house and he refuses to leave.” She listened as the dispatcher said she might have as long as 25 minutes to wait before someone could get to her and she could be bumped for an emergency. “That’s fine, as long as someone gets here. If I can get him out he’ll be either on the lawn or in his car. The house will be locked and I have taken back the keys and garage door opener.”

The dispatcher asked her name and address for the record and she freely gave it. Unknowingly the supervisor had been listening into the conversation since the beginning and he bumped her further up in the queue without the dispatcher or Jo knowing. The last thing Nashville needed was a domestic incident involving one of its more famous residents. Jo asked if she needed to stay on the line or if she could go back to trying to get Alexander out and was told for safety she should keep the phone on and on her person. “That I can do.” She clipped it to her belt, leaving it on so that they could hear what was said.

“Time for you to leave for good Alexander. Preferably before the cops get here.” Jo was calm and collected, remarkably so for someone who just needed some peace and a chance to cry her pain out.

He, in childish form, grabbed the bench. “You’ll have to force me out of our house Josephine.”

“You mean the house I bought, is in my name and you live here for free in? No, it’s _my_ house and you are no longer welcome in it.” She didn’t take a step towards him cause she knew him well enough to know that he wanted her to put her hands on him. If only so he could try and press charges for assault.

She rolled her eyes as he sat there being a child instead of a grown man. Walking into the living room she began sorting through things that he had brought into the house for what she might want to keep. Truth be told she needed to go through the entire house and purge, but for now she would purge the movie collection.

It took a lot shorter than the quoted 25 minutes for the cops to be knocking on the front door. She walked over and calmly opened it. “Good evening gentlemen, he’s in the master bedroom and refusing to move.” She moved aside to let the 3 police officers into her home. “I walked out rather put my hands on him and have remained outside of his presence since then.” She pulled the phone off of her belt. “They are here, can I hang up now?” She got an affirmative and wished the dispatcher a pleasant evening.

She hung up the phone and showed the officers back to the bedroom door. “I will stay out of there myself cause I know he’s being a child about all of this. I will put the final bag I packed of his shit on the lawn.” She was followed by one of the officers while she did what she said she was going to do and came back into the living room.

Inside the bedroom the remaining cops went into the bedroom. Of course Alexander was now to asshole mode. “You can’t be cops! Cops are fat motherfuckers who can’t run let alone move. You guys have to be strippers!”

The police exchanged glances and stepped forward. “Sir, the lady wants you out of her house. It’s time to go.” They were going to rise above the comments and be professional.

He flung his arms wide. “Go ahead and try fuckers! This is _my_house! She may have bought it but I live here all the time!” They gave him a chance to get up and move on his own and then they came over to picked him up bodily. “Assault, Brutality! Call my lawyer!” Alexander fought them every step of the way until he was face down on the carpet with his hands behind his back.

“You are under arrest for resisting arrest. Ms. Skriver has asked you to leave the premises and you have refused and now you are accusing us of assaulting you when we have done nothing. We have body cam footage and turned them on as we got out of our cars.” The two of them hauled Alexander up and began frog marching him out of the house.

Once they were to the living room Alexander spotted Jo. “Angel, Goddess. Tell them this is a mistake!” Jo sighed and walked into the kitchen. “Jo! Please!” The realization must be hitting him, she thought as she got some bottled water out of the fridge.

She walked back out into the living room and handed the water to the officer. “This is for you guys. I am truly sorry for the trouble.”

The officer put his hand up. “I’m sorry Miss but we can’t accept gifts. It’s against policy.” She sighed and nodded. “It’s a safety thing, nothing against you.” He had taken her statement over what had happened while his fellow officers took care of Alexander. “Thank you for doing everything you could to keep the situation as calm as it was, things like this can get messy fast.”

Jo shook her head. “I wasn’t thinking. I should have known. Thank you for such a prompt response and for getting him out of my house.” She made a mental note to get her locks changed and pull up the hidden key.

Once the officers and Alexander were gone, the key pulled from it’s hiding spot, the doors were locked behind her, and the alarm set; Jo finally broke down.