helping hand → jadet
At least Phoebe was there to stop him from making an outright fool of himself, that was what he kept telling himself. Because if she wasn’t there to give him her sideways glare every time he made some sort of innuendo or comment that shouldn’t have been said he would have thrown himself overboard by now and probably outright fucked Jade on the god damn table in front of Douggy, god and everyone. He couldn’t help himself, really.
Ever since they’d done his measurements, when he stood there in front of her with nothing but his boxers on while she touched him (and he could have sworn her fingers lingered a little bit too much, but he chalked it up to his imagination playing tricks on him) and poked and prodded at him and guided him to stand a certain way or do something… ever since then he couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was on his every thought, and maybe inviting her and her fucking fiance to dinner wasn’t the smartest move, but he couldn’t help it. Maybe he was trying to torture himself. Maybe he was trying to prove to himself that she was better off with Douggy, that she was happier and everything would be much better if he stayed at a very far distance.
But then the drinking happened. The drinking and the bringing up old memories on set and sure, Douggy was laughing along with them because hell, the guy had been his best friend for almost three years and they had plenty of memories as well, but he couldn’t help but catch Jade’s eye every time they brought something about him and her up, and god, he wanted to punch his imagination in the face for letting it make him think there was actually some sort of twinkle there when they talked about what they had all those years ago. And then more wine happened, and pretty soon Garrett had to excuse himself to go “check on the pies” as he had said. In all reality it was because Phoebe and Mason had disappeared somewhere and he didn’t trust himself to be alone in there with them.
The moment he’d heard the door open he sort of figured it was his best friend, and he found himself starting with, “I promise I’m not going to do anything stupi—” before he turned and he realized that it was a much different woman in his life walking forward and leaning against the counter next to him. “Ah, hah, well, I was thinking about getting dessert ready,” he stated with a shrug. “I’m itching to dig in,” he said with a smirk. Thankfully Douggy had Mae to talk to and took a weird interest in his cat so hopefully the girl’s fiance wouldn’t be walking in any time soon. Not that it would be a bad thing if he did. Nothing was going on. Nothing was going to happen.
"You're always doing stupid things, I'm assuming that was aimed at someone else - good to see someone else is worried about you doing stupid things though." The brunette smiled almost teasingly as she moved to try and offer her help. She wasn't exactly the best hand to have in the kitchen but she did try and with the addition of alcohol she could always blame any faux pas she had upon her intoxication and not just her bad kitchen skills. Rubbing her hands together, pushing herself off the counter a little, Jade nodded her head. "Dessert. Right. So what can I help with? Whipping cream? Cutting things up? Annoying you with commentary instead of actually helping?"
Maybe it was the alcohol in her system - and later it would be exactly what she blamed - but the young make up artist found her mind to be lingering a little too long on the man before her. Honestly she had found herself wanting to seek out his company multiple times through the night when she was glued to Douggy's hip that now she had it she was at an internal war as to what to do with it. She had to be good, she had to keep it friendly and nothing but.