Take My Breath Away

"Maybe. But you forget that there are a lot of Scorpios out there. I have my pick," Blair sneered and looked at Wesley. She wanted to know how he would react.

Wesley had a hard time with that one. Everything he wanted to say was caught in his throat. After some thought, he said, "But there's only one Wesley Li. You going to dump me?"

"Yeah." She looked determined.

"All right." He dropped his hand from her chin and nodded his head.

'So is he going to give up just like that?' Blair mused.

"Just sit here and enjoy. I'll get you a new blouse." He tried to give her his shirt again.

Blair took a deep breath and refused him. "No, thanks. I'll call Joslyn and have her bring me one."

"Okay." Wesley agreed again. What else could he do?

This gave Blair butterflies in her stomach. 'He's being awfully agreeable.' She fished her phone out of her purse and called Joslyn, looking distracted. "Hi Joslyn. You busy now?"

"Nope. Just playing with my baby."

"I've got a problem. You have a blouse I can borrow?" Blair stammered. She found it rather embarrassing.

"A blouse? What's wrong? Did you lose yours?" Joslyn was kind of worried about her friend, but she couldn't help being flippant. It was an odd request.

Blair cast a casual glance at Wesley, who was sitting in the front row. "Um...a stray dog ran up and tore the hell out of my top. My date shooed him away, but I'm a mess."

"Huh? That's weird. You're okay, though, right? He didn't bite you?"

"Ahem... No, he didn't get me. Just my top. It was an expensive one too, dammit. I'm at the cineplex right now. Theater 4, Ne Zha. So if you have something I could borrow..." "Yeah, I think I have just the one. Remember that blue one you liked so much?" Joslyn said. "I'll give it to the nanny and she can take it to you." After that, they said their goodbyes and hung up.

Blair put her phone away and tried not to look at Wesley. He was glaring at the screen, but could hardly bring himself to watch the movie. He seemed to have a fit of the sulks. And why not? There were worse things than being called a dog, but he didn't like it regardless.

Neither of them said a word.

Countless questions flooded Blair's mind. 'Why isn't he saying anything? What's on his mind? Has he finally given up?'

Joslyn decided she'd come herself, and left her kid with the nanny. The more she thought about it, the more worried she got. When she opened the door to the theater and saw Wesley, and Blair wearing a guy's shirt, she figured out what was going on.

'Bitten by a dog? Wesley was the dog!'

Joslyn thought to herself. She greeted him politely and sat down next to Blair. Not too long ago, she would have gotten into it with Wesley. But seeing that Blair's eyes were red and swollen and the two of them were sitting in different rows, she decided to help her friend first.

She handed Blair the blouse. "There are cameras here. The ladies' room is probably better."

'Cameras?' Blair looked around in disbelief and then saw several boxes placed around the theater with blinking red dots.

'So those are cameras. Did the cinema staff see everything?' Blair took the blouse from her and walked toward the ladies' room with Wesley's shirt on.

When Joslyn and Wesley were left alone in the theater, she leaned forward and whispered to him, "What happened? Why was she crying? Did you rip her top off? She's given you her heart, you know. She's done a lot for you, but you're always mean to her. You're such a jerk!" Joslyn's heart ached when she thought of Blair's red and swollen eyes.

"I know." Wesley knew what Blair had done for him. Cecelia told him that Blair even tried to kill herself after she thought he was dead.

"You know? And you still made her sad?" Her voice was more normal now, rising past the volume of a stage whisper. She continued, "Ooh, tough guy. Do you know what she told me when she tried to break up with you? Every day she woke up, deciding to break things off. But she couldn't do it. Whenever she thought about it, it was always her fault. She always thought she wasn't good enough for you."

Silent misery flashed across Wesley's eyes when he heard what Joslyn said. She saw it, too. She took a deep breath and said, "She was always talking about how nice you were. You even saved her life a couple times. When you two lived under the same roof, you were a great guy." She was talking a mile a minute now. She was going to give Wesley a piece of her mind. "One last thing. You're finally done with that mission. Now you're more than thirty years old. And Blair's almost twenty-seven. It's time for you two to tie the knot. If you're not going to marry her, then at least—"

"We're already married," Wesley interrupted her.

"What?" Joslyn thought she must have misheard him, and leaned closer to Wesley. "I must be hearing things."

Wesley took something out of his pocket and handed it over.

It was a booklet. Seeing the red cover, Joslyn immediately knew what it was. It was a marriage license. She and Hartwell had theirs. She took it and wondered whose marriage license it was.

She opened it with trembling hands. It was a photo of Blair and Wesley.

She covered her mouth in excitement. "You've been married for a couple years now! Why didn't Blair tell me?" She couldn't believe it. Married? How? Joslyn was both thrilled and angry.

Wesley took the license back and put it into his pocket. "She doesn't know yet," he said calmly.

"Know what?"

"She doesn't know we're married," he explained.

"How's that possible? Are you kidding me? How did you get that done if she wasn't there?"

Joslyn was Blair's best friend, so Wesley saw no reason to hide it from her. "I filled out the application myself, and forged her signature. As for the pic, it was edited in Photoshop." It was Carlos who had taught him how to do all that. In fact, Carlos cooked up the scheme in the first place.

Joslyn really didn't know why he did this. "Blair loves you so much. If you proposed to her, she would have jumped at the chance. Why did you go behind her back?"

Wesley watched a couple minutes of the movie, not knowing what to say. Finally, he answered, "I wanted to surprise her. But I gave her the envelope containing the licenses at the wrong time. She just threw the envelope away and refused to look at it. So I figured it was better that she did not know." Although she would eventually find out, Wesley was hoping to find the right time to tell her.

Joslyn said nothing. She didn't know what to say. On the one hand, she was happy for her friend.

On the other hand, she didn't know what to do. She didn't want Blair to keep suffering.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't tell her right now!" she said.

"Please don't. When she forgives me, I'll tell her in person," Wesley said earnestly.

Joslyn calmed down a little, and somehow she found Wesley a little bit pitiful. "Um... I'll see if I can convince Blair to give you another chance. God knows why." Since Wesley hadn't slept with other women, Joslyn thought that Blair might forgive him. After all, he was just doing his job.

"Wesley, you really need to fix this. I don't even know if you can. She's waited for you for years. You didn't even call her, but she still waited. She even lied and told other guys she was married. It turns out that wasn't a lie, though."