Previously…
– Tempest was horrified that Jason would even ask her about the magazines with letters that were cut out of them — and, later, she was arrested for mailing the threatening notes to Jaq. Thanks to Diane, Tempest’s name was cleared.
– After Jaq was exposed for trying to frame Tempest, Samantha ended their relationship.
– Zane took Tori to the winery where they first met and proposed. She agreed to marry him.

Sounds from the ice rink downstairs drift up to the second floor of Edge of Winter Arena. As he sits behind his desk in the office, Jason Fisher listens to the all-too-familiar trappings of a busy morning practice: scraping blades, exclamations of joy and disappointment, a slightly tinny recording of a movie score playing over the sound system. As his eyes toggle between the two spreadsheets open on his monitor, they detect movement by the doorway — and when he looks over, he is surprised by what he sees.

“Good morning,” he says to Tempest Banks. For her part, Tempest freezes immediately in the entry.

“Hey,” she finally replies. She takes a tentative step into the office. “Just came to grab some of my stuff. I thought–“

“Bree‘s taking the week off to rest after Sectionals,” Jason explains. “So I finished teaching early and thought I’d come up and get started on work.”

Tempest bobs her head slowly.

“And I’m guessing you figured I’d be down there coaching, so you’d be able to get in and out fast,” he says.

She holds up both palms. “I don’t want any trouble. I don’t want any drama. I just want some of my stuff.”

“Take your time. I can give you some space if you want.”

“You’re cool. Whatever.” 

Tempest crosses the office, giving Jason a wide berth as she moves to her own desk.

“How’ve you been?” he asks awkwardly, the spreadsheets forgotten.

“Blessed and highly favored,” Tempest answers while bent over an open drawer. “What’d you expect?”

The bite in her response knocks Jason off-balance a little.

He breathes in deeply and then tries again: “You can take as much time off as you need. I promise.”

“I’m just about out of PTO and sick time and stuff.”

“I’m not considering this time off any of that. Consider it a gift from me.”

She glances up sharply. “What? ‘Cuz you’re feeling guilty?”

“Well… yeah.” Jason pushes back his chair and stands up. “Tempest, I’m sorry I ever– that I ever thought you could’ve been sending Jaq the letters. The last thing I ever wanted was to see you get in trouble.”

“Yet I wound up in jail.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he says. “I can only imagine how jarring this all had to be for you. So take whatever time you need before you come back to work. And if you decide you need to move on from your job here, then…” He shakes his head sadly.

When he looks at Tempest again, all he sees is a stone-cold stare and a set of pursed lips.

“Oh god,” he says as realization dawns on him. “You’ve already decided to move on, haven’t you?”

Tori Gray picks up her peppermint mocha from the counter at Cassie’s Coffee House and heads toward the exit. The café isn’t even playing Christmas music yet, but when she saw the menu advertising holiday drinks, she found herself unable to resist. There is something so cozy and comfortable about the trappings of the holiday season, and she simply wants to enjoy them, “basic” as they might be. As she reaches out her left hand to push open the door, she catches sight of the emerald, lined with smaller diamonds, perched on her ring finger.

Engaged, she thinks with awe. There was a big part of her that never thought that she and Zane would get to this place, but the past few months, all signs have been pointing in a positive direction. She still dreads the thought of telling her parents, knowing how they feel about Zane, but she hopes that they will finally understand that Zane has changed, and so has their relationship.

She is snapped from her thoughts as she steps outside and nearly runs right into two of her younger cousins.

“What’s up?” Marcus Gray says, a little nervously.

It takes Tori a moment to read their trepidation.

“Shouldn’t you guys be in school?” she asks.

Christian and Marcus look at each other. 

“We were doing community service,” Christian says in a frantic tone. “We’re only stopping to get coffee on the way back to campus–“

“He’s telling the truth,” Marcus adds.

Tori laughs. “Guys. I don’t even care. Do you think I didn’t cut class every now and then in high school?”

“You did?” Christian asks with surprise.

“Oh my god. Yes! I was probably much worse than you two,” she says. It shocks her to realize that the two teenagers might not even remember who she was back in high school. 

As if reading her mind, Marcus comments, “You don’t seem like you did.”

“Well, I did. And I promise, I believe you about community service.”

“We really were doing community service! At the Senior Center!” Christian says.

She smiles and holds her coffee cup aloft. “I believe you! But I also won’t tell anyone.”

Christian’s eyes go wide. “What’s that?”

“What?” Tori asks.

Instead of answering, Christian glances at Marcus, and only as it registers on his face does Tori realize what they are talking about.

“That rock on your finger,” Marcus says. “You got engaged?!”

Samantha Fisher steps off the elevator onto the eighteenth floor of Winston Tower. She makes her way into the lobby of Objection Designs, as she does every weekday, and sees Finn Campbell behind the reception desk. She puts her head down and walks, ID badge in hand, toward the glass door that leads to the main area of the office. She raises her badge to the reader and is about to swipe it when Finn speaks up.

“Samantha. Wait a minute,” he says.

She stops, hand still in midair, and takes a beat before turning around.

“Yeah?” she says, without any emotion.

“I want to clear the air. That’s all.” He rises from his chair and leans forward over the large structure of the desk. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine, I guess. And you?”

“I’m good. Yeah.” Finn, who is dressed in a burgundy sweater, tugs one of his sleeves over his hand. “We haven’t had a chance to talk, so I thought…”

“I know you and Jaq are friends on top of being roommates,” Samantha says. “And I don’t begrudge you that. But if you’re going to make some appeal on their behalf–“

“I’m not.” He offers a conciliatory smile. “I want to say that I– look, Jaq and I are friends. I think they know they really screwed up here. And I can support them and still want you to know that I don’t condone what they did.”

Samantha nods as she takes this in. She feels herself relaxing ever so slightly.

“Thanks, Finn.” She swipes her badge and pulls open the door. “I should get inside, but I appreciate you saying that.”

“Of course. Have a good day.”

“You, too.”

Samantha disappears into the inner area of the office. Finn retakes his post behind the reception desk, and mere moments later, the acting COO of Objection, Gia Vincent, comes striding in.

“Good morning,” Finn says politely.

Gia regards him with a nod of her blonde head.

“Do you have a moment?” he asks as she goes toward the card reader.

She slows but does not stop, and she narrows her eyes at him.

“I know they’ve been sending up temps to be your second assistant,” he says, again standing, “and I’d really like to throw my hat in the ring for that position.”

Now Gia actually does stop. She regards him as if she is really seeing him for the first time ever.

“I’ve been on this desk for a while now,” Finn says, “and the benefit of working reception is that I have the kind of high-level view of how Objection works that a person needs to support someone in your position. I’d really be honored to have the next step in my career be assisting you — not only would I learn so much, but I can promise, you’d have the piece of mind of knowing that nothing would ever be overlooked. Not a single ball would ever be dropped.”

She stares at him for a long moment.

“Send your résumé to my first assistant,” she says, and without waiting for a reaction, she proceeds through the glass door toward her own office.

“Perfect,” Finn says to himself as he once again takes his seat.

—–

Jason’s stomach sinks as he realizes what Tempest isn’t saying.

“I can respect your decision,” he says, the words tumbling out of him, “but I want you to hear me loud and clear: I am sorry for having thought the worst of you. And for not having your back in– in whatever other way I could’ve.”

After a pause, Tempest says flatly, “Thanks.”

“And I’ll give you whatever glowing recommendations I can,” he continues. “I’ll force someone else to hire you if I have to. Tempest, the idea of losing you around here — I barely know what I’m going to do. You’re as vital to the running of this place as I am, by this point.”

She moves one of her braids out of her face.

“So tell me what you need me to do,” Jason says. “But even more than losing you as an employee — a coworker — it sucks to lose you as a friend. Really and truly. I just want you to understand that. I can see now how Jaq was pulling strings–“

“They set me up,” Tempest says. “It was a damn set-up.”

“It was. I remembered that, right before I found those magazines, Sabrina and I were down at Thaw. And we ran into Jaq — but they were coming from the arena side, not from the parking lot.”

Jason sees a slight brightening in Tempest’s face, a hint of a crack in the facade.

“They snuck up here to plant the magazines while you were out,” she says.

“Right. And I fell for it. But for everything — for falling for it, for seeming like I didn’t trust you, for making you feel like I wasn’t in your corner — I’m sorry, Tempest. If there is anything I can do…”

“There is one thing,” she says.

“Really? What?”

“How about a raise?”

“Really?” Jason suddenly feels as if a thousand lights have flipped on to illuminate the room. “Do you mean it? You’d stay?”

“I don’t wanna leave,” Tempest says. “I mean, I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve been thinking about what I wanna say to you, but — that was a damn good apology.”

He exhales with relief. “I meant every word of it.”

“I know you weren’t trying to turn me in or anything,” she adds, “and I get how it all looked bad. But I don’t wanna leave my job, and — you’ve been a friend to me, too. A lot.”

“I’m so happy you’ll stay. And if you do need some more time off before you come back…”

“Nah, I’m bored already. But about that raise…” She cracks a grin, and Jason finally feels himself smiling, too.

—–

Immediately Tori pulls back her left hand.

“What? Nothing,” she says reflexively, as she switches her coffee cup to her right hand and attempts to conceal the left.

“That doesn’t look like nothing,” Christian says. “Did Zane propose to you?!”

Tori sees both of her teenage cousins staring her down. It’s almost as if she can feel their gazes burning right into her. 

“You guys can’t say anything,” she warns them.

Christian gasps and clasps a hand over his mouth. “Oh my god.”

“For real?” Marcus says. “You’re getting married?”

“Eventually. Yeah. We don’t have a date or anything,” she tells them. “And no one knows yet.”

Pushing his bangs out of his eyes, Christian says, “No one? Why not?”

“Because we haven’t had a chance to tell them,” she replies.

Marcus tugs at the neck of his hooded sweatshirt. “You mean, like… you haven’t seen them? Or you don’t wanna tell them?”

Tori glares at him. “What does that mean?”

“Nothing,” he says quickly.

“It’s just… Aunt Sarah and Uncle Matt have had all these ups and downs with Zane,” Christian fills in. “Don’t pretend they haven’t. And I know he doesn’t, like, love them either.”

“Zane has no problem with my mom and dad,” Tori says. “He hasn’t for a long time. And they didn’t love some of the stuff he did…”

“Didn’t he blackmail your mom and Aunt Molly?!” Christian asks.

“That was a long time ago.” Tori sighs and takes a sip of her mocha. “Guys, I promise, I’m just waiting for the chance to tell them in person. Everyone’s busy. It’s not the kind of big news you want to text someone.”

She watches as Christian and Marcus again look to one another, although this time, whatever they are communicating isn’t as clear as their earlier shock.

“Just let Zane and I tell them ourselves, okay?” Tori says. “And, by the way — I can always have your parents check up on the attendance policy when you’re doing off-campus community service. If I need to.”

Both boys’ eyes flare with panic.

“But I won’t, if you keep this to yourselves,” she adds.

“Cool,” Marcus says uneasily.

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it,” Christian says.

“Good.” Tori gives them both an exaggerated smile. “Get your coffees and get to school, okay? I’ll see you guys soon.”

She can almost feel the vibrations of their nervous trembling as she walks past them and toward her parked car. She recalls what it was like to be a teenager and so terrified at the prospect of getting in trouble with school administrators or parents. And, as much as she doesn’t love having made her two cousins uneasy, she has to admit that she enjoys the feeling of power — something she hasn’t felt much in recent months or even years.

The emerald on her hand gleams as she pulls out the key fob to unlock her car.

END OF EPISODE 1105

Will Christian and Marcus keep Tori’s secret?
Did Tempest make the right move forgiving Jason?
Will Finn use Gia to achieve the next part of his plan?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!

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