Promising Young Women | Sons of Anarchy Fanfiction | Jax Teller x OC

Chapter Seven: Jump in the Line

Saturday, 12:17 pm

Jax fidgeted in his seat, tugging a ringed hand anxiously through his slicked-back hair. At least they'd gotten a table outside, so there was a bit of a warm breeze and some sunlight at his back - for what little comfort that was in a situation like this.

He'd tossed and turned all night, that girl in the vintage Stevie Nicks T-shirt staring back at him in his mind, daring him, taunting him, and her razor-sharp words spinning on loop: When all your ex wanted tonight was just a fucking acknowledgement that she existed, that she mattered, even if it meant she didn't matter to you in the way she did before... you couldn't be bothered, could you?

The problem was... he'd thought the right move last night was just to ignore her. Not to give into Ima's games and ploys for attention and to just let it ride. Ignore her desperate attempts to make him jealous - and the joke was really on her if she thought he'd ever be jealous of Kozik, let alone her messing around with some other guy. He'd thought that would be enough to get his message across: We're done. Move on.

On top of that, the last thing he wanted to do last night was do anything that could give Grace the impression things weren't really that over between him and Ima. Because they fucking were - and giving Ima any kind of attention when she was rubbing her ass all over Kozik really wouldn't help his case.

But.

But, Ima had absolutely made a fool of herself last night in front of the whole clubhouse, and that was his fault.

Grace was right - he could've shut that down at any point. All he would've had to do was grab her by the arm, haul her outside, and put her in a van. That would've stopped that shitshow right in its tracks, not to mention save everyone else inside the awkwardness of having to watch Ima get low down and dirty with Kozik on the floor and in a booth. And Grace hadn't been exaggerating about that either. He'd heard about Ima and Kozik's little exhibitionist show almost the second he'd stepped foot back inside after seeing Grace and Luna safely inside the shuttle van. Half-Sack was practically pulling on his pant leg to tell him, uh, prez, I think you should know...

He should've shut it down. Never should've let it go that far. Never should've allowed her to do something so stupid and so blatantly obvious. Because desperate people did desperate shit, and that was his fault too.

All your ex wanted tonight was just a fucking acknowledgement that she existed, that she mattered... but you couldn't be bothered, could you?

Why is that?

With those words bouncing around in his mind, he glanced up from his folded hands and shot her a quick grin from across the table.

This was the right thing to do, and he really should've done this days ago.

His heart twisted when she returned that smile, albeit with more hope and excitement than he really wanted to see. This time, that wasn't exactly his fault because he'd made himself clear this morning about why he wanted to take her out to lunch with as little room for misinterpretation as possible. If she'd willfully chosen to misinterpret, then she had no one to blame for that but herself.

Let's just clear the air, darlin'. Things are over between us, and I want to make sure you get a chance to say whatever it is you gotta say to me so we can both move on with our lives.

Taking her out to lunch was a calculated risk on his part only because that did potentially give her some cause to misinterpret since they'd never done this before. But here, in this fairly nice restaurant that was relatively clean and modestly priced, she was less likely to use the opportunity he was giving her to scream and wail and throw things at his head.