<div class="floatleft">(https://cdna.lystit.com/photos/bb62-2016/02/14/criminal-damage-navyblack-nep-t-shirt-product-2-556257935-normal.jpeg)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Jasper Jameson (JJ) (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=308599.msg15018215#msg15018215)<br/><strong>Age:</strong>28<br/><strong>Sexuality:</strong>Heterosexual<br/><strong>Hometown:</strong>New York, NY<br/><strong>Date/Time:</strong>3 July, 2019 | Early Afternoon<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Poolside in the Villa/Kitchen<br/><strong>Wearing:</strong>This (https://cdna.lystit.com/photos/bb62-2016/02/14/criminal-damage-navyblack-nep-t-shirt-product-2-556257935-normal.jpeg)<br/><strong>Coupled with:</strong>No one<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Mark | Grace<br/><br/><hr/><br/><br/>JJ listened to Mark’s recitation of woe, punctuated twice by a swig from his beer, and his brows started to rise with each element of the litany.  Eventually, Mark wound to a halt… to find JJ laughing quietly.  Good-naturedly.<br/><br/><strong>“Christ, man,” </strong>he said, shaking his head, the laughter still clear in his tone,<strong>“that’s a hell of a list of pissed off people for being here less than 24 hours.  No wonder you’re beating yourself up!”</strong><br/><br/>He took another drink, smiling around the mouth of the bottle.<br/><br/><strong>“Delaney, though… she’s the smoke-show that came in with me, right?  I think she’s over in the kitchen if you want…”</strong><br/><br/>JJ paused as he looked over toward where he remembered seeing Delaney and Grace some few minutes before.  But where he had expected to see the two of them still engaged in conversation, he instead saw Delaney looking over toward them… and Grace approaching.  She walked with an inexorable momentum, almost like a petite sailing ship flying before the wind.  The metaphor was reinforced to JJ when he saw the stern determination on her face.  She looked like a ship’s figurehead, regal and implacable, bearing... cupcakes? Though as she approached he thought he detected a note of uncertainty.<br/><br/><strong>“Ssssshiiiiit…,”</strong>he said softly to Mark before she arrived.<strong> “Looks like we’re going to have that chance to bury the hatchet a little quicker than we thought, man.”<br/></strong><br/>JJ looked up to Grace as she approached and gave her a smile.<br/><br/><strong>“Grace,” </strong>he said congenially.<strong>“Not at all.  We were just talking about you, actually.”<br/></strong><br/>As she bent down to lay the cupcakes on what he presumed was an ashtray, his eyebrows rose.  Were those… shitcakes?  What the…?<br/><br/>Then she started to speak.  At first JJ’s only reaction was astonishment.  Never in a million years would he have expected Grace to apologize, let alone so genuinely.  He’d thought he had her number, but clearly he was wrong and his estimation of her ticked up a notch.  Then, as he listened to her explain the situation, and presumably her choice in culinary design, he started to laugh.<br/><br/>At first it was a low, quiet laugh of genuine amusement and by the end of her speech he was shaking with it.  After a few moments, he wiped his eyes, sighed and grinned at her.<br/><br/><strong>   “Jesus, Grace.  That might be the best apology I’ve ever gotten.  Grace, indeed.”</strong><br/><br/>He shook his head, still amused and a little chastened that he’d thought so ill of her only a few hours before.<br/><br/><strong>    “As it happens, we were just talking about trying to smooth the waters over with you, too.  So first let me say, apology accepted.  Then allow me to apologize as well for presuming the worst of you and mocking the choices you’re making here.  We’re each here for our own reasons, and yours are just as valid as mine.”</strong><br/><br/>He reached down to take a cupcake and gave another little laugh as he stared for a moment into its googly eyes.<br/><br/><strong>    “I don’t know how well these go with beer, but I’m pretty sure they won’t taste like shit.”</strong><br/><br/>He held the cupcake up to Mark, like a toast, waiting for him to take on the mantle.<br/>