Sold

[HarukoCooly]

"Well aren't we a sly one." She smiled at him. She was enjoying his playfulness, which complimented her own nature well. "We are cousins, if you can believe it. Our mothers were sisters. We come from different lives, that's for sure. God, I could go for a smoke. These hoity-toity joints seem to have a problem with it though." She watched the men and women dance about the room. "It's almost laughable. Some of these men could be these girls' grandfathers." She drank down the remainder of her champagne and slid the glass away.

[Sir Curtis Prise]

"Cousins you say? Do you ever get a share of that wealth?" He mused. He anticipated a negatory answer by the way she referred to the place as 'hoity toity.' A woman born with a silver spoon most likely wouldn't say such a thing. As a matter of fact, aside from her fancy dress, nothing about her struck him as coming from the higher tier of society. Especially when it came to drinking. Curtis raised a brow. He had hardly touched his own glass before hers was gone. Curtis hurried to drain his glass a little further.

"What, an older man can't get some love?" He frowned, making a fake pouting face. He watched a couple of the men in question. He admitted maybe it was a little funny, the way they couldn't keep up completely with their younger partners.

[HarukoCooly]

She smirked at the bartender, thoroughly enjoying her comment. "I can just imagine the things you see here." She turned her head to the man, making polite eye contact. "I'm sure you can tell that I haven't seen a cent of his wealth." She said the last word bitterly, as if his money offended her in some way. "I want no part in his affairs. I'm just here out of respect. Or duty, you could say." She sipped at this second glass, already feeling the warm calming effect of the first.

[Sir Curtis Prise]

"Ohoho!" Curtis clicked his tongue, 'tsk tsk tsk.' How much the tension rose in that one bitter word! "Touchy subject?" Though it was more than understandable. If the fellow did not wish to share his success, Curtis could imagine family ties would be a bit unnerved. 'Thirty years of wealth but she didn't see a penny? That's rough', Curtis thought. "Well I see. But from what I understand, you were never close to him, hm?" He didn't want to pry, but she had him curious now. It was strange, now that he thought about it, that Favio had many living relatives, yet none was going to assume control over the business. With ties severed to his company, what did the man have to lose in letting someone else have a turn in the spotlight?
'He really did just plan to sail away!'

[HarukoCooly]

"We were friends once. As children. Our mothers were very close...until my own mother passed away. I moved away with my father and we didn't see each other as often and grew apart." She stopped herself, sensing that she might make these strangers uncomfortable with her stories. She didn't even know them. They could be the best of friends with Favio or his absolute enemy. 'Perhaps I should hold my tongue for a while longer...' She thought as she smiled, uncomfortably at them.

[Sir Curtis Prise]

"I understand." Judging from her change in demeanor, he thought it best to quit prodding into their relationship.
"Well at least he remembered to invite you, hm?" He smiled, but with as many guests as there were here, who didn't he invite. It was odd even Curtis received an invitation, but he wasn't going to get into a debate over that. "You say you don't want involved in his affairs..." He began, deciding to pose the question that was on his mind, "Did he offer you the company at all, and you refused it?" He thought that a good possibility. Perhaps she wasn't the management type, or didn't have the head for the gossip business.

[HarukoCooly]

She laughed. "That dog? Not a chance! I would love to have been offered it though." She smiled, a little sad that it wasn't that way. "I own my own business, a little PR firm downtown." She pulled her little clutch purse from her lap and placed it on the bar. After rummaging through it for a minute she pulled out a business card and slid it over to him. "Sophie Cristou, at your service. I think I'll switch to wine. Red, please." She said to the motherly bartender. "Enough about me though. Who the heck are you? One of Favio's friends? Or is this for business?"

[Sir Curtis Prise]

"Oh me? Simply a business partner. I wouldn't call us friends. I don't even know how I rated an invitation, actually. Our sort of work was...hush hush." He flashed a devilish grin. Now that Favio was going out of business, it wasn't like he had to be secretive about it any longer. The man would be overseas within the week- that's if he didn't miss his flight being hungover from the party. He wouldn't mind.

Curtis happily accepted her business card, and added it to his extensive collection in his wallet. Everything from adulterous lawyers to his favorite cobbler was in there. You never know when you'll need someone. Or when they'll need you! Instead of producing his own business card in return to her gesture, he simply wrote his number down on the back of a spare slip of paper. With his laundry list of questionable deeds, it just wouldn't be savvy to go about sharing all his business details like that. A number would do, and isn't nearly as incriminating. "Just in case. The name is Curtis Prise." He winked, while slowly sipping his still half-full glass of champagne.

[HarukoCooly]

She smiled and accepted his makeshift napkin-card, dropping it into her clutch. "Oh, of course!" She had forgotten, her workplace jargon probably didn't translate well with everyone else. "Public relations. I help an organization promote themselves with the media and with their publics. So, say you're my wealthy cousin here." She pointed a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the man. "I would be the lady who tells the newspapers, 'Hey, Favio is retiring! There will be a big party and here's all the information you need to publish a story about him and his little shindig.'" She blinked at them both and took an unladylike gulp of the wine. "Does that make sense? Oh, and here." She slid another business card over to the bartender. "Just in case." She winked at the man, obviously copying him.

[daintyone]

The quiet streets held a comforting buzz that was shattered as the freckled woman stepped into the lively party.

She blended in quite well with the general atmosphere, dressed to the nines and holding an air of wealthy confidence. Something about her stood out though, an innocence in her navy blue eyes that none of these gaudy socialites could match. Her deep red lips gave a weak smirk as she walked to the bar, finding no one of interest along the way.

Vivian took up an empty stool one away from the pair conversing with the bartender. She put her little blue clutch on the bar top and folded her hands over top of it, wondering why she ever bothered acting on the invitation.

[Sir Curtis Prise]

"But you aren't writing the story of this party are you? Somehow I believe the story would end up tastefully bias that way." He commented, noticing the lovely cousin of Favio was working on her third glass. Or forth. He wasn't keeping track, but regadless she didn't appear like she was in the mode for documenting this night's events. But he figured that would make the article more exciting if she was. Nothing like drunken passive aggressive yellow journalism, he smirked.

"Why hello there." Curtis tilted his head to look at the gorgeous redhead who had just arrived. "Why so shy?" He patted the seat next to him. "I doubt you'll be able to hear from over there."

[Heliko pylori]

Vibryo Duponte

Vee had been playing the part of wallflower ever since she arrived. She watched as people mixed, mingled, talked and giggled as she sipped from the wine glass she held in her hand. A guy or two may have thought about coming over to ask her to dance but the look in her eyes caused them to second guess and find a different partner. It was as if she were a lioness looking out over a flock of sheep. She really wasn’t sure why she had received an invitation as the business she conducted with the old man was always under the table. She wasn't at all the type to invite to things such as this. As it were, she had decided to play the part for tonight. Dressed to impress, she quickly downed what was left in the glass before elegantly strolling her way over to the bar. “Thank you,” was all she said to the tender as she placed the glass down before looking out into the crowd. After inhaling a breath and letting it go in a sigh, as if to gather herself, she put on a pleasant smile and decided to blend in; leaving behind the faint smell of honey suckle wherever she went. Surely there was someone here who was at least worth saying a greeting to.