Inbox • SEBASTIAN STAN

TWENTY

She stopped mid-way, realizing her mistake.

"Hey," William said. He pointed to the man in front of them. "Don't you recognize your boyfriend, Pippa?"

"Hello. Please excuse me," Pippa said, covering both of her cheeks with her hands. She made her way inside of her office, past Seb and Will. She quickly pushed past her desk and chairs, opening the restroom door.

"Pippa?" Sebastian asked. The restroom door was slightly ajar as she stared at her reflection. The makeup on the left side of her face looked like it had melted off. She stared at the mess and groaned. He knocked on the restroom door. "May I come in?"

"No."

But he came in anyway.

There was a smile on his lips. "Hm, I see you had a makeup malfunction. Do you need help?"

"Yeah, sure," she replied, though she didn't think he could do a lot for her. He made his way further inside the room, his back on the sink as he stood close to her. One of his hands was on his arm, both steadying her and bringing her closer to him.

He looked attentive as he rubbed her face. Pippa felt herself laugh. She was pretty sure he wasn't doing anything, but just wanted to help by making her laugh. A minute later, he stepped away and allowed her to look at her reflection. The mistake seemed fixed. Albeit, she looked a bit strange but unless anyone was looking for it, she looked normal.

"I took a makeup class in college," he said. "Well, two actually."

"Thank you, you've saved me yet again," she smiled. "Where is your goddaughter?"

"She's with with Kat? Right, that's her name? Lucas' wife?" He asked. Pippa nodded, she was in good hands, Kat was the much better half of Lucas.

"Are we allowed to hug?" She questioned. She'd never done this before. She had never meet someone she sent letters to but more than that, someone that had helped her despite knowing her very little.

"Yeah, I suppose so. Though, we should have talked about this the day before," he took out his phone, quickly tapping. Pippa was about to say how rude that was, when her screen lit up.

Puppy:
Let's just pretend its yesterday

Pippa typed a response, feeling stupid doing this. Seb raised his eyebrow, and pointed to her phone.

Okay.

Puppy:
What do you think about hugs?

Should be allowed

Puppy:
Okay great, I'm glad we established this

He put his phone away as Pippa did the same. He opened his arms and Pippa let herself be pulled by his strong arms and his warmth. She hugged him, feeling better about things going wrong, despite the fact that the party had begun not long ago. 

There was a knock on the door. Pippa pulled away first, finding Liv by the door. 

Sebastian extended out his hand, grabbing Liv's hand. "Pippa, meet Liv by goddaughter."

"Aunt Pippa!" Liv pulled away from Sebastian and hugged Pippa. Pippa felt momentarily confused by Seb's statement but hugged Liv. She hadn't seen Liv in a couple of days, not since she had tried to bake and had failed miserably.

"You two know each other?" Seb asked, raising his eyebrow at Liv's small arms wrapped around Pippa.

"I've known Olivia since she was a baby. I use to babysit her all the time, though now with the shop I only babysit her once in a while," Pippa informed Sebastian. He was baffled by this, his mouth was slightly open, his eyebrows raised.

"What a small world," he finally managed.

Liv wiggled her eyebrows. "You are welcome uncle Seb."

"Huh?" Both Seb and Pippa spoke simultaneously.

"I'm going back to the party. Theo is really cute," Liv said. And with that, she walked out of the restroom and out of Pippa's office. Sebastian sighed before laughing, finding the situation both amusing.

"Little Liv played match maker," Seb said. "I didn't get your PO box number from some pen-pals website, I let Liv pick for me. And she picked you."

The way he said you, made Pippa feel special. Out of everyone, Liv thought of Pippa as special, worthy of her favorite uncle. She smiled and Seb smiled back. Liv had been right. Both Pippa and Seb had needed a friend, and they had found that thanks to her.