Identity - Rewritten

Chapter Thirty-Four

Eloise frowns, and cups his face with her hand, rubbing a thumb against his cheek. "Are you sure?" she asks.

"I've already stolen you for long enough," he says, gesturing to their distance from the group. "You have fun and I'll see you back at the house later."

Eloise finally nods, and looks back to the bonfire. Taylor and Freddie are both dancing to whatever song it is that Brooks is playing on his guitar, the rest of the group scattered here and there around the bonfire, and her mood soars at the idea of joining them again.

"If you're sure," she says, somewhat distracted as she watches everyone mill about. Being in an intimate crowd of friends is something she's still getting used to, but she's found that she really likes it.

"Of course. I love you, Eloise."

She looks back to him. "I love you, too." She stands, Junior follows shortly after, wrapping her into a hug.

"See you later, Princess." Junior kisses her forehead. He heads toward a nearby truck, in which Luke is packing up a beer cooler and assortment of lounge chairs. Eloise only watches him go for a second before heading back toward the bonfire.

As the party begins to die down an hour later, and Eloise heads toward Taylor's car with her, she glances back up to the sky. Thunder had begun to rumble a few minutes earlier, which had been their cue to start packing up, and Eloise is fairly sure some lightning had flashed while her head was turned.

Hand on the car door, Eloise's attention fixes itself on the storm without her permission, gaze caught in the clouds. It looks like it's going to be the biggest thunderstorm she's seen in a while.

"Eloise, you coming?" Taylor asks, from the other side of the car. Eloise's gaze snaps away from the horizon.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," she says, and hazards one more glance at the sky before she climbs into the passenger seat.

.....

Lawrence isn't surprised when Sylvia joins him on the balcony overlooking the sprawling city, her beautiful chocolate hair twisted up into an elegant bun on her head. She's wearing a long, emerald dress, and she'd drawn his eye immediately when he'd first arrived, but he'd yet to have a free moment to speak with her. He'd caught her eyes multiple times that evening, however, and had figured it was only a matter of time before they got a chance.

They're on the forty-first floor of the skyscraper, and inside lays yet another business function, in which he'd been expected to rub shoulders with all the big players. To say that it's exhausting is an understatement, considering that he's really a man of few words. When he'd signed on, he hadn't realized just how much of his job was going to be bureaucratic bullshit. He wants to be back in West Virginia running the CDA hands-on, not here in D.C. while his assistants handle things for the weekend in his absence.

"I don't think that the world will fall to pieces because you're taking one night off," says Sylvia, coming to stand next to him and place her hands on the railing. Lawrence rips his eyes from the skyline to look at her, and she's already assessing him with a knowing smile. Behind her, through the glass door, he can see the event they're both supposed to be participating in, horderves circulating and people gliding across the dance floor.

Lawrence refocuses his eyes on Sylvia. "I'm not so sure about that," he replies.

Sylvia laughs lightly, a tinkering little thing much younger than she. "It's good to see you, Lawrence," she says, finally, and presses a kiss to his cheek. At the same time, he sees her press a button on a small metal device between her fingers that he didn't recognize, and turn back out to face the skyline. "Keep your body forward. I just knocked out their audio out here, and as long as they can't tell we're talking, they won't notice. The only camera is directly behind us."