Hello, Richard : Chapters 56-57
Milestone celebrated: #1 on the FF list
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Point of View: Maine - Alden
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The Burgeounix Grand Hall glistens with glass dècors and metal accents everywhere. Gold, silver and old-rose paint the Tiffany chairs, the grand stairwell, and most of the drapes. The place looks beautiful and the decorations just exquisite.
Huge glass chandeliers hang from the high-rise ceiling and 4 thick pillars with cherub sculptures stand in equal distance from each other across the room. They give the whole place a royal feel and in effect, all the guests that feeling of... importance. Perhaps, when guests are expected to make donations, they also expect to be treated with importance.
Whew. Looks like I made it to the big time.
Lol
Maine looks up and admires the expensive chandeliers. She looks around and notices the guests all clad in Designer clothing and sparkling jewelry. An eye-roll escapes her before Alden grabs her hand, gives it a gentle squeeze to assure her, and then smiles sheepishly at her.
Smooth.
How will I survive this?
She takes in the sight beside her, appreciating how dapper Alden looks tonight in his tweed blazer, plum tie and still-perfect dimples. She doesn't even want to think about how perfectly her hand fits his.
You are looking for trouble, girl.
As she looks the other way, Alden steals a glance for himself and notices how her lips are her most prominent facial feature, and how the color of her dress highlights her gorgeous olive complexion.
She actually cleans up really nicely.
Wow.
"It's pretty breathtaking, isn't it?", Alden asks Maine looking her right in the eye. He intends for the question to have a double meaning but does not quite say it in the right manner nor phrasing.
Lame pick-up, Alden.
How does it go, again?
"Pretty breathtaking."
She says "Yeah. Place looks great"
You say, "Oh, I mean you. "
You're so out of your game, man.
"It's amazing." Maine nods in agreement. "Thanks for inviting me by the way. I feel like I'm in a Jane Austen book.", she tells him.
"More like Interview w the Vampire.", Alden counters with a sly smile.
"Or Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.", Maine says a little too loudly as laughter was building insider her.
"I mean... she looks like she's about Lincoln's age.", Maine whispers and points with her eyes to the elderly woman who was making life difficult for two waiters, verbally harassing them, three feet away.
Alden looks at the old woman, and sees that while she somehow looks like Pilita Corales, she has a pale white caking layer to her face, horribly drawn eyebrows and a badly-done hair do that makes her look ancient.
"Could also be a vampire.", Alden barely finishes and they both burst out in laughter. The very woman they just talked about looks right in their direction with a disapproving expression and a matching glare.
While this makes Alden and Maine shut their mouths, their eyes never stop talking to each other. Instead, they share a secret smile and a few giggles before they decide to move away from their buzzkill acquaintance.
God, she's great company.
He's actually funny.
Maine observes there are a dozen more with the same look and age as that old woman. The somehow have a "really rich" air about them.
"These socialites, they're the ones who donate significant amounts.", Alden shares as he gathers himself, takes Maine's hand in his, and gestures for them to move further to the center where the cocktails are.
"They're all so... glamorous.", Maine says in a tone that resembled a whine.
I am so underdressed.
"I should've dressed up a little bit more. I'm afraid the press may think your girlfriend doesn't belong to this crowd.", teases Maine with matching air quotes for emphasis.
"You fit right in, don't worry.", he assures Maine and winks at her. "You look gorgeous tonight.", he adds with his deep-dimpled smile.
Oh, stop.
At this, Maine tries to avoid the blush that's coming, but to no avail. It takes her a second or two before she recovers.
"Look at you, giving me compliment after compliment. Didn't think you had it in you. I remember you were all brooding and tight-lipped on my first day of work.", she quips and smirks at him, remembering how lonely and quiet Alden was during her first few weeks at work.
"Well, I've changed.", Alden admits.
You have.
"Someone changed you.", Maine inquires although sounding more like a statement of fact. Alden does not answer but a curl begins to form at the corner of his lips.
Oh you have no idea.
"It's obvious. You smile more often now.", she pushes a little bit.
"My girlfriend. She makes me happy. It's almost like a long distance relationship, I can't really explain it, but it works for us.", He tells her.
"You're sappy and romantic. I can tell.", Maine teases Alden, testing if he would open up to her.
Really naughty too.
"Wait, maybe I should give my moves a test run. See if my 'girlfriend' likes it.", Alden jokes not knowing the implication of his statement.
Don't do it, Maine.
Don't.
"Shoot right ahead, then. Sweep me off my feet.", Maine gives him the go signal. She hopes her eyes do not give away this budding 'crush' she's having on her 'boyfriend'.
This is so messed up.
There's a smile in her eyes.
I actually like it.
"Oh, I will make you swoon.", Alden whispers in her ear, his lower lip lightly grazing the skin, before looking at her face again. They both feel a spark at the contact, but no one beeps a word about it.
Oh, Shit, wow.
Shit.
That was electric.
This time, they both hold each other's stares for a few seconds before Maine finally lets go first. Of course, not without a lazy and heavy (and frankly seductive) batting of the eyelash before she looks away.
Alden's heart thuds a slightly harder beat and he tries to shake it off.
Now, she's just being beautiful.
Maine, still feeling his warm breath and soft lip on her ear, does everything in her power to stop her knees from buckling. She can almost hear her heartbeat in her ear.
You are royally fucked, Nicomaine.
"Wanna have a drink?", Alden asks, trying to lift the looming tension.
Say no.
Nothing ever good comes out of that.
"Let us." Maine says with a smile, and they keep walking, hand in hand.
While Maine comes from a well-off family, the grandeur of the whole event begins to throw her in a panic as they near the center where most of the guests are gathered, especially in light of her purpose for coming - master fakery.
You're not actually the girlfriend.
You're his beard.
For the press.
Wait, shit, I actually am his girlfriend.
Alden, on the other hand, smiles at the press people they start meeting without so much as a wracked nerve. Before they could get to the center, one reporter approaches him and asks for a short interview to which Alden gladly obliges.
In the next 20 meters that they walk, Alden will have done a full round of press interviews while Maine slowly sinks into the shadows with every question. After the last reporter hastily says her goodbye to him, Alden realizes Maine isn't by his side anymore.
What the...?
He quickly digs into his pocket for his iPhone and sends Maine, who escaped to the Powder Room to calm herself down, a text. It takes her a while to respond. There does not need to be any costume change for her hesitation and anxiety to surface and take over.
"I think I'm freaking out.", she texts.
"... I'm actually in the middle of something...", she also writes, among others, in a separate message. She also hits the send button.
I think I made a mistake coming here.
Scratch that.
This whole goddamn act...
is a big fucking blatant wrong.
Damn it.
These reporters are everywhere.
Maine should be here.
"You look like you belong here." He replies to her text just as he receives a notification for a different message.
It's her.
He gives the new message a quick scan, and seeing that it's just a short note, returns to his text message. He feels distracted and out of focus. A part of him wants to re-read the message and write back, but eventually decides against it.
Later.
He assures Maine that things will be fine and at the same time, gives himself a mental note to not forget about his date for that evening and more importantly, that they're supposedly out as a couple.
Press assumes you're her boyfriend.
Act like it.
"Just don't let go of my hand", Alden texts her.
While waiting for Maine to come back, he looks around to find a waiter. It doesn't take long before he sees one, so he quickly raises his hand to call him.
"What's the best that you have?"
"Heidsick, 1907 Diamant Bleu, Sir."
Like I'm an expert.
"Sounds delicious.", he says. Alden gets two glasses and begins sipping from his.
"Ah, bubbly. Champagne."
The fizz sends a warm, happy wave coursing through him so he gulps in more. Soon enough, he drinks the other glass supposedly for Maine but even that is gone quickly. He scans the floor for another waiter to get new glasses.
🎶 Oh, what a night 🎶
Late December, back in '63
What a very special time for me
As I remember, what a night
Oh, what a night
You know, I didn't even know her name
But I was never gonna be the same
🎶 What a lady, what a night 🎶
What is taking her forever in there?
Maine, in the powder room, tries to wait and see if her message earned a response. After a few more minutes, she freshens up and decides to just go outside already.
Alden takes one more sip, now from his third glass and another wave of joyous, cloudy bliss passes. He starts bopping his head to the classic song the band is playing.
Basking in the bubbly glow, the a figure of an elegantly-dressed, small-framed, girl appears in his peripheral view.
🎶 Oh, I 🎶
I got a funny feeling
when she walked in the room
Hey, my
As I recall, it ended much too soon
Oh, what a night
Hypnotizing, mesmerizing me
She was everything I dreamed she'd be
🎶 Sweet surrender, what a night 🎶
He turns his head around to see who it is and that's when he sees her: a mix of Middle-eastern, Greek and Hebrew features. Lush lips; big sparkling eyes; long, thick lashes; thick brown mane falling down her face, softening her sharp cheekbones.
He drinks the rest of the champagne in one big gulp and Alden's heart launches into wild thumps in his chest. His breath hitches in his throat as the girl from afar slowly comes into clearer view.
Fuck. She's here.
I can't believe she's here.
He really is a beautiful man.
And I will lose him if I keep lying.
Wait.
Why does he look...
drugged? drunk?
Maine finally approaches him, ready with her perfectly-rehearsed woven tale of what caused her delay in the Powder Room - "Too many ladies in line, you would've thought those tight gowns pressed too hard on their bladders making them pee." - but just when she was about to deliver her lie, Alden's hand moves to her cheek and softly grabs her face. She breathes in a surprised gasp as her eyes close shut and her head involuntarily leans in toward his palm before she could even stop herself.
Maine, you big fool.
"Dei.", Alden whispers.
Maine is confused and quickly moves her face away from his hand.
"Hey?", Maine asks him and successfully snaps him out of his bubbly daze.
🎶 And I felt a rush 🎶
like a rolling bolt of thunder
Spinning my head around
and taking my body under
🎶 Oh, what a night 🎶
"What? ... Oh, hey... The music is great. Do you wanna dance?", Alden quickly covers up as he realizes something.
You have got to be shittin' me.
Maine totally looks like Dei.
And she is fucking beautiful.
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