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Post by Will Blye on Jan 8, 2016 1:56:30 GMT
William Blye found himself standing around with his parents for a holiday party that his father had demanded he attend. In his teenage years, Will had become accustom to sometimes being given a bit more freedom than this average young man. His parents frequently travelled back and forth between London and, while immediately after an unfortunate incident with the Tyler girls, he'd been forbidden from being on his own, things had settled down a few months later. He would have much preferred to be out with his friends than out with his parents - like any teenage boy would. But he still chuckled at a comment his mother made judging the decor of the party before sipping his water.
He guessed the only thing he wished he could do was drink in front of his parents without being reprimanded.
Parker nudged Will gently. "Stop slouching, please," he told his son. Sometimes Parker was the strict one - with both his wife and his son, honestly. He didn't mind and he never meant it in a mean way. At the same time, he was proud to have them in attendance but he expected Will to act accordingly. In the past, he'd afforded his son some liberties that he now realized had been a mistake. But the one thing he wanted was for their son to be better and happier than they had been growing up. So while he spoiled his family frequently, he also was hoping to teach Will to be a proper man.
He turned to his wife and smiled at her at her. "You look beautiful by the way," he told her with a smirk.
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Post by Olivia Warren-Blye on Jan 8, 2016 2:58:35 GMT
Olivia supposed that there was some truth to the idea that the more that things changed, the more that they stayed the same. Sometimes it was hard to believe that so much time had gone by since the petty games and drama that seemed to erupt endlessly in their social circle, but the presence of her nearly-grown son beside her reminded her that it had been longer than she cared to admit. But regardless of the things that hadn't changed over the years, there were certain things that she wished would have changed - such as the person in charge of decorating for this party. Between the gastly decorations and copious amounts of sparkling snowflakes, she could help but remark about the sorry sight of things.
She looked between her husband and son at Parker's encouragement of Will to stand up straighter and she felt an amused smile make her way to her lips. She never would have thought that one of the changes in her life that she would enjoy the most would have been having a son. Having children was never something she had considered to be part of her plan, and so when the decision had been made and they had introduced Will into their lives, she had been a little nervous. But over the last seventeen years, his addition to their family had never been anything but wonderful. Even now, seeing the way that he interacted with Parker, she couldn't help but appreciate how things had turned out for them.
Grinning at her husband, she pressed a kiss to his lips quickly, "Thank you, you look fantastic as always. Both of my men do," she added, placing a hand on his cheek tenderly before withdrawing it quickly - the last thing she wanted was for him to call her an embarrassing mother. "Well," she prompted. "What's first on the agenda for the evening?"
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Post by Will Blye on Jan 8, 2016 3:05:43 GMT
Parker smiled at Liv, leaning in to kiss her quickly. "Well, we can make the usual social rounds, grab a drink and then find a table to essentially judge those in attendance until midnight," he suggested with a chuckle - really only half kidding. Since becoming a father especially, he'd tried to be a bit better about the way he interacted with people. But while he had tried to set a better example for Will, but really he knew some habits died hard.
Will shifted at his mother's compliment, muttering a thank you as he looked around, wondering if there was anyone closer to his own age to socialize with and perhaps even sneak a drink or two with his parents across the room. He looked around, spotting a few familiar faces - girls from school he'd never really spent much time with before, a few of his mates from class, and James Benson. "I see a few people from school, do you guys mind if I go say hello to them?" he questioned hopefully, not necessarily wanting to spend time being introduced to his father's associates being told how much he'd grown since they saw him last.
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Post by Olivia Warren-Blye on Jan 8, 2016 3:20:05 GMT
Liv surveyed her son for a moment, considering what the appropriate response was in this situation. When he had been younger, she hadn't had any trouble letting him go off and have fun with his own friends, feeling as though it was important to him to socialize with people his own age. She supposed that in part it had to do with the fact that she wanted him to make friends, to have a group of people with whom he could actually spend time with without resorting to the games that she and Parker had once played. However, as he grew older she quickly realized that there were some traits that were difficult not to pass along, and last year, when everything had happened with the Tyler girls, she had come to the realization that there was only so much she could do to keep Will from making the same sort of mistakes she had once made. And quite frankly, she admitted, she figured that she never would have gotten to where she was without having made some of those mistakes, and she was quite fond of the person that she had become. And so it became easier for her to convince herself that she didn't need to be the overprotective mother.
Nodding, she dismissed him. "Go, have fun. But I want you back here promptly at 12:30, no later. Consider it your curfew, if you must, but we'll be leaving then." Of course, she wasn't sure of that entirely, not sure exactly how long Parker had intended on staying at the party, though she figured that it was good to give a teenage some ground rules.
Jamie Benson had been disappointed when his sister had informed him that she wasn't going to be attending the New Year's Eve party with the family, choosing to spend yet another night away with her new boyfriend. Well, he figured that they were nearing the point where he had to stop affixing the word "new" to their relationship, considering the fact that they had not only been dating for a while, but also that he had actually met the man at this point. And while he wasn't sure exactly how his parents felt about Melanie's boyfriend, he could easily admit that he thought that he might actually like the guy. Truthfully, he couldn't remember the last time that he had seen his sister so happy, and he appreciated that fact - he liked her much better when she wasn't hurting his friends' feelings.
Still, without his sister, and without a girlfriend by his side, he quickly realized he was left with his parents as company. Something that wasn't ideal.
"Stop pouting," Maddy told her son with a smile. "I promise it won't be that bad. And I'll make it up to you - maybe we can go see a movie or something tomorrow?" she offered, wondering for a moment if he had actually gotten too old to think that going to the movies with his mom was ridiculously lame.
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Post by Will Blye on Jan 8, 2016 4:05:32 GMT
"Thanks," Will said to his mother, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. He wandered around. He wasn't close with James Benson at all, really. In fact, despite being the same age and in the same school. The other boy had always been very...well-behaved in comparison to William and Will just wasn't about that. Spotting a familiar face in the form of one of the girl's from school, he smirked and decided to approach her. "Hullo," he greeted her.
Parker's gaze followed his son as he made his way towards a pretty girl and he sighed. "He is our son," he nodded before smiling at Liv. "Shall we grab a drink? Say a few hello's? Spy on Will from a distance and shout embarrassing things at him when he talks to girls his own age?"
Cooper was a bit disappointed that Melanie hadn't come along with them to the New Years Eve party, after all it had always been a big holiday in their family given that it was the anniversary of the night he'd proposed to Madison. Still, he supposed it was his own fault. He had a feeling his last chat with her boyfriend hadn't gone over well. After they'd left, Cooper realized he'd immediately regretted comparing Melanie to Simone, but it was too late to take back. He also regretted being so hard on their relationship, knowing it might drive his only daughter away for a while.
He looked at James and smiled at him. "Or you can go off and talk to some of your friends from school and tomorrow we can spend the day as a family to make up for it."
"Anabelle Jean Dogherty." A.J. cringed at the use of her full name and looked up from her graphic novel to her aunt who was scolding her. "We didn't bring you to this party just so you could be anti-social." A.J. wasn't one for fancy parties, she never found herself in the position to attend them living out on Long Island with her parents. Her three older brothers had managed to escape the evening - all three of them living on their own. But at her aunt's invitation, her parents had agreed to attend a fancy party - her father grumbling the entire ride into the city about how her uncle had acted so high and mighty in offering to buy the family something 'appropriate to wear.' She was pretty sure her dress cost more than her laptop did, and she'd worked all summer to buy that. Her mother tried to give her an encouraging glance, and A.J. just sighed, closing her book. "Right, I'll go socialize," she lied, standing up from their table and walking over to another one with open seats, out of her aunt's line of sight. She dropped into a new chair and opened back to her page.
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Post by Olivia Warren-Blye on Jan 8, 2016 4:33:51 GMT
Liv watched her son immediately begin talking to a pretty young blonde girl, she sighed and turned to Parker, small smile perched upon her lips. "He is, there's really no arguing whose child he is. I blame you entirely, you should know," she added. "But yes, all three sound wonderful. Drinks first?" she prompted.
Jamie grinned appreciatively at his father and mouthed a quick thank you before squeezing his mother's hand and excusing himself quickly. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy spending time with his family, but he knew what happened at these sort of things. His mother got nostalgic about the night that his father had proposed, she told him the story about a thousand times, got a little too tipsy on wine, and then tended to be be a little handsy with his father in a way that he wished that he had never had to see. That was generally where Melanie's company had helped, but without her around he wasn't sure what to do. He spotted a few familiar faces in the crowd, but none that he felt particularly inclined to speak with. Noting an unfamiliar girl reading at a table nearby, he walked over to her table and smiled at her, clearing his throat softly. "Hi," he greeted. "Is it okay if I join you? If I don't at least look like I'm talking to someone from school my mom is going to try and rope me back into spending time with the family and that would be - I'm sorry, I'm rambling." He paused, laughing at himself. "James," he introduced himself, offering her his hand.
"Hey," Maddy frowned at her husband. "I wasn't done with him," she lamented the loss of her son but shook her head. New Year's Eve had always made her giddy, and while generally she liked to share that giddiness with her family, she supposed that she had officially reached the point where both of her children had grown and forged their own relationships that they were more likely to want to spend time engaged in instead of spending time with their parents. Grinning up at Cooper, she leaned toward him and kissed him quickly. "Hi, by the way," she said to him. "I feel like we haven't spent might time together alone lately now that I think about it. So maybe I can forgive you for sending Jamie away."
Sloane looked over the young man that had interrupted her conversation with one of her friends from school. She vaguely recognized him, and she was sure that if she thought long and hard enough she would have been able to pinpoint his name, but if she was being entirely honest, she wasn't sure she would have cared much. "Hello," she returned, waiting for him to cut to the chase.
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Post by Will Blye on Jan 8, 2016 4:59:32 GMT
Parker smiled at his wife and nodded, placing his hand on the small of her back and led her towards the bar. On the way there, he spotted Cooper and Madison Benson and offered Cooper a courteous wave, making a note to say hello later. While a while ago, they had barely gotten along - especially when Cooper had first started seeing Maddy, they had since gotten much more comfortable. Parker assumed that had more to do with the two of them having sons in the same grade.
A.J was a bit startled when someone approached her, she marked her page with a neat fold in the corner of the page and nodded at him. "Uh - sure. Does it matter that I don't go to school with you?" she asked. "She's not going to cross check me against your yearbook, is she?" she smiled up at him and used her foot to push out the chair next to her. She took his hand and shook it, "A.J.," she nodded. She glanced around and spotted her cousin talking to someone else before turning her attention to James again. "So, James, do you come to these sort of things a lot? This place is pretty swanky," she nodded.
Cooper grinned down happily at Maddy, pulling her in close and pressing a kiss to her. "You know, Jamie is a teenage boy and he wants to hang out with his friends. Besides, I had my own reasons. I wanted some alone time with my wife," he joked. "In fact, maybe Jamie needs to have like...a sleepover...do kids still have sleepovers at his age? So I can have you to myself all night," he teased.
Will smirked at Sloane and tilted his head at her, eyes narrowing for a moment as he took her in. "Oh, I'm sorry, you know from back there I thought that you were someone else. I should really get on to finding her," he said simply. "Besides, you seem busy," he winked a bit, gesturing to her friends before making to walk away as though he were looking to find someone else.
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Post by James Benson on Jan 8, 2016 14:52:03 GMT
Jamie shook her hand, grinning at her as she introduced herself. He shook his head at her as he took the seat beside her, noting with amusement that she had been reading a graphic novel when everyone else here seemed to either be mingling with acquaintances, spending time with their families, or well on their way to forgetting details of their evening through copious amounts of alcohol. "No, I don't think that matters. I think that as long as it looks like I'm making an effort to be social, she'll accept it."
He followed her gaze for a second, not sure if she was looking for an excuse to find someone a little more interesting to speak to, so he was pleased when she turned back to him with a question. Giving a little shrug, he nodded. "My parents bring me to these things a lot. They think it's fun, but honestly, I'm not convinced. What about you? Did you get dragged along?"
Maddy laughed and pressed herself closer to Cooper. In the last seventeen years or so, her life had taken a highly child-centric turn, and while she would have never given that up for anything, she had to admit that there were certain things she was looking forward to in having a house entirely to themselves. Not once in the course of their relationship had it ever just been herself and Cooper - from the time that they had started dating, there had always been Melanie, and not long afterward there had been Jamie, so the thought of their son going off to college in a couple of years filled her with a conflicting mix of sadness and excitement. "Did you have sleepovers at his age? That weren't with girls?" she teased. "Though, I suppose that if you wanted to make some private time for us, I wouldn't mind."
Sloane continued to survey him for a second, smiling at him slowly. He was cute, she could give him that much, and as such cute boys tended to outweigh the desire to speak with her vapid little friends. He made to leave and she decided that it was in her best interests to attempt to keep him around, at least for a little longer. "Who are you looking for? Maybe I can help you find her."
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Post by Will Blye on Jan 8, 2016 17:14:20 GMT
AJ smiled at Jamie, wondering what it was really like to be at functions like these all the time. Sometimes the kids at her school would all drink in some abandoned lot near the school, other times they would just throw house parties. She didn’t frequent either. Her parents were more homebodies, like her and it suited her well. She liked spending time with close friends in small groups, watching wrestling and football with her brothers, and spending quiet evenings alone. This sort of lifestyle was an adjustment. “My aunt and uncle invited me and my parents,” she explained. “We’re from Long Island. My cousin Sloane is around here somewhere but she’s busy with her friends,” she shrugged and then smiled at the handsome boy sitting with her. “So, I was just going to read and not bother anyone. Or people watch,” she nodded looking around. “You’ve got some really interesting people around here, you know that?”
Cooper smirked down at his wife, his arm wrapping securely around her waist and pulling her in close to him. “I think James is a pretty well behaved kid and we can probably trust him to make some good choices for a weekend,” he suggested. “Maybe you and I can go on a little weekend trip.”
Will glanced at Sloane before glancing around the party, as though looking for someone. “Well, she’s about your height, blonde – eyes aren’t quite as nice as yours though.” He nodded, looking away and flashing a smile at some of her friends, feigning a bit of boredom with Sloane herself. “She’s really quite stunning though, but I don’t seem to see her here.”
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Post by James Benson on Jan 8, 2016 18:31:43 GMT
Jamie smiled, nodding his agreement. Yes, the people around here tended to be all sorts of interesting, he supposed. And since gossip ran through the Upper East Side in a pretty consistent way, he was sure that there were plenty of stories to be shared, or embellished, about everyone in the room. He was sure that it must have been a right of passage of some sort, everyone's family came under the microscope at some point. For a second he wondered if her cousin was someone that he might have known either from that same societal gossip, or even just from school. "People watching?" he was admittedly a little curious about an outsider's perspective on this all. "Well, what have you been able to figure out about some of these party goers?"
Maddy looked up at him in surprise, laughing happily at the idea of it. "Are you thinking of a spontaneous weekend away, Mr. Benson?" she teased. Some where between their first date and the day that they had talked about the potential of a future together in the park she had realized how much she had cared about the man in front of her. And while they certainly didn't always see eye-to-eye, she had thought that all of the disagreements, the family trips, the movie nights at home, and the moments like this had just led to the fact that she was ridiculously in love with him.
"Because if you are, I suppose that we could trust our seventeen year old son to be on his own for the weekend," she glanced over at where he was chatting with a cute girl about his age and turned back to Cooper, nodding. "But we might need to set some ground rules. Like no girls."
Sloane thought that for all of the positive thoughts she had been having about the young man in front of her's appearance, he was sorely lacking in any sort of charming personality. His comments only seemed to annoy her more, perhaps, she thought, because she didn't like someone dismissing her as not interesting enough, or not attractive enough. "Well, if you really must go find her - then please don't let us stop you. I, on the other hand, am going to see if I can find someone drunk enough to order me a drink." She smiled brightly at him. "Unless you might like to join me?"
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Post by Will Blye on Jan 8, 2016 20:47:55 GMT
AJ smiled a bit, glancing around the party for a moment. She settled her graphic novel down on the table and gave James all of her attention. “Well, that guy over there in the blue suit – the way he sort of discreetly bops to the music. I bet that all he’s ever wanted is a serious choreographed musical number. Like, his deep dark secret is that he dances around abandoned buildings like the guy from Footloose, just waiting for his big moment with the right flash mob,” she grinned. She then pointed to a dark haired woman in a stunning red dress standing next to an old man. “That, I bet she’s a spy trying to get information from him about his company. Corporate espionage.” She slipped into a Russian accent, “Her real name is Natalya and she is former KGB.”
She giggled then looked away, “Sorry. I…like making up stories, I guess,” she admitted sheepishly, realizing she might have very well weirded James out.
Cooper followed his wife’s gaze to Jamie and a girl he’d never seen him with before and shrugged. “Yes, I’m sure our seventeen year old son is going to follow a no girls allowed rule,” he teased. “But again, he’s pretty well behaved – I think we can trust him not to get into too much trouble for one weekend,” he assured her. “What do you say, Mrs. Benson?”
Will smirked a bit at Sloane before shrugging a shoulder up. “You want a drink?” he asked her before turning to look around casually, making sure that his parents weren’t nearby or watching. He spotted them at a bar on one end of the room, so he gestured for Sloane to follow him to the bar located on the opposite end of the party, the crowd effectively masking them from his parents view. “What would you like?” he asked her before they finished their approach. He felt more than confidant in his ability for them to get a drink without being questioned.
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Post by James Benson on Jan 9, 2016 0:40:42 GMT
Jamie grinned at the stories that she had concocted, eyeballing the two people she had mentioned as though trying to decide whether or not there was really any truth, or any potential for truth, in what she said. It was dangerously easy for him to already say that he found her to be entirely too adorable, especially considering the little that he actually knew about her at this point. Which, admittedly, was very little. "You're very good at it," he told her with a decisive nod. "So if I hadn't sat down beside you and interrupted your evening, what would you have said about me?"
It was strange to think that just a couple of weeks ago he would have assumed that he would have attended this party with Kensi, and now he was sitting here with someone he had never met before and finding it entirely too easy to flirt with her. He didn't know if that spoke volumes about Kensi, or about himself.
Maddy frowned for a second, "I'm not ready for him to get involved in that," she confessed. "I wasn't ready for him to bring a girlfriend home and I think we can all remember how that turned out." Not wanted to get sidetracked from what she considered to be a special evening for them both, she sighed to clear the thoughts and turned back up to her husband, smiling a little sheepishly at him. "Well, I think that it sounds like a wonderful idea. And I suppose that if we were in a rush to get our weekend started, I may have some connections at this hotel and we might be able to sneak up to a room..." she toyed with his tie as she explained, as innocently as possible, her big plans for the moment.
Sloane watched him skeptically for a moment, trying to figure out if he thought that he knew something about finagling himself a drink in front of a crowded room of adults. When he asked her for her order, she decided to give it to, if only for amusement's sake when he failed. "Gin and tonic. With lime."
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Post by Will Blye on Jan 9, 2016 1:56:48 GMT
AJ grinned at Jamie’s question. She looked at him, scrutinizing him for a moment. She pursed her lip and tilted her head at him. “Let’s see – I would have maybe gone with some sort of incognito Prince, taking a break from the royal family and visiting New York City for New Years, but your English is great and you don’t have an accent,” she quipped before tilting her head at him. “Maybe you’re a masked vigilante that fights crime at night, but that doesn’t make sense because it’s night and you’re here. She scrunched her nose for a moment and leaned in, dropping her voice low. “Are you an undercover agent here to foil Natalya’s assassination attempt?”
She laughed softly and shook her head, acknowledging that she was being silly. “Make up a story about me now,” she told him with a grin.
Cooper smirked down at Maddy. “Let’s stay for a bit longer, socialize a bit, then maybe you can tell Jamie that one of us isn’t feeling well and we’ll see him tomorrow morning. We can even lift his curfew for the night, since it’s New Years and I’d like to have the entire night with my wife.” He figured, after all, that James was a good kid and what was the worst that could happen in a hotel their family owned that was only a short town car ride away from their home. After all, it wasn’t like Jamie hadn’t gone out with his friends on the weekend before. And he’d yet to have to post bail – which is more than he could say for Melanie at this age. “But I did see Parker and I do have to talk to him for a minute, but then you and I can get out of here.
Will smirked at Sloane, straightening his tie and approaching the bar, targeting a pretty young girl making drinks behind it. Leaning over the bar, he greeted her with a charming smile. She didn’t look old enough to be drinking what she was pouring, so he assumed he was covered. “Two Hendricks and tonics with lime,” he then ordered with an easy wink. When the girl, seemingly enamored by his accent, poured him his drinks, he reached into his wallet, dropping a few small bills into her tip cup and assuring her that he would be back. Turning back to Sloane, he handed her one of the glasses and took a sip of his own.
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Post by James Benson on Jan 9, 2016 2:28:43 GMT
Jamie laughed at her scenarios for him. While he could admit that his ego wasn't particularly unfond of being called an incognito prince or a masked vigilante, he had to admit that her cleverness as tying together his own storyline with Natalya the assassins had made him smile. "Shhh," he teased, leaning into her as though he was going to tell her a secret though part of him was sure that he had only done it as an excuse to get a little bit closer to her in the moment. If anything, he was glad that he had found a fun, beautiful girl to help him make the best out of this evening.
"Hmmm... Well, I could tell right away that you didn't want to be here, or didn't feel like you belonged. The graphic novel gives it away, actually. So I would have said that maybe you're secretly one of those ridiculously cool types who knows that these societal events get boring and would much rather have been anywhere else. Maybe a diner? Or just grabbing a pizza somewhere? Maybe you would have even been waiting for a boyfriend or someone to come and save you from all of this." Again he felt himself easily slipping into a casual flirtation with her, and honestly, he wasn't sure that he minded it at all.
Maddy wasn't fond of the idea of having to go say hello and play nice with Parker and Olivia Blye, but she smiled all the same, deciding that it was always best to be the bigger person in the situation than it was to stomp her foot or hide from them. So she took a deep breath and nodded, "Sure. Let's go be wonderful and sociable and then one of us will miraculously come down with something that can only be cured by an extended stay upstairs," she grinned wickedly at him, tipping up onto her toes and kissing him again. "Well, he's your friend, lead the way."
Sloane smiled, biting her bottom lip as she watched him flirt his way into getting two drinks for them. "Thank you," she said, accepting the glass. Taking a drink of it, she nodded her appreciation for it before smirking at him. "We should find someplace to get to know each other better, don't you?"
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Post by A.J. Dogherty on Jan 9, 2016 2:42:38 GMT
AJ grinned at Jamie, tucking her hair behind her ear and looking down a bit as he analyzed her. “That’s very astute,” she told him. “But I’m not really that cool,” she told him honestly. “It’s just a really good story,” she told him with a smile. “But I do like a good diner, they always have the best coffee and some old waitress with a raspy voice that calls you ‘sweetie’ when she brings you your food.”
“But I don’t know about the waiting for a boyfriend part,” she told him. “Because I don’t have one, and I don’t know that I think I need one to be rescued.” Chewing on her lip for a moment, she looked at him again. “Besides, this great incognito Prince who’s also part of a sleeper cell of assassins just made my night a lot less boring.”
Cooper grinned, leading Maddy over to Parker and Olivia. He greeted them both politely. “Parker, good to see you. Olivia, you’re looking well. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, I just wanted to check in with Parker about meeting at my office this week for lunch and to go over a few contracts we’d been discussing.”
Parker, who’d been sipping on his drink and whispering to his wife about the various people in attendance – judging and sharing stories he’d heard through business acquaintances, looked up and shook Cooper’s hand with a grin. “Happy New Year, you two,” he greeted them. “But, yes, how about Tuesday?” he suggested.
Will smirked at Sloane for a moment, shrugging a shoulder up as he sipped his drink. “I don’t know, wouldn’t you rather stay and enjoy the party for a bit?” he suggested.
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