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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 0:39:06 GMT
Years ago, when Riley Nicholls had walked into her first lecture hall during her first year as a law student, she'd almost groaned when she'd found herself face-to-face with someone very familiar. She'd largely been sure he wouldn't even know who she was, but four years in high school had made her familiar with the Upper East Side's elite, and she knew who Adam Tyler was. She hated to admit it, but after a few lecture discussions with him in the class, she'd listened to his responses to professor's questions and realized maybe she didn't know everything there was to know about him. Shortly after that, she'd had the distinct displeasure of meeting Eliot Quinn and through him, Garrett DeLuca. And the four of them had been a rag tag dysfunctional bunch all the way through the bar exam.
When all was said and done, she'd expected Garrett to go to work for the same elite firm as Eliot and thought Adam should go for a job with the District Attorney with her. But she'd been surprised when they both made the complete opposite decision. It led to her getting closer with Garrett and eventually agreeing to join his campaign when he decided to run for office. Shortly after, he'd proposed to her and given the fact that they weren't seriously involved at the time, she'd understood why he was asking even though he thought she had no idea. And like a good political operative, she'd said yes, because she knew the story would up their numbers in the polls.
She thought about that as she sat on her stool at the little hole in the wall bar she'd found not too far from Adam's office. She toyed with her engagement ring and ordered herself a glass of scotch, something she'd acquired a taste for with the boys in law school.
She'd skipped her high school reunion and from what she understood, Adam had too. But she supposed that didn't matter - there were only two people from that time she liked to keep in touch with. She saw Madison regularly, and now she was having a drink with Adam. Just two old friends catching up. She preferred that kind of reunion. It seemed much less dramatic.
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Post by Adam Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 1:06:31 GMT
If someone had told him where his life would have ended up in high school, he probably would have laughed in their faces, called Amber and hoped that she was having one of her infamous disputes with Brandon Finn. But years later and here he was, meeting someone from high school in a tiny little bar not far from the office. And quite frankly, he preferred it this way. There was something oddly refreshing about setting aside the petty differences that had seemed so important in high school, and even more it was nice to have someone who could relate on your level. That's probably why he, Eliot, Garrett, and Riley had stuck closely together throughout law school. It was easier to relate with someone who knew what sort of hell this world could be - completely detached from the drama that had come from their adolescence.
Adam found Riley toying with her ring and sat down beside her, ordering his own glass of scotch. "If you keep messing with it like that your finger might fall off."
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 1:21:23 GMT
Riley glanced up at Adam and smiled sheepishly at him. "I'm still not used to it yet, I suppose," she admitted, which she instantly realized was strange. It had been over two months now, hadn't it? Or, it was right after Garrett had announced his candidacy which was in April. It had been four months. She shook that realization off and turned her attention to him. "You took a break from protecting some defenseless corporation to keep me company for a drink," she teased. Even though she didn't necessarily agree with the jobs he and Eliot Quinn had taken, she knew for a fact they were doing well for themselves and she was happy for that at least.
"Who would have thought ten years ago that we'd be here? You on your way to becoming partner at a prominent law firm and me, running a Republican Congressional campaign - and grabbing a drink together. Oh, seventeen year old me would smack me so hard," she chuckled, taking a sip of her drink before turning and smiling at him. "How've you been, Adam?" she asked curiously.
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Post by Adam Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 1:32:39 GMT
Sometimes things had a funny way of working out. He, for one, would have never pictured her running a Republican Congressional campaign. In law school he had been convinced that she was going to do something that really meant something - like environmental law. And not that he meant to belittle her chosen career path in any way, he had just been surprised when she joined Garrett's campaign. And then surprised when she had accepted his proposal. Maybe it was just strange seeing members of their group coupling up, but he wouldn't have expected that life choice from her either.
"If I'm being entirely honest - I'm not sure that I even knew who you were ten years ago. It's not like we ran in the same social circles." Thanking the bartender for his own scotch, he took a sip of it and nodded slightly. Eliot might have been right all of those times he had given him shit about not coming out for drinks, it was something that he might have vaguely missed. "I have no complaints," he told her with a smile. "What about you? Are you well on your way to becoming the youngest Attorney General or First Lady?"
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 1:53:02 GMT
Riley tilted her head back and laughed. "Adam, I'm completely positive you didn't know who I was back then. Not many really did unless it was to joke about me being some sort of charity case or something," she admitted with a shrug. "It's why I skipped our ten year reunion but will go back to our twenty when I've finally done something impressive," she nodded. "I'm going to gloat, you should save the date ten years from now to come watch me." And while Riley admitted one might argue that putting herself through Georgetown and Law School on scholarships, grants, and working part-time jobs, she meant making a difference.
When he said he had no complaints, her gaze narrowed for a minute, as though she was hoping to tell if that was true or not. But then he asked about herself, she pursed her lips for a moment and stared at her drink. "I said four months ago that one day I would be the first woman to simultaneously be Chief of Staff to the White House and First Lady," she chuckled dryly but then shook her head. "But I don't know, who knows how things are going to go. I think it all might kill me before we even get to Election Day in November," she mused.
"Did I ever tell you that you should run for office, Adam?" she asked teasingly. "I bet you could. I bet I could make you a Senator in a year."
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Post by Adam Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 2:10:41 GMT
"I didn't go to the reunion either," he told her with a nod. "There wasn't a lot that I wanted to reminisce about. But, if you go to our twenty-year reunion, you can bet that I'll be there to cheer you on, Madam Chief of Staff." He grinned at her.
He had just taken a sip of his scotch when he heard her remark about running for office. Forcing himself to swallow it instead of laughing out loud and unattractively spraying it across the bar he shook his head. "That seems like a horrible idea." He looked at her, narrowing his gaze at her. "Why don't you run? I'd vote for you over Garrett any day," he complimented. "You'd certainly make the press coverage more attractive." Not that having her alongside Garrett was in any way unattractive, it was just that he felt that the pictures could do without his old law school buddy. Garrett was a nice guy, but there was something about Riley that Adam had always thought was bound for greatness.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 2:29:34 GMT
"Maddy went, she said that we didn't miss much. The usual suspects, even some of the usual drama," she grinned at him. When he complimented her, she blushed and laughed, looking down for a moment and letting her hair fall in her face before she shook her head and tucked it behind her ear. "It's not that horrible of an idea, you running I mean," she insisted as she lifted her glass to her lips. "With that smile? I could sell that smile to the entire country, Adam Tyler. We could change the world, you and me," she mused. She knew that she was treading in dangerous waters now. She was supposed to be engaged to someone they'd both known for years, someone who's campaign she was running. But during law school, even before she knew Garrett's big secret, it hadn't been her fiancé that she'd been curious about kissing. It had been Adam. But she'd long ago resigned herself that, even though they were friends - bonded together by the hell that was law school - she was still the girl that went to his high school on a scholarship from Queens while working part time just to afford the commute, and he was one of the beautiful people, as she had called them then.
When he told her to run for office, she laughed again and chewed on her lip before shaking her head. "I've thought about it," she admitted. "But I think running on the Democratic ticket might undermine everything I've done for the past four months. Not that any of it's amounted to much," she muttered. "But you'd have to come on board when I made it to the White House, be my chief counsel," she nodded. "Or at least let me put you on currency, because like I said, it's a good smile," she teased.
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Post by Adam Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 3:07:38 GMT
Laughing he shook his head at his drink glass before turning to her with a smile. The same smile she had just used as an excuse for him to join the world of politics, as she had. He supposed that while law certainly bred a lot of politicians, he had never given it much thought at all. His parents had been pretty indifferent about his decision to change his tune and become a much more productive member of society and so he assumed that being where he was was enough. As her hair fell around her face he thought for a quick second about reaching out and tucking it behind her ear, keeping her face from becoming obstructed, but she beat him to it.
"If you can print a special eleven dollar bill for me and stick my face on it - then you have a deal," he teased. "I don't know why but I've always liked the number eleven - nice and symmetrical."
There was a certain sense of irony in the fact that she, a Democrat, was working the hardest he had ever seen anyone work, all to make sure that her Republican fiance achieved a position that she was more than qualified to do herself. He had meant it when he said it, he would have voted for her over Garrett any day. And not just because he was also a Democrat.
"So aside from being glad that you skipped the reunion and the fact that I might have missed a potentially interesting fundraiser," on that part her might have been teasing her as well "What else do we need to catch up on?"
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 3:20:27 GMT
Riley laughed and nodded, "An eleven dollar bill?" she questioned and then pursed her lips thoughtfully. "I'll to talk to the Secretary of the Treasury, but yes, I think that for you? I can arrange that." She drained the contents of her drink and beckoned to the bartender for a refill. She knew that she should probably stop drinking. She was a long way away from when she used to be able to knock back bottles of amber liquor with the boys and go shot-for-shot. Now she ran around most days and forgot to eat and at social events barely had time to think, let alone drink. Save for the nights of wine with Maddy, and the few drinks she'd have now and then on the couch in the apartment she was supposed to share with Garrett, she was out of practice. Still, for some reason she convinced herself it was a good idea.
When he asked what else they should catch up on, she laughed softly and shook her head. "Oh, I probably have loads of things I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. And I'm fond of you, Adam. Plus, if I were taking a murder wrap, I'd want you to be my lawyer, so you can't be my victim," she grinned. And it was true, there were so many things she wanted to say to Adam, to confide in him. But she really couldn't. And that was the crux of the issue. "There's nothing too exciting, really. People think campaign life is exciting. Garrett's in Washington D.C. again, then he's going to spend a week or so with his parents. I'm just sort of holding down the fort in the campaign office."
Taking another sip of her drink, talking about Garrett again had suddenly made her acutely aware of the ring on her finger and it felt heavy. She smiled softly at Adam. "So really, I just made you come meet me for drinks because I missed you."
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Post by Adam Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 3:35:08 GMT
He shrugged off the idea of placing his face on currency and took a long drink from his glass before motioning for a refill. "Have to catch up," he commented with a smirk. It seemed like it had been a long time ago but he could remember nights where they were all studying for the bar exam that they had grabbed a bottle of two of scotch and sat down to pour themselves over hundreds of case files, notes, and whatever else they could get their hands on to help them feel confident they could pass. He thought they had justified the scotch as studying through the Ballmer Peak method, meaning that the more alcohol they consumed the easier it would be for them to remember certain details.
Shaking his head at her with a laugh he looked at her, listening to her. "Man, it really seems like you're in the middle of a rock and a hard place." She seemed almost ... distant? Saddened? As she recanted the most recent activities in her life. "Seems like Garrett has been out of town a lot," he remarked. "I just mean that he hasn't been around for drinks with Quinn in a while. Quinn has made some comment about that at the office earlier."
He couldn't even begin to pretend that he knew exactly what a campaign involved and so he wasn't sure if Garrett was even meant to be gone so frequently, but he did note that it seemed to be taking a toll on Riley. Or at least she thought that maybe that's what it was.
"I missed you too, Riley." He couldn't seem to stop smiling at her.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 3:52:37 GMT
She was trying to shake herself out of it, and when he mentioned that she seemed to be caught in the middle of something, she couldn't help but laugh dryly. "Oh, Tiger. I'm into something, all right. But I think it's just the beginning, not even close to the middle, unfortunately." she shook her head. "Garrett's always...had a very busy schedule," she waved it off and shrugged. "I should miss him more than I actually do, though," she muttered softly. "Or be better at pretending to if this is ever going to work." It slipped out, as if it were a thought she hadn't meant to say out loud. She chalked it up partially to the fact that she was comfortable around Adam, too comfortable. A little part of her always had been.
She shook her head and laughed it off, purposefully looking anywhere but at him now. "I didn't mean...I just meant - It's probably just cold feet is all," she nodded, taking a large sip from her glass. She took a deep breath. For four months of an engagement she'd always known was never going to make her happy, she'd done it all with a song and a smile. She wasn't sure what was changing, though she had been remotely aware over the past month or so that she'd felt more and more suffocated under the truth of it all.
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Post by Adam Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 4:08:15 GMT
The way that she shared with him her feelings about her fiance had made him look down at the glass in his hands and take a large drink of the amber liquid. It seemed like it hadn't been long enough for her to have gotten cold feet about the wedding, and at the same time it seemed like she had known Garrett for too long to have just now started to worry about what their life together looked like. "Hey," he said softly, turning his body to look at her more directly. "Are you okay?"
He had always held a soft spot for her, in whatever way that you wanted to call it, and so it made him feel badly to see her obviously bothered by something. "You know, if you ever want to talk about anything..." he trailed off, not sure what else to say. She knew that she could call him whenever she needed to and he would be there. He had thought that drinks tonight was just going to be his way of making up to her for missing out on her fundraiser for Garrett, but he was starting to feel as though he had made the right call on inviting her out - but for an entirely different reason.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 4:28:10 GMT
Riley looked up at him reluctantly and when he asked if she was okay, she chewed on her lip. She hated lying to someone like Adam who, in the recent years had become a close friend. Whose shoulder she'd slept on during study sessions that had gone to long and who she'd laughed with when she'd been too delirious to focus on her textbooks. "I want to talk to you about it, but I can't because if I did and..." she trailed off for a moment before her eyes widened and she touched her hand to her forehead. "I'm an idiot," she whispered softly before reaching for her wallet and pulling out a hundred dollar bill and pressing it into his free hand. "This is a hundred dollars, I'm giving it to you right now to put you on retainer, if you agree that we have a verbal legally binding agreement that would grant me attorney client privilege," she said gently, shifting closer to him, slightly aware that her hand was still touching his.
She took his silence for understanding and kept her voice low, because after working in politics, she trusted just about no one - except maybe Maddy Walker and Adam. "Garrett is in the closet. He doesn't think that I know, I found out on my own. When he goes away, he's not going for the campaign, he's going to see someone named Timothy. When we sleep in separate rooms in our apartment, it's not because he's old fashioned about our wedding night, it's because he doesn't want to be with me. And I thought that I could say yes to him, knowing what I did because I thought we could make a difference as a team, but we can't. And I can't think of a way to leave the campaign without ending either his or my political career. But I am so tired of pretending to be happy, and watching my father panic about how he's going to pay for a wedding that he thinks I deserve. And not being able to tell anyone," her voice wavered uncharacteristically and she looked away.
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Post by Adam Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 4:49:49 GMT
Adam sighed, aware that her hand was still pressed into his. "Look, you don't need to put me on retainer, I'm not going to say anything." And he wouldn't, not just because he knew what the consequences would be like for both of his old law school friends, but because he didn't want to hurt her. But her big secret wasn't something he was necessarily too surprised about. He thought that at some point they had all questioned whether or not it was true. For Adam, it hadn't stopped being a question until news of his engagement to Riley had spread and he had seen them looking so happy to be with each other. But if that was just a show that they were putting on for the public - he couldn't imagine how she felt.
"I know," he told her. Agreeing not only with the fact that Garrett was a closeted gay man, but also that he agreed with everything she said that had followed. He understood her fear about their political careers, he understood about pretending to be happy, and he understood about feeling that she deserved more. She had looked away from him and so he set down his drink glass on the bar and reached out to her, gently placing his hand on the side of her fact to force her to look at him. "And you don't deserve it - you should do what makes you feel happy."
It was just more complicated than that, wasn't it?
Tracing his thumb over her cheekbone, he felt the compulsion to tangle his hand in her hair and pull her close, finally kissing her after all of this time. But he stopped himself, withdrawing his hand from her. He wanted so badly for her to be happy, but knowing she was an engaged woman - sham or not - made it difficult for him to follow through with his gut feeling.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 18, 2015 5:11:10 GMT
Riley sighed softly when he admitted that he knew and now she felt a bit like an idiot. He told her that she should do what made her happy and she thought about what she'd told Maddy just the other day - about going after what you wanted and being willing to fight for him. When his hand touched her cheek, her eyes fluttered closed for a moment and when she felt him pull away she reached for his hand quickly, her eyes meeting his. She chewed on her lip for a moment before taking a deep breath. She'd already been leaning close enough to him to whisper that really it was just a matter of leaning a bit further and a slight tilt of her chin and her lips brushed against his in the barest of touches.
Since their first year of law school, she thought, that's how long she'd been wondering what it would feel like. She squeezed his hand gently and offered him a weak smile. "You said to do what made me feel happy," she murmured softly, looking down just in case he happened to be horrified at that turn of events and wondered if she should make an emergency exit from this situation.
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