|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 18, 2015 20:24:17 GMT
Brandon had actually been looking forward to the charity event outing. Well, at least in the fact that it gave he and Amber a chance to get out of their routine enough to do something a little different. While he had been happy to fall into a familiar routine with her, it could be a struggle to not feel like he was missing out on the night's on the town that they used to have. Or that he used to have before she came back.
Getting the opportunity to start over with her had made the entire thing worthwhile, he had admitted, but hearing Eliot Quinn's stories about this woman at this bar or that woman somewhere else entirely had made him a little nostalgic. The irony that during the time in his life when he was joining his friend on these all-night benders, he had been nostalgic for the relationship he had with Amber was not lost on him. The event gave him the chance to step outside of their new little comfort zone and try something new.
Until a curve-ball was thrown at them. In some sort of cosmic joke they had been placed on a team with Olivia Warren. The smirk on her lips as she had joined them was impossible to miss.
"Go home, Liv." He told her, warning her off attempting to start anything.
Olivia laughed, "Why go home when you're here looking so wonderful in that flannel?"
She may have not been able to directly cause any issues between them the last time they had all been together, but it certainly didn't mean that she wasn't going to continue to try.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 18, 2015 20:35:26 GMT
Amber rolled her eyes at Olivia as she pushed her glasses up her nose again and turned back to the instruction booklet. Flipping through the book of instructions they'd been provided with, she turned her attention to Brandon. "I do like that shirt a lot," she nodded with a small smile on her face. "I've never been camping before, but I built a bookshelf once in California. This can't be too hard," she reasoned. She eyed Liv for a moment, ticking her eyebrow up and wondering why the woman had even agreed to attend this event other than to cause trouble. Normally, Amber would let herself be troubled by it, but there was something more pressing in the back of her mind - possibly even more than just how sexy Brandon looked in jeans and a flannel shirt.
"Cooper called me earlier on his drive here and told me he was going to beat us," she announced before shaking her head. "And that's just unacceptable. I never lose."
While camping wasn't Amber's ideal way to spend her time, like Brandon she was excited to try something different - especially with him. Cassidy had griped about not being invited and it was only when Liv was added to their team that she regretted not donating the money and bringing her friend along to be their teammate. "Liv, why don't you go try to make friends with a bear or something?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 18, 2015 22:07:59 GMT
He grinned at Amber as she seemed to fidget with her glasses. Making a note to himself to really emphasize to her how much he liked them, he plucked the instructions from her hand and skimmed over them. It seemed much too complicated to bother with, but he understood Amber's sense of competition when he heard that Cooper had challenged her. It could have been a perfectly pleasant experience at the event, had it not been for the looming presence of the other woman in their group.
|
|
|
|
Post by Olivia Warren-Blye on Aug 18, 2015 22:17:08 GMT
Liv surveyed her fingernails, disinterested in trying to watch the two in front of her try and put together whatever this godawful thing was. "And miss out on all of this excitement? Oh, Amber, darling - you're going to have to do better than that to get me to leave." Quite frankly, being part of their group wasn't her cup of tea either. She would have much rather have been in Parker's group with that little do-gooder he had hung around with before. That, she thought, would have been a much more entertaining conversation. Unlike her relationship with Brandon, which had been solely physical, she felt as though she had once had enough of an emotional connection with Parker that she could truly make him see what it meant to be on her bad side. But as it were, she figured she still had a couple of seeds she could plant to make sure that Amber knew that their dislike for each other had, and would always be, completely mutual.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 18, 2015 22:36:50 GMT
Amber smiled at Brandon as he took the instructions for her and started to look over them, in turn she started unpacking everything and setting it up in what she hoped was an organized fashion. She liked that Brandon was taking charge a bit. She couldn't help it, maybe it was actually something primal but the little moments when Brandon was a bit possessive or took charge of a situation, she found it both endearing and attractive.
She pursed her lips when Liv started talking and shook her head. "Okay, well, don't touch anything, okay?"
Putting her hands on her lip, she grinned at Brandon, drinking in the sight of him and doing her very best to ignore Liv's presence all together. "Okay, what first? Does it seem harder than assembling a bookshelf?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 18, 2015 23:10:06 GMT
Olivia rolled her eyes and pushed her hair over her shoulder. This entire evening was going to prove to be dreadfully boring if she didn't get a chance to amuse herself with someone else's torment. And these two were about to make her sick from the way that they had become so tame. Ten years ago it would have been a much different story, with drinks tossed in each others faces, yelling matches, and insults thrown with the sheer intention to hurt the other person in the worst way. Deciding that she had enough of this she decided to see if she could find someone else to amuse herself with.
Brandon nodded to Amber's question. "Yep, it actually looks impossible," he teased, getting to work sorting the pieces out into the grouping that appeared to be identified in the instructions. Generally he was much more inclined to have other people do this sort of thing for him. It wasn't as though he was missing out on some great life lesson by choosing to sit on a chair someone else had assembled instead of himself. The tent was a different story, however. He was kind of liking the idea of piecing it all together, potentially showing off for Amber in some way that he hadn't done before.
There was a small bit of concern that when it was all said and done that it was going to be a mess of poles and fabric, but he figured that he was never going to know until he tried. "Can you hand me that long pole over there? It should have a B on it somewhere." He pointed in the direction of the piece that he needed.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 18, 2015 23:34:46 GMT
Amber had taken her jacket and her glasses off, laying them aside. She watched Olivia wander off and then grinned at Brandon when he said it was impossible. But he looked pretty determined to get it done, and she liked that. Plus, she also liked winning and with a challenge issued to her by one of the other groups, she was quite determined herself to win. When he asked her for a tent pole with the letter 'B' on it, she looked around the materials, sifting through them until she found what she thought she was looking for and handed it to him. "Is that the one?" she asked, offering it out to him, she stopped however, pulling it back just long enough to lean up and peck him on the lips.
She handed him the tent pole and went back to sorting things out for them. She pushed her hair back out of her eyes before deciding to tie it up in a loose ponytail. As she sorted through the pieces, she squinted at them a bit. Truth be told, she was pretty blind without her glasses. She told people she only really needed them for distance or when her eyes were strained, but she was pretty sure she needed them all the time. However, in all her years with them she still wasn't very happy with wearing glasses and until she got her replacement contacts, she wasn't exactly thrilled about wearing them all the time.
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 18, 2015 23:56:57 GMT
He compared the piece she had handed him with the instructions and pursed his lips together. Something didn't seem to add up and so he inspected the piece in his hand, sighing. "Amber... This is definitely not the right piece." There was a little D marked clearly on the side. He looked over at her as she sorted through everything in front of her, obviously squinting without her glasses.
"I don't know why you don't just wear them," he commented, "I like your glasses." Momentarily abandoning his project, he moved over to her and kissed her, smiling at her stubbornness. If there was one thing that he could count on to never change, he figured that her stubborn tendency to do what she wanted to do and not what she necessarily should do, would be it.
He picked them up from where she had left them and handed them to her, "You look sexy in them."
|
|
|
|
Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 19, 2015 0:13:53 GMT
Amber looked at him when he told her it was the wrong piece and started to say something before he brought up her glasses. She pouted softly as she took them from him and put them on, but when he complimented her, she let her lips twitch into a smirk. "Do you?" she asked, peering up at him for a moment before she reached for him, not really caring much that they were standing outside in front of all of their associates and some of the charity's volunteer workers when she pressed herself against him. "I think you look pretty sexy dressed like this, too." She pressed her mouth to his and then grinned up at him. "You know, I've never had sex in a tent before," she said matter-of-factly. "Maybe that's something we can try once we get this built."
She nodded before she searched the ground and found the correct tent pole, handing it to him with a small smirk.
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 19, 2015 0:32:58 GMT
If there was ever a better reason to get the tent assembled he wasn't sure he could think of one. She handed him the tent poled and he started assembling pieces together, building out some sort of odd plastic frame. The only thing that made the same tedious process worthwhile was the fact that he knew that this stupid thing would be put to good use as soon as he could figure out how to get it to look like anything that remotely resembled a tent.
He sighed, looking over the structure that was coming together. "This doesn't look right," he remarked, wondering how they were going to get that small square of fabric to stretch between the poles and still provide them with space to actually get inside of the tent.
His own stubbornness kicking him, he was bound and determined to get the damn thing assembled even if it took him all night to do it. He just hoped that it would come to that.
Brandon had never been one to give up on a lost cause, after all he had fought to make things work with Amber the second time around. "If I promise to keep dressing like this on weekends, can we agree to hire someone to do this the next time?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 19, 2015 0:58:01 GMT
Watching Brandon work on the tent, she hid her smile from him as best as possible. It seemed that she had found the key to instilling productivity. She watched him continue working, trying to figure out what he might have wrong so that he could finish constructing the entire thing and when he asked if next time they could hire someone, she chuckled. Walking up to him, she bit her lip coyly and slid her hand along his chest teasingly. "I don't know, Brandon. I kind of like this. It's very impressive, watching you build this with your own hands. I, for one, know just how talented those hands are," she winked at him. She wondered if she teased him enough if it would help or hurt productivity.
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 19, 2015 1:06:48 GMT
"If you keep at it I might forget about the tent entirely and say damn this whole thing," he warned, moving his hands to her waist and pulling her against him. It seemed like a very logical decision to make, abandoning the idea that they could get this tent assembled and have it be enough of a sound structure that they could disappear into it for a while without anyone noticing. Though, he wondered idly if this was maybe something they should just try again without the other people around. Some privacy would have been much appreciated as he started thinking about exactly what a weekend away with Amber might have looked like.
He was going to have to remember to book a weekend away for the two of them when they got back.
|
|
|
|
Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 19, 2015 1:15:21 GMT
Amber giggled, winding her arms around him easily. She noted that teasing too much did very little to inspire productivity but quite a lot to distract, and filed that away for a night where she'd want to pull his attention away from less important things and back to her. She kissed him softly and then pouted, "But Brandon, the tent. I wanted to win," she pointed out.
"Well," a voice interrupted. "If it helps, my team started imploding the second your teammate found her way to us." Cooper walked over, letting go of Melanie's hand as she bounded over, setting down her backpack and digging through it. "So I thought I'd come over here and help you guys get yours built so that at least I was doing something productive and since, good God, you two need help with this." He laughed before he set to work fixing the tent's frame and getting it set up.
"Hi Ambuh," Melanie chirped. She had retrieved a picture from her backpack. This one she'd made with paint and glitter. She held it up to Brandon. "For you!" she offered with a bright smile.
|
|
|
|
Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 19, 2015 1:25:45 GMT
Brandon bristled at Cooper's statement that they needed help with their tent, but before he could protest he found another one of Melanie's pcitures held up before him. "Thank you," he told her with a smile. Talking to children seemed like it was never going to be something that he would easily master, but he had determined that if he could charm her in the slightest way, then he was doing pretty good. Plus it had the added bonus of seeming to make Cooper a little crazy.
"Now," he turned to the other man, "What do you mean we need help with this? I followed the instructions to a tee."
|
|
|
|
Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 19, 2015 1:36:16 GMT
Amber smiled fondly at Melanie. "Trying to steal him from me, Mel?" she asked softly before reaching down to pick up the girl and carry her off to the side, deciding that she would distract the little girl while the men worked and distract herself from Brandon for a moment.
Cooper grinned, "Yeah, just...just let me help you a bit." Cooper worked for a bit, touching up the frame. "You didn't do a horrible job, actually. Sure you've never done this before?" Glancing at Melanie to check on her, he turned back to Brandon. "How're things going with you two?" he asked curiously.
|
|
