Post by Adam Tyler on Aug 24, 2015 20:23:27 GMT
There are those weird moments in a person’s life where all of the puzzle pieces just seem to fit. The first time that moment hit him was after law school when he had received news that he had passed the bar exam and would be taking on a role at his uncle’s firm that promised to lead to partner relatively quickly. His uncle had congratulated him by presenting him with an expensive hand-crafted leather briefcase and he had felt like he was ready to step out into the professional world for the first time. Afterwards, he had celebrated the news as any 25-year-old man had and called a group of friends up to go out and celebrate. The night was such a blur in retrospect that he couldn’t even remember if Riley had been in attendance.
But she was part of the second of those weird moments now. There had certainly been an abundance of drama recently, with Riley taking the brunt of it in terms of an ended engagement and an ended career as Garrett DeLuca’s campaign manager, but she took it all in stride and impressed him with how quickly she bounced back. A lot of things that she did continued to impress him, including her new role as a legal consultant for Finn Industries. Personal feelings for Brandon Finn aside, he had been proud of her for negotiating a part-time role that still left her time to work on bettering the world on the side. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she was going to make a wonderful President someday, and with any luck, he was looking forward to being by her side.
The idea of continuing to stay by her side had been one that he had been thinking a lot about in the past couple of weeks, and even more so in the last couple of days. He kept thinking about how things had been in law school, with the two of them pouring over case studies and starting to lose their minds from the intense pressure of the situation and overdose of caffeine. He kept thinking about how she would toss back scotch with the rest of them and make jokes that made her seem perfectly at home with his friends and hers. It had been in law school that he thought he first had really started falling for her – at least in a way that had been imperceptible until much later.
It took months of him realizing that he started hoping that he would hear her name on the list of attendees for parties, group studying sessions, and class lectures to see that he had stopped thinking of her as just one of his classmates, or even as one of his friends. He had wanted to move it forward, he had wanted to ask her out – but then she had started dating Garrett and he had tried to forget about it. It wasn’t like he was going to have time for relationships as he continued to work up the ladder toward a partnership.
But now, this second moment of all of the pieces coming together, things had changed. She had told him that she loved him, she had moved into his apartment, and he was realizing that he didn’t want to let her go. And so as the pieces slid together more and more, he had started formulating a plan.
He had called Madison Walker and made her promise to keep everything that he shared with her a secret. Coaxing as much information out of her as he could, he started purchasing all of the necessary items to make his plan come into action – he had even taken the afternoon off of work to make sure that he was home in plenty of time to pull everything together.
His small dining room table was set with a nice dinner, Riley’s favorite meal was nearly finished (if Madison could be trusted with that information), and a new briefcase sat in a box in front of her place setting – even decorated with a bow. The real surprise, he knew, was tucked inside of the briefcase, however. Nerves must have been getting to him because he barely waited for her to get in the door before grinning at her and meeting her in the doorway.
“Hey,” he greeted her, pressing a soft kiss to her lips before leading her into the kitchen and dining room space. “I have something for you – to celebrate your new job and the opportunity you have to inevitably save the world on the side.”
He was afraid that if he stopped he would lose all momentum and so he continued on, “I don’t know if I ever told you this but when I started working at my uncle’s firm after law school he gave me a briefcase. Which, to be honest, I thought was not necessarily that big of a deal - until I started going to work every day and realized that the stupid thing actually made me feel more like I belonged than I had any reason to.” He was beginning to ramble on about the stupid thing and so he tried to backtrack and remind himself the whole reason why he had done this all in the first place. “I just thought that this might be a good way to mark the occasion.”
But she was part of the second of those weird moments now. There had certainly been an abundance of drama recently, with Riley taking the brunt of it in terms of an ended engagement and an ended career as Garrett DeLuca’s campaign manager, but she took it all in stride and impressed him with how quickly she bounced back. A lot of things that she did continued to impress him, including her new role as a legal consultant for Finn Industries. Personal feelings for Brandon Finn aside, he had been proud of her for negotiating a part-time role that still left her time to work on bettering the world on the side. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she was going to make a wonderful President someday, and with any luck, he was looking forward to being by her side.
The idea of continuing to stay by her side had been one that he had been thinking a lot about in the past couple of weeks, and even more so in the last couple of days. He kept thinking about how things had been in law school, with the two of them pouring over case studies and starting to lose their minds from the intense pressure of the situation and overdose of caffeine. He kept thinking about how she would toss back scotch with the rest of them and make jokes that made her seem perfectly at home with his friends and hers. It had been in law school that he thought he first had really started falling for her – at least in a way that had been imperceptible until much later.
It took months of him realizing that he started hoping that he would hear her name on the list of attendees for parties, group studying sessions, and class lectures to see that he had stopped thinking of her as just one of his classmates, or even as one of his friends. He had wanted to move it forward, he had wanted to ask her out – but then she had started dating Garrett and he had tried to forget about it. It wasn’t like he was going to have time for relationships as he continued to work up the ladder toward a partnership.
But now, this second moment of all of the pieces coming together, things had changed. She had told him that she loved him, she had moved into his apartment, and he was realizing that he didn’t want to let her go. And so as the pieces slid together more and more, he had started formulating a plan.
He had called Madison Walker and made her promise to keep everything that he shared with her a secret. Coaxing as much information out of her as he could, he started purchasing all of the necessary items to make his plan come into action – he had even taken the afternoon off of work to make sure that he was home in plenty of time to pull everything together.
His small dining room table was set with a nice dinner, Riley’s favorite meal was nearly finished (if Madison could be trusted with that information), and a new briefcase sat in a box in front of her place setting – even decorated with a bow. The real surprise, he knew, was tucked inside of the briefcase, however. Nerves must have been getting to him because he barely waited for her to get in the door before grinning at her and meeting her in the doorway.
“Hey,” he greeted her, pressing a soft kiss to her lips before leading her into the kitchen and dining room space. “I have something for you – to celebrate your new job and the opportunity you have to inevitably save the world on the side.”
He was afraid that if he stopped he would lose all momentum and so he continued on, “I don’t know if I ever told you this but when I started working at my uncle’s firm after law school he gave me a briefcase. Which, to be honest, I thought was not necessarily that big of a deal - until I started going to work every day and realized that the stupid thing actually made me feel more like I belonged than I had any reason to.” He was beginning to ramble on about the stupid thing and so he tried to backtrack and remind himself the whole reason why he had done this all in the first place. “I just thought that this might be a good way to mark the occasion.”
