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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 26, 2015 0:26:00 GMT
For Riley, weddings had always been an interesting sort of social function. Bridesmaids drinking and desperate for attention, people whispering about whether or not the bride should really be in a white dress, gossip about those in attendance, more crass invitees would place bets on how long the couple would last before sending the two recently married off on their honeymoon and what she hoped was happily married bliss. She had never bought much into weddings herself, knowing that her parents' marriage ended poorly. But now there was a ring on her finger, and things were different.
She didn't really know the happy couple today, she'd attended school with them but she had only come as Adam's plus one - not meriting an invitation of her own. But it was full of familiar faces. The ceremony was beautiful and on their way into the reception, various members of the press tried to snap pictures - because one of the princesses of the Upper East Side was marrying one of Wall Street's best bankers. There were so many people in attendance, she doubted they even knew everyone. It was quite the spectacle, and the idea of a wedding like this one made her stomach twist into knots.
As they floated through the cocktail hour, making polite conversation and accepting her own congratulations from people that had never even spoken to her ten years ago when she'd sat in AP History with them, she found the entire experience a little surreal.
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Post by Madison Benson on Aug 26, 2015 0:42:37 GMT
When you reached a certain age you could count on attending a wedding or two, or five, each year. It seemed like now they were finally over the hump of half a dozen weddings a year, but it seemed like there were still a few high school classmates that hadn't gotten married just yet. Today crossed another name off the list and Madison tried to not focus on the fact that she was still one of the names on the unmarried list. She instead focused on trying to just be happy for the new couple and thankful for the date by her side.
Maddy had spotted Riley as the cocktail hour had begun and made a beeline for her best friend with a broad grin on her face. "Is this making you excited?" She asked excitedly. "Have you set a date? Do you have any plans yet?"
Adam laughed and shook his head at the brunette, "We've been engaged for like five minutes, Maddy."
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 26, 2015 0:51:01 GMT
Riley's eyes went wide when Maddy approached, initially grateful for another familiar face and someone to joke around with. Riley laughed when Maddy, instead, launched into questions about her own wedding. She grinned, squeezing Adam's hand and taking a sip of her drink. "Well, Adam and I haven't really discussed it, but I was thinking City Hall and the Sizzler after, you know?" she teased, half wondering if she could actually get away with that to avoid all of this pomp and circumstance. "You look great by the way, I love your dress."
Cooper had to smile at Maddy's enthusiasm and excitement for her newly engaged best friend before nodding at Adam and offering his hand out. "Congratulations, Tyler. You lucked out," he joked before taking a sip of his scotch and nodding. "Enjoy the engagement part while you can, it's the day you start planning out seating charts that you truly test your will as a man," he chuckled.
Riley chewed on her lip, shaking her head. "I can't even get everything straight in my head for work next week, let alone who's sitting at a wedding we haven't set a date for yet," she nodded, trying to change the topic. "Speaking of, Maddy, how's work? We should grab lunch sometime during the week. I'm not far from your office now."
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Post by Madison Benson on Aug 26, 2015 1:10:30 GMT
Maddy grinned, realizing that she was secretly looking forward to living vicariously through her friend. After everything that she had gone through, not just in the past few months but throughout her entire life, Riley deserved to be happy. She deserved to get everything that she ever wanted. Maddy was just thrilled at Riley had finally found someone who deserved her, or at least was willing to work hard to prove that he had. "Thank you, you look beautiful. Being in love really suits you - and in case I haven't said it already, your ring is gorgeous." She had after all helped Adam to figure out what Riley would have wanted. "Yes, we definitely need to catch up. Work has been good, just busy. How is your new job? Is it weird working for Brandon Finn?"
Adam shook the other man's hand and thanked him for the congratulations. In this situation, he was more than happy to let Riley take the spotlight in terms of congratulations on their engagement. He was just happy to see her happy. The rest of it from this point on was easy. "I have to admit - I never thought that I'd be engaged to anyone who was working for Finn," he remarked, realizing that as much as he had meant for it to be a teasing remark, it was also incredibly true.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 26, 2015 1:22:48 GMT
"Working 'with,'" Riley corrected. "I work with Finn. I'm consulting independently for Finn Industries, of which he has not been made the principle yet. I'm working with Finn, to make sure the company does good work for its consumers and workers and not just the bottom line. And it's a bit weird, but fun - because I'm still testing where he draws the limits on my sass," she laughed, taking a sip of her drink and turning to Adam. "And I have meetings with two other potential clients coming up, so you shouldn't worry about the Finn thing."
"Three," Cooper interjected. "If you can make time for a lunch meeting one day soon."
Riley grinned at Cooper and nodded before turning to Maddy, who had complimented her ring. She glanced down at it again. She agreed it was gorgeous, part of her felt like Adam had likely spent too much on it and she wasn't comfortable bringing that up, so she'd just accepted it. Her phone buzzed to life in her clutch and she quickly pulled it out, glancing at it and making note of the information there before looking at the others apologetically. "The thing about working for yourself is that you're always on the clock to a degree," she nodded, putting it away again and filing a mental reminder to deal with it later.
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Post by Madison Benson on Aug 26, 2015 1:35:55 GMT
Adam appreciated the way that Riley corrected the statement to working 'with' Finn instead of for. He still insisted that some high school rivalries were a little more difficult to rid of. And while he supposed that he had nothing to feel a rivalry over, he wasn't overly fond of the idea that Brandon Finn was even remotely related to the person signing Riley's paychecks. He smiled at her, "Look at you and your booming business already."
Maddy smiled at Cooper, appreciative of the fact that he was willing to let Riley work with him. It wasn't that she didn't know that Riley was a brilliant lawyer and would have worked out wonderfully as part of anyone's legal staff, she just loved seeing everything work out for her friend. "I'm so ridiculously glad you're so happy. It makes me so happy."
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 26, 2015 1:55:20 GMT
Amber was happy to have a welcome distraction from the most recent events, both at work and in her personal life. She liked weddings, she thought that there was something fun about them even if it was just the design of the dresses and how well it complimented the rest of the evening. She'd known the bride well enough during college, not in the way where she knew any of her interests or details about her family - but in the way that Amber and Erin had said 'jump' and girls like this one hadn't even asked how high, they'd leapt. In times that she and Erin had spats, Amber recalled this one being on her side often enough, so Amber would consider her a friend because, in all truth, from that time, Amber had very few friends - the closest of which was also the man whose arm she was on tonight. They'd made small talk with a few familiar faces, said hello to Maddy and Cooper after the ceremony, and now, with a moment between the two of them, she lifted her martini to her lips. "Are you going to dance with me later?" she asked with a grin.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Maddy talking to Riley and Adam. Riley, who didn't seem to like Amber's company very much, and Adam, whose company Brandon didn't like at all. Of course, now Riley and Brandon were working together and Riley was one of three people in the room that knew Brandon was waiting on the results of a paternity test. Just when Amber thought she had a handle on things, life tended to complicate itself around her. "Have you congratulated Riley Nicholls on her engagement, or just tried to talk her out of it?" she asked knowingly, shaking her head with a small laugh. Amber had decided against going over there to say hi or congratulations on her own.
Cooper turned over his shoulder, though, spotting Amber and Brandon and waving them over. "He does this on purpose," she nodded. "Just to prove even though he's changed, he's still a pain in the ass," she muttered.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 26, 2015 2:15:39 GMT
Brandon hated weddings. The entire idea of having a bunch of people watching a ceremony that meant nothing in the grand scheme of things seemed a little ridiculous. It was the signing of a piece of paper that really changed the lives of the people involved and so the ceremony, hell even the party afterwards, seemed just unnecessarily over the top. Though, he supposed things were a little different when you were the couple involved. At least that's what he had been led to believe. Amber asked him about dancing later and he laughed softly, taking a drink from the glass in his hand. "Let me get a few more drinks under my belt and I promise that I'll dance with you before the night is through."
He followed Amber's gaze over to the small group of people that had collected across the room and gave a small shrug, "I keep trying to tell her that she probably should have nothing to do with Adam Tyler but she's been very forceful in telling me to be quiet."
Cooper Benson gestured at them to come over and he shook his head. "I'm not going over there," he announced.
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 26, 2015 2:30:41 GMT
Amber bit her lip, looking up at Brandon and shaking her head. "And I'm not going to make you, not after last time," she said plainly. "But you know eventually you're going to get bored and want to talk to someone other than me," she teased. Then she paused for a moment before adding quickly: "Cooper's good for that."
Riley looked over in the direction of the other couple and rolled her eyes. "God, he's stubborn," she chuckled before shaking her head. She never told Brandon or Adam to keep their feelings about each other too private, unless Brandon was trying to give her relationship advice (which always meant telling her to get out of her relationship). But she thought maybe that was because she wasn't exactly comfortable with the leggy blonde that was also part of the equation and didn't want to be a hypocrite. "He has to come over eventually, I need to go over something with him for work," she remarked.
Cooper shook his head. "No working during a wedding," he chided.
Parker disliked weddings, especially ones where people he wasn't fond of were in attendance. After his last public outing, the last thing he wanted to do was 'get the gang back together.' In fact, he had put one of his staff members at the helm of his deal with Cooper Benson, no longer wanting to do work with the other man at all. Still, he'd shown up with Liv because she'd expressed some faint interest in attending. He wondered if Liv had been close with, to any degree, the bride in his ten year absence, but he didn't really ask. "You look lovely, have I mentioned?" he asked before surveying the crowd. "I could use a drink."
Amber spotted Liv and Parker nearby and turned to look up at Brandon. "Okay, pick your poison, because you know we're likely going to end up having to talk to someone."
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Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 26, 2015 2:48:06 GMT
Brandon had to admit that between the two evils he was faced with, avoiding Parker and Liv seemed to be his best bet. Besides, he justified, with so many other people around it should have been relatively easy to ignore Adam. "Fine," he said, admitting his own defeat. "If we really have to mingle with someone, then I would rather deal with Riley and Cooper than the other two." He couldn't pinpoint the moment that he stopped referring to the new third-party legal counsel at the office as anything other than Miss Nicholls, but it still felt a little odd in retrospect. He figured it had something to do with working with her now and avoided the thought that it was because he was starting to think of her as a friend. Though, he had to admit if she was privy to certain information already, he was going to become a little more fond of having her around.
Maddy smiled at Cooper at his chiding of Riley for working. She wasn't sure if she appreciated how he already seemed to get along with her friends better than she could have hoped to ask for, or if she just liked him in general. Assuming that it was probably a bit of both, she reached out for his free hand and placed her own in his before withdrawing it. She kept having to remind herself to take things slowly - but the truth was that she wasn't sure what that meant, exactly. "I didn't know there were rules at a wedding," she commented, "Except for the no wearing white as a guest thing."
If it had been entirely up to her, Liv thought, she probably would have skipped this entire exchange and stayed in bed with Parker all day, but she did so hate to miss a function that promised to self-destruct. And so she had casually mentioned that it might be an entertaining evening and that she thought that it might be somewhat amusing to attend. She smiled at his compliment and perched on her tiptoes for a moment to press a quick kiss to his lips, trying to at least continue to play the part of being the sweet, normal girlfriend. "You might have mentioned it once or twice," she nodded. "Though I could listen to you say it all night, really." She followed his gaze long enough to catch sight of the rest of their former classmates and tried very hard not to smirk at the sight of Brandon Finn and Amber Jacobs. Part of her wondered what had happened after she had shared her uncovered information with Eliot Quinn, but she figured that the impending explosion was only just building up. "Let's get you that drink then."
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 26, 2015 16:41:04 GMT
Amber laughed softly at Brandon, taking his hand and looking up at him. “Maddy’s really nice, too. But you don’t have to make nice with anyone you don’t want to,” she assured him as they approached the group. She offered them all a smile, having already said hello to Cooper and Maddy, she turned her attention to Riley. “I heard congratulations are in order,” she nodded.
Riley had to admit, being congratulated on her engagement by Amber Jacobs was a bit of a surreal experience. In fact, save for Maddy, standing with any of the people in this room with a ring on her finger and Adam Tyler at her side was a surreal experience. She smiled politely at Amber before turning to Brandon. “When you have a minute later,” she nodded. “I need to talk shop,” she sipped her drink.
Cooper nodded, “Yeah, there are wedding rules. Like not working at them. Geez, Finn, will you tell Riley she can take the night off now that she works for you?”
“With,” Riley corrected again. “I work with him. And I like working.”
Parker smirked at Liv, draping an arm around her shoulders as he led her over to the open bar and waved to get the bartender’s attention. “God bless open bars,” he muttered with a low chuckle.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 26, 2015 17:20:43 GMT
A small part of Brandon didn’t believe Amber’s reassurance that he didn’t have to play nice with anyone that he didn’t want to. In fact, he figured he probably needed to be on his best behavior considering how things had ultimately ended up the last time that he had been in a group situation with everyone here. Leaving the wedding with Eliot Quinn was absolutely not an option at this point.
He looked at Riley and nodded, “I have a minute now,” he offered, willing to avoid needing to mingle. But hearing her brief exchange he smirked slightly, “If that’s how you need to justify your employment, then sure - but you have to admit, you like working for me.”
Liv smiled up at Parker, shaking her head softly. “You know, there are ways that we could keep ourselves entertained…” Her implication had been in direct reference to stirring up trouble, as she often loved to do, but she was willing to let Parker think that she just meant that they could keep themselves otherwise physically entertained. It was difficult for her to gauge how much he was willing to play into her games, especially considering the fact that they had never truly discussed the drama at his company’s party. And while she was perfectly content to let him believe that she was the innocent party in it all, she had gotten used to having a default method for her own amusement – one that shook up their whole little social circle.
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Aug 26, 2015 23:32:30 GMT
Eliot Quinn had no real use for weddings. It was the pre-nup and the divorce proceedings that happened before and after where his bread and butter. Still, this wedding happened to be a publicity fiasco and there were tons of lonely single women and even lonelier desperate bridesmaids that he thought he also might be able to leverage to his advantage. Walking into the cocktail hour, having skipped the ceremony, he ordered himself a drink and surveyed the crowd
Riley rolled her eyes slightly at Brandon but smiled at him. She took another sip of her drink before placing her glass down on a passing tray and nodding at him. She gestured that they should step away from the group, but looked up when she noticed Eliot had arrived. Frowning, she held up her index finger. "Would you guys excuse me for a moment?" she kissed Adam's cheek before squeezing through the crowd and finding herself toe to toe with the attorney. "We need to talk, now."
Parker smirked at Liv, "Olivia, what on earth did you have in mind?" he asked with a chuckle. He lifted his drink to his lips and peered around, acutely aware that Madison was standing a stone's throw away with Cooper Benson. He knew it shouldn't bother him at all and would never admit it, but the fact was that it did.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Aug 27, 2015 0:05:39 GMT
Brandon had been ready to step aside and discuss whatever matter that Riley needed to discuss, but then he spotted Eliot as well. He downed the rest of his drink, handing Amber the empty glass with a small apologetic smile. "Excuse me," he announced, following Riley's path across the room to confront Eliot. He didn't care what she had to say to him, the memory of their last encounter was still enormously present and he wanted the other man to remember his place. "Get out," Brandon demanded sharply.
Adam hesitated, unsure if he should have been the one to follow Riley instead of Brandon. Unsure of whether or not he should still go over there, he sighed heavily and sought out a new drink. "This isn't going to go well, is it?" He knew that it was probably a rhetorical question, but he needed to say something before it turned into a sudden crowd closing in on his co-worker.
Olivia grinned, ready to tell Parker exactly what she had in mind for them when she spotted the fact that there was a small gaggle of people swarming around Eliot. "Well... we could amuse ourselves, or we can sit back and watch the show."
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Post by Riley Tyler on Aug 27, 2015 0:17:37 GMT
Riley hadn't been aware that Brandon had been right behind her. She turned around, glancing up at Brandon and tilting her head to the side in confusion. She was about to say something when Eliot chuckled and interrupted her.
"Look at you two, ganging up on me?" he shook his head and sipped his scotch. "I was invited here, Finn. Contrary to your belief, you don't own the Upper East Side, something I'm sure you'll be painfully aware of soon enough. As for the both of you working together, tell me, Brandon, do you just consistently trade off with Adam Tyler? I thought that deal was exclusively reserved for Amber."
Riley took a step forward. "I'm going to stop you right there, Eliot. Because if you're trying to bait my client into hitting you, it won't work. Because Brandon is smart enough to know you'd press charges in a second and even though I could have him out before the bride even throws the bouquet, the press is everywhere tonight and we all know it would just make him, and Finn Industries look bad." Actually, Riley was pretty sure that Brandon would have forgotten about that. She was reminding him. "But instead, he's going to wait for me to have the opportunity to smack you around a courtroom once you make a mistake - which trust me you will. Speaking of which, why has Alayna retained you as her legal counsel?" she ticked her eyebrow up, pointing her index finger at him. "I'm waiting for you in the tall grass, Eliot. I think you should be a bit more careful."
"I'm looking out for a young, single mother's best interests," Eliot replied simply.
Meanwhile, Amber stared down at the empty glass Brandon had given her and then looked up at Adam. "No, I think we should plan not to stay for the cake," she agreed.
Parker watched the scene unfolding before him and while he disliked Riley immensely and his relationship with Brandon varied by the day, he wasn't a huge fan of Eliot Quinn either. "Liv, do you know what's going on there?" he asked hesitantly.
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