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Post by Adam Tyler on Sept 9, 2015 2:11:07 GMT
It was all just starting to feel real. Now that they had determined what their wedding day was going to look like, what their location was going to be, and had gotten his mother to trim down her guest list, it had only made sense to finally celebrate their engagement. The last few months had seemed to fly by so quickly and they never really seemed to have gotten the chance to take a moment to just enjoy being an engaged couple. It was kind of nice to put aside all of the wedding planning for an evening and pretend that they were going back to their normal lives, even if their normal lives consisted of having all of their close friends and family in a restaurant to celebrate their impending wedding. But for now, it was enough. There was part of him that was sure that he would much rather be at home with Riley, curled up on their couch watching whatever bad movie she had suggested they give a try, but getting dressed up for dinner felt like it was kind of a nice change too. There were significantly less bridal magazines lying around the restaurant than there had been in his apartment.
Though he had admittedly been a little outside of the planning that Riley had been involved in with his mother, he still felt a sense of relief to put it aside for now. He had seen how Riley had been stressed by the entire situation, and so was happy that they were getting a little break. He thought that a casual beach wedding in Mexico would have made things that much easier for them both, but he wasn't sure that his mother had seen it that way. There were only so many times that he could apologize for his family before he started feeling like a broken record.
He wasn't sure if the engagement party was more his mother's doing or someone else's but either way, he was happy to be by Riley's side for the evening. "You look beautiful," he said into her ear, taking her hand and squeezing it tightly. "Have I mentioned lately how happy I am to be marrying you?"
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Post by Riley Tyler on Sept 9, 2015 2:27:57 GMT
Riley was admittedly a little overwhelmed by the engagement party. She didn't really know many of the people that were on the guest list for the evening, let alone the upcoming wedding. She had to admit that having Adam by her side through all of the planning had been a God send, as he always seemed to know how to calm her down. And really, since the day they'd decided on a destination wedding, things had been going off without much of a hitch with the exception of one unfortunate incident at a bridal salon trying on dresses. But even that had been quickly resolved and, tucked away in a closet in Maddy Walker's brownstone was a white dress. It was by no means the wedding dress that most little girls dreamed of, but it was perfect for Riley and she'd seen it in a store window and purchased it immediately.
As she greeted a few guests politely, despite not knowing their names at all, she turned back to Adam and blushed when he complimented her. Part of her thought that it was silly that she still blushed around him, another part of her hoped that never stopped. "Thank you," she said gently. "I'm glad you're happy about it, because this would sort of be an inconvenient night to tell me you're having second thoughts," she joked.
Her eyes drifted around the restaurant, settling briefly on her father who was talking animatedly to Adam's father and she could only imagine what embarrassing childhood tale it was. She looked back up at Adam, "Do you think it would be rude to make our wedding guests wear name tags?"
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Post by Adam Tyler on Sept 9, 2015 2:44:11 GMT
He followed her gaze around the room and noted that he probably knew more of the people in the room than she did, but most of that probably was his mother's doing in the first place. And quite frankly, he could have really cared less if his parents had been able to invite all of their friends to this get-together. He would have been perfectly content for it to just be himself and Riley, but it seemed like that was going to be a hard situation to convince his parents on. "Potentially," he admitted. "But that doesn't mean that we necessarily have to speak to everyone that we don't know. We could always find your friends and keep ourselves busy that way," he recommended.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Sept 9, 2015 3:00:28 GMT
Riley looked up at him, "You like Maddy and Cooper, too," she pointed out. "They're both of our friends," she nodded. And while she knew that partially he might have been referring to a couple of people on the guest list who wouldn't have been invited if it hadn't been for her, she chose to ignore that for now. "We could also just sneak out and go see a movie, I heard that new action movie with the fast cars is supposed to be wonderfully horrible, bad acting and all," she joked before leaning up to press a soft kiss to his lips. "Come on, let's go find a friendly face."
Cooper was standing at the bar of the restaurant, making pleasant small talk with who he thought might be one of Adam's relatives. He took a sip of his scotch and glanced around the restaurant while the older woman prattled on about something about renovations in her home. "I actually just bought a new place for myself and my daughter," he nodded. The woman inquired about a wife or girlfriend and he just smiled into his glass. "Working on it," he assured her. With that thought, his eyes skimmed the room for Maddy.
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Post by Adam Tyler on Sept 9, 2015 3:20:12 GMT
As tempting as her offer was, he wasn't sure that they would be able to sneak out completely unnoticed. Besides, she had a point, there were people here that they wouldn't have minded speaking to. Again, she had a point when she mentioned that he had gotten to know both Madison and Cooper a bit better over the last few months. But he still didn't necessarily have warm and fuzzy feelings about Brandon Finn and Amber Jacobs, both of which he knew were around here somewhere. He grinned at her, "If only we could sneak out," he admitted. "But a friendly face would be good."
Maddy had smiled and politely introduced herself to several family members that she was doing her best to try and remember. She had been trying to fill the maid-of-honor role the best way that she knew how, but having never done this before, she found herself turning to a lot of books for advice on what to do. For right now, it seemed to be making nice with both sides of Riley and Adam's families, introducing herself to them and just talking to them about how exciting the wedding in Mexico was going to be. She couldn't stop saying how much she was excited about their wedding, how happy she was for her friend and her fiance, and how much she was looking forward to the entire event. She spotted the future bride and groom and excused herself to say hello to them. "Hi guys," she said brightly. "You both look great. Congratulations again on your engagement," she teased in the spirit of tonight's event. "Hopefully I've answered some questions about the wedding plans already so you guys should be all set to just drink and be merry tonight."
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Post by Riley Tyler on Sept 9, 2015 3:28:37 GMT
Riley couldn't help but giggle at her best friend, she quickly pulled the brunette into a hug. "Have I mentioned you're the best maid of honor ever?" she grinned. "Really, though, Maddy, thank you for your help with everything - including but not limited to tonight," she beamed at her best friend.
Cooper excused himself from his conversation to join the others, easily sidling up next to Madison. "Well, cheers to the happy couple," he greeted them cheerfully. "Quite the shindig," he gestured around. "Maddy told me I should get some sunscreen for the actual wedding," he grinned at them. He'd also been told that he could bring Melanie, which made it a lot easier for him to arrange to go and he appreciated that. He liked Riley a lot, seeing as she'd introduced him to Madison and he liked Adam well enough too. "Congratulations, though, if I haven't said it enough or if she hasn't said it enough for both of us," he teased, gesturing to Maddy.
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Post by Adam Tyler on Sept 9, 2015 3:42:55 GMT
Maddy beamed at Riley, "I definitely don't mind hearing it." Being the maid of honor for Riley's wedding had quickly become like a little job for her. She had set up a task list and had crossed off her daily to-do's each time she accomplished something. She was still working on her speech, which as someone in a literary field she felt obligated to make amazing, and she still hadn't started planning a bachelorette party, but anything else she could do to make Riley's life a little easier had made the list. "You're welcome. Thank you for asking me to be your maid of honor, it's really been a lot of fun so far."
She smiled at Cooper as he appeared by her side, "Hey you," she greeted him. "I think they're going to hear congratulations about a thousand times tonight, but I keep saying it anyway just in case they forget."
"That doesn't seem likely," Adam admitted.
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Post by Riley Tyler on Sept 9, 2015 15:44:30 GMT
Cooper chuckled softly at Maddy’s enthusiasm. He was getting past that age, most of his friends were married – in Texas, there had been a short period of time following his own wedding where summers had been filled with nothing but rehearsal dinners and weddings, he’d hosted a few bachelor parties and even given a few toasts. In fact, shortly after his own wedding he thought he’d left the craze of wedding season behind him. Since returning to New York he realized, not so much. Maddy’s enthusiasm made it worth it though. He nodded at Adam, “Well, get used to it, this is basically the next six months of your life,” he quipped.
Riley grinned at Maddy. She was so eternally grateful for her best friend. Her maid of honor and best friend had been perfect at helping Riley with all of the things Riley really couldn’t have managed on her own. Maddy had a bit more wedding fever than even Riley did, though. A fact that the redhead found endearing.
Amber was pretty sure she was at an engagement party where neither the future bride nor groom was a huge fan of her. Given her history with Adam, she understood that she and Riley weren’t exchanging friendship bracelets any time soon. And Brandon’s genuine dislike of Adam meant that even if she were to bury the hatchet with him, they weren’t all going to go on a double date soon. And so, she was there essentially as Brandon’s plus one – because he worked with Riley and the two had become friends. A fact that she found stranger than she would ever admit out loud. Besides, there were enough things on her mind right now than the oddities of the social situation she found herself in.
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Post by Madison Benson on Sept 9, 2015 17:40:43 GMT
Adam nodded, trying to absorb the fact that they were in for quite a bit more of the well-wishing from those around them. He was beginning to understand Riley's hesitation with being the center of attention, and he wasn't sure how many more polite small talking and smiling he could do. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if most of the people in the room weren't people that he wouldn't have personally invited. And it wasn't just his parents' friends that he was talking about, it was the entire collection of people that he felt no desire to make nice with. He had tried to be the bigger person about Riley's newfound friendship and working relationship with Brandon Finn, and he had genuinely tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he felt like sometimes it was just difficult to put aside personal history. He just kept reminding himself that as long as it made Riley happy, then he was happy with it. It was going to be his mantra throughout this entire wedding situation, he conceded, mentally counting down the days until they could just be a normal married couple. He briefly considered the idea of eloping again, just to get this show on the road. "I have to admit, I can't wait for all of this to die down and we can just get to the 'being married' thing. That seems a lot less overwhelming."
Maddy smiled, "I think that's just because you picked an amazing person to be your future wife." What happened after the wedding had never really played a part in her dream wedding planning. Even if she had been one of those girls with a binder full of venues, dresses, and dream wedding themes, Maddy realized that it would have probably just been mostly shallow face-value things. She could have taped pictures of Michael J. Fox in his Back to the Future days into her binder but really the idea of who she would end up marrying some day never played a real part. And neither did whatever else made up the "happily ever after". Most fairy tales just ended at the wedding. But seeing how excited Riley and Adam seemed to be over just the idea of getting past that part, that was what made it really sweet. She couldn't have said that she ever saw their relationship coming, but now that they had found each other, she couldn't dream of them ever being apart. Or maybe this whole wedding thing was just making her sappy and emotional over relationships. Either way, she reached for Cooper's hand and smiled at him.
The engagement party fell somewhere between an obligation and support for a friend, and quite frankly, Brandon wasn't sure which direction it actually led in. His motives for hiring Riley to work as a third-party consultant for Finn Industries had been an admittedly selfish one, as he had just wanted to make sure that his company had been employing the absolute best people for the jobs that needed to be done. And even without an offer letter, she had put together a proposal of recommendations that he knew were well researched and showed the effectiveness that she was capable of. The part he hadn't been anticipating was that he would have started thinking of her more as a friend, and possibly even a confident, than he thought of her as just an employee. So despite the fact that she insisted on marrying an old rival from high school, Brandon had felt an obligation to support his friend by showing up at her engagement party to congratulate them both. Unfortunately for Amber, that meant that she had to be his date for the evening to an event he was sure neither of them knew how to manage. "Well, we can just bite the bullet and go say our congratulations to them, or we can get a drink and get around to it later," he suggested to her. "Personally, I think that a drink might make the whole exchange a little more bearable."
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Sept 9, 2015 19:22:34 GMT
Amber was, at the very least, glad that the two of them were out together. Brandon had been increasingly busy with work and it was apparent that, with his father stepping down sooner rather than later, he was only going to be busier. And really, Amber understood that. But with the very distinct possibility in the back of her mind that her recently missed period meant things would be changing for the two of them, Amber was still in a bit of denial about that, though and was waiting for the first available appointment with her doctor.
At Brandon’s suggestion of a drink, she smiled softly. “I’ll just have a water, I’ve had a terrible headache all day,” she nodded. She squeezed his hand gently, eying their group of friends and acquaintances not too far away.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Sept 9, 2015 19:52:04 GMT
Brandon looked over at her and smiled softly. He knew that it hadn't been fair that he had suddenly picked up an increased workload, which had reduced the time that he had with her. His father had called him into his office and announced his intentions to step down from his role slightly sooner than he had anticipated, which meant that Brandon was having to focus his time and energy on being brought up to speed with all that this new role required. Unfortunately, it had been a lot more than he had expected and so he had spent the last couple of weeks pulling later hours than normal. "Is everything okay?" he asked, wondering if the fact that he had been around a lot less had actually been causing issues between the two of them, issues that he hadn't been around enough to notice in the first place.
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Post by Amber Jacobs on Sept 9, 2015 21:03:56 GMT
Amber looked up at Brandon, shaking her head. “Everything’s fine, Brandon,” she assured him, squeezing his hand and nodding. While she could have probably thought of a dozen other ways she would have preferred to be spending a free evening with him, she knew that getting out at least took her mind off of everything else that was going on.
Cooper caught a glimpse of Amber and Brandon, waving them over. He had to admit of all of the people in New York City, he didn’t really think that Amber Jacobs would have ever been on the guest list for Adam Tyler’s engagement party. But he knew that even if he himself hadn’t been there with Maddy, he would have been invited as a business associate of Riley’s – and the same went for Brandon.
Riley looked up in the direction Cooper was waving. Her share of work with Finn Industries had been shoved into overdrive ever since Brandon had been notified his father was stepping down sooner than planned. She wouldn’t admit it, but the creation of more work on that end was actually enjoyable to her. She liked working with Brandon and had a few more excuses to drop by now, despite planning to move to her own office space soon enough.
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Post by Brandon Finn on Sept 9, 2015 22:35:28 GMT
Brandon had already been feeling guilty enough about not having time to spend with her. His idea of her moving into the Penthouse had been that they would have had all of the time in the world to spend with each other. That they would have been able to call in late to work and take long lunches together, but it seemed like there was a lot less opportunity to get away from meetings and paperwork now. He hadn't meant to make their lives change when he was finally in a place where they had both been happy with the way that things were. He looked over to see Cooper waving them both over and he sighed softly. "Let's say hello to everyone and then maybe we can try and sneak out of here early."
As much as he felt guilty about spending less time at home with her, he couldn't change anything. But, he could try and take advantage of the time that he did have with her when he had it. Taking her hand in his he led her over to the small group of their friends and acquaintances, "Riley, congratulations," he said to her in greeting. "Cooper, Madison," he added as a way of extending his greeting to the other couple. He nearly had to force himself to turn to Adam, "Congratulations."
Adam nodded in response, "Finn, Amber, thanks for coming."
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Post by Riley Tyler on Sept 9, 2015 23:29:39 GMT
Amber smiled gently at Brandon and nodded, taking his hand in hers and allowing him to lead her over. She smiled at the engaged couple, "Congratulations to you both," she nodded. It was in that moment, with a sense of awareness, that she realized just how nice it would have been to have a drink in her hand. Instead, she fidgeted a little bit before smiling at Madison and Cooper in greeting. "Hi, you two."
Cooper took a sip of his drink, smiling at them both. "You know, Brandon, I'd almost think this impending promotion of yours was done intentionally. Riley's now wholly preoccupied with Finn Industries and I find myself dealing with one of her new little minions," he joked.
Riley laughed softly at Cooper, shaking her head. "My employees are exceptionally qualified, Benson," she argued before turning her attention to the couple that had just joined them. "Thank you both for coming," she nodded, squeezing Adam's hand gently since she knew they weren't exactly her fiance's favorite people in attendance. "Brandon, I actually wanted to go over something with you. This morning, after I finished hugging my Bloomberg Terminal and actually got to work on it, I noticed there are still some numbers I'm having trouble figuring out, something doesn't add up."
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Post by Brandon Finn on Sept 9, 2015 23:54:05 GMT
Brandon couldn't help but sigh softly as he heard Riley mention work. All things considered, he had been happy to set it all aside for the evening and try and make the best of his time away from his desk. Cooper had a point, ever since his father announced his intentions to step down, Riley had been spending a bit more time helping him to go over the work that he was inheriting, and as such he had started to feel as though he had seen her more recently than he had seen Amber. "Certainly not intentional, but I will admit that not working with the minions is kind of nice," he joked.
Turning to Riley, he shook his head at her, "Riley, now is probably not the best time," he said, justifying that not only he not want to spend more time on work, but it was also her engagement party. She probably should have had her mind elsewhere to begin with.
If it hadn't gone against his nature, Adam might have agreed with Brandon Finn. He really would have liked Riley to spend less time focusing on work and more time focusing on other things that were occupying both of their time. The fact was that he couldn't actually force himself to say it out loud.
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