Tidings Of Joy

When he considered everything that had happened since Amber had come back into his life, Brandon realized that there had still be a lot of things in their lives that they hadn't done before. Spending holidays together had been added to that list because for some reason, approaching it from the standpoint of being adults, let alone being together again, brought a whole new layer to it. On top of everything else, there was the fact that they were less than a year away from having a family of their own at the holidays. That in itself kept bringing on dozens of changes that he hadn't been expecting. There was only so much that he could do to prepare for the actual addition of a child to their family, but it was everything else that came with it that was making him realize how much he hadn't been ready for. It wasn't until Eliot had exposed them at the last charity function that had really started the onslaught of changes. Not only was it now in the open but now the Board of Directors for the company were expecting a paternity test to prove that there wasn't anything scandalous going on without their knowledge. He kept blaming himself for the latter part, considering the fact that he hadn't figured out whether or not he was ready to propose to Amber, let alone be married to her. There was no doubt in his mind that they were going to spend the rest of their lives together, he just wasn't sure that he was at the point where he felt that he needed a piece of paper to tell him that they would be.

But the Board of Directors still needed to see a piece of paper legitimizing the whole thing, as ridiculous as he seemed to think it was. He appreciated that even in spite of their fight over it, Amber had been pretty understanding about the whole thing. The last thing that he wanted was to let work come between his personal life, or his personal life cause issues with his career. It was quickly becoming very messy, he knew. But, he knew that as long as he and Amber kept working together then they could make it through whatever drama started around them. He smiled at Amber, "I'll try and keep myself from hitting anything tonight, I promise. You look beautiful, by the way," he added.

Brandon smiled at her and nodded, the fact that he was running Finn Industries never ceased to surprise him. It was one of those things where he had built this expectation of what it was going to be like when it happened, but it still hadn't seemed to fully sink in. It seemed like he had spent so much time getting ready for it that it didn't really hold much effect once it was all said and done. Truthfully, he hadn't given it much thought since taking on the added responsibilities, but hearing Amber say something about it out loud had he realized that she was absolutely right. Admittedly he kind of liked the idea of it. But, he was reminded quickly, there weren't always positives to the role and he wondered vaguely if he should apologize again to Amber for the paternity test that the company was suggesting that he have her take. Instead, he decided to take a different tactic, "Thank you for coming with me, I really appreciate it."

Adam hadn't necessarily wanted to come to the Finn Industries holiday party, in fact, had he not known that he was sure part of Riley actually wanted to go, he might have fought it. He smiled at Riley and nodded, "If you're trying to flatter me into submission on this - it's working," he teased. So far he really hadn't had as much of a problem with it as he had expected, actually it had really been kind of nice. Though, admittedly, he hadn't really had to spend any time with Brandon Finn or Amber Jacobs yet, so he was sure that things still had a chance to change.

Adam laughed at the idea that she wanted to get lucky on date night. He certainly had no complaints about the idea, particularly because their entire lives seemed to have been taken over by wedding planning. With less than six months remaining, things were starting to become a lot more real and he was actually excited by the idea that this time next year, Riley would be his wife. He would have made a coy remark to her in response but he hesitated when one of Riley's employees approached her. Sighing softly, he frowned at his fiancee. Riley had been doing so well in her career and he was so proud of her for everything that she had accomplished, but sometimes her inability to turn off the switch and spend more time present in their relationship made him frustrated.

He tried to nod understandingly at her, though he wanted to tell her not to go. He wanted her to have more of a work-life balance but he didn't think that now was the best time to start that argument with her. "Do you think it's going to take long?"

Adam tried to be understanding about what she was expressing, and while he completely understood why it was a big deal and he knew that she needed to take care of it, and part of him was perhaps even a little less upset about it considering the fact that they were at a Finn Industries party. He supposed that he was even more understanding of it since she had, in some way, asked him to play a small part of it. Though he didn't think it made up for the fact that it was continuously difficult for them to seemingly have a life together, away from either of their careers. He looked down at the paper in his hands and nodded, "They are, I think all of them are Eliot's clients too."

He sighed softly, "It seems like you might be wracking up quite a few IOUs, Riley. We might just have to make it really good," he smiled softly at her, trying to let her know that he wasn't mad at her in the moment.

Brandon had been about to offer to get another drink, non-alcoholic of course, for Amber when he was interrupted by an employee of Riley's. She seemed more frazzled than he would have expected given their current surroundings and so he frowned before turning to his girlfriend. "I'm really sorry," he said to her, "Hopefully it'll just be something really quick. Let's just go over there and I'll let her know that whatever it is, it can be handled on Monday morning." He took her hand and squeezed it softly before leading her over to Riley. "Riley, can this wait until we're back at work?"

Listening to Riley explain the information that she had uncovered about his company and its stock, he was sure that he could piece together who was behind it even before she said Eliot Quinn's name. It made sense that if someone was going to try and take a controlling interest it wasn't going to be a room full of men who had spent decades working with his father and forming their own vested interests in the company. Besides, he doubted that they were necessarily the cunning type and this move was just beyond what he would have expected from the Board. Regardless of who was responsible for it, it was a much bigger deal than what he had expected when Riley's employee had come to find him. He sighed softly and turned to Amber, "I'm so sorry, but we should really take care of this before it gets any worse. This might take a while to sort out, but I promise to be back as soon as I can." He kissed her quickly before turning to Riley. "We should be able to find some place to discuss this for a while." He figured there had to be a conference room somewhere that they could use as a temporary office before being able to make it back to the office.

Perhaps the worst part of Riley's habit to leave him behind to take care of work was the fact that he always had to watch her go. And part of him particularly hated watching her walk off with Brandon Finn. That was one friendship of hers that he wasn't sure he was ever going to understand, or care for very much. As much as he knew that he was well past the point where he should have learned to stomach their friendship and keep the past in the past, he was having a hard time wrapping his mind around the idea that he could ever become friendly with Brandon in the way that Riley had. For starters, he didn't actually like the man and he thought that might have been a prerequisite for actually being nice to him.

Taking a drink from his glass he looked over at Amber briefly. All things considered she should have been the one that he was truly angry with, but he couldn't help but actually feel bad for her. Sometimes it seemed like the city was much smaller than it looked, and with the recent events that had occurred, he couldn't help but have heard some of the things that people were saying about her behind her back. Having experienced first-hand how trying the gossip of the city could be. Things hadn't necessarily been easy after Riley had ended her previous engagement and found herself in a relationship with him.

Adam cleared his throat softly, "It gets better," he advised. "The gossip, I mean. It dies down pretty quickly once they find something new to talk about. But I'm sure you already know all about that."

Adam shrugged off her apology. He understood, and while it wasn't that things had gotten to this point with himself and Riley in terms of the gossip, he knew what it was like to have a woman that he cared very much for be so upset over something that she couldn't control. Having Riley's mom come back into her life, in whatever capacity it was, had been very trying for her and he hated to see her upset over it. And if Brandon Finn truly cared about Amber, which he had to admit seemed like it was highly likely, then Adam was sure that he didn't like seeing her upset either. "You have changed," he admitted before adding, "And I do think that it's for the better. I think we've all probably changed for the better. There at least seems to be a lot less of the same sort of drama that we used to have." If he thought about it, all of the drama seemed to come back to the same source, and it was one that they hadn't even known growing up. Perhaps despite the fact that they had all grown, they were just magnets for these sorts of things.

"I don't know if it helps at all, but not everyone believes all of that stuff about you." He didn't know why he said it, whether he was trying to comfort her or not, but it was true. At one point in his life he thought he had known Amber well enough to know that she wouldn't have married her former husband for money, let alone would she had slept with someone else while she was with Brandon. That last part he felt pretty confident in, having at least seen one form of their relationship first-hand.