RP: Up to your neck
Date: Friday 22 September 1998
Characters: George Weasley, Percy Weasley
Location: WWW
Status: Semi-Private - ping to get in on it
Summary: George is working hard, Percy is a little concerned.
Completion: Complete
Percy had been working on paperwork (the WWW accounts as well as stuff for the radio station project) at his desk in the work room most of the day - and only left to meet Ang after work and walk her back to the flat. Given that she now had to have a long shower to get the icecream out of her hair before she was even prepared to talk about possible dinner or evening plans, he figured he might as well go back and get a little more done.
George was there - he had been there during the day, of course, but only in a "Hi, Perce, passing through," kind of way. Come to think of it, there had been a lot of that lately.
It didn't seem like a good sign that after a day of being rushed off his feet with customers, George was now up to his elbows making stock. Especially not with that little stressed line between his eyebrows. Percy just stood in the doorway for a little while, watching his brother. Of course, Ron had his studies, and Gin was back at school, and as far as Percy knew, no one had replied to the Help Wanted sign... but he hadn't realised it was quite this bad.
"George," he said finally. "You did at least take a break after you closed up the shop - right?"
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la_george
2008-02-23 05:02 am UTC (link)
George looked up from where he was scraping yellow paste into flat round tins. He had bruises on his arms in various stages of healing - as the first batch had not worked out as well as planned and he'd had to remelt it and rework the spells. This was the last group of tins. He added 'get more tins' to the huge list that appeared in the air when he flicked his wand at the wall, then went back to smoothing Boo-Boo Be Gone into the packages. He also didn't know where the bloody labels were.
George started when Percy spoke, looking up at him as if he'd never seen him before. "What? Oh, um, went to the loo. Since when is my urinary tract interesting?" Where were the blasted labels anyway? George flicked his wand again, adding the word Labels.
"Sorry. Um, did you say something else? Because if you did I missed it."
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la_percy
2008-02-23 05:13 am UTC (link)
Okay, this was bad. Percy crossed the work room to face his brother. "George. You're working too hard. Isn't there anyone to help you with all this? Can I help?"
"Though I think you're beyond help right now, you're so tired you can't see straight. Any chance you can back away from the nice parcels right now and sit down for ten minutes before you do yourself an injury?"
He recognised the symptoms; he'd done this himself at the Ministry, sometimes for weeks or months at a time. Working until you were so tired the work slowed to a crawl. But you kept at it, until some well meaning friend dragged you away from your routine and threw icecream (Penny) or beer (Oliver) or chocolate (Meghan) at you until you admitted you had to sleep for three days straight.
"Any hope on the employee front?" he asked.
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la_george
2008-02-23 05:24 am UTC (link)
"Already did myself an injury," George said, holding out his arm. "See the bottom one? Healing, so it works. Have to put salve on the rest of them or Lee will give me one of those looks. Of course he might be asleep by.." George was babbling.
He looked at Percy and back to the tins. "Wanna put the lids on the ones that are full? I don't want to stop now, almost done, and if I let this overheat it'll be ruined. Don't want to start again. Tins have charms on them to keep the salve at the right temperature and.." Don't forget to charm the tins after we get them.
"Dunno where the labels are, but it's the only thing we put in that container so not likely to be mixed up. Maybe Fre..." George took a deep breath and let it out slowly, putting more yellow salve into one of the remaining four tins. "Ron, maybe Ron moved them. Have to ask him."
He'd forgotten to turn off the flame, which was rather stupid and no wonder it was so hot in here. "Yeah, Ver's starting tomorrow. Told you that, di'n' I? Still she can't do this stuff right off the bat, right?"
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la_percy
2008-02-23 05:34 am UTC (link)
"Yes," Percy said patiently. "I can do that." He started putting the lids on the tins, keeping a careful eye on George as he filled the last few tins with a noxious looking salve.
"Once you're done with that, you're going to sit down," he added firmly, in the prefect's voice that never ever worked on the twins. "And who's Ver? You haven't told me anything, George, I had no idea you were this rushed. Glad you've got help coming, though. Ron's got another week before his exams."
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la_george
2008-02-23 05:43 am UTC (link)
George looked up, rolling his eyes as his brother used the "Big Head Boy" voice. "Yeah, sitting might be good, but I still have a million things that need to be done. That there," he gestured with the spatula, flinging a bit of yellow onto the wall, "is only the supplies list, mostly, and a few reminders of things to do with them."
The last tin was finally filled and George used the instrument to wipe salve on the other three bruises, then carried the cauldron and scraper to the sink. "Has to soak before you spell it clean or it'll coat the inside and try to heal all the potions and let me tell you, that is a right nightmare."
George washed his hands and flung himself into the tiger chair. "Verity, um, Verity..." he couldn't for the life of him remember her last name. And they were friends, good friends. Maybe Percy was right and he was a bit tired. "Verity. My age. Hufflepuff. Worked here forever, then went into hiding a year ago. Showed up on Monday. Merlin, 'm glad she's okay, anyway, her. Coming. Tomorrow."
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la_percy
2008-02-23 06:04 am UTC (link)
"Verity Harrison?" said Percy, remembering a cheerful blonde girl. "I remember her from school. Didn't know she worked for you. That's good, George. Someone experienced. Will she be working full time?"
He looked around. "If you have this much to do - I don't know if one full time staff member will be enough. You can certainly afford more. But even after his exams, Ron is likely to be studying part time the rest of the year. And the shop is open seven days a week..."
Percy frowned. "That's not really the problem, though, is it. Ron has been making some of the stock, but there's only you for the harder stuff. And -" there used to be two of you to do all this work. "You're running yourself into the ground. I can't believe this is me saying this, but - all the to do lists in the world aren't much use if you're too exhausted to read them."
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la_george
2008-02-23 06:38 am UTC (link)
George put his head on the desk. He didn't bother to do it slowly, but he didn't feel the thump, it was just nice to rest it. "Verity's a doll. Cute and funny and knows the shop well."
"Can't. Not just the stock. Need to find a packaging company to manufacture the boxes, etc. Should work on ads for the Prophet and one for WWN - yours too once you name it and get it up. Need to refresh the lighting charms and figure out why the Detonator Decoys keep running off by themselves. I haven't got a catalog together and Hogwarts has been in session for nearly a month." George groaned, "Which reminds me that McGonagall wanted a stock of antidotes for our stuff just in case..."
He flicked his wand at the wall, but didn't look and got gibberish instead. "'m slower, or maybe I was always just the hanger on but..." George sighed and dragged his head off the desk.
"How're things, Perce? Radio thing coming along? Sounds brilliant by the way. You two will be brilliant. 'f I can help let me know."
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la_percy
2008-02-23 07:06 am UTC (link)
Percy folded his arms. "George, I realise you have been busy, and I realise that - opening the shop has brought up a lot of things that you really would rather not think about, and I realise that you are probably so tired that you're not even listening to me right now."
"But do you honestly not remember me telling you I had run out of work I could usefully do to justify sitting at that desk half the week around? Checking the accounts hardly takes any time at all now I have the automated system set up. Half this stuff you're talking about is admin work, the kind of thing I live and breathe. I could help you with it, I could - hell, I could do half of it for you. All you had to do was ask - but you never even thought of asking, did you?"
He dragged the other chair around, to sit next to George, patting his arm. There really wasn't a lot of fun in shouting at someone who was barely alert. "You're not slower," he muttered. "I have no doubt you're slower than you used to be - but that's because you're exhausted and stretched thin, and you've been trying to do the work of three people."
"The radio thing is interesting," he added. "It's going to be great. I like working with Lee. But neither of us are giving up our jobs imminently, not until things are a lot more advanced. And it won't get off the ground at all if I have to do without him for a month because he's been forced by necessity to kidnap you and take you to a tropical island until you learn that working all the hours of every day is not healthy."
He glared at George. "And yes, the irony of this has not escaped my notice. Percy telling George that he needs to work less and relax more."
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la_george
2008-02-23 07:36 am UTC (link)
Percy was furious in his 'why is my brother so stupid' kind of way. George just blinked at him, trying to figure out what 'admin' stuff he was talking about. George hadn't mentioned a single thing that had to do with paperwork - other than the catalog but that was entirely different. He might be able to ...
George realized he wasn't following precisely. "'m sorry, Perce. Didn't mean to upset you."
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la_percy
2008-02-23 08:01 am UTC (link)
Percy shook his head. "It doesn't - it's not about me being upset. I just wish it had occurred to you that I could help with something other than accountancy charms. Or if not me - you hung a sign on the door, fine. But you also have a flat full of friends, most of whom only work part time. Any one of them, or many of them, would have helped out if you told them you needed them. You don't have to try and do everything yourself."
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la_george
2008-02-23 08:24 am UTC (link)
He wasn't trying to do everything himself, he was trying to be... "Should be able to. Once upon a time," there were two boys. "Hate to be a burden, more of one than I've already been, that is. Keep thinking if I can just get caught up that it'll all be fine."
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la_percy
2008-02-23 08:35 am UTC (link)
"You're not a burden," Percy said angrily. "You're my brother, and their friend. And you've been doing so well at holding yourself together..." but George didn't need a lecture right now. He needed a plan.
And Percy had been trying so hard not to be bossy and interfering, he had entirely lost sight of the fact that - sometimes, saying nothing did the most damage."
"You've got Verity starting tomorrow, that's good. A great start. All you need now is to get organised." He pulled out a piece of fresh parchment and a quill. "Bring me those lists. All of them. I'll get a system worked out for dealing with it. Do you know what days Verity's working? And when Ron's available? I assumed he's studying flat out this last week, it might be best to just assume we won't have him at all and chuck things at him if and when he turns up."
George was staring at him.
"Lists," Percy said impatiently. "If I can persuade three Ministers of Magic that they are smarter and better organised than they think they are, I can help you get caught up. And in a couple of weeks when Verity is back in the swing of things, and Ron is recovered from his brain exploding, everything will be running smoothly and you probably won't need me any more."
"But if you do need me," he added severely. "I will still be here."
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la_george
2008-02-23 07:22 pm UTC (link)
George smiled suddenly, shaking his head and levering himself out of the chair. He summoned the list off the wall, dug one out of a drawer, fished in his pocket, wandered out to the shop for the two behind the counter, and then grabbed a box of U-No-Poo that he'd dropped on the floor in the storeroom. It had Fake vomit is running low scrawled across the back. The irony was not lost on him and he was chuckling as he walked back into the room to dump the lot on the desk.
"I have rough drafts and doodles of ideas for the catalogue, and examples of the old one around here somewhere. I really do need to find the labels, but if I try accio I'll end up with every label we have because the shop insists."
George reached out to ruffle Percy's hair. "Want some tea or something? Are you waiting for Angelina? We could go up and harass her? She tell you I stuck her to the ceiling last week?"
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la_percy
2008-02-23 08:19 pm UTC (link)
Percy watched George in bemusement. Usually when he lost it with his brother and yelled at him, George would go quiet and defensive and miserable, leaving Percy apologising, and...
He had a vague suspicion that he might have been set up.
Still, George was helping. And he was letting Percy help. And for now, nothing else mattered.
"Tea would be good," he said, peering at the papers. Then it occurred to him that George was suggesting they go up to the flat. "Yes, I prescribe at least half an hour of hassling Angelina before we do anything else. Consider it your recreation break. We could even take an hour, if dinner's involved. Then we can come back down and you can comb the place for those labels while I have a look at the notes about the catalogue."
"Does that work?"
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la_george
2008-02-23 08:46 pm UTC (link)
George nodded and clapped his brother on the shoulder. "Thanks, Perce. Really. Now," he said, waggling his eyebrows as he steered them out of the room, "tell me all about you and Angelina. Details are fine."
Characters: George Weasley, Percy Weasley
Location: WWW
Status: Semi-Private - ping to get in on it
Summary: George is working hard, Percy is a little concerned.
Completion: Complete
Percy had been working on paperwork (the WWW accounts as well as stuff for the radio station project) at his desk in the work room most of the day - and only left to meet Ang after work and walk her back to the flat. Given that she now had to have a long shower to get the icecream out of her hair before she was even prepared to talk about possible dinner or evening plans, he figured he might as well go back and get a little more done.
George was there - he had been there during the day, of course, but only in a "Hi, Perce, passing through," kind of way. Come to think of it, there had been a lot of that lately.
It didn't seem like a good sign that after a day of being rushed off his feet with customers, George was now up to his elbows making stock. Especially not with that little stressed line between his eyebrows. Percy just stood in the doorway for a little while, watching his brother. Of course, Ron had his studies, and Gin was back at school, and as far as Percy knew, no one had replied to the Help Wanted sign... but he hadn't realised it was quite this bad.
"George," he said finally. "You did at least take a break after you closed up the shop - right?"
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la_george
2008-02-23 05:02 am UTC (link)
George looked up from where he was scraping yellow paste into flat round tins. He had bruises on his arms in various stages of healing - as the first batch had not worked out as well as planned and he'd had to remelt it and rework the spells. This was the last group of tins. He added 'get more tins' to the huge list that appeared in the air when he flicked his wand at the wall, then went back to smoothing Boo-Boo Be Gone into the packages. He also didn't know where the bloody labels were.
George started when Percy spoke, looking up at him as if he'd never seen him before. "What? Oh, um, went to the loo. Since when is my urinary tract interesting?" Where were the blasted labels anyway? George flicked his wand again, adding the word Labels.
"Sorry. Um, did you say something else? Because if you did I missed it."
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la_percy
2008-02-23 05:13 am UTC (link)
Okay, this was bad. Percy crossed the work room to face his brother. "George. You're working too hard. Isn't there anyone to help you with all this? Can I help?"
"Though I think you're beyond help right now, you're so tired you can't see straight. Any chance you can back away from the nice parcels right now and sit down for ten minutes before you do yourself an injury?"
He recognised the symptoms; he'd done this himself at the Ministry, sometimes for weeks or months at a time. Working until you were so tired the work slowed to a crawl. But you kept at it, until some well meaning friend dragged you away from your routine and threw icecream (Penny) or beer (Oliver) or chocolate (Meghan) at you until you admitted you had to sleep for three days straight.
"Any hope on the employee front?" he asked.
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_george
2008-02-23 05:24 am UTC (link)
"Already did myself an injury," George said, holding out his arm. "See the bottom one? Healing, so it works. Have to put salve on the rest of them or Lee will give me one of those looks. Of course he might be asleep by.." George was babbling.
He looked at Percy and back to the tins. "Wanna put the lids on the ones that are full? I don't want to stop now, almost done, and if I let this overheat it'll be ruined. Don't want to start again. Tins have charms on them to keep the salve at the right temperature and.." Don't forget to charm the tins after we get them.
"Dunno where the labels are, but it's the only thing we put in that container so not likely to be mixed up. Maybe Fre..." George took a deep breath and let it out slowly, putting more yellow salve into one of the remaining four tins. "Ron, maybe Ron moved them. Have to ask him."
He'd forgotten to turn off the flame, which was rather stupid and no wonder it was so hot in here. "Yeah, Ver's starting tomorrow. Told you that, di'n' I? Still she can't do this stuff right off the bat, right?"
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la_percy
2008-02-23 05:34 am UTC (link)
"Yes," Percy said patiently. "I can do that." He started putting the lids on the tins, keeping a careful eye on George as he filled the last few tins with a noxious looking salve.
"Once you're done with that, you're going to sit down," he added firmly, in the prefect's voice that never ever worked on the twins. "And who's Ver? You haven't told me anything, George, I had no idea you were this rushed. Glad you've got help coming, though. Ron's got another week before his exams."
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_george
2008-02-23 05:43 am UTC (link)
George looked up, rolling his eyes as his brother used the "Big Head Boy" voice. "Yeah, sitting might be good, but I still have a million things that need to be done. That there," he gestured with the spatula, flinging a bit of yellow onto the wall, "is only the supplies list, mostly, and a few reminders of things to do with them."
The last tin was finally filled and George used the instrument to wipe salve on the other three bruises, then carried the cauldron and scraper to the sink. "Has to soak before you spell it clean or it'll coat the inside and try to heal all the potions and let me tell you, that is a right nightmare."
George washed his hands and flung himself into the tiger chair. "Verity, um, Verity..." he couldn't for the life of him remember her last name. And they were friends, good friends. Maybe Percy was right and he was a bit tired. "Verity. My age. Hufflepuff. Worked here forever, then went into hiding a year ago. Showed up on Monday. Merlin, 'm glad she's okay, anyway, her. Coming. Tomorrow."
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_percy
2008-02-23 06:04 am UTC (link)
"Verity Harrison?" said Percy, remembering a cheerful blonde girl. "I remember her from school. Didn't know she worked for you. That's good, George. Someone experienced. Will she be working full time?"
He looked around. "If you have this much to do - I don't know if one full time staff member will be enough. You can certainly afford more. But even after his exams, Ron is likely to be studying part time the rest of the year. And the shop is open seven days a week..."
Percy frowned. "That's not really the problem, though, is it. Ron has been making some of the stock, but there's only you for the harder stuff. And -" there used to be two of you to do all this work. "You're running yourself into the ground. I can't believe this is me saying this, but - all the to do lists in the world aren't much use if you're too exhausted to read them."
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_george
2008-02-23 06:38 am UTC (link)
George put his head on the desk. He didn't bother to do it slowly, but he didn't feel the thump, it was just nice to rest it. "Verity's a doll. Cute and funny and knows the shop well."
"Can't. Not just the stock. Need to find a packaging company to manufacture the boxes, etc. Should work on ads for the Prophet and one for WWN - yours too once you name it and get it up. Need to refresh the lighting charms and figure out why the Detonator Decoys keep running off by themselves. I haven't got a catalog together and Hogwarts has been in session for nearly a month." George groaned, "Which reminds me that McGonagall wanted a stock of antidotes for our stuff just in case..."
He flicked his wand at the wall, but didn't look and got gibberish instead. "'m slower, or maybe I was always just the hanger on but..." George sighed and dragged his head off the desk.
"How're things, Perce? Radio thing coming along? Sounds brilliant by the way. You two will be brilliant. 'f I can help let me know."
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_percy
2008-02-23 07:06 am UTC (link)
Percy folded his arms. "George, I realise you have been busy, and I realise that - opening the shop has brought up a lot of things that you really would rather not think about, and I realise that you are probably so tired that you're not even listening to me right now."
"But do you honestly not remember me telling you I had run out of work I could usefully do to justify sitting at that desk half the week around? Checking the accounts hardly takes any time at all now I have the automated system set up. Half this stuff you're talking about is admin work, the kind of thing I live and breathe. I could help you with it, I could - hell, I could do half of it for you. All you had to do was ask - but you never even thought of asking, did you?"
He dragged the other chair around, to sit next to George, patting his arm. There really wasn't a lot of fun in shouting at someone who was barely alert. "You're not slower," he muttered. "I have no doubt you're slower than you used to be - but that's because you're exhausted and stretched thin, and you've been trying to do the work of three people."
"The radio thing is interesting," he added. "It's going to be great. I like working with Lee. But neither of us are giving up our jobs imminently, not until things are a lot more advanced. And it won't get off the ground at all if I have to do without him for a month because he's been forced by necessity to kidnap you and take you to a tropical island until you learn that working all the hours of every day is not healthy."
He glared at George. "And yes, the irony of this has not escaped my notice. Percy telling George that he needs to work less and relax more."
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_george
2008-02-23 07:36 am UTC (link)
Percy was furious in his 'why is my brother so stupid' kind of way. George just blinked at him, trying to figure out what 'admin' stuff he was talking about. George hadn't mentioned a single thing that had to do with paperwork - other than the catalog but that was entirely different. He might be able to ...
George realized he wasn't following precisely. "'m sorry, Perce. Didn't mean to upset you."
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_percy
2008-02-23 08:01 am UTC (link)
Percy shook his head. "It doesn't - it's not about me being upset. I just wish it had occurred to you that I could help with something other than accountancy charms. Or if not me - you hung a sign on the door, fine. But you also have a flat full of friends, most of whom only work part time. Any one of them, or many of them, would have helped out if you told them you needed them. You don't have to try and do everything yourself."
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_george
2008-02-23 08:24 am UTC (link)
He wasn't trying to do everything himself, he was trying to be... "Should be able to. Once upon a time," there were two boys. "Hate to be a burden, more of one than I've already been, that is. Keep thinking if I can just get caught up that it'll all be fine."
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_percy
2008-02-23 08:35 am UTC (link)
"You're not a burden," Percy said angrily. "You're my brother, and their friend. And you've been doing so well at holding yourself together..." but George didn't need a lecture right now. He needed a plan.
And Percy had been trying so hard not to be bossy and interfering, he had entirely lost sight of the fact that - sometimes, saying nothing did the most damage."
"You've got Verity starting tomorrow, that's good. A great start. All you need now is to get organised." He pulled out a piece of fresh parchment and a quill. "Bring me those lists. All of them. I'll get a system worked out for dealing with it. Do you know what days Verity's working? And when Ron's available? I assumed he's studying flat out this last week, it might be best to just assume we won't have him at all and chuck things at him if and when he turns up."
George was staring at him.
"Lists," Percy said impatiently. "If I can persuade three Ministers of Magic that they are smarter and better organised than they think they are, I can help you get caught up. And in a couple of weeks when Verity is back in the swing of things, and Ron is recovered from his brain exploding, everything will be running smoothly and you probably won't need me any more."
"But if you do need me," he added severely. "I will still be here."
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_george
2008-02-23 07:22 pm UTC (link)
George smiled suddenly, shaking his head and levering himself out of the chair. He summoned the list off the wall, dug one out of a drawer, fished in his pocket, wandered out to the shop for the two behind the counter, and then grabbed a box of U-No-Poo that he'd dropped on the floor in the storeroom. It had Fake vomit is running low scrawled across the back. The irony was not lost on him and he was chuckling as he walked back into the room to dump the lot on the desk.
"I have rough drafts and doodles of ideas for the catalogue, and examples of the old one around here somewhere. I really do need to find the labels, but if I try accio I'll end up with every label we have because the shop insists."
George reached out to ruffle Percy's hair. "Want some tea or something? Are you waiting for Angelina? We could go up and harass her? She tell you I stuck her to the ceiling last week?"
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_percy
2008-02-23 08:19 pm UTC (link)
Percy watched George in bemusement. Usually when he lost it with his brother and yelled at him, George would go quiet and defensive and miserable, leaving Percy apologising, and...
He had a vague suspicion that he might have been set up.
Still, George was helping. And he was letting Percy help. And for now, nothing else mattered.
"Tea would be good," he said, peering at the papers. Then it occurred to him that George was suggesting they go up to the flat. "Yes, I prescribe at least half an hour of hassling Angelina before we do anything else. Consider it your recreation break. We could even take an hour, if dinner's involved. Then we can come back down and you can comb the place for those labels while I have a look at the notes about the catalogue."
"Does that work?"
(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)
la_george
2008-02-23 08:46 pm UTC (link)
George nodded and clapped his brother on the shoulder. "Thanks, Perce. Really. Now," he said, waggling his eyebrows as he steered them out of the room, "tell me all about you and Angelina. Details are fine."