36 hours after this.Nicole pulls her knees to her chin and tries to slow her racing thoughts ( Read more... )

following this, in the car on the way to the airport."I believe I owe you this." Charles produces a file folder from somewhere, hands it to her. BOYD, WILLIAM says the label on the cover. Nicole hefts it without opening it ( Read more... )

Kate is really very tired of wandering the house in her underwear ( Read more... )

Set near the end of the party.

( Bill, Orlando. )

After this.

Nicole steps off the plane and shivers. What might have been bracing a decade ago is now just plain cold, and she doesn't know if she has age, soft living, or good old-fashioned fear to blame. Charles, bless his controlling little heart, sent a driver, who stands looking bored as he holds her name. It's someone new, not Marcel, but she ( Read more... )

... right after this...

Places to go, people to meet...

... right before this.

Later that night.The lingering traces of alcohol, Nic and the late hour combine to make her feel like she's underwater, movements slow and exaggerated as she strips in the dark of her bedroom. The weave of her top catches in her fingers and nipples and hair, sticky from sweat (his and hers) and she shimmies out of her trousers awkwardly, smiling ( Read more... )

On the way home from the party...

Set during/after this.Keira stands in the hallway, still and silent, in an effort to locate Astin. That's always the best way to find him: to listen for the rattle of equipment, the whir of a camera, the quiet mumbling, the purposeful footsteps. The studio is uncharacteristically silent this morning, echoing only with Johnny and Sarah's muffled ( Read more... )

A few weeks after the party, a quiet day at home.The statements come to Nicole through her lawyer's office, the way they always do, and when she's done dealing with the rest of her money she slits the envelope and pulls out the fat sheaf of pages, glances through them. Deposits, withdrawals, investments, sales, a constant flow of money in and out ( Read more... )