Cherry Vanilla 3; Gingerbread 29 (aka THE CRACK BROWNIE)
Author: Marina
Story: Shifts universe ( post-Shifts) <-- shiny new combined index of both Casey's and my pieces
Challenge: Cherry Vanilla 3 (that fateful day), Gingerbread 29 (beauty and the beast)
Toppings/Extras: Caramel, Cherry, Chopped Nuts, Hot Fudge, Sprinkles, BROWNIE, Malt (Game Night, 7/13, full prompt listed below header)
Word Count: 8,836 (WHAT)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: How Abraham Wellingstone and Oriana Kopen woke up one morning to a massive hangover and a marriage license.
Notes: This would have been a very different story (and probably a canon story) without the very last prompt I got from the board game (thanks, Matthew!). I could never justify this happening in canon. Never, ever, ever. I really wanted to use the whole prompt if I could, though, so AU crack it is! All thirteen parts of the prompt made it into the story, if not strictly literally, and as a result it is much longer than I intended, so I’m going to go recover now possibly with booze. My last offering for the Summer Challenge <3
[Full prompt: Isabelle and Eleazar go on a trip; Rupert fixes something of Isabelle’s; Rupert and Oriana fight together in a brawl; Isabelle walks on the beach with Eleazar; Abraham makes something out of paper; Rupert spies on Abraham; Rupert has to choose between spending time with Oriana or Isabelle; Eleazar and Isabelle on the night shift; Abraham makes a wish; Eleazar and Rupert come to an understanding; Eleazar accidentally traps Rupert and/or Oriana in a closet; Oriana gets a new pet; Abraham marries Oriana]
Two swift, light taps sounded at the office door. “Come in,” Abraham called, without looking up from his task.
Much to the surprise of both him and Rupert, the door opened up just wide enough to reveal Oriana, wearing a black, belted sheath dress and evening makeup. “Oriana,” Abraham said. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
She smiled. “I’m going out to meet Lynne and Drew for drinks, and I thought I would ask if either of you wanted to come with me.”
“I am afraid I must decline,” Rupert said. “I do not consume alcohol, and for that reason I do not see the point in such an outing. Besides, Isabelle will be here shortly for a meeting.”
“Yes, but if you stay, you’ll have to do boring, useful things,” Oriana said, with a knowing smirk. “Wouldn’t you rather go out with me, make sure the rest of us stay out of trouble?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “As I said before, I will have to decline.”
“I thought so, but I figured I’d try.” She glanced at Abraham.
“Actually, I think I will join you,” he said, earning shocked expressions from both of them. “I would like to visit with my daughter, and I won’t be needed at the meeting if Rupert will be there.”
“Great. It’ll be just us, since Eleazar’s staying to talk to Isabelle. I’ve already called the driver.”
“I’ll meet you out in front. I would like to put on a nicer jacket.”
Oriana nodded, a pleased smile forming on her face. “Sounds good. See you in a minute.” She shut the door behind her as she left, and the rhythmic clicking of her heels quickly faded into the distance.
“You cannot be serious about this,” Rupert said.
Abraham shrugged, gathering his papers into a stack and sliding them back into the manila envelope they belonged to. “It has been a while since either of us left the compound,” he said, “and I do want to see Lynne. I believe I have wasted enough of my life in meetings. You may wish to ponder that while I’m gone.” With that, he left, not daring to look back at Rupert’s undoubtedly annoyed expression.
***
The only thing that surprised Oriana more than Abraham’s acceptance of her invitation was that he followed up on it. She had expected to receive a regretful call informing her that he had changed his mind, but he slid into the limo beside her within fifteen minutes. “Finally,” she joked, to cover her shock. “You take more time to change clothes than I do to put on my makeup.”
“I wanted to look my best, since you have obviously taken the trouble,” he said, with a smile. “I do hope I haven’t made us late.”
“No, we have time. You look nice.” She took a moment to stealthily admire his gray houndstooth jacket and freshly combed hair.
His smile widened into a pleased grin. “You’re very kind.”
Oriana merely nodded and reached for the comm. button. “Alfred? Please take us to the Blue Lounge.”
“Of course, miss.”
Abraham rolled down his window as they started down the road out of the compound. For a moment, he watched the scenery in contemplative silence, while Oriana watched him. The wind teased his hair and threatened to do the same to hers, but she refrained from asking him to close the window. “You picked a good night to come,” she ventured. “The Blue Lounge is a fairly nice, quiet place. We usually go there if we actually want to have a conversation with our drinks. There’s this club that the kids really like a little farther away, and we go there if we want to dance, but I don’t think it’d be your thing.”
He chuckled. “No, not at all. I do expect to have a good time tonight, though.”
“I hope so. Feel free to come again, if you do.” She silently hoped that he would. Bringing Abraham along ensured that she would have someone to talk to at the bar, and someone she related to a little better than Lynne and Drew despite that they were closer in age to her than Abraham was. She frequently felt like a third wheel when she met up with them, even though they had split up close to two years before. “I think you need to get out more. How long has it been since you last left the compound, anyway?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Christmas, probably, if I’m remembering correctly that we had it at Isabelle’s mansion this past year. Definitely for Lynne’s graduation if not.”
Oriana stared at him for a moment, more than a little horrified at this revelation. “We had Christmas here, Abraham, and Lynne graduated almost two years ago.”
“Is that so?” Abraham did not seem bothered. “My mistake, then. My memory’s getting a little hazy.”
“That just proves my point. You seriously need to get out of the compound more often.”
“Surely you haven’t forgotten that I am still under house arrest,” he said, with a wry smile.
She shrugged. “I don’t think that little technicality matters to anyone anymore.”
“Perhaps not, but I don’t want to push my boundaries and find out that you’re wrong.”
“Oh, for-take some initiative, man. Eleazar isn’t going to ream you out if you want to go out for lunch or to the zoo or the beach or whatever.”
“Those activities are hardly any fun on one’s own,” he pointed out.
“Then I’ll go with you, or Lynne might,” she said. “Or, hell, maybe you could even get Rupert to go. If anyone needs fresh air and sunshine more badly than you do, it’s him. I don’t even know how you can share an office with that guy every day.”
Abraham shrugged, closed the window, and leaned back. “Rupert can be pleasant enough company when he likes to be, though I admit sometimes being in the same room with him requires a special kind of patience.”
She snorted. “And that is what we call an understatement. I didn’t mean to go off on Rupert, though. Seriously, think about it.”
“If you would come with me, I would be more than happy to take more frequent outings,” he said, after a short pause, with a sincerity and earnestness that surprised her. “I was actually just thinking that it had been a while since the last one. Your invitation tonight was an excellent excuse.”
“I think you’re going to have fun, I really do,” she said, laying a hand on his knee in encouragement. “It’s great to just go and see people, honestly, even if you don’t ‘consume alcohol.’ Some nights I just have a Shirley Temple myself.” She let her head drop on the back of the seat. “Not going to do that tonight, though. I need something strong after this week. Eleazar had me doing so much pointless stuff that I was ready to punch him by the time I got it all finished. He needs to get it through his head that I am not his goddamn secretary.”
“Your brother is quite the taskmaster,” Abraham agreed. He scooted toward her conspiratorially. “I wasn’t looking forward to that meeting in the slightest, to be honest.”
Oriana straightened a little. “Really?”
“Really. I had no real reason to be there, since the forms that need to be completed are his business and could have been dealt with on a conference call during business hours. So I have to thank you for giving me an out.”
She grinned. “Playing hooky, I like it. I knew you had a wild side.”
“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” he replied with a wink, and she laughed. “There are many facets to my personality.”
“I’m sure. What did he say when you told him you weren’t going to the meeting?”
“After I reminded him that I am still the president of the company and did not see a reason why my presence was absolutely vital? He told me to have a good time.”
“Way to tell him who’s boss,” she said, offering her hand for a high five, which he accepted. “I love my brother. I really do. He’s just terrible at this. I mean, good in theory, but he never wanted to be in business and it shows and I think he just needs to calm down and back off a bit.”
“That might very well be,” he agreed. The limo stopped just then, and a moment later the engine shut off. “Are we here, then?”
Oriana rolled down her window just enough to check, and nodded as she put it back up. “Yeah, this is the place. That was quick. We must have had good traffic.” She opened her door and began to slide out.
“Please allow me,” Abraham said quickly. He exited on his side and hurried around the back to offer her a hand out.
She took it with a smile. “Thank you, kind sir.”
“You’re quite welcome, milady.” With his help, she was able to clamber up onto the curb somewhat gracefully, and he shut the door for her once she was steady on her feet. “May I have the privilege of escorting you inside?”
“Just a second.” She peered up at him. “Do you have a comb on you?”
“Oh, yes.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled one out.
“Bend down a bit,” she said. “You’re kind of a giant compared to me.” With a chuckle, he handed her the comb and obediently bent his head. She swiftly combed back his stray locks. “Much better. Now you’re fit to be seen with.”
He chuckled as he accepted his comb back. “Why thank you,” he said.
“You’re very welcome.”
Abraham offered her his arm, and Oriana took it with a smile, feeling the stress of her week begin to ebb away.
The glass door to the Lounge stood under a faded blue canopy with “The Blue Lounge” printed on it in curvy letters. Beyond it lay a scene almost out of a movie: a room the roughly the size of a two-bedroom apartment in any building Isabelle owned, with an assortment of tables and booths, dark wood paneling, and a scent just musky enough to betray its age without being unpleasant. The music played at a background volume, and candles flickered cheerfully from the middle of every table. “This is very nice,” Abraham said.
Oriana scanned the room for a place to sit. “It doesn’t look like they’re here yet-oh wait, there they are.” She waved and began to drag Abraham over to the corner booth that Lynne and Drew occupied.
As they approached, Drew straightened, removing his arm from around Lynne’s shoulders. “Hey,” he said, smiling a little nervously. “I see you brought Abraham. Awesome.”
Oriana and Abraham exchanged a glance. “Hey, you two,” she said cautiously. “Are you…back together now?”
Beatific smiles crossed both their faces, and Drew replaced his arm as Lynne leaned into him. “We are,” he said. “We got to talking-"
“Among other things,” Lynne added, with a smirk.
“And we decided to give it another shot.” He gave her a poke for her interjection, which quickly escalated into a shameless tickle fight.
“All right, settle down,” Abraham said, amused. “I’m very happy for you two, but we came to talk, not to watch you throw down in the booth.” He turned to Oriana. “Would you like to slide in first?”
“You go ahead,” she said. Her good mood slowly began to plummet.
***
Abraham did not drink often, but on occasion he enjoyed a nice single-malt Scotch whiskey. He did not enjoy it quite so much that he would ever have five glasses in one evening, and yet, that night he did. He could not explain why he felt so compelled to order a new glass every time Oriana asked for another Cosmo, though it certainly had something to do with her obvious misery and the fact that otherwise, she would be the only one at the table downing her drinks as if they were water.
At the tail end of the fifth drink, Oriana stole the stem from the cherry Lynne had been given with her piña colada. “Wanna see me tie a knot in this with my tongue?” Without waiting for an answer, she popped it in her mouth, and retrieved it thirty seconds later to show off the neat knot it now sported. “Thank you, thank you,” she said, bobbing her head to the others’ applause. “See, Abraham, I toldja I could do it.”
“I never doubted it for a second,” he replied, lifting his glass to her.
She beamed. “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta pee.” She slid out of the booth and ambled somewhat aimlessly off to the restroom.
“Is she okay?” Lynne asked, frowning after her. “She’s been acting weird all evening. We might have to cut her off.”
“Might be a good idea,” Drew agreed. He glanced at Abraham. “Has she been doing all right lately? You see her more than we do.”
Abraham pursed his lips. Trying to follow any line of thought suddenly felt hazy. “I am as surprised as you,” he managed to say.
Oriana returned and resumed her seat somewhat sedately, grinning lopsidedly when the waiter set Cosmo #6 down in front of her. Lynne quickly moved it out of her reach. “Oriana, I love you, but you don’t need any more of this.”
“But it’s mine,” she whined, leaning over the table to take it back. “Give it!” She grasped the glass firmly, but wobbled, accidentally overturning it onto Drew’s special white button-up shirt. Staring at the mess seemed to clear some of her mindless giddiness. “Oh, crap, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Lynne said hastily, pushing her boyfriend out of the booth. “We’ll get it right home and put it in the wash, and it’ll be just fine, don’t worry.”
“We should get back, too.” Abraham glanced down at his watch, but did not quite register the time. “Come along, Oriana.” He took her by the elbow and gently guided her out of the booth before standing up himself.
“Do you need us to call a taxi for you?” Lynne asked.
Oriana shook her head and fumbled in her handbag for her cell phone. “Alfred’s ‘round somewhere, I’ll just call him real fast.”
The four of them paid their tab and walked out to the curb, where Lynne and Drew reluctantly said goodbye and began to walk toward their car. Oriana latched onto Abraham’s arm, leaning heavily against him. He kept his footing with difficulty. “S’cold out here,” she murmured.
“Would you like my jacket?”
“Nah, m’good.” She beamed vaguely up at him. “Here’s good.”
“You’re very happy when you’re drunk, did you know that?”
“Uh huh. Though I usually dun get drunk. Haven’t been this drunk since I was sixteen and beer was actually cool instead of disgusting. Actually, it was always disgusting, but I had it anyway ‘cause it was cool, y’know? Cigarettes, too. Y’ever been drunk before, Abe?”
Hearing her call him “Abe” made him smile widely. “I believe this is the first time.”
“Shouldn’t’ve done it,” Oriana said sagely. “Rupert’s gonna kill you when he finds out.”
“I’m going to tell him it was your fault. You set a bad example by having so many drinks yourself.”
She hiccupped. “S’not an excuse, you’re old enough to be my dad, you can make your own decisions.”
“I resent that implication,” Abraham said, highly amused. “I may be considerably older than you, but I’m not old. And I’m certainly not anything close to your father.”
Oriana looked up at him, her cheerfulness draining from her face. Within seconds, she burst into tears. “Didja have to remind me?”
His eyes widened. “Oh no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. You really miss him, don’t you?”
“Well, yes, but s’not what I meant,” she said, sniffing. “And thanks for bringing that up, too, by the way.”
“No, no, no, don’t cry.” He fumbled in his pockets for a tissue.
“The worst part,” she continued, “is that I was already having a hard week ‘cause of being on my period and being stuck at the company doing useless shit for Elie and feeling miserable and then those two,” she waved a hand in the direction Lynne and Drew had gone, “had to go and be…be a couple.”
He frowned. “You didn’t want them to get back together?”
“No, I did. I did. M’just lonely.” She sighed, wiping her eyes. “M’gonna die alone.”
“That’s not possible,” he said. “How could you even think that?”
“Cause it’s true,” she insisted. “I haven’t had sex in five years, and I haven’t had a real relationship since I was a teenager. All the shit that’s happened since I met you’s just ruined me for intimacy. Never gonna happen.”
“Oh, you might still find someone. Anyone would be lucky to have you, you’re beautiful and smart, and you have lots of personality…”
She shook her head. “No. No one’s gonna wanna date me and my massive baggage. Dun matter if I’m pretty.” She squinted up at him. “D’you really think I’m pretty?”
“I do,” he said firmly, “and I wish you wouldn’t be so negative about this.”
She only dropped her gaze again with another aimless shake of the head. Abraham had never seen her look this defeated, and it bothered him. Even when dealing with some of the terrible things he had done, her fighting spirit had never died. He began to rack his brains for something he could do to help.
A thought struck him: she had mentioned baggage, which meant that this despair had to be his fault. She had wasted what could have been the best years of her life running around and trying to fix the damage he had done, not to mention the fact that he had coerced her into it by blackmailing her into having his children. She would never get that back, and the memories of the experience would stay with her forever.
It was his fault. That meant that he had to be the one to fix it, and he knew just how to do it.
“Oriana,” he said, getting down on one knee and taking her hand, “I would consider it a great honor if you would marry me.”
Her eyes went so wide that he feared they would fall out of her head. “Are you really asking me?”
“I am.”
In an instant, her happy grin reappeared, and she tackled him. “Yes, I will!”
He was not prepared for the impact of her surprisingly heavy body, and they ended up in a tangled heap on the pavement just as the limo pulled up beside them. “Sorry,” Oriana said, with a giddy laugh. She scrambled off Abraham and stood up, not an easy task between her state of inebriation and three-inch heels. “Hey, y’know what we should do?”
“What should we do?”
She snatched his arm again before he could get steady on his feet. “We should go to Vegas and get married tonight! We can take the jet!”
“That is an excellent idea,” he agreed, surprised but pleased. “I’ll call ahead and have them get the jet ready for us, and some champagne too, I think.”
“You’re awesome.” She grasped the lapels of his jacket and pulled him down so that she could kiss him.
The vodka on her breath tasted like sunshine.
***
Eleazar was in the middle of trying to mediate a bickering match between Isabelle and Rupert when his cell phone rang. At seeing Drew’s number on his caller ID, he held up a finger. “I need to take this, so will you please argue more quietly for a minute?” Sticking a finger in his right ear to block them out, he held the phone up to his left. “Hello.”
Loud laughter greeted him on the other end. “I’m sorry,” Drew gasped out after a moment. “I can’t deal with this. Talk to Lynne.”
“Why do you always make me do all the work?” Lynne complained, faintly. Eleazar could just picture her trying to shove the phone away, and mentally facepalmed.
“That’s what she said.”
“Oh, shut up.” Her voice grew louder as she brought the phone closer to her face. “I’m the only one allowed to make those jokes. Hey, Eleazar.”
“Hello, Lynne,” he said dryly.
“You sound positively thrilled to be alive this evening,” she replied, grin obvious in her voice.
“I’ll forgive your sarcasm if you tell me why you’re calling.”
“Right, Abraham and Oriana are headed home as of…right now, since we just saw the limo start moving, and we wanted to give you a head’s up because…um, Oriana’s kinda wasted and she’s been acting pretty crazy, so we were thinking maybe you could wait for her and make sure she gets to bed.”
He frowned. “I thought she had more self-control than that.”
“Beats hell out of me, too. I tried to cut her off and now Drew’s wearing one of her drinks, so we’re gonna go home and get him cleaned up. We just wanted to let you know.”
“Thank you, I appreciate it. Have a good night.” He pressed the “End” button and stared at his phone for a moment, dread creeping quickly up into his chest.
“Okay, yes, I can see it now, there’s no need for you to be so superior about it,” Isabelle said, sitting back and glaring faintly at Rupert.
He waved a hand. “If you had simply listened to me from the beginning, it would not have taken us an entire hour to fill out these forms. I think I know a little more than you about the process.”
“If you two have fixed the issue,” Eleazar said shortly, “can we end the meeting here? I need to go out front to meet my sister.”
“Oh, are they finally on their way back?” Rupert asked, glancing upward at the wall clock. “It is nearly eleven already, I did not expect that they would remain at the bar so late.”
“Yes. Excuse me.” Eleazar stood up without waiting for a reply and hurried down to the front lobby, taking a perch on one of the low benches.
He had never found the seats comfortable-they sat unusually low to the ground, bore leather-covered cushions, and had no backs. Trying and failing to relax only added to his agitation. He finally bent forward and rested his elbows on his knees, cradling his head in his hands.
“Eleazar?”
Turning his head to the side, he caught sight of Isabelle rounding the corner from the elevators. Rupert appeared shortly after. “Are you going home?” he asked wearily.
“In a minute,” she said, taking a seat next to him. “Are you all right? You look worried.”
“A bit. I just…I’m concerned about my sister. She overdid it and caused a small commotion, which is just not like her.”
“I knew that would happen,” Rupert said softly.
“I’ll thank you to keep your opinions about my sister to yourself, Rupert,” Eleazar snapped, giving him a sharp glare. Rupert merely rolled his eyes in response.
“Why don’t I wait with you?” Isabelle suggested.
“You shouldn’t, it’ll take you at least an hour to get home yourself and I’m sure Michael’s waiting up for you.”
“I’ll call him and let him know.” She smiled reassuringly. “Going to bed without me one night won’t kill him. Besides, I’d like to have a word with Abraham. I’m sure it won’t take them long to get here.”
He nodded. “Thank you, then.” Turning to Rupert, he added, “You don’t need to wait either, you know. We’ve all had a long day.” Rupert disregarded the hint with a shrug, leaning against the wall. “All right.”
***
At eleven thirty, Isabelle hypothesized that the continued absence of the limo was due to either Oriana or Abraham suddenly developing late night cravings. Rupert suggested calling Alfred, but she convinced Eleazar not to.
At midnight, they decided that the two had also been delayed by city traffic. Isabelle encouraged Eleazar not to call, assuring him that Alfred would call them if there was a serious problem.
At twelve thirty, Eleazar begged her to let him call. Isabelle began to wonder if something had gone wrong, but out of sympathy for Oriana continued to advise against it.
At twelve forty-five, he made the call anyway.
At twelve forty-seven, he threw his cell phone across the room as hard as he could and barely reacted when it shattered against the opposite wall.
Whatever he had heard had to be very bad, Isabelle realized, a pit of fear forming in her stomach. She had not seen him remotely this angry for at least seven years, and had hoped not to ever again. “Eleazar? What is it?”
“Your fucking cousin,” he bit out, “has somehow convinced my sister to fly with him to Las Vegas tonight so they can elope.”
“What?” the other two demanded in unison, stunned by both the revelation and the obscenity.
“They took the jet,” Eleazar said, “and Alfred brought the limo back to the garage and went home. He thought I already knew. Isabelle, I’m sorry for your soon-to-be loss, but I’m sure you can see this as a justifiable homicide.”
“No, Eleazar, there has to be an explanation for this.” She caught his arm. “Abraham couldn’t have take advantage of her like that, not now.”
He glared at her. “Do I have to remind you that he already has? I have to go after them immediately.”
“All right, just take a moment to calm down and we’ll-"
“Yes, hello,” Rupert said, startling them both. He had his own cell phone at his ear. “When is your soonest flight out to Las Vegas? No layovers, please. Two o’clock? Perfect, I would like to purchase three tickets.” He looked up and met Eleazar’s eyes.
Eleazar nodded curtly. “Thank you,” he mouthed. Rupert ducked his head briefly in reply and turned away to finish making the arrangements.
“I’ll get a taxi,” Isabelle said. “It’ll be faster than sending someone to the garage. Don’t worry, Eleazar, it’ll be all right.”
“Of course it will,” he muttered, beginning to pace. “I’ll make sure of that.” Isabelle frowned, but decided against saying anything. Her energy could be put to better use ensuring that they would not miss the two o’clock flight.
You had better not have betrayed my faith in you, Abe, she thought, as she searched for her phone.
***
The first thing Oriana noticed the next morning was that her skull felt like it had been pounded soundly with a brick. It took her a few moments to get around the pain enough to assess her surroundings. It had been years since the last time she had awakened in a hotel room, curled up against another person, and she had never found herself in that situation fully clothed before. Her brain registered Abraham’s face with a sudden profound gratefulness for that detail. Thank God I didn’t sleep with him, she thought. That would have been embarrassing.
She lifted her head to scan the room more thoroughly, a tough enough feat due to the fact that Abraham had his arm solidly wrapped around her waist and their legs had somehow tangled together in their sleep. It was a standard single-bed room, probably in a Travelodge or Best Western as far as she could tell, and mostly immaculate except for the wrinkled covers and their assorted clutter on the desk across from her. How did we even get here? she wondered, unsure whether she really wanted to know the answer.
With a mumbled curse, she gingerly extracted herself from Abraham’s grip and stumbled toward the bathroom to get some water. She found two small glasses on the sink and began to reach for one to fill it, but stopped at the clink of plastic against the glass and an unexpected pressure on the ring finger of her left hand. Surprised, she glanced down to see a cheap plastic diamond there. “Oh…no…”
She immediately abandoned her mission and ran back into the main room, digging frantically through the pile until she found a manila envelope under Abraham’s jacket. “Shit. Abraham!”
“What’s it?” he mumbled, stirring.
“Abraham.” She rushed over to him. “Abraham, we got married last night.”
He blinked blearily at her. “I know. It was your idea.”
“It was?” He nodded, eyebrows raised. She looked down at the envelope and tried to remember. Little by little, the entire proposal and what had happened after began to filter back to her. “It was. Shit.”
Abraham sat up with a frown and began to button up his shirt cuffs. “Is there something wrong with that?”
“Something wrong with that?” she repeated, now angry. “I said I was lonely, you proposed, and I said yes. Somehow, we decided it would be a good idea to fly to Vegas immediately and get married in a cheesy, feathery, heart-filled wedding chapel by a woman in a swan costume, with plastic rings.” She snatched the marriage license from the manila envelope, almost ripping it in the process, and waved it in front of his face. “I hyphenated my last name. What do you think?”
“All right.” He held up a hand. “We were too hasty on this, yes. Please calm down. This is the first hangover I’ve ever had, and your volume is making my head hurt more than it already does.”
“Sorry.” Shouting made her head hurt, too, now that she thought about it. “That’ll teach you to have five glasses of sympathy scotch, I guess.”
He laughed a little. “I won’t be in a hurry to repeat the experience, no.”
“Good choice.” She sat down in the desk chair and contemplated the license. “What are we going to do?”
“What is there to do? We might have been drunk, but the marriage is still legal.”
She frowned. “I’m not saying it isn’t, but we don’t have to stay married, either. We can still get it annulled.”
Abraham sat bolt upright, staring at her in horror. “You want to have the marriage annulled?”
“You don’t?” she asked, taken aback.
“Not at all, but…if you do…I suppose I won’t go against it.” He shrugged, looking away.
Oriana did not like seeing him so obviously unhappy. “Okay, wait,” she said, shifting from the chair to the bed and laying a hand on his arm. “Let’s not-let’s talk about this, first, since we didn’t do that last night and that’s what got us into this in the first place. Do you really want to stay married?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“I have already asked you to marry me twice,” he pointed out, “and I don’t say things I don’t mean, even when drunk, apparently.”
“But that doesn’t tell me anything,” she said. “Why did you even ask in the first place? If it’s because you felt sorry for me, that’s not a good enough reason.”
He bit his lip, eyes fixed on the wall as though he were working out what to say. “I’ve always thought that you would be an excellent match for me,” he said slowly. “The situation twelve years ago was not ideal, but while I was considering asking you then, I kept thinking that you would have been a good choice regardless.”
“And that’s not creepy at all,” she said dryly.
“Well, that was then. Things are different now.” He turned to look her in the eye. “We have been working and living together for quite a while, and in that time I’ve developed a certain…respect, and affection for you as a person.”
Her heart stopped. “You are not in love with me.”
“No,” he agreed. “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility, though.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” She sighed. She could not deny that there was something between them, but she could not gauge whether it was enough to build a marriage on. “I don’t know, Abraham. I can’t just go with this on a whim. You know how seriously I take the idea of marriage. I’ve certainly screamed it at you enough.”
He smiled a little. “Indeed you have.”
“So you understand that this is a big deal,” she said, managing to return it. “I wasn’t willing to marry you to legitimize the twins, and I don’t want to stay married to you just so I won’t be alone. It needs to be for the right reasons.”
“That’s perfectly reasonable,” he said, relieving her. “I won’t force you, I promise.”
“Thank you.” She slid the license back into the envelope. “So…what now?”
Abraham got up and offered her a hand. “I can’t think without food in my stomach,” he said, “so I propose we find some aspirin, go have breakfast, and talk this out.”
“That sounds like the best idea either of us has had in at least the past day,” she said, taking his hand with a smile. “I’m starving.”
He helped her to her feet. “Let’s go check out and see what we can find, then.”
Feeling reasonably settled and marginally less headachey, Oriana gathered her accessories and began to move toward the door as Abraham reached for his jacket. “What time is it?” she asked.
He glanced at his wristwatch. “Almost half past nine.”
“Oh, damn it, and on a Wednesday, too. They’ll have noticed we’re gone by now. We should probably make it a quick breakfast and get the jet back as soon as we can.” She reached into her handbag for her cell phone, already dreading the irate voicemail Eleazar had almost certainly left for her.
Before she could check, Eleazar himself phased through the door, looking angrier than she had ever seen him before. “Where is he?” he demanded.
She gaped. “Elie, what-"
He caught sight of Abraham standing beyond her and ran right past her, so quickly that the whiplash caused her to lose her footing and stumble into the nearby closet. The door slammed shut, trapping her in. “Oh, hell no,” she exclaimed. She forced open the door with her telekinesis and marched out, only to find that Eleazar had thrown Abraham against the wall and begun to punch him repeatedly. “What the hell are you doing?”
Eleazar ignored her, so she threw her handbag at him, using her powers to give him a couple of solid whaps to the back of his head. He turned on her furiously. “Stop that!”
“You stop it!” Oriana shot. “You do not get to hit him!”
“Are you out of your mind? He manipulated you in a drunken state and-"
“He did not do any such thing. What is wrong with you?”
He stared at her incredulously. “What’s wrong with me? I ought to be asking you that same question! What were you thinking, running off to elope like that?”
“Maybe I wasn’t,” she retorted, “but I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“Your whole life has been my business ever since I had to intervene the last time he tried to get you to marry him. How could you do this to me?”
“How could you even say that to me? You think I deliberately pull this shit to make your life hell?”
“Sometimes I have to wonder,” he said flatly.
“Fuck you, Eleazar,” she said, now completely furious. “If you really think this is about you, then fuck you.”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be crude-"
Someone pounded on the door, cutting him off. “You can get that,” she said shortly, jerking her thumb toward it. He did, with bad grace, and she used the opportunity to check on Abraham, who now sported a bloody nose. “I’m so sorry. It’s not broken, is it?”
Abraham allowed her a faint smile. “No, he didn’t quite manage that, although I’m sure he was trying to.”
“Is everything all right?” they heard Isabelle ask, as she and Rupert entered the room. “We heard yelling.”
“Apparently, we were worried for nothing,” Eleazar said shortly, shooting a glare in Oriana’s direction. She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him.
Rupert tilted his head slightly. “Are you married or not?”
“We are,” Abraham said, accepting the tissue box his wife handed to him. “The three of you must not have heard the correct information. We were both intoxicated last night, and it was a mutual agreement to come here. I hope that puts your minds at ease.”
“How did you even know we were here, anyway?” Oriana asked.
Eleazar crossed his arms. “I called Alfred to check on you when you didn’t come home.”
She glared at him. “Alfred didn’t know the whole story, you nitwit.”
“What was I supposed to think, Oriana?” Fear began to overtake the anger in his expression. “After what he’s already done to you, of course I assumed the worst.”
“Okay, let’s get a few things straight right now,” she said, holding up a hand. “One, just in case you weren’t listening, Abraham was just as drunk as I was. Two, it was my idea to get married immediately, so if anything, I took advantage of him. Three, even if he had manipulated me, I can damn well kick my own ass, okay? I don’t need your help.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Why would you want to-"
“You know what I meant! That’s beside the point!”
“Enough,” Isabelle said, stepping between them. “Everyone calm down. What’s done is done. Nothing will be fixed by yelling, so I suggest we sit down and have a rational discussion about this.” She gave each sibling a significant look. Oriana dragged Abraham back to the bed with her in high dudgeon, while Isabelle pointed Eleazar to the chair. “That’s better. Now.” She turned to the newlyweds. “I can’t possibly see how you two could make this work.”
“That is a concern you and Oriana share,” Abraham replied calmly. “We were attempting to work that out when Eleazar barged in on us. I think we might be able to, but I have promised to back off if she decides she doesn’t agree. Are you satisfied?”
“Not quite. Oriana? How do you feel about this?”
“Right now I feel like my privacy has been violated,” she said. “If I want an opinion, I’ll ask for it.”
“Your brother is only concerned for your welfare,” Isabelle replied, “and considering Abraham’s history, I think he’s entitled to that. The least you could do is try to set his mind at ease. He’s not a part of this marriage, you’re right, but he is still your brother and he has made a lot of sacrifices for you.”
“But things have changed,” Oriana said. “Abraham’s not the same person he used to be, and neither am I. Would it really be such a bad thing if we decided to give it a shot?”
“On the contrary, I think it would work out rather well,” Rupert interjected, surprising them all. “It would be more than suitable for Abraham to marry a Kopen. I fully support it.”
“That’s…not the reason I was looking for,” Oriana said, after a moment’s pause, “but thank you, Rupert.” She turned an expectant look on Eleazar and Isabelle.
The latter seemed at least a little bit convinced, but Eleazar shook his head immediately. “You’re going to get hurt. I can’t let you do this.”
“You don’t have a choice,” she said flatly. “You’re not my father, and I’m more than old enough to be making my own decisions. So you can either let me and Abraham figure this out on our own, or be an asshole about it and still not have a say and make everyone miserable. It’s up to you.” She crossed her arms. “I suggest you pick not being an asshole if you want a ride home, because I refuse to share a plane with you for five hours if you’re going to bother me about it the whole time.”
Isabelle walked up beside Eleazar and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I think going home sounds like an excellent idea. The three of us have been up all night, and you two look in need of some rest as well. We can talk about this later.”
“Fine,” Eleazar agreed, without looking at her. His eyes narrowed. “But I will say this: Abraham, if you ever lay a hand on her, or force something she doesn’t want, I will tear you to pieces without hesitation.”
“Fair enough,” Abraham said. Eleazar promptly turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.
Oriana’s anger turned to guilt as soon as he was gone, but she could not bring herself to run after him and apologize. Instead, she took Abraham’s hand without really thinking about it. “Let’s go.”
***
As they had been denied breakfast alone, Abraham and Oriana claimed seats in the back of the jet in order to talk things over in relative solitude. Eleazar took his rage with him to the front and spent the entire journey barring out the rest of the world with soothing classical music, while Isabelle decided to take a nap. This left Rupert to entertain himself.
He first tried to focus on a magazine, but kept glancing back toward the couple, unable to curb his curiosity. Both smiled as they sipped their orange juice and talked quietly. By the third time he looked over at them, Abraham had begun to fold up his napkin, sending Oriana into giggles.
I must know what they are saying, he thought, retrieving a pair of headphones and plugging them into his audio jack. He and Abraham had decided, when they had the residential areas of the compound bugged, to install microphones in the cars and the jet as well. As far as he knew, the system still worked. He found the right channel and settled in to listen, hoping to appear casual.
“I did not know you could do origami,” Oriana was saying, bursting into fresh laughter when Abraham held up his finished crane.
He grinned. “It’s amazing, the random skills one picks up. This is for you.”
“Why, thank you, sir. I shall put it on my desk upon our arrival at home.”
“I’m sure it will look very nice there.” He cleared his throat. “Could I ask you something? The…conversation back at the hotel made me think of it.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“You weren’t…working toward a career when our deal regarding your cousin interrupted your life, were you?”
She hesitated. “No, not really, unless you count being a waste of space and partying a lot as a career goal.”
Abraham nodded. “I thought as much, but I can’t quite believe it. That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
“Not now it doesn’t,” she replied with a laugh. “You didn’t know me when I was a teenager, so you don’t know what an idiot I used to be. Most everything sounded like way too much work, to be honest. I didn’t even go to college.”
“Why not?”
“Didn’t want to. School was always Eleazar’s thing, not mine.” Oriana put the crane down and leaned against him. “If my father had lived long enough to see that he would’ve been very disappointed with me.”
“He would be proud of you now,” Abraham assured her.
She smiled. “I hope so. Things really have changed in the last few years. Not a lot, but…I think we’re all better people now than we used to be.”
“You have no idea how much I hope you’re right.” He took her hand in both his, and she patted his arm in response. “So, since I didn’t know you when you were younger, you’ll have to tell me all about it. Was there anything about school that you did enjoy, or was it all just boring?”
“Well, I really liked acting. I was in a lot of the plays at my private school.”
“Really? Why did you stop?”
“I graduated high school, and I wasn’t good enough to make a living out of it.” She smiled. “It was a lot of fun though. The actors were also really involved with costumes and set design, and being backstage was always a good time. I made a lot of friends that way.”
“Maybe you should find some way to get back into it.”
“I don’t know-"
“No, just listen for a minute. You never really wanted to be involved in your own family’s business, much less mine, and I don’t think you want to continue in your current job for the rest of your life.”
She straightened in her seat. “Abraham, I’m thirty-three. That’s a little late to be rethinking my career choices, isn’t it?”
“This from the woman who spent a certain limo ride yesterday evening attempting to convince a man twenty-four years her senior to rethink his lifestyle choices?” he quipped, and she laughed. “Give it some thought. You’re very financially secure, so you have nothing to lose by pursuing your interests. It would do you good, I’m sure of it.”
“You really think so?”
“I do.”
The ensuing silence made Rupert look up again to study them more closely. Oriana stared at Abraham as if she had not seen him in a very long time. “Abraham?”
“Yes?”
“Maybe we can make this work.”
A bright smile crossed his partner’s face. “Do you mean it?”
“Yeah, I do.” Her expression relaxed into a teasing grin, and she ruffled his hair. “I was thinking about getting a dog, but I think I could find some use for a husband instead.”
“Woof,” he said gruffly. A second later, they broke out into loud laughter. When they had recovered, Abraham leaned in to kiss her.
Rupert yanked the headphones out of the jack in disgust.
***
When they touched down, Isabelle quickly took Eleazar by the arm and dragged him away from the others. “I’ll return him later,” she called back.
“What are you doing?” he asked, looking at her like she had lost her mind.
“I had Rupert call for my car as well as his,” she said, “so that I could go home directly from the plane. Then I realized I was hungry and decided that you should have lunch with me.”
“I should-"
“No, you need to eat something more substantial than plane snacks before you do anything else,” she said firmly. “Just trust me, Eleazar.”
Her words shut him up for the next hour. Isabelle drove them to his favorite café near the beach, ordered for him, and watched carefully as he ate every bite of his meal. “Better?” she asked, as he pushed back his plate.
“Somewhat.” He felt his pockets. “Let me pay for lunch.”
She was already putting her credit card with the bill. “I made you come with me. It’s my treat. Now, as soon as they take care of the bill, let’s go for a walk.”
He made a slight face. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m sorry. I just want you to talk some of this out before you go talk to your sister.”
“That won’t make me feel any better about this.”
“No, but it may make you feel calmer about discussing it. Oriana will do what she wants one way or another, and the least you can do is keep from raking her over the coals for it.”
“That’s the thing.” He waited until the server returned Isabelle’s card to continue. “Oriana has always done whatever she wanted, and I have had to bail her out of messes so many times. I don’t think it’s very fair of her to continually burden me with that.”
She waved him up from his chair. “I think she’s as tired of it as you. Notice how she didn’t immediately run to you to help her, and, in fact, told you to back off so she could figure it out on her own.”
“She also did not apologize for scaring me so badly that I literally almost had a heart attack,” Eleazar said, following her out the door.
“Neither did you apologize for attacking her new husband before you heard the whole story,” she countered.
He frowned at her. “Are you on her side?”
“I am on the side of keeping you from getting self-righteous about blame, because as well-intentioned as you are, you frequently do that, and it never serves you very well.”
They crossed the boardwalk to a short staircase that led to the sand. Isabelle took a moment to slip her shoes off, but Eleazar was so deep in thought that he did not bother. “What is your opinion on all this?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I’d like to know.”
She began to walk, and he followed her. “I’d like to think that whatever they decide will work out for the best,” she said, unable to speak as lowly as she wanted to because of the wind and the sound of the water. “It’s better to think positively, since I can’t control either of them. Besides, I think it’s obvious that Abraham at least really wants this, and I like seeing him do things because he wants to and not because Rupert tells him to or because he thinks it will help him get ahead.”
“I wish I could see it that way,” he said. “I just don’t trust him. I’m sorry.”
“You have good reason not to. Don’t apologize.”
He did not speak for a few minutes, walking with his hands stuffed in his pockets and kicking at the various shells and rocks they came across as they went. “I’m afraid Oriana will decide to stay in the marriage to spite me,” he said despondently.
Isabelle frowned at him. “I think you know she won’t,” she said. “Oriana does not feel spite toward you. She’s told me more than once how grateful she is for everything you’ve done for her.”
He shrugged. “She’s really angry with me.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but shut it again almost immediately as he thought better of it. After a moment, he merely nodded. “You’re absolutely right.”
***
They arrived back at the compound to find Oriana waiting for them at the turnaround drive, shifting from foot to foot nervously. “Good luck,” Isabelle said, as she pulled up to let Eleazar out. “I’m going home to sleep.”
“Just don’t pass out on the way there,” he said with a smile, “and thank you for lunch.”
“It was my pleasure.” They waved to each other, and she drove away.
Eleazar turned toward his sister just in time to meet her tackle attack head on. He grunted. “Easy, Oriana.”
She ignored him, hugging him very tightly around the waist. “I’m so sorry for yelling at you. I was hungover and already freaked out over the shotgun wedding and not thinking, and you’re the best brother anyone could ask for and I didn’t mean to scare you and I’m sorry.”
He returned the embrace and kissed her on the top of the head. “I forgive you, and I’m sorry, too. Are you okay?” She nodded. “Good. I was seriously terrified that he had coerced you into something you didn’t really want. The first time was enough of a nightmare.”
“Don’t worry, I couldn’t agree more,” she said. “Hey, so while you were gone, Abraham and I went out and got real wedding rings, check it out.” She held up her left hand for inspection. Eleazar took it and peered at the new ring, a white gold band inlaid with tiny diamonds and rubies. “We’re calling it a combination engagement and wedding band. Didn’t see the point in a separate engagement ring since the actual engagement was about five hours.”
“That’s very sensible of you both,” he said, somewhat amused. “So you’ve already decided to just go with it?”
Oriana shrugged. “I wouldn’t go through with the wedding now if we’d waited, but we didn’t wait and the idea of a relationship with Abraham doesn’t fill me with rage. It actually makes me kind of happy. So we’ll see how it goes.”
“Then I will refrain from punching him in the face, even though I don’t agree with you.”
“Thanks, Elie.” She grinned mischievously, a sign he had long since discovered meant that he would need to brace himself for the next thing that came out of her mouth. “That’s good, because I gotta go consummate the marriage now. I just didn’t want to before we made up.”
“Oriana,” he cried, completely scandalized. “Why would you even tell me a thing like that?”
She winked. “Because it’s fun. Later!” With that, she skipped off, humming Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” as she went.
That girl is going to drive me to drink one of these days, Eleazar thought, crossing his arms.
Story: Shifts universe ( post-Shifts) <-- shiny new combined index of both Casey's and my pieces
Challenge: Cherry Vanilla 3 (that fateful day), Gingerbread 29 (beauty and the beast)
Toppings/Extras: Caramel, Cherry, Chopped Nuts, Hot Fudge, Sprinkles, BROWNIE, Malt (Game Night, 7/13, full prompt listed below header)
Word Count: 8,836 (WHAT)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: How Abraham Wellingstone and Oriana Kopen woke up one morning to a massive hangover and a marriage license.
Notes: This would have been a very different story (and probably a canon story) without the very last prompt I got from the board game (thanks, Matthew!). I could never justify this happening in canon. Never, ever, ever. I really wanted to use the whole prompt if I could, though, so AU crack it is! All thirteen parts of the prompt made it into the story, if not strictly literally, and as a result it is much longer than I intended, so I’m going to go recover now possibly with booze. My last offering for the Summer Challenge <3
[Full prompt: Isabelle and Eleazar go on a trip; Rupert fixes something of Isabelle’s; Rupert and Oriana fight together in a brawl; Isabelle walks on the beach with Eleazar; Abraham makes something out of paper; Rupert spies on Abraham; Rupert has to choose between spending time with Oriana or Isabelle; Eleazar and Isabelle on the night shift; Abraham makes a wish; Eleazar and Rupert come to an understanding; Eleazar accidentally traps Rupert and/or Oriana in a closet; Oriana gets a new pet; Abraham marries Oriana]
Two swift, light taps sounded at the office door. “Come in,” Abraham called, without looking up from his task.
Much to the surprise of both him and Rupert, the door opened up just wide enough to reveal Oriana, wearing a black, belted sheath dress and evening makeup. “Oriana,” Abraham said. “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
She smiled. “I’m going out to meet Lynne and Drew for drinks, and I thought I would ask if either of you wanted to come with me.”
“I am afraid I must decline,” Rupert said. “I do not consume alcohol, and for that reason I do not see the point in such an outing. Besides, Isabelle will be here shortly for a meeting.”
“Yes, but if you stay, you’ll have to do boring, useful things,” Oriana said, with a knowing smirk. “Wouldn’t you rather go out with me, make sure the rest of us stay out of trouble?”
He lifted an eyebrow. “As I said before, I will have to decline.”
“I thought so, but I figured I’d try.” She glanced at Abraham.
“Actually, I think I will join you,” he said, earning shocked expressions from both of them. “I would like to visit with my daughter, and I won’t be needed at the meeting if Rupert will be there.”
“Great. It’ll be just us, since Eleazar’s staying to talk to Isabelle. I’ve already called the driver.”
“I’ll meet you out in front. I would like to put on a nicer jacket.”
Oriana nodded, a pleased smile forming on her face. “Sounds good. See you in a minute.” She shut the door behind her as she left, and the rhythmic clicking of her heels quickly faded into the distance.
“You cannot be serious about this,” Rupert said.
Abraham shrugged, gathering his papers into a stack and sliding them back into the manila envelope they belonged to. “It has been a while since either of us left the compound,” he said, “and I do want to see Lynne. I believe I have wasted enough of my life in meetings. You may wish to ponder that while I’m gone.” With that, he left, not daring to look back at Rupert’s undoubtedly annoyed expression.
***
The only thing that surprised Oriana more than Abraham’s acceptance of her invitation was that he followed up on it. She had expected to receive a regretful call informing her that he had changed his mind, but he slid into the limo beside her within fifteen minutes. “Finally,” she joked, to cover her shock. “You take more time to change clothes than I do to put on my makeup.”
“I wanted to look my best, since you have obviously taken the trouble,” he said, with a smile. “I do hope I haven’t made us late.”
“No, we have time. You look nice.” She took a moment to stealthily admire his gray houndstooth jacket and freshly combed hair.
His smile widened into a pleased grin. “You’re very kind.”
Oriana merely nodded and reached for the comm. button. “Alfred? Please take us to the Blue Lounge.”
“Of course, miss.”
Abraham rolled down his window as they started down the road out of the compound. For a moment, he watched the scenery in contemplative silence, while Oriana watched him. The wind teased his hair and threatened to do the same to hers, but she refrained from asking him to close the window. “You picked a good night to come,” she ventured. “The Blue Lounge is a fairly nice, quiet place. We usually go there if we actually want to have a conversation with our drinks. There’s this club that the kids really like a little farther away, and we go there if we want to dance, but I don’t think it’d be your thing.”
He chuckled. “No, not at all. I do expect to have a good time tonight, though.”
“I hope so. Feel free to come again, if you do.” She silently hoped that he would. Bringing Abraham along ensured that she would have someone to talk to at the bar, and someone she related to a little better than Lynne and Drew despite that they were closer in age to her than Abraham was. She frequently felt like a third wheel when she met up with them, even though they had split up close to two years before. “I think you need to get out more. How long has it been since you last left the compound, anyway?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Christmas, probably, if I’m remembering correctly that we had it at Isabelle’s mansion this past year. Definitely for Lynne’s graduation if not.”
Oriana stared at him for a moment, more than a little horrified at this revelation. “We had Christmas here, Abraham, and Lynne graduated almost two years ago.”
“Is that so?” Abraham did not seem bothered. “My mistake, then. My memory’s getting a little hazy.”
“That just proves my point. You seriously need to get out of the compound more often.”
“Surely you haven’t forgotten that I am still under house arrest,” he said, with a wry smile.
She shrugged. “I don’t think that little technicality matters to anyone anymore.”
“Perhaps not, but I don’t want to push my boundaries and find out that you’re wrong.”
“Oh, for-take some initiative, man. Eleazar isn’t going to ream you out if you want to go out for lunch or to the zoo or the beach or whatever.”
“Those activities are hardly any fun on one’s own,” he pointed out.
“Then I’ll go with you, or Lynne might,” she said. “Or, hell, maybe you could even get Rupert to go. If anyone needs fresh air and sunshine more badly than you do, it’s him. I don’t even know how you can share an office with that guy every day.”
Abraham shrugged, closed the window, and leaned back. “Rupert can be pleasant enough company when he likes to be, though I admit sometimes being in the same room with him requires a special kind of patience.”
She snorted. “And that is what we call an understatement. I didn’t mean to go off on Rupert, though. Seriously, think about it.”
“If you would come with me, I would be more than happy to take more frequent outings,” he said, after a short pause, with a sincerity and earnestness that surprised her. “I was actually just thinking that it had been a while since the last one. Your invitation tonight was an excellent excuse.”
“I think you’re going to have fun, I really do,” she said, laying a hand on his knee in encouragement. “It’s great to just go and see people, honestly, even if you don’t ‘consume alcohol.’ Some nights I just have a Shirley Temple myself.” She let her head drop on the back of the seat. “Not going to do that tonight, though. I need something strong after this week. Eleazar had me doing so much pointless stuff that I was ready to punch him by the time I got it all finished. He needs to get it through his head that I am not his goddamn secretary.”
“Your brother is quite the taskmaster,” Abraham agreed. He scooted toward her conspiratorially. “I wasn’t looking forward to that meeting in the slightest, to be honest.”
Oriana straightened a little. “Really?”
“Really. I had no real reason to be there, since the forms that need to be completed are his business and could have been dealt with on a conference call during business hours. So I have to thank you for giving me an out.”
She grinned. “Playing hooky, I like it. I knew you had a wild side.”
“Oh, you don’t know the half of it,” he replied with a wink, and she laughed. “There are many facets to my personality.”
“I’m sure. What did he say when you told him you weren’t going to the meeting?”
“After I reminded him that I am still the president of the company and did not see a reason why my presence was absolutely vital? He told me to have a good time.”
“Way to tell him who’s boss,” she said, offering her hand for a high five, which he accepted. “I love my brother. I really do. He’s just terrible at this. I mean, good in theory, but he never wanted to be in business and it shows and I think he just needs to calm down and back off a bit.”
“That might very well be,” he agreed. The limo stopped just then, and a moment later the engine shut off. “Are we here, then?”
Oriana rolled down her window just enough to check, and nodded as she put it back up. “Yeah, this is the place. That was quick. We must have had good traffic.” She opened her door and began to slide out.
“Please allow me,” Abraham said quickly. He exited on his side and hurried around the back to offer her a hand out.
She took it with a smile. “Thank you, kind sir.”
“You’re quite welcome, milady.” With his help, she was able to clamber up onto the curb somewhat gracefully, and he shut the door for her once she was steady on her feet. “May I have the privilege of escorting you inside?”
“Just a second.” She peered up at him. “Do you have a comb on you?”
“Oh, yes.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled one out.
“Bend down a bit,” she said. “You’re kind of a giant compared to me.” With a chuckle, he handed her the comb and obediently bent his head. She swiftly combed back his stray locks. “Much better. Now you’re fit to be seen with.”
He chuckled as he accepted his comb back. “Why thank you,” he said.
“You’re very welcome.”
Abraham offered her his arm, and Oriana took it with a smile, feeling the stress of her week begin to ebb away.
The glass door to the Lounge stood under a faded blue canopy with “The Blue Lounge” printed on it in curvy letters. Beyond it lay a scene almost out of a movie: a room the roughly the size of a two-bedroom apartment in any building Isabelle owned, with an assortment of tables and booths, dark wood paneling, and a scent just musky enough to betray its age without being unpleasant. The music played at a background volume, and candles flickered cheerfully from the middle of every table. “This is very nice,” Abraham said.
Oriana scanned the room for a place to sit. “It doesn’t look like they’re here yet-oh wait, there they are.” She waved and began to drag Abraham over to the corner booth that Lynne and Drew occupied.
As they approached, Drew straightened, removing his arm from around Lynne’s shoulders. “Hey,” he said, smiling a little nervously. “I see you brought Abraham. Awesome.”
Oriana and Abraham exchanged a glance. “Hey, you two,” she said cautiously. “Are you…back together now?”
Beatific smiles crossed both their faces, and Drew replaced his arm as Lynne leaned into him. “We are,” he said. “We got to talking-"
“Among other things,” Lynne added, with a smirk.
“And we decided to give it another shot.” He gave her a poke for her interjection, which quickly escalated into a shameless tickle fight.
“All right, settle down,” Abraham said, amused. “I’m very happy for you two, but we came to talk, not to watch you throw down in the booth.” He turned to Oriana. “Would you like to slide in first?”
“You go ahead,” she said. Her good mood slowly began to plummet.
***
Abraham did not drink often, but on occasion he enjoyed a nice single-malt Scotch whiskey. He did not enjoy it quite so much that he would ever have five glasses in one evening, and yet, that night he did. He could not explain why he felt so compelled to order a new glass every time Oriana asked for another Cosmo, though it certainly had something to do with her obvious misery and the fact that otherwise, she would be the only one at the table downing her drinks as if they were water.
At the tail end of the fifth drink, Oriana stole the stem from the cherry Lynne had been given with her piña colada. “Wanna see me tie a knot in this with my tongue?” Without waiting for an answer, she popped it in her mouth, and retrieved it thirty seconds later to show off the neat knot it now sported. “Thank you, thank you,” she said, bobbing her head to the others’ applause. “See, Abraham, I toldja I could do it.”
“I never doubted it for a second,” he replied, lifting his glass to her.
She beamed. “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I gotta pee.” She slid out of the booth and ambled somewhat aimlessly off to the restroom.
“Is she okay?” Lynne asked, frowning after her. “She’s been acting weird all evening. We might have to cut her off.”
“Might be a good idea,” Drew agreed. He glanced at Abraham. “Has she been doing all right lately? You see her more than we do.”
Abraham pursed his lips. Trying to follow any line of thought suddenly felt hazy. “I am as surprised as you,” he managed to say.
Oriana returned and resumed her seat somewhat sedately, grinning lopsidedly when the waiter set Cosmo #6 down in front of her. Lynne quickly moved it out of her reach. “Oriana, I love you, but you don’t need any more of this.”
“But it’s mine,” she whined, leaning over the table to take it back. “Give it!” She grasped the glass firmly, but wobbled, accidentally overturning it onto Drew’s special white button-up shirt. Staring at the mess seemed to clear some of her mindless giddiness. “Oh, crap, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Lynne said hastily, pushing her boyfriend out of the booth. “We’ll get it right home and put it in the wash, and it’ll be just fine, don’t worry.”
“We should get back, too.” Abraham glanced down at his watch, but did not quite register the time. “Come along, Oriana.” He took her by the elbow and gently guided her out of the booth before standing up himself.
“Do you need us to call a taxi for you?” Lynne asked.
Oriana shook her head and fumbled in her handbag for her cell phone. “Alfred’s ‘round somewhere, I’ll just call him real fast.”
The four of them paid their tab and walked out to the curb, where Lynne and Drew reluctantly said goodbye and began to walk toward their car. Oriana latched onto Abraham’s arm, leaning heavily against him. He kept his footing with difficulty. “S’cold out here,” she murmured.
“Would you like my jacket?”
“Nah, m’good.” She beamed vaguely up at him. “Here’s good.”
“You’re very happy when you’re drunk, did you know that?”
“Uh huh. Though I usually dun get drunk. Haven’t been this drunk since I was sixteen and beer was actually cool instead of disgusting. Actually, it was always disgusting, but I had it anyway ‘cause it was cool, y’know? Cigarettes, too. Y’ever been drunk before, Abe?”
Hearing her call him “Abe” made him smile widely. “I believe this is the first time.”
“Shouldn’t’ve done it,” Oriana said sagely. “Rupert’s gonna kill you when he finds out.”
“I’m going to tell him it was your fault. You set a bad example by having so many drinks yourself.”
She hiccupped. “S’not an excuse, you’re old enough to be my dad, you can make your own decisions.”
“I resent that implication,” Abraham said, highly amused. “I may be considerably older than you, but I’m not old. And I’m certainly not anything close to your father.”
Oriana looked up at him, her cheerfulness draining from her face. Within seconds, she burst into tears. “Didja have to remind me?”
His eyes widened. “Oh no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. You really miss him, don’t you?”
“Well, yes, but s’not what I meant,” she said, sniffing. “And thanks for bringing that up, too, by the way.”
“No, no, no, don’t cry.” He fumbled in his pockets for a tissue.
“The worst part,” she continued, “is that I was already having a hard week ‘cause of being on my period and being stuck at the company doing useless shit for Elie and feeling miserable and then those two,” she waved a hand in the direction Lynne and Drew had gone, “had to go and be…be a couple.”
He frowned. “You didn’t want them to get back together?”
“No, I did. I did. M’just lonely.” She sighed, wiping her eyes. “M’gonna die alone.”
“That’s not possible,” he said. “How could you even think that?”
“Cause it’s true,” she insisted. “I haven’t had sex in five years, and I haven’t had a real relationship since I was a teenager. All the shit that’s happened since I met you’s just ruined me for intimacy. Never gonna happen.”
“Oh, you might still find someone. Anyone would be lucky to have you, you’re beautiful and smart, and you have lots of personality…”
She shook her head. “No. No one’s gonna wanna date me and my massive baggage. Dun matter if I’m pretty.” She squinted up at him. “D’you really think I’m pretty?”
“I do,” he said firmly, “and I wish you wouldn’t be so negative about this.”
She only dropped her gaze again with another aimless shake of the head. Abraham had never seen her look this defeated, and it bothered him. Even when dealing with some of the terrible things he had done, her fighting spirit had never died. He began to rack his brains for something he could do to help.
A thought struck him: she had mentioned baggage, which meant that this despair had to be his fault. She had wasted what could have been the best years of her life running around and trying to fix the damage he had done, not to mention the fact that he had coerced her into it by blackmailing her into having his children. She would never get that back, and the memories of the experience would stay with her forever.
It was his fault. That meant that he had to be the one to fix it, and he knew just how to do it.
“Oriana,” he said, getting down on one knee and taking her hand, “I would consider it a great honor if you would marry me.”
Her eyes went so wide that he feared they would fall out of her head. “Are you really asking me?”
“I am.”
In an instant, her happy grin reappeared, and she tackled him. “Yes, I will!”
He was not prepared for the impact of her surprisingly heavy body, and they ended up in a tangled heap on the pavement just as the limo pulled up beside them. “Sorry,” Oriana said, with a giddy laugh. She scrambled off Abraham and stood up, not an easy task between her state of inebriation and three-inch heels. “Hey, y’know what we should do?”
“What should we do?”
She snatched his arm again before he could get steady on his feet. “We should go to Vegas and get married tonight! We can take the jet!”
“That is an excellent idea,” he agreed, surprised but pleased. “I’ll call ahead and have them get the jet ready for us, and some champagne too, I think.”
“You’re awesome.” She grasped the lapels of his jacket and pulled him down so that she could kiss him.
The vodka on her breath tasted like sunshine.
***
Eleazar was in the middle of trying to mediate a bickering match between Isabelle and Rupert when his cell phone rang. At seeing Drew’s number on his caller ID, he held up a finger. “I need to take this, so will you please argue more quietly for a minute?” Sticking a finger in his right ear to block them out, he held the phone up to his left. “Hello.”
Loud laughter greeted him on the other end. “I’m sorry,” Drew gasped out after a moment. “I can’t deal with this. Talk to Lynne.”
“Why do you always make me do all the work?” Lynne complained, faintly. Eleazar could just picture her trying to shove the phone away, and mentally facepalmed.
“That’s what she said.”
“Oh, shut up.” Her voice grew louder as she brought the phone closer to her face. “I’m the only one allowed to make those jokes. Hey, Eleazar.”
“Hello, Lynne,” he said dryly.
“You sound positively thrilled to be alive this evening,” she replied, grin obvious in her voice.
“I’ll forgive your sarcasm if you tell me why you’re calling.”
“Right, Abraham and Oriana are headed home as of…right now, since we just saw the limo start moving, and we wanted to give you a head’s up because…um, Oriana’s kinda wasted and she’s been acting pretty crazy, so we were thinking maybe you could wait for her and make sure she gets to bed.”
He frowned. “I thought she had more self-control than that.”
“Beats hell out of me, too. I tried to cut her off and now Drew’s wearing one of her drinks, so we’re gonna go home and get him cleaned up. We just wanted to let you know.”
“Thank you, I appreciate it. Have a good night.” He pressed the “End” button and stared at his phone for a moment, dread creeping quickly up into his chest.
“Okay, yes, I can see it now, there’s no need for you to be so superior about it,” Isabelle said, sitting back and glaring faintly at Rupert.
He waved a hand. “If you had simply listened to me from the beginning, it would not have taken us an entire hour to fill out these forms. I think I know a little more than you about the process.”
“If you two have fixed the issue,” Eleazar said shortly, “can we end the meeting here? I need to go out front to meet my sister.”
“Oh, are they finally on their way back?” Rupert asked, glancing upward at the wall clock. “It is nearly eleven already, I did not expect that they would remain at the bar so late.”
“Yes. Excuse me.” Eleazar stood up without waiting for a reply and hurried down to the front lobby, taking a perch on one of the low benches.
He had never found the seats comfortable-they sat unusually low to the ground, bore leather-covered cushions, and had no backs. Trying and failing to relax only added to his agitation. He finally bent forward and rested his elbows on his knees, cradling his head in his hands.
“Eleazar?”
Turning his head to the side, he caught sight of Isabelle rounding the corner from the elevators. Rupert appeared shortly after. “Are you going home?” he asked wearily.
“In a minute,” she said, taking a seat next to him. “Are you all right? You look worried.”
“A bit. I just…I’m concerned about my sister. She overdid it and caused a small commotion, which is just not like her.”
“I knew that would happen,” Rupert said softly.
“I’ll thank you to keep your opinions about my sister to yourself, Rupert,” Eleazar snapped, giving him a sharp glare. Rupert merely rolled his eyes in response.
“Why don’t I wait with you?” Isabelle suggested.
“You shouldn’t, it’ll take you at least an hour to get home yourself and I’m sure Michael’s waiting up for you.”
“I’ll call him and let him know.” She smiled reassuringly. “Going to bed without me one night won’t kill him. Besides, I’d like to have a word with Abraham. I’m sure it won’t take them long to get here.”
He nodded. “Thank you, then.” Turning to Rupert, he added, “You don’t need to wait either, you know. We’ve all had a long day.” Rupert disregarded the hint with a shrug, leaning against the wall. “All right.”
***
At eleven thirty, Isabelle hypothesized that the continued absence of the limo was due to either Oriana or Abraham suddenly developing late night cravings. Rupert suggested calling Alfred, but she convinced Eleazar not to.
At midnight, they decided that the two had also been delayed by city traffic. Isabelle encouraged Eleazar not to call, assuring him that Alfred would call them if there was a serious problem.
At twelve thirty, Eleazar begged her to let him call. Isabelle began to wonder if something had gone wrong, but out of sympathy for Oriana continued to advise against it.
At twelve forty-five, he made the call anyway.
At twelve forty-seven, he threw his cell phone across the room as hard as he could and barely reacted when it shattered against the opposite wall.
Whatever he had heard had to be very bad, Isabelle realized, a pit of fear forming in her stomach. She had not seen him remotely this angry for at least seven years, and had hoped not to ever again. “Eleazar? What is it?”
“Your fucking cousin,” he bit out, “has somehow convinced my sister to fly with him to Las Vegas tonight so they can elope.”
“What?” the other two demanded in unison, stunned by both the revelation and the obscenity.
“They took the jet,” Eleazar said, “and Alfred brought the limo back to the garage and went home. He thought I already knew. Isabelle, I’m sorry for your soon-to-be loss, but I’m sure you can see this as a justifiable homicide.”
“No, Eleazar, there has to be an explanation for this.” She caught his arm. “Abraham couldn’t have take advantage of her like that, not now.”
He glared at her. “Do I have to remind you that he already has? I have to go after them immediately.”
“All right, just take a moment to calm down and we’ll-"
“Yes, hello,” Rupert said, startling them both. He had his own cell phone at his ear. “When is your soonest flight out to Las Vegas? No layovers, please. Two o’clock? Perfect, I would like to purchase three tickets.” He looked up and met Eleazar’s eyes.
Eleazar nodded curtly. “Thank you,” he mouthed. Rupert ducked his head briefly in reply and turned away to finish making the arrangements.
“I’ll get a taxi,” Isabelle said. “It’ll be faster than sending someone to the garage. Don’t worry, Eleazar, it’ll be all right.”
“Of course it will,” he muttered, beginning to pace. “I’ll make sure of that.” Isabelle frowned, but decided against saying anything. Her energy could be put to better use ensuring that they would not miss the two o’clock flight.
You had better not have betrayed my faith in you, Abe, she thought, as she searched for her phone.
***
The first thing Oriana noticed the next morning was that her skull felt like it had been pounded soundly with a brick. It took her a few moments to get around the pain enough to assess her surroundings. It had been years since the last time she had awakened in a hotel room, curled up against another person, and she had never found herself in that situation fully clothed before. Her brain registered Abraham’s face with a sudden profound gratefulness for that detail. Thank God I didn’t sleep with him, she thought. That would have been embarrassing.
She lifted her head to scan the room more thoroughly, a tough enough feat due to the fact that Abraham had his arm solidly wrapped around her waist and their legs had somehow tangled together in their sleep. It was a standard single-bed room, probably in a Travelodge or Best Western as far as she could tell, and mostly immaculate except for the wrinkled covers and their assorted clutter on the desk across from her. How did we even get here? she wondered, unsure whether she really wanted to know the answer.
With a mumbled curse, she gingerly extracted herself from Abraham’s grip and stumbled toward the bathroom to get some water. She found two small glasses on the sink and began to reach for one to fill it, but stopped at the clink of plastic against the glass and an unexpected pressure on the ring finger of her left hand. Surprised, she glanced down to see a cheap plastic diamond there. “Oh…no…”
She immediately abandoned her mission and ran back into the main room, digging frantically through the pile until she found a manila envelope under Abraham’s jacket. “Shit. Abraham!”
“What’s it?” he mumbled, stirring.
“Abraham.” She rushed over to him. “Abraham, we got married last night.”
He blinked blearily at her. “I know. It was your idea.”
“It was?” He nodded, eyebrows raised. She looked down at the envelope and tried to remember. Little by little, the entire proposal and what had happened after began to filter back to her. “It was. Shit.”
Abraham sat up with a frown and began to button up his shirt cuffs. “Is there something wrong with that?”
“Something wrong with that?” she repeated, now angry. “I said I was lonely, you proposed, and I said yes. Somehow, we decided it would be a good idea to fly to Vegas immediately and get married in a cheesy, feathery, heart-filled wedding chapel by a woman in a swan costume, with plastic rings.” She snatched the marriage license from the manila envelope, almost ripping it in the process, and waved it in front of his face. “I hyphenated my last name. What do you think?”
“All right.” He held up a hand. “We were too hasty on this, yes. Please calm down. This is the first hangover I’ve ever had, and your volume is making my head hurt more than it already does.”
“Sorry.” Shouting made her head hurt, too, now that she thought about it. “That’ll teach you to have five glasses of sympathy scotch, I guess.”
He laughed a little. “I won’t be in a hurry to repeat the experience, no.”
“Good choice.” She sat down in the desk chair and contemplated the license. “What are we going to do?”
“What is there to do? We might have been drunk, but the marriage is still legal.”
She frowned. “I’m not saying it isn’t, but we don’t have to stay married, either. We can still get it annulled.”
Abraham sat bolt upright, staring at her in horror. “You want to have the marriage annulled?”
“You don’t?” she asked, taken aback.
“Not at all, but…if you do…I suppose I won’t go against it.” He shrugged, looking away.
Oriana did not like seeing him so obviously unhappy. “Okay, wait,” she said, shifting from the chair to the bed and laying a hand on his arm. “Let’s not-let’s talk about this, first, since we didn’t do that last night and that’s what got us into this in the first place. Do you really want to stay married?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Why?”
“I have already asked you to marry me twice,” he pointed out, “and I don’t say things I don’t mean, even when drunk, apparently.”
“But that doesn’t tell me anything,” she said. “Why did you even ask in the first place? If it’s because you felt sorry for me, that’s not a good enough reason.”
He bit his lip, eyes fixed on the wall as though he were working out what to say. “I’ve always thought that you would be an excellent match for me,” he said slowly. “The situation twelve years ago was not ideal, but while I was considering asking you then, I kept thinking that you would have been a good choice regardless.”
“And that’s not creepy at all,” she said dryly.
“Well, that was then. Things are different now.” He turned to look her in the eye. “We have been working and living together for quite a while, and in that time I’ve developed a certain…respect, and affection for you as a person.”
Her heart stopped. “You are not in love with me.”
“No,” he agreed. “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility, though.”
“Well, when you put it that way…” She sighed. She could not deny that there was something between them, but she could not gauge whether it was enough to build a marriage on. “I don’t know, Abraham. I can’t just go with this on a whim. You know how seriously I take the idea of marriage. I’ve certainly screamed it at you enough.”
He smiled a little. “Indeed you have.”
“So you understand that this is a big deal,” she said, managing to return it. “I wasn’t willing to marry you to legitimize the twins, and I don’t want to stay married to you just so I won’t be alone. It needs to be for the right reasons.”
“That’s perfectly reasonable,” he said, relieving her. “I won’t force you, I promise.”
“Thank you.” She slid the license back into the envelope. “So…what now?”
Abraham got up and offered her a hand. “I can’t think without food in my stomach,” he said, “so I propose we find some aspirin, go have breakfast, and talk this out.”
“That sounds like the best idea either of us has had in at least the past day,” she said, taking his hand with a smile. “I’m starving.”
He helped her to her feet. “Let’s go check out and see what we can find, then.”
Feeling reasonably settled and marginally less headachey, Oriana gathered her accessories and began to move toward the door as Abraham reached for his jacket. “What time is it?” she asked.
He glanced at his wristwatch. “Almost half past nine.”
“Oh, damn it, and on a Wednesday, too. They’ll have noticed we’re gone by now. We should probably make it a quick breakfast and get the jet back as soon as we can.” She reached into her handbag for her cell phone, already dreading the irate voicemail Eleazar had almost certainly left for her.
Before she could check, Eleazar himself phased through the door, looking angrier than she had ever seen him before. “Where is he?” he demanded.
She gaped. “Elie, what-"
He caught sight of Abraham standing beyond her and ran right past her, so quickly that the whiplash caused her to lose her footing and stumble into the nearby closet. The door slammed shut, trapping her in. “Oh, hell no,” she exclaimed. She forced open the door with her telekinesis and marched out, only to find that Eleazar had thrown Abraham against the wall and begun to punch him repeatedly. “What the hell are you doing?”
Eleazar ignored her, so she threw her handbag at him, using her powers to give him a couple of solid whaps to the back of his head. He turned on her furiously. “Stop that!”
“You stop it!” Oriana shot. “You do not get to hit him!”
“Are you out of your mind? He manipulated you in a drunken state and-"
“He did not do any such thing. What is wrong with you?”
He stared at her incredulously. “What’s wrong with me? I ought to be asking you that same question! What were you thinking, running off to elope like that?”
“Maybe I wasn’t,” she retorted, “but I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“Your whole life has been my business ever since I had to intervene the last time he tried to get you to marry him. How could you do this to me?”
“How could you even say that to me? You think I deliberately pull this shit to make your life hell?”
“Sometimes I have to wonder,” he said flatly.
“Fuck you, Eleazar,” she said, now completely furious. “If you really think this is about you, then fuck you.”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be crude-"
Someone pounded on the door, cutting him off. “You can get that,” she said shortly, jerking her thumb toward it. He did, with bad grace, and she used the opportunity to check on Abraham, who now sported a bloody nose. “I’m so sorry. It’s not broken, is it?”
Abraham allowed her a faint smile. “No, he didn’t quite manage that, although I’m sure he was trying to.”
“Is everything all right?” they heard Isabelle ask, as she and Rupert entered the room. “We heard yelling.”
“Apparently, we were worried for nothing,” Eleazar said shortly, shooting a glare in Oriana’s direction. She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him.
Rupert tilted his head slightly. “Are you married or not?”
“We are,” Abraham said, accepting the tissue box his wife handed to him. “The three of you must not have heard the correct information. We were both intoxicated last night, and it was a mutual agreement to come here. I hope that puts your minds at ease.”
“How did you even know we were here, anyway?” Oriana asked.
Eleazar crossed his arms. “I called Alfred to check on you when you didn’t come home.”
She glared at him. “Alfred didn’t know the whole story, you nitwit.”
“What was I supposed to think, Oriana?” Fear began to overtake the anger in his expression. “After what he’s already done to you, of course I assumed the worst.”
“Okay, let’s get a few things straight right now,” she said, holding up a hand. “One, just in case you weren’t listening, Abraham was just as drunk as I was. Two, it was my idea to get married immediately, so if anything, I took advantage of him. Three, even if he had manipulated me, I can damn well kick my own ass, okay? I don’t need your help.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Why would you want to-"
“You know what I meant! That’s beside the point!”
“Enough,” Isabelle said, stepping between them. “Everyone calm down. What’s done is done. Nothing will be fixed by yelling, so I suggest we sit down and have a rational discussion about this.” She gave each sibling a significant look. Oriana dragged Abraham back to the bed with her in high dudgeon, while Isabelle pointed Eleazar to the chair. “That’s better. Now.” She turned to the newlyweds. “I can’t possibly see how you two could make this work.”
“That is a concern you and Oriana share,” Abraham replied calmly. “We were attempting to work that out when Eleazar barged in on us. I think we might be able to, but I have promised to back off if she decides she doesn’t agree. Are you satisfied?”
“Not quite. Oriana? How do you feel about this?”
“Right now I feel like my privacy has been violated,” she said. “If I want an opinion, I’ll ask for it.”
“Your brother is only concerned for your welfare,” Isabelle replied, “and considering Abraham’s history, I think he’s entitled to that. The least you could do is try to set his mind at ease. He’s not a part of this marriage, you’re right, but he is still your brother and he has made a lot of sacrifices for you.”
“But things have changed,” Oriana said. “Abraham’s not the same person he used to be, and neither am I. Would it really be such a bad thing if we decided to give it a shot?”
“On the contrary, I think it would work out rather well,” Rupert interjected, surprising them all. “It would be more than suitable for Abraham to marry a Kopen. I fully support it.”
“That’s…not the reason I was looking for,” Oriana said, after a moment’s pause, “but thank you, Rupert.” She turned an expectant look on Eleazar and Isabelle.
The latter seemed at least a little bit convinced, but Eleazar shook his head immediately. “You’re going to get hurt. I can’t let you do this.”
“You don’t have a choice,” she said flatly. “You’re not my father, and I’m more than old enough to be making my own decisions. So you can either let me and Abraham figure this out on our own, or be an asshole about it and still not have a say and make everyone miserable. It’s up to you.” She crossed her arms. “I suggest you pick not being an asshole if you want a ride home, because I refuse to share a plane with you for five hours if you’re going to bother me about it the whole time.”
Isabelle walked up beside Eleazar and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. “I think going home sounds like an excellent idea. The three of us have been up all night, and you two look in need of some rest as well. We can talk about this later.”
“Fine,” Eleazar agreed, without looking at her. His eyes narrowed. “But I will say this: Abraham, if you ever lay a hand on her, or force something she doesn’t want, I will tear you to pieces without hesitation.”
“Fair enough,” Abraham said. Eleazar promptly turned on his heel and stormed out of the room.
Oriana’s anger turned to guilt as soon as he was gone, but she could not bring herself to run after him and apologize. Instead, she took Abraham’s hand without really thinking about it. “Let’s go.”
***
As they had been denied breakfast alone, Abraham and Oriana claimed seats in the back of the jet in order to talk things over in relative solitude. Eleazar took his rage with him to the front and spent the entire journey barring out the rest of the world with soothing classical music, while Isabelle decided to take a nap. This left Rupert to entertain himself.
He first tried to focus on a magazine, but kept glancing back toward the couple, unable to curb his curiosity. Both smiled as they sipped their orange juice and talked quietly. By the third time he looked over at them, Abraham had begun to fold up his napkin, sending Oriana into giggles.
I must know what they are saying, he thought, retrieving a pair of headphones and plugging them into his audio jack. He and Abraham had decided, when they had the residential areas of the compound bugged, to install microphones in the cars and the jet as well. As far as he knew, the system still worked. He found the right channel and settled in to listen, hoping to appear casual.
“I did not know you could do origami,” Oriana was saying, bursting into fresh laughter when Abraham held up his finished crane.
He grinned. “It’s amazing, the random skills one picks up. This is for you.”
“Why, thank you, sir. I shall put it on my desk upon our arrival at home.”
“I’m sure it will look very nice there.” He cleared his throat. “Could I ask you something? The…conversation back at the hotel made me think of it.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
“You weren’t…working toward a career when our deal regarding your cousin interrupted your life, were you?”
She hesitated. “No, not really, unless you count being a waste of space and partying a lot as a career goal.”
Abraham nodded. “I thought as much, but I can’t quite believe it. That doesn’t sound like you at all.”
“Not now it doesn’t,” she replied with a laugh. “You didn’t know me when I was a teenager, so you don’t know what an idiot I used to be. Most everything sounded like way too much work, to be honest. I didn’t even go to college.”
“Why not?”
“Didn’t want to. School was always Eleazar’s thing, not mine.” Oriana put the crane down and leaned against him. “If my father had lived long enough to see that he would’ve been very disappointed with me.”
“He would be proud of you now,” Abraham assured her.
She smiled. “I hope so. Things really have changed in the last few years. Not a lot, but…I think we’re all better people now than we used to be.”
“You have no idea how much I hope you’re right.” He took her hand in both his, and she patted his arm in response. “So, since I didn’t know you when you were younger, you’ll have to tell me all about it. Was there anything about school that you did enjoy, or was it all just boring?”
“Well, I really liked acting. I was in a lot of the plays at my private school.”
“Really? Why did you stop?”
“I graduated high school, and I wasn’t good enough to make a living out of it.” She smiled. “It was a lot of fun though. The actors were also really involved with costumes and set design, and being backstage was always a good time. I made a lot of friends that way.”
“Maybe you should find some way to get back into it.”
“I don’t know-"
“No, just listen for a minute. You never really wanted to be involved in your own family’s business, much less mine, and I don’t think you want to continue in your current job for the rest of your life.”
She straightened in her seat. “Abraham, I’m thirty-three. That’s a little late to be rethinking my career choices, isn’t it?”
“This from the woman who spent a certain limo ride yesterday evening attempting to convince a man twenty-four years her senior to rethink his lifestyle choices?” he quipped, and she laughed. “Give it some thought. You’re very financially secure, so you have nothing to lose by pursuing your interests. It would do you good, I’m sure of it.”
“You really think so?”
“I do.”
The ensuing silence made Rupert look up again to study them more closely. Oriana stared at Abraham as if she had not seen him in a very long time. “Abraham?”
“Yes?”
“Maybe we can make this work.”
A bright smile crossed his partner’s face. “Do you mean it?”
“Yeah, I do.” Her expression relaxed into a teasing grin, and she ruffled his hair. “I was thinking about getting a dog, but I think I could find some use for a husband instead.”
“Woof,” he said gruffly. A second later, they broke out into loud laughter. When they had recovered, Abraham leaned in to kiss her.
Rupert yanked the headphones out of the jack in disgust.
***
When they touched down, Isabelle quickly took Eleazar by the arm and dragged him away from the others. “I’ll return him later,” she called back.
“What are you doing?” he asked, looking at her like she had lost her mind.
“I had Rupert call for my car as well as his,” she said, “so that I could go home directly from the plane. Then I realized I was hungry and decided that you should have lunch with me.”
“I should-"
“No, you need to eat something more substantial than plane snacks before you do anything else,” she said firmly. “Just trust me, Eleazar.”
Her words shut him up for the next hour. Isabelle drove them to his favorite café near the beach, ordered for him, and watched carefully as he ate every bite of his meal. “Better?” she asked, as he pushed back his plate.
“Somewhat.” He felt his pockets. “Let me pay for lunch.”
She was already putting her credit card with the bill. “I made you come with me. It’s my treat. Now, as soon as they take care of the bill, let’s go for a walk.”
He made a slight face. “Yes, ma’am.”
“I’m sorry. I just want you to talk some of this out before you go talk to your sister.”
“That won’t make me feel any better about this.”
“No, but it may make you feel calmer about discussing it. Oriana will do what she wants one way or another, and the least you can do is keep from raking her over the coals for it.”
“That’s the thing.” He waited until the server returned Isabelle’s card to continue. “Oriana has always done whatever she wanted, and I have had to bail her out of messes so many times. I don’t think it’s very fair of her to continually burden me with that.”
She waved him up from his chair. “I think she’s as tired of it as you. Notice how she didn’t immediately run to you to help her, and, in fact, told you to back off so she could figure it out on her own.”
“She also did not apologize for scaring me so badly that I literally almost had a heart attack,” Eleazar said, following her out the door.
“Neither did you apologize for attacking her new husband before you heard the whole story,” she countered.
He frowned at her. “Are you on her side?”
“I am on the side of keeping you from getting self-righteous about blame, because as well-intentioned as you are, you frequently do that, and it never serves you very well.”
They crossed the boardwalk to a short staircase that led to the sand. Isabelle took a moment to slip her shoes off, but Eleazar was so deep in thought that he did not bother. “What is your opinion on all this?” he asked.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“I’d like to know.”
She began to walk, and he followed her. “I’d like to think that whatever they decide will work out for the best,” she said, unable to speak as lowly as she wanted to because of the wind and the sound of the water. “It’s better to think positively, since I can’t control either of them. Besides, I think it’s obvious that Abraham at least really wants this, and I like seeing him do things because he wants to and not because Rupert tells him to or because he thinks it will help him get ahead.”
“I wish I could see it that way,” he said. “I just don’t trust him. I’m sorry.”
“You have good reason not to. Don’t apologize.”
He did not speak for a few minutes, walking with his hands stuffed in his pockets and kicking at the various shells and rocks they came across as they went. “I’m afraid Oriana will decide to stay in the marriage to spite me,” he said despondently.
Isabelle frowned at him. “I think you know she won’t,” she said. “Oriana does not feel spite toward you. She’s told me more than once how grateful she is for everything you’ve done for her.”
He shrugged. “She’s really angry with me.”
“That’s not the same thing.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but shut it again almost immediately as he thought better of it. After a moment, he merely nodded. “You’re absolutely right.”
***
They arrived back at the compound to find Oriana waiting for them at the turnaround drive, shifting from foot to foot nervously. “Good luck,” Isabelle said, as she pulled up to let Eleazar out. “I’m going home to sleep.”
“Just don’t pass out on the way there,” he said with a smile, “and thank you for lunch.”
“It was my pleasure.” They waved to each other, and she drove away.
Eleazar turned toward his sister just in time to meet her tackle attack head on. He grunted. “Easy, Oriana.”
She ignored him, hugging him very tightly around the waist. “I’m so sorry for yelling at you. I was hungover and already freaked out over the shotgun wedding and not thinking, and you’re the best brother anyone could ask for and I didn’t mean to scare you and I’m sorry.”
He returned the embrace and kissed her on the top of the head. “I forgive you, and I’m sorry, too. Are you okay?” She nodded. “Good. I was seriously terrified that he had coerced you into something you didn’t really want. The first time was enough of a nightmare.”
“Don’t worry, I couldn’t agree more,” she said. “Hey, so while you were gone, Abraham and I went out and got real wedding rings, check it out.” She held up her left hand for inspection. Eleazar took it and peered at the new ring, a white gold band inlaid with tiny diamonds and rubies. “We’re calling it a combination engagement and wedding band. Didn’t see the point in a separate engagement ring since the actual engagement was about five hours.”
“That’s very sensible of you both,” he said, somewhat amused. “So you’ve already decided to just go with it?”
Oriana shrugged. “I wouldn’t go through with the wedding now if we’d waited, but we didn’t wait and the idea of a relationship with Abraham doesn’t fill me with rage. It actually makes me kind of happy. So we’ll see how it goes.”
“Then I will refrain from punching him in the face, even though I don’t agree with you.”
“Thanks, Elie.” She grinned mischievously, a sign he had long since discovered meant that he would need to brace himself for the next thing that came out of her mouth. “That’s good, because I gotta go consummate the marriage now. I just didn’t want to before we made up.”
“Oriana,” he cried, completely scandalized. “Why would you even tell me a thing like that?”
She winked. “Because it’s fun. Later!” With that, she skipped off, humming Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” as she went.
That girl is going to drive me to drink one of these days, Eleazar thought, crossing his arms.