[OTA] Game Face On
One of the benefits of living with Victor for the better part of a year was learning the very fine art of not talking to people. Of course, given that Zoe usually did talk to people - a lot of them, and frequently - it had involved a little more maneuvering on her part. But worth it, in the end, after the conversation she'd had with the elderly Orthodox priest who ministered to the small chapel in Town and ran the local diner in between Sundays. Excommunication wasn't a pleasant way to begin a day, end a year, or anything in between. It was nothing she wanted to discuss, either; she'd always been the rarity among her friends, someone who actually went to Church most Sundays, and she didn't expect that even Hadyn would understand why it was...upsetting.
So instead of going to her usual haunts, where she would have been guaranteed to run into at least one friend, and instead of going back to Spade Castle, where Chives' six sense would have guaranteed that he would have figured out she was upset no matter how impassive her expression, Zoe retreated to a dark, dim bar she'd never been to for the first half of the day. She ordered enough cocktails to numb the twist in her stomach, though not enough to actually get drunk, and tapped into the Deck wireless to work remotely until she felt composed enough to deal with going home. She went back at a time when she could virtually guarantee Victor was away from his rooms, and she packed up the small number of things related to the Church that had migrated there: two lace veils, one white and one black, and a red chotki that had belonged to Ioanna Kattalakis and Georgios had brought from Outside. She'd already been packing up a lot of other old things she'd brought from the Hearts, she told herself. This wasn't that different.
When the box was moved to storage, labeled with her name, she washed her face, put her makeup back on, and went to her office to bury herself in numbers for a while.
When evening came, though, it was time to honor her commitments - and since she'd sworn to Riley that she would, hand to God, show up for the James New Year's Eve party this year, she changed into a green dress and black suede heels, tied her hair up into a sleek knot, and prepared to go ring in the New Year with sushi and wine.
[Note: Run into Zoe anywhere in Spade Castle or in Town, or at the James' house if you want to be at the party.]
So instead of going to her usual haunts, where she would have been guaranteed to run into at least one friend, and instead of going back to Spade Castle, where Chives' six sense would have guaranteed that he would have figured out she was upset no matter how impassive her expression, Zoe retreated to a dark, dim bar she'd never been to for the first half of the day. She ordered enough cocktails to numb the twist in her stomach, though not enough to actually get drunk, and tapped into the Deck wireless to work remotely until she felt composed enough to deal with going home. She went back at a time when she could virtually guarantee Victor was away from his rooms, and she packed up the small number of things related to the Church that had migrated there: two lace veils, one white and one black, and a red chotki that had belonged to Ioanna Kattalakis and Georgios had brought from Outside. She'd already been packing up a lot of other old things she'd brought from the Hearts, she told herself. This wasn't that different.
When the box was moved to storage, labeled with her name, she washed her face, put her makeup back on, and went to her office to bury herself in numbers for a while.
When evening came, though, it was time to honor her commitments - and since she'd sworn to Riley that she would, hand to God, show up for the James New Year's Eve party this year, she changed into a green dress and black suede heels, tied her hair up into a sleek knot, and prepared to go ring in the New Year with sushi and wine.
[Note: Run into Zoe anywhere in Spade Castle or in Town, or at the James' house if you want to be at the party.]