Complaints, Commonalities and Coffee
WHO: Ludwig and Elizaveta
WHEN: Jan 6th (Thurday, around three in the afternoon)
WHERE: Baroque Street, at a local cafe
WHAT: Two people who have known each other forever, sit down to talk for the first time.
( Do I know you? )
WHEN: Jan 6th (Thurday, around three in the afternoon)
WHERE: Baroque Street, at a local cafe
WHAT: Two people who have known each other forever, sit down to talk for the first time.
( Do I know you? )
Somehow, though, she can't remember ever properly sitting down and talking with him. Strange. And very unacceptable. And now that Gilbert was gone, they could at least keep each other company. At least, that was her logic.
Keeping her scarf close to her neck, she breathed in the smell of coffee as she rounded the corner to the nice cafe, only just five minutes to three o'clock. Sitting in one of the more secluded tables was her friend of the day, looking all proper and well-mannered.
Elizaveta slipped into the seat, a wide smile on her face. "Ludwig! Have you been waiting long?" She took off her coat and turned around in her seat to hook it over her chair, still talking. "It's really cold out this time of year, isn't it?"
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Ludwig leaned back in his chair, already at ease in the warm air of the cafe. The smell of fresh ground coffee and baked goods hot out of the oven were like a balm, soothing away some of the tension from the last few weeks. The good company was surely helping as well.
Nodding his agreement about the cold and catching the eye of a nearby waitress, he asked, "How have you been? I heard you and Alfred Jones bought Chueca recently."
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As the waitress took their orders, Elizaveta let herself relax in her seat. There was nothing to be tense about. Ludwig was an old friend of sorts, and the atmosphere of the cafe was very relaxing. She put herself at ease.
"Speaking of Alfred, I heard you trained his puppy for him?" The image was quite amusing to imagine, really.
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"Ah... yes," he replied, "He said a man named Arthur wouldn't let him keep her until she was trained, so I agreed to help him out." He paused for a moment, recalling with a small wry smile how much alike Alfred and Rosie were. "Very excitable, those two," he murmured.
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She sighed, looking past his shoulder and through a window. "Unfortunately, I kind of miss all that bright and cheerfulness that he brought along with him everywhere. I have no idea on what to do with Chueca now." She remembered something. "Oh! Ludwig, if I'm not mistaken, I heard you work at a fashion company...?"
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Ludwig's eyes flicked out the window as well, giving a small nod to confirm Elizaveta's question. "Yes... I'm a fashion director at Euforia, on Baroque Street." He lifted his cup slightly in Elizaveta's direction. "Not far from Cheuca, actually."
Curious now, Ludwig took a sip of his coffee before asking, "What did you do before buying Chueca?" Work was always a subject he found easy to talk about. And it was really all he did, these days.
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Cupping her hands around her mug, she laughed lightly, cheeks flushing. "It's a little embarrassing but... I used to work as a housekeeper. Strange, huh? My employer preferred the term 'personal assistant' but all I really did was clean his house."
"You might have known him, Roderich Edelstein?
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"What a small world," he mused quietly. It was amazing, really. He and Elizaveta knew some of the same people, and he wondered for a moment why they didn't bump into each other more often.
"Do you have any family in Liberty?" Ludwig asked quietly, taking another sip of his coffee.
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"My mom and my dad live in New York, actually. I came to Liberty on my own." She smiled. "And I know Gilbert lives, or lived, with you sometime in the past." Her eyes twinkled. "I pity whoever had to do your laundry."
Looking out at the chilly weather outside, she winked. "You know, Gilbert used to tell me a lot about his favourite brother. The weird thing is, you're not quite the stick-in-the-mud that the described."
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"I found a pair of his underwear in the microwave, once," he said quietly, a slightly wry expression on his face.
Shaking his head, Ludwig sat up a little straighter in his chair. He glanced out the window briefly before looking back at Elizaveta again. "How was he doing before he left for Germany? I haven't talked to him much recently."
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She shrugged, "I think the last conversation we had centered around Anderson Cooper." She laughed a little, "I had just discovered how much he looked like him. Gilbert, that is."
Her mind wandered to a different topic. "Do you know his new roommate? That French man? He's been talking about him again and again."
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Then he finally remembered a little, the gears of his efficient German mind clicking away smoothly, "His name was Bonnefoy, wasn't it? Gilbert doesn't usually mention his name, but I don't know that name from anywhere else."
He himself was preparing to move, to a small but comfortable apartment farther from downtown Liberty and closer to the outskirts in a clean, quiet neighbourhood. Just him and the dogs. "Do you have a roomate?" he asked.
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