The Tinsel and Tommy-Guns Holiday Ball
"A little to the left." I smiled up at John, glad that he had decided to take on some of the work this time. During the first six years of our marriage, he was content to leave the hosting duties up to me. I never considered a holiday party something John could get into before he told me about his interest in Art History. I guess you could say,
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Like Faith, he'd spent some time in California, though that was strictly for family vacations, and the occassional post Nevada road trip. From what he remembered, it was easy to get into a bad situation in California. That was part of the reason why he'd never considered living there.
Well, that, and it was a little too close to Vegas for his liking.
Linus recalled hearing about the collapse of some small California town, but he'd never paid much attention to it. Hearing that Faith was there after she'd called herself a vampire slayer didn't surprise him as much as it made him more curious about her. Either she was the weirdest woman he'd ever met, or there was a lot more to the world than what he'd seen of it.
"I'm from Chicago. I lived there mostly, traveled with work for a while, spent some time in Boston, ended up back in Chicago. And, like I said, I'm here on business."
There. The life of Linus Caldwell sans casino robbery and Amsterdam repayment heist.
"So..." He sighed, realizing he was exceptionally bad at conversation. "Any hobbies?"
No wonder it was so hard for Linus to date.
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So this was Faith. Spending a Sunday night on a couch in a complete strangers house, talking. It was a big change of pace, and was giving Faith a bit more time to think about stuff than she was used to when around a guy. Between the club and the rampant of sexual ineundo that she had been bombarded with around Harry and Connor Linus made her feel comfortable.
Faith had changed that much was sure, but still as she sat there sobering up rather quickly cursing her internal metabolism and Slayer gifts she didn't want to be the 'good girl' that did what was right. Faith had never been that girl, and suddenly the thought that she might become her gave her a chill.
"No hobbies, mostly because there is no time for that." Speaking of no time, there is no time like right now for Faith to shift her weight onto that leg that is still straddling Linus' lap. Her hand grabs onto his shirt pulling herself closer to him and kisses him. Full on Faith kissing going on, because well she isn't a good girl.
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Linus returned the kiss, knowing that he shouldn't let it continue while wanting it to at the same time. Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to do, after all. Faith was pretty coherent for someone who'd obviously had more than a few, and even if that was just a smokescreen, well...
Linus finally pulled away, hating himself for stopping the most passionate woman he'd ever met from doing exactly what he wanted her to. He sighed, more to himself than to her, and tried to think of something to say to her that wouldn't sound like rejection.
It wasn't. In Linus' mind, he was doing the right thing to do. Sure, the right thing felt a little, well, wrong, but at least he knew she wasn't going to have anything to regret after the party, even if he did. And judging by the way things were going versus the way they could have gone, Linus figured he had a lot to regret.
"Sorry, I uh...I'm not used to this." He raised his hand up to rub his temples.
"You've had a lot to drink. And,--and that aside? We don't know each other, Faith."
Yeah, he couldn't have sounded any more like a girl if he had tried, but Linus was doing his best to explain it to her.
"You're someone I think I'd like to know."
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She could tell he was regretting that one, and smirked to herself a bit as she eased back onto the couch and off of his thigh, still leaving her leg there of course though. When he made the comment about her having a lot to drink she had to stifle a small laugh and covered her mouth, her eyes widening a bit. It was ironic to her that someone of the male persuasion of the species was actually telling her she was too drunk to fuck. Not that it was even going in that direction, but still it looked like Linus had put the brakes on that operation altogether. She regained her composure and pouted a bit over the not knowing her remark too, she was playing hurt but really didn't mind.
"Hey, it's no rush Linus. I wanted to kiss you so I did. No sense gettin' your panties in a bunch over it. But I might have had a lot to drink tonight, but honestly I could pass any sobriety test they give me," she paused for that dramatic effect and leaned over and whispered to him, pushing that envelope again, "I'd even blow clean."
Yeah, she said it. I feel really bad for him right now, cause there is no doubt that raised a red flag of some sort.
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And then Linus came to the understanding that she could, and that every single ounce of pain and self hatred was probably registering on his face from that extremely low blow.
Blow. He hated the word now. Not necessarily the suggestion she'd given him, but the word itself for being able to make him feel a way he shouldn't in an already difficult situation. After all, Linus knew what he had to do.
It was just getting increasingly more difficult to keep up his determination on that one.
"...Oh. Well, that's...good. Yeah that's good. You wouldn't want to...fail a test like that."
He thought the safest thing to do was to go along with it. To pretend that they were still talking about sobriety tests and nothing more. It was easier that way. He didn't feel like the idiot of the year as much if he kept it in that direction.
Linus knew that Faith might not be willing to play along, but since she was already busy with one game he didn't think it would be much of an issue to her. Anyway, it was time to change the subject.
"How long will you be in town?"
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There was no fortune teller forseeing this disaster for her, in fact Faith hadn't noticed the trainwreck this was becoming until it was almost too late. This was the first real conversation she had with a man, that wasn't Connor and she had been playing him like some toy right out of the box. She wasn't drunk, she wasn't really completely sober but she should have known better once things got to a certain point that it wasn't going anywhere else.
Still she pushed, and look where it got her. He was looking for the exit again, and had become master of changing the subject. It wasn't turning into the best night for her at all. Okay the kiss was good, but this wasn't really part of her plan. Then again? Faith never had plans.
Her leg moved of it's own free will off of his, releasing him, in case he ended up running for the door, and took the evil grin of naughty off her lips, "Hey, woah. Okay, I pushed too hard. Just girl like me? Doesn't usually have to push at all, you just seemed fun. I mean not that you aren't? Just seems like you got somethin' else on your mind and I really didn't mean to make things worse. I should'a backed off." she shook her head a bit, "I don't usually back off though. Kinda never applies ya know?"
Her hand ran through her hair tugging it back a bit, this was suddenly awkward, because she was now that girl that had been thinking she was on top of her game only to have all the pieces thrown off the board. She let out a breath trying to calm her insides down.
"I'm in town 'till tomorrow, then Boston 'till maybe the first? Not really solid plans or nothin' got some friends I'm seein' and then back to Chicago." She paused and took a good hard look at him, "Hey, we're cool right? I mean you ain't bustin' to hop the couch here on me are ya?"
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"No, I'm not." He shook his head, finally starting to recover from her suggestion. It wasn't easy to get something like that off of his mind. The offers were few and far between as it was.
"You can put your leg back if you need me to prove it." Linus managed to smirk at her, sitting back a little more and attempting to lessen the tension he was still feeling by making himself more comfortable.
"I'm alright now." Linus told her, hoping it was the truth. He would have explained it to her better if he knew how. It just seemed likely that Faith knew everything she needed to about his attitude towards what she wanted to make happen between them.
"You caught me off guard, that's all."
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She's leaning into the couch now her elbow bent letting her hand hide beneath her hair as it supports her head. "Yeah I tend to do that though, the catchin' people off guard? 'Course most times its for the best. Comes in handy on the job." The previously mentioned slaying of vampires and demons thing. Yeah. "Glad you're alright though, would be a shame for all that flirtin' I was doin' to just be for nothin' here."
She was actually amazed at how well behaved she had become, it was either well behaved or just tired of games that men expected a girl like her to play. In fact since showing up in New York that was all she had really. Guys that played just as hard as she did. This was something unexpected and it put her at ease, which was something most men had failed to do. Trust was usually never earned with the men Faith was with, mostly because they never stuck around long enough to earn it. There was something though, in his eyes that she couldn't figure out, and the thing was she wanted to figure it out.
"So, how 'bout you. New York 'till when?"
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"Tomorrow, I have an evening flight. I promised my family that I'd be around for Christmas Eve."
Linus winced at his own mention of his family, thinking that it must have sounded strange to her. Men his age generally weren't rushing home to be with their relatives. Saying that he was going home for them had to have made him seem like some kind of introverted Momma's boy with an unhealthy attachment to family gatherings.
At the very least, it sounded immature and he wished he hadn't said it.
"Everyone flies in for the holidays. The person too busy to show up is the one who they spend half the night talking about."
And of course, they'd spend the other half talking about Linus whether he was there or not, but he liked to think that by being there he could somehow regulate it.
But that part was just in his head.
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"Must be nice, I mean aside from the talkin' about each other part. My family wasn't really the type to go hang out for the holidays." Truth was Faith had no clue where her family was these days. She had walked out all those years ago and hadn't looked back. Faith had finished her last drink before they had sat down onto the couch, and wasn't even looking for a new one to replace it. She didn't want to make him anymore uncomfortable than he already had been around her.
Faith wasn't sure just how to do this whole conversation thing. It had been a long while since she just sat down and talked to a guy without knowing where it was leading. However she did want to make sure that at least she got one thing done, before he darted like a deer running across the highway. But before she could even start to think about it she saw that tiny girl that was with Lindsey earlier start to head her way. The thing is? If this girl knew about her, that meant that she could open up a whole mess of trouble for Faith with this nice guy.
However Faith wasn't about to let this phase her just yet. The brunette was still a bit away and was stopping every so often to say hi to the random person. Faith stopped watching her for a moment and smiled at Linus, "Hey, you said you wanted to get to know me? Or you thought you did at least? Let me make it easy for you."
Faith grabbed the rest of the napkin that she had used earlier for her number to Jason and used the pen she stole as well to jot down her name, cell phone number and the number to her loft. "This is how to reach me, should you want to."
She folded it up and tucked it into his empty hand, then grabbed her cell phone. "So now? It's only fair." She started to type out his name ready to store his number in there too, it wasn't like Faith knew a million guys named Linus either, so all she needed was the first name. She sat there waiting for his number to be read out just in case that girl came over and decided to talk shop she could excuse herself and slap the woman later.
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