ICanBeAnyone

Lottery Winner

As Aliyah and Duncan waited for Gary to bring the Limo around she turned and looked up at him, making a mental note to invest in heels. She was going to need them. Or roller skates. His legs were longer than she was tall it seemed. "Tonight has been great." She said. "I really enjoyed it."

She was searching for something else to say, but she was saved by Gary pulling up in the Limo. She nodded her acceptance of the ride as he held the door open for them to get in. Once they were settled she lightly rested her hand over the back of Duncan's. She was never really big of physical contact, but tonight this little touch felt right. They rode in comfortable silence back to her apartment.

Gary opened the door for her and she turned to Duncan and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before sliding out of the limo. "See you tomorrow." She said before making a dash to the door.

She closed her eyes and leaned against her apartment door, her face flushed. She had no idea what had gotten into her today. She stripped off her clothes and hung them up. She knew exactly what she was going to wear tomorrow, so she set those clothes out before heading to bed.

The next morning she crawled out of bed and went straight for her coffee pot. She brewed herself some breakfast roast, a nice light blend. Most people thought the darker the coffee the stronger, but that wasn't true. Before starting the coffee though she sprinkled salt over the coffee grounds, it helped cut some of the bitterness from using cheap coffee.

While the coffee was brewing she got ready for work, she packed her clothes in a duffel bag because she figured since he wanted most of the day, that it would make sense to just change in the bathroom at work. She grabbed a small bottle of fabric softener and water mix. It did two things, it smoothed the frizz from her hair and it covered up the scent of grease that seemed to stick to her after work.

She picked up the bag and slung it over her shoulder making a quick stop in the kitchen to fill her travel mug with coffee. She grinned as she read which mug she had picked this morning. It was bright blue and printed with the words "I tried starting my day without coffee...Once. My court date is pending."

She screwed the lid on and scooped up her keys and headed out the door to work.

Aliyah greeted Duncan with a wave and gestured for him and Gary to take a seat while she grabbed their coffee. She couldn't help but notice he looked a little rough around the edges. "Did I keep someone out past his bedtime?" She teased as she poured his coffee.

She took the order and slipped off to head back to work. Her morning went by very quickly, before she knew it the manager was telling her she was cut. She headed over to let Duncan know that she just needed to clock out and change and then she would be ready to go. He suggested that they swing by the hotel so she could freshen up, it was a chance she jumped at.

They arrived at the Hotel, and the concierge greeted her by name. She raised an eyebrow and muttered "I have either stepped into a cheesy romance novel, or a criminal minds episode. I am not sure which."

She allowed herself to be shown upstairs to what she thought was going to be his penthouse, but was in actuallity a villa. She took a deep breath through her nose and let it out slowly through her mouth to avoid hyperventilating. She did manage a laugh when Duncan welcomed her to his humble abode. "Mmmhmm. If THIS..." She said gesturing between the two of them "gets serious, you are banned from house hunting on your own. I can only imagine the horrible McMansion monstrosity we would end up in. I'd need a map to find the bathroom." She teased faking a shudder at the thought.

She listened to him play for a moment before having the butler show her where she could get ready. She took a quick shower, she would have loved to stay longer because the water was actually hot, but she was excited to see what the plans for today were. She dried off and pulled her hair back into a braid. She decided on that style because it was casual for the day, but when her hair dried she could take it out of the braid and end up with soft waves. She pulled on a pair of camel colored faux suede leggings, topped with a loose blouse that hit her at the hips. She slid her feet into brown knee high boots while she switched her gold studs out for thin silver hoops. She slid on a couple of thin silver bangle bracelets before pulling a light weight sweater. It was one of the open ones, and fell to her knees.

She went light on the makeup, just a swipe of mascara and lip gloss. She never really got into that heavy makeup look. She packed everything else back into her bag before returning to find Duncan sleeping. She crossed her arms over her chest and smiled watching him sleep for a moment. She was almost sorry that the butler woke him. He looked so peaceful.

She smiled as he apologized for sleeping. She had strangely slept very well. She moved to stand next to him as he rose from the chair taking in the sight of the instruments. She laughed and shook her head as he explained his experience with the violin. She was not musically gifted that was for sure. "I'm sure it wasn't THAT bad." She said.

As they prepared to leave, Aliyah realized the height difference was going to cause some difficulty in her keeping up. She thought for a moment, and then gently slid her arm around his hips so he would have to take smaller steps for her much shorter legs. Well that's the reason she gave herself anyway.

Serge & Lucia |EasilyAmused & ICanBeAnyone|

I was helping to get my aunts car unstuck and ended up damaging the bicep tendon and rotator cuff.

Lottery Winner

Aliyah laughed as Duncan commented on wanting a gun smaller than certain portions of his anatomy, that was such a man thing. Freud would have a field day with boys and their toys these days.

She took a deep breath as he asked about her bone spur. "I would assume it was possible since the pressure is still on the thecal sac rather than on the spinal cord itself at this point. I never really considered it before. Spinal surgery makes me nervous. I did at one point think about the Nerve stimulator implant though. I think at this point if I opted for surgery I would end up with a cadaver bone, which doesn't sound fun at all." She was mildly impressed with his knowledge of the surgical options. There were quite a few these days, and some of them were artificial replacements, but there was a higher risk of rejection.

She kind of glossed over the comments about what had happened all those years ago. It was a topic that bothered her greatly, so she couldn't imagine what it was like for him.

She made a face as he mentioned immunizations. She hated needles, but depending on where they were traveling, she would likely end up with a lot of them. "Yeah, I will give notice at the restaurant, they've been good to me, and I need to keep my options open. I will switch shifts one day this week and get a copy of my birth certificate. I will get an appointment at the health department to catch up on vaccines. I wouldn't worry about cell service internationally. I promise I don't need one." She said with a laugh. She barely had cell service now. She didn't need it, she was actually pretty glad that it was on right now, it was one thing she didn't bother spending a ton of money on.

She bit her lip and shrugged as he suggested she start making a list of places she wanted to go. It was going to take her a bit to get into that mindset. The way her mind was right now, she hardly believed this was happening. It was very possible she was going to wake up in the morning, laugh and shake this all off as a crazy dream.

She raised an eyebrow as he told her his room number at Caesars. Her entire place would likely fit in the master bathroom. That reminded her, if she was going to do this, she was going to have to give notice. She was month to month, so giving up her place was not a big deal, but she was going to have to start deciding what to toss, and what few things to take with her. Luckily there wouldn't be a lot of hard decisions. She never got attached to stuff, far too many times in her childhood she had to leave a place in the middle of the night with just the clothes on her back.

"Not Part of the Plan"

Kat took her seat and smiled with a slight blush to her cheeks. "A slight exaggeration I am sure, although the women may be jealous that I am with such a handsome man this evening."

She turned her attention to the sommelier and requested to hear about the whites. She admitted to an allergy to the sulfites in reds that caused her horrible migraines. They settled on a wine and she turned her attention to Paul. "So I hope your meeting with the Camp Hope contributor was successful."

"Please pass along my thanks for their contribution. The meeting I had this morning was actually presenting a new organization to the society for assistance. Regardless of what the board decides, I think that check will do a lot of good." She told him.

Her official title was donation coordinator, but she did so much more than that. She helped with grantwriting, and designing community programs, but all anyone ever really saw of her was the party planning, so she often just told people all she did was make things look pretty.

Lottery Winner

Aliyah blinked as she obviously opened the flood gates, and information came pouring out of him. She was actually glad of it, it gave her so much more information, and she knew she wouldn't have to feel bad about sharing some of her own past. She let him ramble taking mental notes of everything he said. She was so very glad of her ability to recall information. It was part of what made her good at her job, she didn't ever have to write anything down, she could remember all of it.

She wasn't too sure how she felt about being compared to his mother, but there could be worse things she supposed. She could be being compared to HER mother. He was mostly right though, which was strange. The last thing she wanted a good looking man to be thinking of when he looked at her was his mother. She would occasionally glance over to Gary as Duncan chattered. It was more to reassure herself that she was actually here, and this entire situation was happening.

Once Duncan was finished she smiled and leaned forward a little bit. The best way to handle this would be to chop this up into topic. She took a deep breath. "Ok, wow." She blinked a few times. "First of all... billions... wow. Yeah... interview professionals, at least 5 from each specialty. Don't just go with the first person who looks good on paper."

Not that she knew anything about hiring professionals, but she did know quite a bit about people, and had done her share of interviewing and hiring over her years at the Omelette House.

"Second, seeing that we are planning a date, I cannot tell you how comforted I am by the fact that you are not, in fact, gay." She teased. She certainly found him incredibly attractive, or she wouldn't have agreed to go out with him. Not that looks were that important to her, but she treated dating more like a distraction. She never expected it to go anywhere more than a cup of coffee or a quick bite to eat.

"As for Einstein, he was a very intelligent man I will give him that, but Feynman and Oppenhimer were just as intelligent, and get none of the recognition." Ok, so she might have fallen asleep to some documentaries on Netflix a time or two, but it at least made her appear to be semi intelligent.

"As to your assertion that I have similarities with your mother, based off your commentary, I can confirm that you are partially correct." She laughed a little. "I may or may not own a tablet for the purpose of downloading cross stitch patterns. I am not much into art, and I don't doodle, but I do design my own charts." She smiled. "As for Archery, I never learned, but step father number..." She stopped and tilted her head back and used her fingers to count. "4, or maybe it was 5" She said looking back at him "Anyway, he was a gun nut, so I am a fair decent shot." She admitted. "I have little hands though, so I prefer to use something like the Glock .30 SF because lets face it, get a really big dude, and a 9, might not be enough, and I sure as hell have no interest in those damn cute frilly girlie guns. Freaking useless 38's. And Well the last thing I want to deal with if I am strapping on a gun is having to ask my significant other 'Baby, does this gun make my ass look big?' "

She heard Gary choke back what sounded suspiciously like a laugh so she turned her head to grin and him and shrug before turning her attention back to Duncan. "As for a health issue, yes and no. I have a bone spur pressing against my spine, which can at times cause mild discomfort." Ok, so that was a mild understatement, but she learned a long time ago that chronic pain was not something many people understood. Duncan would, but it was a habit to keep those secrets close to the vest.

She had no idea what to say about the information about his family. He had suffered so much tragedy, but still managed to be a fairly positive person. He had a good point, life could change in a matter of seconds. She rested her hand on his arm briefly. "I am so sorry for your loss." She said quietly taking a deep breath. She had run out of things to address, well everything but the big question. She kept running the idea through her head, trying to find reasons why she shouldn't go. Really, what was the worst thing that could happen? She'd end up dead somewhere? Eh... from the way he spoke about his travels, it would be somewhere pretty, so there was that.

"I guess, the only thing left to address is ummm, traveling." She finally managed. "I mean, I think it sounds wonderful. I can't really think of a single reason why I should say no." Actually she could think of dozens, but she wasn't going to go there. "So yeah... Why not. Let's do it." She said with a laugh. She couldn't believe she had actually agreed. Was she crazy? She must be, but she was going to go with it.

Serge & Lucia |EasilyAmused & ICanBeAnyone|

@SinfulSkills So I bought the bluetooth keyboard you recommended and I am in LOVE!!

It arrived today, which was good timing. It is just the right size so that even with my arm in a sling I can type quickly and easily.

Lottery Winner

Aliyah smiled as he mentioned actually seeing them. It was highly unlikely she would ever do that. She never planned on leaving Vegas. She was managing fine here. She could be making more money elsewhere, but she liked where she was.

She listened to him talk about the places he's been. They all sounded incredible. They were places she had only seen through photos and online videos.

She practically choked as he invited her to travel with him. It was hard for her to catch her breath until Gary reached over and slapped her on the back. She wiped her eyes and blinked a few times.

"uh... wow." was the only response she was able to give at first. Her brain was going a million miles a minute. He wanted HER to go with him? Why? Of all the women in the world he was asking her? They hadn't even officially had a date yet.

She glanced at Gary her eyes wide almost as if asking if this was really happening. She didn't really have a response at the moment so she took a deep breath and ignored the travel question.

She instead chose to respond to his other comments about money. "Well it sounds like you have a busy few weeks ahead of you. I can't give much advice, but I would definately say not to invest in anything you don't understand. And coming from a life long Vegas native... stay away from real estate here. It goes in vicious cycles." She said.

She did have lots of ideas on things he COULD do, but talking about them would mean opening up about her past. Something that was incredibly painful for her to do. If he had been as lucky as he claimed, he would need charitable write offs. She knew a lot of things about that, well at least from the aspect of what was helpful, and what was not.

She thought for a few minutes. "Are you thinking about commercial or residential real estate? If you are looking at residential, and are thinking of multi family housing units, I have a suggestion if you would be interested in hearing it."

Lottery Winner

She listened to him talk and could sympathize with a lot of what he was telling her, especially about growing up in poverty. She knew all about dumpster diving. It was a skill she had gotten very good at as a kid. When she was growing up there was a spike in what was called the "freegan" movement in which people were dumpster diving for more than clothes and items to resell. Food and medicine were often among the treasures she would find.

She listened to him talk about his grandparents and the laptop they had purchased for him. She wondered if they were still alive to see the amazing person they had helped build.

She laughed when he said he hoped her life was quieter than his. "I highly doubt I would have survived it being more interesting."

She didn't like talking about her past much. Her mother is or was an addict. She didn't know if she was still alive. She left the house after highschool and never looked back.

He asked her about what she would do if she had enough money to go anywhere and do just about anything she wanted. She smiled a little and tucked her hair behind her ear again. That seemed to be her nervous habit.

"That's a good question." She said as she met his gaze. "It is really silly, are you sure you want to hear it?" When he assured her he did she continued.

"I don't have any particular destination in mind. I would just get in a car and drive. I don't want to go to any of the big cities though. Everyone does that. I would visit small towns and off the beaten path places."

She took a small drink of her tea shaking her head a little at the sweetness of it it. She mostly drank water, because growing up, even watered down Kool Aid was a luxury. "I mean I would do SOME touristy stuff. The Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Desmit South Dakota, or Storybook Land in in Aberdeen. But I would probably skip Mt. Rushmore. I am just weird like that."

She didn't tell him that she would love to stay only in haunted hotels thought, she figured that was a little too weird for most people.

"Not Part of the Plan"

Kat sat in her chair, letting it swing back and forth as she talked to Paul. She had her back to the door when her assistant walked in and set a laptop down hard enough to get her attention. Kat turned around and her eyes widened at the sight of the news article in front of her.

She spoke quietly to Paul. "Did you see the news today?" She wanted to know. "Carlton James died last night at the hotel. Hold on one second."

She moved her phone away from her mouth but didn't mute it so Paul would still hear her speak. "Start calling the wives, and set up meal delivery. Send a personal basket from me. Paper towels, napkins, paper plates, plastic cutlery. You know what I send."

She pulled the phone back to her mouth. "So sorry about that. I swear my job title should be crisis manager." She chatted for a few minutes more and agreed to meet him for dinner.

______________________________________

Later that night

Kat swallowed nervously as she slid from her car handing the keys to the Valet. She had no idea why she was so nervous. She had spent last evening with him, and they both had a good time, but that was on her turf. Tonight was different, tonight was just the two of them.

She allowed herself to be escorted to the table where Paul was already waiting. He stood to greet her and she managed a smile, hoping her hand didn't shake when she grasped his arm to lean in to kiss his cheek.

"Not Part of the Plan"

Kat grinned at him as he mentioned his inheritance. "Oh I don't know... a classic T-bird. That could get you pretty far." She teased.

She enjoyed spending the evening with Paul. He was a great conversationalist, and was of great assistance to her in keeping some of the more pretentious attendees satisfied when she had to step away. After a while she had stopped thinking of Paul as just another reporter along for the story, she relaxed into the evening as if he were truly her date. She sighed softly as the voice in her ear reminded her that it was time to start the speeches. She turned to Paul and whispered softly. "I am so sorry to abandon you again. Duty calls." She said before brushing a kiss across his cheek and slipping off into the crowd making her way to the stage.

She cleared her throat and then took the microphone. "Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome, and thank you all for being here tonight. It has been a lovely evening thus far. Please don't forget there is only another 30 minutes on the silent auction. Place your bids now. That shameless plug for more money aside." The crowd laughed with her, they were used to her humor.

"I would like to introduce someone very special to me. Not only is he the President of the Society, but also my Grandfather. Please welcome to the stage Mr. James Malloy." she turned and kissed her grandfather on the cheek as the crowd erupted into applause. She handed him the Microphone and headed off the stage. "Well now, that was quite the introduction. Let's hear it for my lovely Granddaughter Ladies and Gentlemen." Kat gave a small wave to the attendees before slipping into the crowd intent on finding Paul, but it seemed that he had vanished.

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The next morning, Kat ran through the door of her office, she was running late. She had stayed too late last night supervising the clean up. She saw the roses sitting on her desk, but she didn't even have time to look at the card. She dropped her phone on the desk and scooped up the folders containing the information she was about to present. She was asking the society to fund a system of programs for homeless women and women with children. It was an undeserved population as far as education went.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure you will see based on the information in front of you, that will an operating budget increase, that Sarah's house could do so much more. First and foremost, they really need a building that isn't falling down around them. But we are in the process of working on some federal grants to help with that. Once that is in place..." She clicked her remote and brought up a slide.
"We would love to see more life skills being taught. Most of these women are unaware of how to handle the most basic of life's tasks."

She continued to explain the programs that she had worked on developing with the director. She wrapped up the meeting and headed back to her office. She sat down in her chair with a sigh and picked up her phone. She had a voice mail. She listened to it smiling as she heard why Paul had disappeared. It was probably the only excuse that would have saved their date. She reached for the bouquet and found the check. She laughed out loud. It was absolutely perfect. This check alone, would fund Sarah's house for a complete year.

She picked up the phone to return his call. She hoped it would go to voicemail. She tapped her pen against her desk as the phone rang. She jumped a little in her chair as he answered the phone. "Well Hello." She said. "Thank you for the flowers, they are beautiful, and words cannot express how much the little tag along with them will be able to help."