|
Post by Adrianna Daye on Dec 22, 2008 18:39:50 GMT -8
Adrianna parked her black Sedan in the back of the restaurant. The car looked very official and very expensive. Its dark tinted windows and glossy black paint would make any onlooker a little jealous. Before coming to Portland she would’ve never thought she’d have a car like this. She clicked her keys and listened for the assuring beep of the alarm turning on. Not that anyone in their right mind would try and take the vehicle.
With a look around the back lot she hurried into the building. She greeted two of the waiters with a smile as she went through the doors. She hadn’t seen any of the others vehicles but that never meant much. She sat on one of the stools at the small bar and ordered a glass of orange juice. She’d see if anyone noticed her absence soon enough.
She absentmindedly sipped her drink and let her thoughts drift back to her meeting this morning.
|
|
|
Post by Jude Hoyt on Dec 22, 2008 23:16:57 GMT -8
It hadn't been a particularly exciting day, and so not a very pleasing one either. Jude Hoyt's work at the hospital had produced no results, despite his suspicions that he was drawing nearer to some sort of breakthrough. He'd made some progress with one of the head technicians, and that was good, but it was hardly cause for celebration when his knowing smile could send the woman into fits of blushing giggles.
But it was a start. It was a step in the right direction, and it was all he could do for now.
There had been an awful lot of steps in the right direction so far, and not very much substantial progress. The fact that he didn't have a seer to call his own yet was evidence of distinct lack of accomplishment, enough to make a demon sigh and yearn for a plate of his favorite pasta primavera.
And so Hoyt moved through the darkening streets of Downtown Portland, hands held for warmth in the pockets of his long, thick, and obviously expensive winter coat. He tossed smiles -- empty to anyone that knew him, warm to those that didn't -- to passersby. Perhaps, he thought, as he smiled at a woman and her young daughter, perhaps tonight he would visit the dreams of that head technician of his, plant ideas in her sleeping mind. Ideas of the success of a certain Dr Hoyt, ideas of charity in the form of lab equipment to help him achieve it -- ideas of the rewards she would reap if she did.
Yes. He would make sure to put aside enough time tonight to visit the woman.
His mood was hardly lifted by the personal decision, but the warm and familiar smell of Leonardo's as he stepped into it did wonders to help. He smiled to himself, a smile that inched wider to see an even more familiar shape at one of the stools of the bar. The evening had a good chance of being pleasant after all.
"Good evening, Adrianna," he said smoothly, voice something like velvet rubbed the right way, as he stepped to the stool next to her and began to unbutton his coat.
|
|
|
Post by Adrianna Daye on Dec 22, 2008 23:39:31 GMT -8
Adrianna had been daydreaming for at least a good hour or so, and she had managed to fall so deep into the images playing themselves out in front of her that she had not heard the door open. She didn’t pay much attention when someone made there way across the room and stopped beside her. She did how ever snap herself out of her dreaming quick enough to give her whip lash when he spoke, and turned to meet familiar blue eyes.
Hoyt’s voice washed over her filling her with instant relief. Not just the relief that he hadn’t been her when she returned so he didn’t notice her absence, but also the relief of just being near him. Anytime she was in his presence all the tension of her day washed away. All thoughts of anything else fell away, unnoticeably, almost. One small thought was lingering at the back of her brain, but she quieted it for now.
“Good evening Jude. How was work today?” The smile that played across her features was a warm and inviting one. She let her gaze skim over his face, she never realized how she missed him until she found herself in his presence again.
|
|
|
Post by Jude Hoyt on Dec 22, 2008 23:52:49 GMT -8
Hoyt moved as if completely unaware of Adrianna's reaction and attention, not even looking at the young woman, and to any observer the obliviousness would seem authentic. But like any good leader, he was perfectly aware of his subjects' attentions. Keeping that particular soft smile on his face, he carefully finished unbuttoning the jacket and draped it over the nearest hook, on the wall just a step or two away.
He returned to ease himself onto the stool, as if suffering from a particularly long day. He took care that all his actions might seem slow, careful. Weariness was the picture he painted tonight.
"Oh, nothing worth mentioning," he said, waving a hand idly through the air. And then the smile turned onto Adrianna, full force in all of its warmth and easy attentiveness. "But how was your day? A good one, I hope?"
|
|
|
Post by Adrianna Daye on Dec 23, 2008 0:56:14 GMT -8
Hoyt’s smile was nearly heart stopping, she had to concentrate to hear what he was saying. How was her day? She couldn’t quite concentrate enough to remember.
“It was…” Isaac’s face flashed before her. “pleasant.” She said with a soft smile, before erasing it from her face. “Thank you for asking.” She looked around the restaurant, not many people where here today. Gray was not around and she hadn’t seen him in a while, and it looked like none of the others were about earlier. She didn’t make mention of it, she was sure they would be about sooner or later. “I was wondering if you had any plans for Saturday.” She tried to make it sound as casual as possible. “If not I was thinking about going to a couple places around town.” She gave him a casual smile, and her stomach turned. She wondered why she suddenly felt so awful. She wasn’t lying to him per se, and there was nothing that said that she couldn’t go off and do things on her own time. Why did she always have to blow things so out of proportion in her mind.
She waited, trying not too look eager, for his reply.
|
|
|
Post by Jude Hoyt on Dec 23, 2008 1:25:57 GMT -8
Hoyt did not, of course, miss the smile and the single-word-description in conjunction. Together they meant far more than either would have alone -- his little witch had found something interesting. But the knowledge didn't change his face, didn't ring in his smooth voice. He had confidence that if it were important, she would tell him.
And if she wouldn't , well, there were always others around her that could be convinced to.
"Saturday?" Hoyt made a show of thinking, letting his eyes rise to the ceiling as though flipping through a mental calendar. He didn't have anything planned for this Saturday -- at least, nothing directly involving Adrianna. "Hmm, I do have..." he let the thought trail off, as if evaluating the invented event's importance. "Well, I suppose that can wait, if it has to." His eyes fell to Adrianna again, the smile quirked his lips as a spirit of mischief took him. "Why? Have a hot date, hmm?"
|
|
|
Post by Adrianna Daye on Dec 23, 2008 16:10:38 GMT -8
Adrianna was instantly guilt ridden, but she kept her face composed. She didn't want Hoyt to postpone anything on her account, but at the same time she really wanted to get out and go spend time with people ...who weren't these people. She had never before even once thought that she would make excuses to get away from Hoyt, after all it was he that had given her the life that she had now. He'd given her a purpose.
She tried not to blush at the mention of a hot date, but failed that battle horribly. Her face flushed with noticable color.
"No, um, not a date." She took a deep breathe. " I was just going to go out with some people that I met at the College." That was yet again, technically, not a lie. Her stomach did another somersault.
"But I don't want to you to put off anything important on my account." Her heart felt like it was going to explode in her chest. She had never felt this way before and wondered briefly if this is what cheaters felt like. Not that she was cheating. Her and Hoyt weren't in a relationship. Hell, she had never even been in a relationship.
As her emotions warred inside of her she sighed, not really meaning to but the noise came out anyway. She plastered a feel nothing look on her face and rested her arms on the counter.
|
|
|
Post by Jude Hoyt on Jan 15, 2009 0:33:16 GMT -8
Of course Hoyt couldn't miss the blush on Adrianna's face. Someone as observant as he when it came to those around him, would he ever really miss something like that? He laughed to himself, nodded, and made himself comfortable in his seat.
"You don't have to ask," he said cheerfully. "That's fine, of course. It can wait."
His curiosity, that would wait as well. Her reaction suggested that perhaps it was a hot date, and that, coming from Adrianna? Hoyt had not choice but to take at least some notice. It would be a first from her, wouldn't it? At least in the time Hoyt had known her.
|
|
|
Post by Adrianna Daye on Jan 15, 2009 22:55:24 GMT -8
Hoyt’s voice was calming to her frayed nerves and she smiled softly at his words. He was always very considerate she didn’t know why she always overreacted the way she did.
“Thank you.” She grinned shyly. “ I was going to go check out a shaman store I heard about in the Pearl. I wanted to get there tonight before it closed so I was going to head out soon. Would you like to come with me?” Adrianna never knew when Hoyt was going to agree or not so she was always curious to see what he’d say, though she knew not to be disappointed. It was never personal when she was turned down, or so she’d hoped.
|
|
|
Post by Jude Hoyt on Jan 24, 2009 1:35:18 GMT -8
It was easy enough to put aside his curiosity for now. Questions would be answered later. That's the way things tended to go for Hoyt. And so he smiled to himself and rose from his seat. He'd come here for dinner, and sitting at the bar wasn't going to get him fed.
"Thank you for the offer, my dear," he said with a warm smile. "I have a few other things to get done around here, though." It was always true. Unfortunate, but true. But what could you do? The offer did, however, put him in mind of something he'd been meaning to ask...
"By the way," he started, leaning over the back of his seat to move closer to Adrianna, "Have you made any progress?" His voice changed ever so slightly as he asked, dropping one or two degrees.
Adrianna's work on the Guise Spell was something never far from Hoyt's mind. He did his best not to ask the poor girl about it too often, but really, it was quite necessary.
|
|