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Post by Teja on Nov 4, 2019 20:34:52 GMT -5
"Still suggests you'll be around. I think he'd especially want his secretary around that boy. He's not likely to be very impressed with Adrian otherwise."
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Post by Megan on Nov 4, 2019 20:41:10 GMT -5
"Because he was flirting with me? He was flirting with you, too."
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Post by Teja on Nov 4, 2019 20:43:58 GMT -5
"I meant he'd want to look as professional as possible around someone as green and inexperienced as Ashton," she amended, blushing. She hadn't thought of it as flirting, but in retrospect...
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Post by Megan on Nov 4, 2019 20:47:23 GMT -5
"Wearing a lot of green too," Megan teased as she finished drying her hands. She fished in her purse for something and, a moment later, pulled out a small pair of fingerless leather gloves and pulled them on. They jarred a little with her gown, though not completely unfashionably. "He's already picked up on brand recognition, apparently."
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Post by Teja on Nov 4, 2019 20:55:23 GMT -5
"Full Madonna, huh?"
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Post by Megan on Nov 4, 2019 21:01:04 GMT -5
"Wh- oh, no. They were a- a gift, from Adrian. They're, uh, anti-anxiety. Magnets, or something-"
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Post by Teja on Nov 4, 2019 21:03:05 GMT -5
"You feeling anxious?"
The teasing was mostly gone out of her voice. Ashton's speech had obliquely been about New Years' in a lot of ways - what lead up to it, what had happened in its wake - and she knew Megan had a lot of anxiety surrounding that.
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Post by Megan on Nov 4, 2019 21:09:45 GMT -5
"I tend to be," she admitted. "I didn't know it was that noticeable to people who aren't Adrian."
She hesitated with her lipstick partway to her mouth, winced, and began to laugh.
"I shouldn't call him Adrian-"
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Post by Teja on Nov 4, 2019 21:10:54 GMT -5
She wondered, not for the first time, if Megan and Veidt weren't lovers.
"He does care about you in his own way, it looks like," she said gently, although ambiguously. She didn't want to stress it one way or the other.
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Post by Megan on Nov 4, 2019 21:13:39 GMT -5
"He has- he does, I think. You're not judging me for it, are you?"
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Post by Teja on Nov 4, 2019 21:19:11 GMT -5
"I mean, I wouldn't do anything differently in your shoes," said Teja, having taken that as a confirmation of her suspicions. An emotional affair, if not a physical one. "I don't know how I feel about him just yet, but... Well, he seems like it'd be hard to get out of his orbit, once you're there."
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Post by Megan on Nov 4, 2019 21:31:37 GMT -5
"That's... not a bad way of putting it," she said. "Everything happened so quickly after New Year's- I'm still reeling a little-"
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Post by Teja on Nov 4, 2019 21:33:15 GMT -5
And that would have flapped the unflappable Adrian, Teja had no doubt. They had been close. She knew Veidt had been one of Manhattan's only remaining human friends.
"It's all right. Do you need me to stay with you?"
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Post by Megan on Nov 4, 2019 21:43:13 GMT -5
"Oh, it's- it's not quite so bad as all that," she said briskly. “I just- worry, occasionally. I know how people would think of both of us, if they knew about- you know, the house, and all that. I worried about what you thought of me."
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Post by Teja on Nov 4, 2019 21:49:01 GMT -5
"I mean, it's - it's more about him, I feel. I'd be scared of him... turning you out or manipulating you and using that as leverage. He really is fantastically rich and powerful. If he doesn't hold himself to a standard of decency he could do anything."
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