fortress | kate bishop

seventeen.

2024
Manhattan, New York

As Anya and Kate got out of the car, Kate held her arm out to Anya and she took it as they walked up the stairs of the massive New York hotel. As soon as they entered the building, Anya felt well out of her socio-economic class. Being at Columbia had made her feel poor. Being inside this hotel was making Anya feel as though she need was living in poverty.

"Welcome to my world," Kate says.

"This is absolutely insane," Anya mutters as she looks around, "Is she wearing Balenciaga?"

"How do you know what Balenciaga is?" Kate wonders.

Anya laughs, "What because I'm poor I'm not supposed to know Balenciaga?"

"That's not what I meant," Kate responds, "And stop calling yourself poor. You're going to marry an heiress someday."

"A cancelled credit card heiress," Anya says with a grin as she looks up at Kate.

"Too soon," Kate says as she presses a hand to her chest.

"Excuse me," a man says as he approaches Kate and they both look over to see an elderly man standing there.

"Sorry," Kate responds, "I'm not a waitress."

His eyes light up with recognition, "You're the little Bishop girl."

Kate's lips purse together as she nods her head, "Yes, I am."

"That must make you Anya, the girlfriend," the man says as he points at Anya. She blinks at the fact that this strange wealthy man in a Tom Ford suit knew who she was.

"Yes," Anya says as she looks at Kate, hoping that she recognized him, "That is me."

"I'm Armand," he shares, "Armand Duquesne."

"Oh," Kate and Anya say in unison as they share a look. Yeah they had no idea who this man was outside of the fact that he was related to Jack.

"You used to come to my brownstone for brunch," Armand says.

"You built your own blitz bar," Kate says with a smile and Armand nods his head. Anya looks around wondering if this would be a good time to excuse herself from the conversation so that she could look around.

"Precisely," Armand responds, "You know I never looked that good in a tuxedo in my entire life. I'd appreciate it if you wear something a little more lady-like for the wedding so we won't be competing."

On second thought, Anya could stay.

There was much to unpack from that statement. The first was that Armand had certainly thrown a backhand compliment Kate's way. The second was that he'd told Kate about the engagement that she didn't have any idea about yet.

"What wedding?" Kate asks.

"Um would you excuse us?" Anya asks politely. She doesn't wait for Armand to respond before dragging Kate away.

"Kate, baby," Anya says softly as she reaches over and grabs two glasses of champagne and hands Kate one, "Drink this."

"I don't want to-"

"You need to," Anya tells her, and Kate sighs as she takes the glass and drinks the entire glass of champagne. She then looks at Anya expectantly, "Your mom and Jack are engaged."

Kate frowns, "She told you?"

"We were drunk," Anya says, "And she was really nervous about how you'd react."

"Yeah well, I'm reacting poorly because she didn't tell me!" Kate says and she looks over Anya's shoulder, "I'm going to talk to her."

"What?" Anya asks as she follows Kate's gaze over to where her mom and Jack are standing. Anya shakes her head as she looks back at Kate, "Kate, no."