With a job he adores, a nice apartment NYC, and enough brains and body to last a lifetime, Blaire Montgomery had everything a twenty-something businesswoman could long for, except that one thing.
A man to share it with. When a silver fox with rock...
"What are you listening too?" He asks, his smile wide and friendly. A row of sparkling white teeth lights up the space between them. Blaire can't hear anything, not the music playing in her left ear, not the chatter of people from around her. Just his question.
Oh shit. She thought to herself. The chances that I'm not going to fuck this up are close to none. Blaire swallowed hard.
"Music." She said, she instantly regretted it.
He laughed, not in a way that made her feel stupid or victimised. But rather, he laughed in a way which someone would laugh after hearing a really good joke. His laugh was contagious, Blaire laughed too.
"Oh yeah? I'm not too knowledgeable on modern music, honestly." He admitted. "My son is really into like, hip hop?" He laughed again. "He tries to get me into it but, I honestly don't know what they're saying 100% of the time." Blaire was still shaking as he spoke, she focused on trying to will herself to stay still.
Blaire, stop fidgeting and listen to what the nice man has to say. Blaire told herself, her inner monologue sounded a lot like her mother.
"I don't know if that makes me sound white or if it makes me sound old, or both." He said stretching slightly, he'd been sitting for a long time, going over lines in that circle of people that looked more like a support group and less like a group reading.
Oh fuck, he told a joke. It was really funny too. Oh shit, I'm going to laugh. And she did, Blaire let out a really hard, really loud burst of laughter. So intense it made one of the actresses on the other side of the room flinch, she turned towards Blaire, half expecting to see someone had been stabbed. But she turned around again after realising it was just some weird girl laughing as though she'd heard the funniest joke it the world.
He laughed in response. Again, it was calm and sweet. It wasn't like being in middle school, where Blaire was thrifty pounds overweight and had braces and when kids laughed at her, it was obviously it came from a place of malice. But even though he was laughing at her, it didn't feel like that. It didn't hurt.
"I like your laugh." He smiled. He sounded so sincere, not sarcastic or fake.
Blaire blushed. She tried to find something to say but nothing would come out. Come on Blaire, say something.
"Hey, you're managing the motion-capture-thingy." He said. "Sorry, I don't know what it's called, you know what I mean right?"
Blaire nodded, she cleared her throat. "Yeah, um. Temporarily." She forced out. "I started last week."
He nodded. "Uh, that makes scenes." He said. "I do recall there being a really average looking ginger kid sitting behind that thing at some point." He said looking off as though he was trying to remember something. "And nothing against, average-looking-ginger-kids but they don't pay too much attention to them."
Blaire made the conscious effort not to laugh like a madman at that.
"Well, I'm glad you're here to add some flavour to the team. It was starting to look like a real sausage-fest back there." He smiled again. Blaire almost choked. "In short, it's nice to meet you." He said holding his hand out, Blaire took it. They shook. "See you around, I suppose."
"Yeah, I guess." He smiled one more time before turning and leaving the common room without looking back. Once he was well out of sight, Blaire let out the breath she hadn't realised she was holding in. I've never been so fucking nervous.
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