Fire Light | Ruby Gillis

Chapter Two

The party, of course, was crowded.

A way to kick off the fall season and officially say goodbye to summer.

The hall was beautifully decorated, there was no way to deny that. Candles seemed to give the room a warm, heavenly glow. Reds, browns, golds, and oranges coated the room, giving a homely feel.

It was spectacular.

That was another word Ruby could always remember.

And it was most certainly the first thing that came to mind as she set her eyes on a man across the room.

"Jane!" Ruby whispered, somehow shuffling closer to her friend, "Do you see that boy over! I've never seen him, do you know who he is?"

"Which boy?"

"The brunette, just over there!"

"Which brunette?"

Ruby glanced across the room quickly.

"The one talking to Charlie Sloane."

Jane, too, quickly glanced over. As she turned back she let out a low hum of approval.

"Definetly quite the catch," she said with a nod, "I believe his name is Herb Spencer, but I wouldn't be sure."

Jane looked at Ruby with a small smile.

"I take it you've found the next unlucky soul?"

"Any soul is lucky to have me," Ruby stated, finally breaking her gaze from the boy across the room.

"Don't I know it," Jane muttered with a small grin as she glanced around the room excitedly.

This routine was one that was very familiar to both of them.

They'd be at some sort of party, and Ruby would single out a boy she thought was handsome. She would then stay with Jane and talk while making sure she had grabbed the attention of the appropriate target.

It was then she would pounce.

Ruby would cross over to whoever she had singled out that night and flirt like there was no tomorrow. The couple would continue to see each other for several weeks before Ruby ended it or the boy realized what Ruby was up to.

They seldom ever realized what happened until long after Ruby had moved onto the next.

She didn't do it to be cruel, in her mind. Perhaps it was cruel, but it was never intended. Ruby was just insatiable, there was always a man to top the one she had, and another, and another, the cycle continues. No one man could ever hold the interest of Ruby Gillis.

Ruby selected the prime waiting spot.

Across the room, and slightly diagonal to the left, where she could move freely while conversing with her friends, and so this Herb Spencer could see her many good angles.

But as the conversation moved to the latest gossip, Ruby made her mistake.

She lost focus.

But what happened wasn't a mistake on her part, because she could never account for what happened. In the Ruby Gillis Flirting History, this was a first.

Herb Spencer approached her.

As she talked animatedly to Jane and Josie Pye, she noticed Jane's face of shock and turned to look behind her.

A million thoughts seemed to fly through Ruby's head.

What is he doing? This isn't how it goes! What happens now? What-

Ruby quickly gained her composure, changing her expression if shock into a simple smile.

"Herb Spencer, isn't it?" She asked sweetly, cocking her head to the side.

"Yes, I hope I'm correct when I say you're Miss Ruby Gillis?"

"You are."

They spent the rest of the night in conversation with Ruby's friends, but more often than not, as Jane noticed, Ruby and Herb talked amongst themselves. Laughing and talking together almost as if they had known each other they're whole lives.

When it time came to leave, Ruby and Jane bid their farewells, and left to Jane's cart which had been borrowed from her brother.

"Well," exclaimed Jane, as the topic of boys, as usual, came up, "Seemed to enjoy a certain Mr. Spencer, didnt you? Talked to him the while night, you didnt even dance!"

"No! I-" Ruby paused to think for a minute and looked up at Jane in pure shock.

"You're absolutely right! I didn't! I cant believe, the whole night and not a single dance!"

"Maybe you're more invested in this Herb Spencer than you thought you would be, hm?" Jane said slyly.

Ruby scoffed.

"Well, since I'm so caught up in him, how about I just court him already?"

"Would you?"

"If we ever even met agian."

"But if you did meet again," Jane pressed, "Would you?"

"Since you appear so dead-set on it, I suppose I must try," Ruby sighed.

She couldnt help but continue to think about him. There was no denying he was handsome, and Ruby was no one to hold out on compliments when they were well earned. But there was just something else as well.

Was it the fact that he had approached her first? Completly catching her off guard and fouling her perfected routine? Ruby was torn between her admiration of his confidence he possessed to approach her, but also annoyance that he had in fact, approached her, something she was definetly not used to at all.