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”Mm hmm.” Riley said, when Lori pointed out how persistent Mr. Aurum was. Interesting she couldn’t help but think. He really was planning to stick with the whole apology thing. Part of her, a large part, wanted to laugh in his face for that. Surely a guy that good-looking had more self-respect than to put up with her shenanigans.

Then again. Maybe he was being sincere.

Riley didn’t know how to deal with the second one, so she reconciled her mind to the fact that he simply had an ulterior motive that hadn’t become obvious yet. At the same time, Lori asked if he was Lenna’s type, and Riley chuckled, picking up her drink from the bar and giving Aurum a significant look. She took a drink. No need to waste more good Ginger Ale. She took a moment to see what everyone else was drinking. Whisky and rum for the ladies, beer for the gent. Interesting. Hard liquor indicated that Lenna and Lori were on a mission, beer provided more of a slow burn.

Lenna decided that Aurum was not, in fact, her type, and Riley rose an eyebrow at what was. One thing was for sure, they’d never have to worry about going after the same type of man. Cowboy boots. Really?. She smiled over her shoulder at the woman and turned back to Aurum just in time to get an introduction request from Lori at the same time Aurum pointed out the obvious about his employer.

She stirred the ginger ale with the tiny straw the bartender had included with the drink, considering both comments from both people. How could this situation be turned to an advantage? Lori had seemed interested enough, but Aurum hadn’t paid either of the other woman the slightest bit of attention beyond a polite salutation.

”This is Aurum.” she said, just the tiniest bit begrudgingly.

”He’s a stripper.”

Wow. Where had that come from? Riley supposed it was the name…who had a name like that who wasn’t a stripper? Besides…lawyer, stripper, same thing.

”And yeah. Lonnie is an ass too.”

Boy, all that ginger ale was really going to her head.

The right time announced itself in the form of two women, one of which Riley could claim at least general acquaintance with. She’d sat in the woman’s bathroom while she took a shower. Then the woman had paid her a pretty sum of money for a photo shoot. Maybe she’d do it again. Riley decided to wait a bit, and let the pair get a couple of drinks, it was all part of the big plan. She settled back into her people watching, eyes moving over the crowd and checking on the progress of her three targets for the night. Everything was progressing nicely.

Someone said her name, and Riley’s eyes jerked to the right to find someone sitting far closer to her than she would have allowed if she’d been given any say. Someone who knew her name. Someone who knew her from court.

The guy was good-looking, and as Riley gave him a casual once-over she decided that he definitely knew it. He gave his name, and it still took her a moment to place him. Where would she have met someone like this in court?

Recognition dawned, and a huge, bright smile spread across Riley’s features. ”Oh, right! So good to see you again.” she said, leaning forward as if to hear better in the slightly loud atmosphere.

”I’d hoped I would run into you or your boss at some point so I could give you a little something.” She smiled even brighter. Then dumped her three-quarters-full glass of Ginger Ale in his lap with every ounce of deliberate flounce possible.

”See! Wouldn’t it have been a shame if I never got to pass on that message?” she laughed, then pivoted on the stool to face the blonds. It was too early still, but that didn’t matter.

Just because Riley didn’t drink, didn’t mean she disliked spending time in bars. Bars in New York City were the absolute best place to network, and the best place to people watch. Besides, approaching someone who could improve her situation while they were inebriated and she wasn’t…needless to say, put her at an advantage. At this point, Riley had been sitting in this particular corner of the room for a couple of hours and had observed no less than three people who would be beneficial to have conversations with.

It had worked twice since the travesty of a courtroom scene that had left Riley wondering if she’d ever work in this town again. Riley had been forced to be resourceful. All it had taken was some bar hopping, liberal amounts of alcohol in the right people, and she’d been able to book herself three shoots. Rent had been paid, groceries had been bought, and things were looking up, if only slightly. Everyone knew that Gerry was a creep…and it wasn’t too much of a stretch to convince a drunk photographer that the whole thing had been a misunderstanding that had gotten out of hand. Once she was in their good graces…the rest was cake. Two of the shoots had gone off without a hitch, and the third had been far easier to book. Riley was starting to think that maybe her name wasn’t as much mud as she’d originally thought.

Again, there were at least three she was planning to swoop in on, and one of them was well on their way to the proper level of drunk. Riley sipped her ginger ale. It was her drink of choice in this situation, it was easy to pass of as alcohol. Big eyes, batted eyelashes, and slightly bleary eyes were the only other things she needed in most cases. Maybe they wouldn’t even recognize her when they took her card. It had been over a month since she’d failed so miserably to stand up for herself in a courtroom.

Riley had learned a few things that day in the court room, and she’d studiously applied them to live since. Nobody was going make her a fool like that again. Riley crossed her legs and took another sip, watching and waiting for the right time to approach.

This was going to be a profitable night. She could already tell.

It was strange, being on this side of a courtroom. Previously, Riley had sat on the opposite side. The side where the bad guys sat. She’d been one of the bad guys. Those thoughts had been copious when this whole fiasco had started.

Earl had made this seem like it was going to be a cake walk from the onset. Riley hadn’t been so sure, but the red-haired man’s supreme confidence and glowing personality had convinced her that they were doing the right thing. That and the fact that she couldn’t afford a better lawyer.

They’d wanted to settle out of court, and for a split second Riley had thought she was going to win outright. She’d taken a big enough risk by pursuing this at all…actually going to court would have been almost guaranteed career suicide. Then they’d had the meeting.

The first thing that had been obvious was that Gerry Johansen had the money for a much better lawyer. The man had even brought a lackey…some pretty boy who seemed to tag along everywhere the bastard went. Yes. Gerry’s lawyer was a bastard. That much had been obvious the moment the settlement meeting had began. They were willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and not make a public spectacle of her in court if she just walked away. Gerry would even be nice enough not to charge her for his lawyer.

What about her pay? After what he’d done? Well Gerry’s lawyer, Lonnie of all things, had indicated that from their perspective, Riley had been the one in the wrong. It was baffling, and infuriating.

Needless to say. They’d gone to court. Riley had sat at the table next to the rotund, bearded, bald-man who was her lawyer and watched as the Johanssen entourage came in and settled themselves. She’d dressed for the occasion, far more conservatively than normal, in a grey business suit with a matching skirt. Her hair was down, and her hair was loosely curled around her shoulders. She hadn’t wanted to look too innocent, because her past was bound to come up, so the ruffled neck blouse she wore under the suit jacket exposed just enough skin to be formidable without looking trashy. In this situation, one didn’t want to appear to be acting.

The trial had started…it was a lawsuit, so things worked just slightly different from the criminal stuff Riley had experienced. Lonnie was a skeeze as usual, his pretty-boy lackey watched from the other side of the table and Gerry told his side of the story so well that Riley almost believed him. Her initial amusement at the fact that his name was actually ’Geraldine’ quickly evaporated into nearly violent anger. She also wanted to chuck the glass clutched in her hand at his head. Twice. Then beat him with the water pitcher. Then do the same to his slime ball lawyer and his lackey. She glared murder at the bastard, then realized what she was doing and forced herself to look straight ahead as Earl did his best to question the man.

Things were starting to look bleak. Riley sighed internally. Just like everything else, she’d have to do this herself.

Up she walked to the stand, when it was her turn, swore on the bible like a good girl. Earl had some questions she needed to answer.

Marriage. A concept as foreign to Riley as the woman sitting across from her in the elevator. She frowned, and shrugged her shoulders, ”I can’t say marriage is something I’d ever be interested in. Who needs a man to tell them what to do? To expect you to be at his beck and call. Besides. All the married people I know are miserable.” It was true, and maybe it was a statement on society. Riley didn’t qualify that, though. In the circles she ran it, it wasn’t all that surprising that marriages struggled to work.

Riley did allow herself a chuckle at the end of Svetlana‘s comment, though. ”You do make a point. Maybe you could find some lonely old rich guy here in Manhatten who wants nothing more than someone to sit by his bed and read to him and be his beneficiary when he dies.” Riley did smile at that idea. All that freedom, all that money. It would totally be worth the few years of playing nanny to an old man.

The subject switched back to Svetlana’s sister and Riley nodded her head at the glowing description that was given. There really wasn’t much to say though because Riley had never met the girl. ”I do hope it works out.”

Svetlana thought it would look strange if she were sleeping when the mechanics finally made their way into the elevator, and Riley shrugged her shoulders. The woman could suit herself. She did, however, provide an idea that held no little amount of merit. Riley thought about it seriously for a moment, ” Heavens no, not in a place like Macy’s” she said as poshly as possible.

”Besides, if we’re not careful, they might decide to leave us here.”

As if on cue, a loud clink echoed its way down the elevator shaft. ”Ah…our rescuers begin to arrive. I wonder how long it will take.”

Figured. Blondie didn’t get the Playboy reference. Riley shrugged her shoulders, ”Lots of cleavage, not so lots of skirt. Still clothed, but sometimes pretty scantily…pictures for men’s magazines.” she explained. Svetlana didn’t seem like a milk and water girl, so Riley didn’t cut any of the corners.

How much of the next story made it through the language barrier, Riley wasn’t sure of either, but at least the girl was acting like she’d understood. Maybe the point had gotten across, though, because the woman grinned and revealed a little bit more of her own story.

So she was a Russian Bride. This was definitely someone Riley could relate to. Nobody had ever bought her for marriage, or shipped her halfway across the world to accomplish it, but somehow the revelation made Riley feel better about her own occupation.

Riley couldn’t help but be a little sympathetic to Svetlana’s situation. The girl had expected one thing, and arrived to find something very, very different. Why did things seem to always work out that way for some people? The last piece of information made Riley laugh, though, and she shook her head.

”They never are honey, they never are.” she said with a shake of the head, and when she’d finished laughing, she shrugged her shoulders, ”Well then, I guess it’s a good thing that you found your gig avoiding people. It’s not right when you’re led to believe you’ll find one thing, and you arrive to find something completely different. That happened when I got to New York.”

Riley stopped and sighed, then shrugged her shoulders, ”I got told that the ‘modeling agency’ I’d been set up with had a flat for us to stay in while we waited for jobs.” she snorted at the memory, ”What I found, was a roach motel, a bunch of drug addicts and worse, and a sleezeball with camera. Apparently that was their angle, getting poor girls like me from other cities to search out their dreams.”

She wasn’t looking for pity again, never that, and there was a warning in her words even if she wouldn’t come out and say it. New York definitely wasn’t all glitz and glamour.

”Most of us had spent everything we had to get here, on the promise of high paying photoshoots. What we got was something totally different.”

”A job.” Riley said. It seemed, however, that deadpans were the order of the day, at least in this elevator. ”If that’s what you need to tell people, then great. Obviously you found a job.” she said, nodding to the bags the blond had bustled into the elevator with them, ”Get anything good?”

The girl slept, if only a few hours a night. She was stoic about it though, and Riley begrudgingly respected that. No unfounded disgust towards her for what she could do, no irrational fear of someone who was obviously no physical threat. This girl was different. It pissed Riley off a little. She didn’t like her convictions shaken. Not one bit.

It would have been easy, really easy to take that out on Svetlana. The girl apologized for being offensive though and Riley sighed, leaning her head back against the wall. Why did she have to be so…damn…likable. This was bullshit.

The question caught Riley a little off guard. The last thing she was used to was someone caring what she went through. She nodded her head, ”You have no idea.” she said across the elevator at the yawning blond.

”If I’m not more trouble than I’m worth, I’m someone’s GD science experiment.” she said bitterly, ”They say that everyone needs someone worse off than they are to make them feel like they’re not so bad off. People used mutants for all those years…I guess that’s my job now.”

She shrugged her shoulders, suddenly angry again, ”Don’t you dare feel sorry for me though, I don’t need it.”