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Hrm. The prospect of actually dying so the blond in front of her could take a shower gave Riley a moment’s pause that all the other verbal warnings had failed at managing. Lori spoke again, though, and pointed out how water would react with her powers if Riley stepped too far away. The shorter woman’s admission had cost her a lot. Riley knew because it was something she wouldn’t have admitted to if someone was pulling her nails out with red-hot pinchers.

”Then I guess we’ll have to make sure that neither of those things happens.” she said simply.

The walk wasn’t all that much further and very quickly Riley followed Lori’s example of removing her footwear. Needless to say, it made things far easier.

Into the building they went, right as the rain started to fall, and with the way the guards reacted to Lori, it became obvious that she was something more than the average company grunt. Into the elevator they went. 35th floor? Riley looked at the buttons, the penthouse. Did Pharmaceutical companies have penthouses? No matter, Lori left the elevator a second later and the lights started doing creepy flashing things that made Riley wonder if being in an elevator was such a good idea.

Lori returned, handed Riley a key and the doors shut. It was too late now. Watching as light after light lit up, Riley tried to make the two and two in her head equal four, ”Let me guess. You’re Lori…Lori Faust.” she concluded. ”And however far away that guard was…obviously too far.”

The walk was longer than Riley had thought. Then again, it had been quite a while since she’d had to walk this far in heels. It wasn’t that she was lazy, it was simply that Riley usually took a cab to and from photoshoots. When she had money. She didn’t have money, so she was walking.

Riley wasn’t dumb, despite her waist and bust size, and as she tried to puzzle out the reasoning behind Lori wanting to shower at a Pharmaceutical company as opposed to her own home, she kept coming up blank. Yeah, the other mutants had probably been pleased with the fact that Riley had been seemingly cast out on her ass, but why a Pharmaceutical company? She shrugged even though there was nobody to see it…she wasn’t getting paid to ask questions.

Watching the street signs as she walked didn’t really help all that much because it just reminded Riley how much further she had to go. Surely it would be a while until Lori managed to leave, and as she passed a little park Riley took a seat on a bench by the side walk.

There were kids playing, and parents watching their kids play and Riley couldn’t help but wonder how many of them were like her, or like Lori. Just how many freaks could there be in the world?

A blond blur nearly passed by and Riley’s brows scrunched together, ”I’m shocked you can run that fast in those shoes.” she called, amusement coloring her voice.

Ah. So they were going to have to be secret friends. Riley’s lips took on a sarcastic twist as Lori started to go on about how they were going to have to find somewhere else that the blond could take a shower. Not even the freaks wanted to be friends with her. If she’d have been someone else, Riley would have been absolutely devastated. As it was, she simply shrugged her shoulders.

This was starting to be a lot of work, helping this woman out, but if Riley had judged her right….and she was rarely wrong these days on character, the woman would be a powerful ally. The way things were shaping up with work, that was something Riley needed. It sucked to be between a rock and a hard place like this, but Riley wasn’t one to complain so she played the game.

”Thanks.” she said simply. The wink had been a cute touch. One thing Lori said caught Riley’s attention, though, check in the mail. That wasn’t good…Riley needed money now. There was nothing for it though, any illusions that this woman was a friend in the making were dashed by the fact that she couldn’t even be civil in front of her cronies.

Back Riley went, the way she’d come, not wasting any time as she made her way to the doors and back outside. The whole situation was frustrating, and Riley considered simply going home instead of wasting her time standing outside a shower at whatever the fancy Pharmaceutical company was. The woman had said “check in the mail” though, and for some reason Riley didn’t want to risk pissing her off. So down the street she went, making her way towards the streets Lori had mentioned.

And the kid followed. Riley could hardly believe it. She wasn’t exactly pissed anymore, the dark-haired woman had learned a long time ago that it was best to vent all your fury at once. Holding grudges in her line of work had always simply made for an empty refrigerator and a late rent check. Riley was irritated though. Why couldn’t the kid have simply waited a few more minutes? Why couldn’t she just keep her mouth shut, while they were at it.

Yeah. Riley was walking away from a situation that was pointless. Was anger going to help anything at this point? Sure, punching Maya in the face probably would have made her feel better, at least temporarily, but Riley had gotten out of the business of instant gratification a long time ago.

They were back on the topic of her DMV hook-up again and Riley wanted to laugh out loud for a moment. The kid really didn’t get the concept of a one-night-stand. Obviously Maya didn’t quite know everything about everything despite what the teen may have thought.

”Too bad that’s all the more reason to not pick up even if he does call.” Riley said, laughter obvious in her voice as she pushed through the front door of the building and out into the New York sun. Her apartment was a couple of miles away, but there was no way she’d be able to swing a cab with the money she’d just lost. At least her shoes were comfortable.

>>“He doesn’t know, does he?”

Riley didn’t stop walking, just looked over her shoulder to give Maya look that called the teen every kind of stupid in the book.

”Of course not. I didn’t know until recently, and I told you. He never called.”

Simple jeans, a black camisole, and a white button-up shirt with black sandals were a far cry from the lingerie Riley would have had on for the photoshoot, but that didn’t really matter now. She angrily pulled her hair back into a ponytail, ignoring the broken pieces of glass on the floor. It had been a long time since Riley had believed in superstitions, and it was pretty much impossible for her to imagine her luck getting any worse.

Maya spoke, and Riley reconsidered, things could always get worse. She rounded on the kid, blue eyes narrowed and her voice an angry hiss.

”You just don’t get it, do you?” she said, striding forward and poking the kid in the chest, ”It’s not something a coffee is going to fix.”

She glanced towards the door, then back to Maya, ”Word. Gets. Around.” she started, then realized she was explaining herself to the reason for the problem.

”I don’t need your coffee.” she finished, then snatched her purse from the floor of the changing area and heading for the door. ”I need to be somewhere you people will stop ruining my life.”

When walking through a graveyard, most people probably would have watched where they stepped or at least paid a modicum of attention to the grave stones littering the ground. Riley didn’t, at least not beyond what it took for her to make sure she didn‘t trip. The truth of the matter was, dead people were dead, you didn’t talk to them anymore…in fact, she found people who came to places like these to find their ancestors and make crayon rubbings weird. And Riley figured that said a lot coming from someone like her. Riley just nodded when he pointed out that there was nothing like pre-meditated murder on a spring afternoon.

All things considered, the place Rupert had picked for their excursion was pretty and Riley was vaguely impressed. For a self-dubbed asshole, he managed very well when he tried…he’d even remembered that she couldn’t drink alcohol. If nothing else the man paid attention to details. Riley had to give him that.

Rupert stopped them under a tree and Riley eyed the grass suspiciously. It wasn’t that she hated being outside, the background of the dress was white. Rupert washed the suspicion away with an inventory of what was in the basket, and after he’d spread the blanket on the ground, Riley sat, tucking her legs underneath her at a little sideways angle. Sure, it showed a little more leg than other methods of sitting, but it wasn’t anything Rupert hadn’t seen before.

”Great.” she said with a slight nod, ” Pressed meat equals a tasty treat.” she quipped, miming some random food revaluation show she’d watched a few days previous. ”I hope you’ve got turkey.”

The sun shining through the branches of the old oak was warm, and Riley closed her eyes and sighed for a second. Maybe she could just not think about everything else for a while. Maybe she could just forget that her life and career were falling down around her ears. Just for a little bit. It wouldn’t hurt anything, right?

”So, do you bring girls here often?” she asked Rupert, eyes still shut. It was after all a kind of strange place for a date.

Just because she hadn’t been tossed into a basement hole the first time, didn’t mean it wasn’t still a possibility. That’s what happened when a girl answered a call from a one-night-stand, then let them blindfold her, and put her in a car. It had been quite a while, and the orchestra music playing through the speakers really was starting to remind Riley of a scene from Silence of the Lambs.

She shook it off and tried to tell herself to stop being such a cynic. It would have been far easier to kill her the last time they’d hooked up. Nobody had known where she was, or that she’d even met the guy. The situation was still pretty much the same, but it was daylight. That counted for something, right? Riley chalked the whole thing up to the fact that she’d had an absolutely hellish couple of weeks. The whole…adaptoid/adapted/whatever thing was completely throwing her for a loop, and jobs had been coming fewer and further in-between. Riley had needed a distraction, and the last time she’d spent time with Rupert Kelley, he’d provided several, good ones too.

The idea of an actual date wasn’t Riley’s perfect situation, but she’d acquiesced….again for reasons she really didn’t know, and the last thing she was planning on was pouring her heart out to Rupert. Nope, she was going to be someone else for an afternoon and pretend like all of her problems were far behind.

It was comfortably warm and cool in the car, and Riley was glad that the blue polka-dot sundress she’d worn was well suited to the white cardigan she’d put over the top. It wasn’t fancy, but it was a definite step up from the casual wear the first time they’d met.

The car stopped, and Riley had to convince herself not to be nervous again as the door opened and Rupert climbed out. The trunk popped, then opened and shut and Rupert’s voice let Riley know she could take off the blindfold.

Well manicured fingers rose to untie the knot in the back of the handkerchief that had obstructed her view, and Riley lowered the fabric to reveal trees and shaded ground….and tombstones. The tombstones, Riley could ignore. Having grown up in the urban core of Chicago, then moving to New York, suburban green and large trees were mostly foreign to her. She didn’t even mind when Rupert used the “d” word. She could correct him later if things got out of hand.

He offered his arm, and Riley climbed carefully out of the car and took it, taking note of the bottle and picnic basket and chuckling when he said that any interruptions could be summarily dealt with in this setting.

”I think that’s a great idea. We’ll even have the alibi of a date.” she glanced at the are surrounding them as they walked, smiling at the blades of grass that tickled her feet. ”Not a reflective surface in sight. What‘s in the basket?”