Livia spotted Ambrya over by the food, fixing herself a plate, so Livia took the opportunity to walk over and say hi. She grabbed a plate, too, piling it with different cheeses, fruit, and some poorly made sandwiches. It didn’t look all that appetizing, and the look on Ambrya’s face only proved that. She was still cute, though. Livia smiled. 

“Umm, I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t try it again. Or, maybe I would, but you’d have to pay me.”

She grabbed a slice of pineapple, popped it into her mouth cautiously. Livia nodded in approval. It was sweet, juicy. 

“The pineapple’s good, though. Very sweet.”

Ambrya had finally pulled herself away from the pool, realizing that the best access to any food was going to be outside of it. Once she’d already scared two different people passing by with trays and failed to have them give her anything, she figured she was on her own and toweled off in search of something to eat.

Coming to a table with various bites, Ambrya began picking up one of everything in site and putting it on a plate that was available. Taking one of the items that she’d just chosen and popping it in her mouth, she realized she had no idea what it was she’d just eaten and made a face of disgust and then reconsideration.

“What did I just put in my mouth….”

The guy she met at karaoke was canon balling into the pool, effectively soaking Livia as she tried to ease into the pool. It was cold.

“A little bit,” she said, trying to hide the obvious annoyance in her voice. Still, she smiled – maybe a little unconvincingly. “I thought we left canon balls in middle school, but maybe I’m wrong.”

Sebastian had spoken to a few people, had a few drinks, and had enough food to keep him full for the rest of the night. He was enjoying himself, finally beginning to feel at home again, and enjoying the power his name brought him. It would only be that more enhanced once he passed his bar exam, but in the meantime: fun.

Whipping his shirt off, he tossed it on a chair and then made a quick leap towards the pool, bringing his knees in to his chest for a canon ball. Once he resurfaced, he looked around and realized he’d managed to splash someone nearby. Chuckling, he shrugged somewhat apologetically to the person he’d splashed.

“Sorry, did I get you there?”

Bash was already on his fifth beer of the night, having decided to go out on his own and see what he’d been missing while out of Chicago. How he ended up being in a bar with bad karaoke, however, he had no idea. Maybe he’d actually been pregaming at home before he even got there and had just been wandering the streets when he heard the bad karaoke and decided to go in. Yeah, that sounded about right.

As someone close by began commenting on the person who was singing now, Bash felt a twinge of a smile fall on his face as he looked over to the girl who was now threatening to sing something herself. “Whatsa matter, notta fan of a little history lesson through music?” The song in question actually sounded like some poppy break up song, but the music was meshing together at this point so he couldn’t even really tell for sure if the song was from Hamilton or by Taylor Swift.

“Besides, that songs gotta have backup singers to even work.”

“Not when it sucks this bad,” Livia said, plain and simple. The man beside her looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn't quite place him. He was handsome, and she hadn’t seem him do karaoke yet, so he was probably one of the more tolerable men in the bar that evening. 

“I know it’s a good musical, and it won a lot of awards, but we should collectively consider suing Lin-Manuel Miranda for pain and suffering.” 

Livia laughed, her slightly inebriated brain finding the joke a lot funnier than it probably was. She’d been in the lab for far too long that week. Not enough human interaction. 

“Do you hang out at bad karaoke bars? This is my first time at this place. And probably my last.”

There’s a slight wince on Camila’s face.

It wasn’t advertised to be a showtunes night— and yet, that’s what blasted from the speakers again and again, track after track. It was kinda fun, at first. Camila’s foot had been tapping along. But there was no variety, and Camila’s smile fell when the two performers crawled along the floor towards each other, the man giving his best attempt at a Travolta smirk.

Lord. Her head swivels towards Livia.

“I think the rest of the bar would cheer you on.”

The performance comes to a close, and … yep, this next track— another showtune.

“I have no idea how I’m supposed to shake my ass to this song.”

"Should we ditch this place and go somewhere else?” Livia finally wondered, grimacing as some guy attempted to rap his way through American history. Egh. 

“Or we flirt with the guy manning the karaoke machine and get him to ditch the live performances. I bet we could talk them into playing my slutty Spotify playlist.” 

The server replaced Livia’s cocktail with another. She sipped on it, downing a third of it in one go. It was her fourth cocktail of the night. She was definitely buzzed.

The bad karaoke was giving Livia a headache. She wasn’t wasted enough for this. She watched, with more annoyance than amusement, as a couple performed a song from Grease.

Yuck.

Livia downed the rest of her drink, waiting for the next performer to take the stage. A performance from Hamilton, this time.

“Can anybody sing something besides show tunes? I’m halfway to stealing that bitch’s mic and singing Fantasy by Mariah Carey right now.” 

“That depends on a few things,” Alondra said. “I assume you hold this professor in high regard for you to be asking this of us, so I’m willing to consider it. Aside from the publicity that comes with supporting academic pursuits, is there anything to gain giving this department our philanthropy?”

Alondra raised her brow, studying Livia’s face. She was a trusted employee who proved her value, though it didn’t mean all her wishes would be easily granted. 

Livia knew who she was working for, and the last thing that she wanted was to waste Alondra’s time. “He’s a mentor,” Livia began. Her former professor didn’t know exactly what Livia did -- nor would he, but he was a great resource to have. “He has some connections that have proven to be pretty... beneficial for the business. He has an address book that I’ve been dying to get my hands on for the last couple of years.”

This address book was, of course, all underground. Other chemists who dealt in the same type of business as Livia -- maybe even at a higher level. It was good knowledge to have, though Livia would understand if Alondra couldn’t be bothered with sponsoring a scholarship. There’d be other ways to get it.

“I know how busy you are. I wouldn’t bring it up if I didn’t think it was worth the effort.”

Livia watched as Alondra ripped into an employee over their incompetence. Livia wasn’t cruel, but she found the exchange inspiring, in a way. She never wanted to be on the receiving end of Alondra’s wrath, and she’d do everything in her power to steer clear of that.

“I was just saying that one of my former professor’s reached out to me. He works at the University of Chicago now, and his department is looking for scholarship sponsors. Do you think you or Mr. Aleman would be interested?”

“Details of your incompetence are a waste of my time,” Alondra snapped into her phone. “How hard is it to ensure the guests of our hotel’s needs are met quickly and without complaint? The Ritz can do it, so why can’t you?” Tight lipped, she listened to the excuses her employee gave and rolled her eyes. “I don’t care. Fix it.”

Alondra hung up the phone and tossed her hair over her shoulder as her attention returned to the person in her company. “I do apologize for the interruption, but business doesn’t wait. Where were we?”

benlowell‌:

 “Oh really?” He said, stopping in his tracks with a now unknown bag in his hands. He usually never checked what was given to him, he just went on blind faith. “What’s in there?” Maybe it was his daughter’s mac and cheese, and his sandwich. “If it’s.a mac and cheese, I will definitely take it because I won’t hear the end of it if I came home with the wrong food.” 

Livia peeked inside of the take out bag one more time. She spotted a bowl of mac and cheese, then a carefully wrapped sandwich. “Yup, I think this is yours. They must’ve handed us the wrong bags. I ordered soup and a sandwich,” Livia said, before handing the meal over. “I used to beat my brothers up for bringing me the wrong thing. It’s pretty unforgivable,” she joked.

"Shit. I think they got our orders mixed up,” Livia told the person standing beside her. She’d ordered soup and a sandwich, neither of which were at the bottom of the to-go bag. “Haven’t touched anything. Is this yours?”

He didn’t need to say yes, Livia was already getting into the passenger side of his car and Alex wasn’t about to argue. He liked Livia and she was certainly a valued employee – so giving her a ride wasn’t any skin of his back. 

Food didn’t sound like the worst option; Alex was pretty hungry himself. “Let’s go to a diner. Maybe it’ll be empty cause of this shit.”

"You’re the best. I’ll buy our food,” she offered, a gesture of thanks for the ride that he was giving her. She buckled in, shutting the car door and eyeing the road ahead. “I think there’s one a few blocks down. Open 24/7. And far enough away from this chaos.”

“How ya been, Alex? Tired of Chicago yet?”

She waived off Livia’s remark, this is just what Eva did. Eva assessed the boxes that Livia had pointed to and noted that there were by far the largest ones in the room. Now she saw why the drinks were necessary. “Get the largest room out of the way.” A plan of action that could be tackled efficiently when the two worked together. “A smart strategy, Livia. The living room is the worst room to do last when you want nothing more than to collapse after hours upon hours of doing this.”

Eva could state the negative aspect of it but her feelings never matched up to her words. Unlike most (she was more than likely a rarity) things like this gave her an abundance of energy and she enjoyed every single minute of unpacking, re-organizing and then placing what had been pulled from the boxes into a new space. Eva enjoyed odd things but she was organized.

How had she been? So far in the past six or so months she had managed to get hurt twice less than a month a part, she was throwing herself into work (something that was not unusual for her but recent events had her focusing on work more), and she had been on a metaphorical rollercoaster with Joaquin. How was she? Confused, shocked and happy all at the same time.  Eva reached for the drink that had been given to her. The best bad idea she would ever have. If anyone should see her in a tipsy or more state it would be Livia. The other woman was more than a friend she was the sister Eva had always wanted.

“I’ve been well for the most part. The ankle and other injury is healed. Joaquin kissed me then denied it. Admitted having feelings for me. Kissed me again. I kissed him-” Eva took a sip of her drink and continued on as if she had not just dropped a bomb on Livia. “-and work has been going really well. I have been working closely with a few organizations that I think will be benefit greatly from my help and the Aleman brothers of course. How have you been?”

Livia worked on the largest box, the one that stored a few framed photographs of friends, family, and her childhood dog. She pulled them out, placed a few frames in her lap, and began unwrapping them one by one. All the while, she listened to Eva fill her in on what had happened in her life! Eva briefly danced over the statement that she and Joaquín were on the verge of being an item, and it was impossible for Livia to let her change the subject. 

She immediately stopped working and focused her attention on Eva.

“I love hearing about your charities, and y’know I love all of the shit you get to do, but what? You and Joaquín?” 

Livia didn’t say anything else for a few moments. Instead, she tried to wrap her mind around the idea. She never would’ve guessed that anything was going on between the two -- partly because she didn’t interact with the Aleman brothers outside of business, and Eva wasn’t actually involved in the criminal aspect of the organization. This was... shocking. And exciting. Livia lived for this sort of gossip.

“So. Start from the beginning, I guess. Do you have feelings for him? I can’t believe you fuckin’ waited to tell me until you got here!”

PRISCILLA QUINTANA for Runway Magazine

It wasn’t the sirens wailing that bothered her but rather the incessant whining of a group of late teens complaining how their influencer shots were ruined now that were being cast in such awful lightning. Once again, another reason to not procreate. Lisabetta avoided getting to near to the sniveling snobs and sauntered passed every unfortunate soul till she found one she liked.

“Need a lift?” She asked as she tucked her hands into the pockets of her boiler suit and carried the stance of someone too comfortable with chaos.. “Can be to your car, to your place or wherever you like. Anywhere but here right?”

"Anywhere but here,” Livia agreed, thankful for a familiar face. Lisabetta. “You’re enjoying the fuck out of this, aren’t you?” Livia quirked a brow, nudging her shoulder playfully. She’d been a little out of her element moments before, but now, Livia felt a little more at ease. The situation was still chaotic as fuck, but at least now she wasn’t fending off the crazies alone.

“Don’t think we’ll be able to get my car very easily. Is yours nearby? And after that, I don’t care. I am starving though.”

Alex hadn’t intended to have anything to do with Spring Fest. In fact, he’d been trying to make his way through the city when gunshots rung out through the streets. With a groan, he pulled over, fishing his phone out of the center console of his car to see if Gabriel or Joaquin had tried to get a hold of him. 

Just as he looked up, directing his gaze out the driver window, he noticed a familiar – and rather aggravated – face. “Liv? Y’alright?”

A look of relief washed over Livia’s features the moment that she saw Alex. Thank fucking god. She could make the walk to her car, sure, but it’d be hell in her heels. Not only that, but the surrounding area was filled with cops and road blocks. She walked around to the passenger side.

“I need a ride? Please?” she asked, pulling the door open. “My car’s parked that way,” she said, pointing towards the area with all of the road closures. “But I don’t even think there’s any point in trying to get it out of there. Could you take me home? Or you can drop me off at the nearest shitty diner. I’m hungry as fuck.”

Eva’s arms wrapped Livia in a warm embrace once Livia had opened the door. After a week of ‘home’ rest, her own take on bed rest, it felt good to stretch her legs (and ankle) and be somewhere outside of home. Though she loved her home a change of scenery was necessary and she had the opportunity to help Livia make her new house feel like home. “Are you trying to get be plastered?” Laughter followed her question as she stepped inside of Livia’s new home. “This is for you.” An arrangement of eucalyptus and lavender, a bottle of white rum for Livia to make her drink of choice and of course a cheesy keychain to adorn her new set of house keys was given to Livia. 

“Where do we start?” Her now free hands rubbed together as she looked at what boxes still needed to be unpacked. “Should I expect everything to be labeled where it suppose to go or am I entering into this blindly?”

“I’m always trying to get plastered,” Livia admitted with a devious grin, pulling away from the hug. Livia accepted the housewarming gift from her friend, staring down at the gift. It was a beautiful, thoughtful present, and Liva loved things like that. “You’re the best, Eva. Like seriously, you’re too good.”

She smiled, walking over to the kitchen and placing the arrangement on her kitchen counter. She played with the corny keychain for a moment before pouring herself some of the margarita mixture. She poured some for Eva, too, and walked over with their drinks. She took a sip of hers. 

“Everything’s organized, for the most part, but I figured we could start with the living room? It’s these boxes,” Liv said, pointing to the bigger ones in the middle of the living area. There were some plants, artwork, and other little decorative pieces that she’d collected over the years. “And, in the mean time, how’ve you been?” 

The thoughts that had been swirling around in Ambrya’s head were quickly pushed out the moment she heard that familiar voice. A light blush rose to her cheeks but the lack of light from the night thankfully hid it well. “I think if I was following you, I’d be the one plopping down next to your sandy domain.” Ambrya offered with a small giggle.

Livia was honestly a breath of fresh air. Even though she was trying hard not to think about the dirty side of the Aleman’s business, of which her money had a strong hand in maintaining, being with someone who was a part of it was better than someone she simply knew from somewhere else. At least with Livia she could genuinely speak her mind if she wanted to. And she did want to. But fear held her back. This world that she had willingly involved herself in had become a lot darker and deeper than she’d ever imagined and part of her felt that if she spoke her worries out loud they would somehow gain the power to become a reality versus if she just stayed silent.

So she just stayed silent.

“Just thought I’d get to know Chicago a little better, but my way.” She finally offered, smiling at Livia before looking back out at the water. “I think finding a place that’s quiet, not silent, but quiet and calm is the best way to get to know a city. You can hear everything if you just sit and listen… and then you get to hear the stories of the universe that everyone else tries to shout over.”

“Sorry, late nights make me get all up in my head… What were you doing at this crazy hour?”

Livia genuinely enjoyed Ambrya’s company. She was really sweet. Still, Livia couldn’t quite place how she’d gotten herself involved with the Alemans. Honestly, Livia wasn’t sure how much Ambrya knew about the business, so she tended to shy away from the subject. There were other things they could discuss -- like, apparently, how you could hear everything if you just sit and listen...

Livia grinned. Oh, Ambrya most certainly did not belong in this type of world, and her statements further proved that. 

“You should be a philosopher. Or, maybe a life coach. I’d pay you to give me advice.”

“Talking to my parents. I was hanging out with some friends, decided to ditch, and remembered that I told my dad I’d call. I was nearby. Didn’t expect to see you.”

“New York couldn’t handle us.”

“The whole fuckin’ city would be out of alcohol by midnight.”

“I’m honestly surprised that Chicago’s managed to survive the both of us this long.”

“Ooh, by the way, did you hear that Sapphire’s supposed to be throwing this insane VIP event in a few weeks? We should try to get in.”