Chapter 2: One Right Girl

"Wow! You look great!" Emilio exclaims when Eleanor meets him outside the Lincoln Hotel for his industry party.

Eleanor is pretty impressed with how she turned out as well. She had planned to wear an elegant pantsuit until her brother interfered, dragging her out shopping to find a dress for the occasion. "You have no fashion sense," he had grumbled while flipping through the racks. And he's right, Eleanor thinks. She only cares that she looks serious and neat, and fashion is just frivolous.

Inside, the hotel lounge is filled with wealthiest and most powerful families in Brooklyn Heights. Cassandra Goth is there, as is Malcolm Landgraab, the state's governor. The power and influence wielded by this people radiates like electricity, sending a thrilling frisson up Eleanor's spine.

And some of that electric thrill is crackling from her companion for the night. She grew up with Emilio, and he was always just her sister's jock boyfriend, a little simple but nice. But here, he's a star in his field, and all these powerful people have gathered to see him. Power and influence of any kind is a huge turn on for Eleanor, and she suddenly sees her date in a whole new light.

"Oh, hey, woah! What's that for?" Emilio asks when she leans in to plant a demure kiss on his lips.

"I'm supposed to be your date, right? I should look like one," she answers. "Now we should go dance. I'm sure these investors would love to see what kind of moves you have."

Emilio brushes his hand softly against her cheek, "You've changed more than your name since you left home, Princess," he says.

Eleanor laughs at the childhood nickname Phoenix and Emilio used to call her, because she was too fastidious to join in their dirty roughhousing. "I haven't changed, really," she says, "I'm just finally being who I am."

The couple move to the dance floor as she suggested. Which, in retrospect, Eleanor regrets, as she's not much of a dancer. But Emilio doesn't seem to mind her inept dancing.

The music slows, and Eleanor takes the opportunity to move closer to her date, wrapping her arms around him.

"You don't have to do this," Emilio says, "I needed a date for show, but we don't have prove anything now that we're here."

"This isn't for show," Eleanor says. Behind them, Governer Landgraab and his influential wife are discussing the political ramifications of their support for the stadium renovations the team wants. Eleanor is still a nobody in this town, but the man she's with is important. Some of that importance rubs off on her, as the power players here take her into their gaze when they look at Emilio.

"Princess, are you sure you want to go there?" Emilio asks, completely unsure if he wants to follow where she's leading. He meant it when he said he's not over Phoenix yet, and getting romantic with her sister seems like the stupidest possible thing he could do right now. But it's hard not to be attracted to her, to not respond to the way she's looking at him, the way she touches him.

"Oh, I do," Eleanor whispers, leaning close to his ear.

"I have a room," he whispers back, giving in to the moment despite his better judgment. Eleanor is leagues ahead of him in the intelligence department, and if she thinks it's he right thing to do, who is he to doubt her?

As they wait for the elevator, the governor compliments Emilio's prowess on the field, telling him what an asset he is to the city. The attention just turns Eleanor on even more. She stands silently next to Hannelore Landgraab, technically her boss, but of course someone as important as the Vice President of the company would take no notice of such a lowly underling as a report processor. And Eleanor learned from her encounter with Thornton Wolff that her superiors don't want pushy underlings trying to be their social equals. Eleanor is just counting on the day when she's risen high enough to actually speak to Hannelore, that she'll remember this night, seeing Eleanor with someone as important as Emilio.

Emilio has a really hard time with elevators.

Back in his room, Emilio asks her one more time if this is what she wants. She slips her dress off in response, glad that Hawke made her buy new lingerie for the occasion as well.

When they get to the bed, Eleanor trembles a little. "I've never done this," she confides. And it's high time she has, she thinks, not wanting arrive in a man like Thornton Wolff's bed an inexperienced virgin.

"I'm honored, Princess," Emilio whispers, trying not to think about her sister, his first and only lover to date.

After somewhat awkward but sweetly tender lovemaking, Emilio falls asleep, and Eleanor slips out of the bed and takes the subway home. She doesn't regret giving into the passion of the moment, but she doesn't want to make more of it that that.

The next day, Eleanor runs into Thornton while doing errands on her lunch hour. He recognizes her, and praises her work. It's his reports she spends most of her day processing.

"Are you free to have dinner with tonight?" he asks.

Eleanor holds herself together rather well, though she wants to scream and jump around like a twelve year old. "I'm free," she answers in an even voice.

She keeps a set of nice clothes at work, just in case an invitation like this happens, so she changes quickly in the ladies room when her shift is over, and then meets Thornton at the bistro. The dinner is far from romantic, more like a job interview where he judges her merits as a candidate for the girlfriend position. Eleanor admires his no nonsense approach to relationships.

"How do you feel about children?" he asks. Eleanor can tell from his tone that this is a make or break question. What she can't determine is what answer he's looking for.

Eleanor considers her response carefully. As much as she wants to be with this man, this isn't a question to li about. If what he's looking for is a woman who'll drop her career to stay home and mother his babies, then she'd be better off without him. "At this point in my life, I'm primarily concerned about my career. Children would just get in the way of that," she says honestly. Thornton smiles, apparently she gave the right response.

The dinner ends with no flirting, not even the hint of romance, but he tells her he'd like to go out with her again sometime before saying goodbye, so Eleanor is counting it as a success.

When she gets home, she discovers Emilio has sent her flowers, with an affectionate note. This is going to be a problem, Eleanor thinks.

As if on cue, Emilio calls at that moment, wanting to see her. She tells him she's busy, she has reports she needs to process at home. Which is not entirely a lie, as she does like to bring her work home with her. That's how she's earned the notice of Thornton Wolff, after all. But what she's not telling him is that she plans to be too busy to see him any time he calls. She had a good time with him, and it was fun to play girlfriend to an emerging sports star at a party centered around the local team. But she has her sights on a more important man, one more suited to her than Emilio could ever be.

Thinking about telling Emilio this puts knots in her stomach, so Eleanor puts it off for now, and jumps into the shower after she hangs up with him. When she gets out, Hawke has just come in.

"I need to talk to you," she says.

"I'm on my way out," he answers, "I have a party."

"Sit down," Eleanor insists, "This is important." Hawke sighs dramatically and sits beside her. "I slept with Emilio last night," she says.

Hawke frowns, disapproving, "He's Nixie's boyfriend! I'll kill him!"

Eleanor tries not to laugh at the thought of her slender brother trying to fight Emilio. "You can't expect him to live like a monk. Phoenix is gone, he deserves to have a life. Anyway, it was my idea. I seduced him."

Hawke casts a hard glance at her, "I should have let you wear your stupid pantsuit," he grumbles. "So, what, now? Are you together?"

Eleanor shakes her head, "I don't want to be. But he sent those flowers," she points to the orchids on the table, "And he called to ask me out again."

"You know what kind of guy he is," Hawke says sadly, "That was pretty mean of you to fuck with his head that way."

"I know, Hawke, that's why I'm talking to you. I need you to help me fix this!"

"So I get to clean up your mess? Thanks," Hawke says, getting up to go to his party, "I'll try to think of something. Buy, honestly, I don't think there's a nice way to handle this. You'll just have to tell him you aren't interested in a relationship. And break his heart. Again. Poor bastard."

His sister's problems are put out of his mind when he gets to the party at Leliana's place. He runs into her in the lobby, and they have a quickie in the elevator on the way up to their apartment.

Hawke has barely got his pants back up when the doors open. "Thank goodness Alistair didn't see anything," Leliana whispers, indicating her roommate, standing by the elevator, awaiting the arrival of guests to the party, "Public sex makes him uncomfortable. Any sex does, actually. He's a virgin. Don't tell him I told you, he's sensitive about that."

"Seriously?" Hawke laughs, and promises to never bring it up. He wouldn't be able to without laughing in the poor guy's face.

"He's waiting for the right girl," Leliana explains. The idea boggles Hawke's mind; how could there be only one right girl, when there are so many to choose from?

Hawke give Alistair a fist pump before following Leliana into the apartment. "Woo! Party!"

The fist pump was premature, it turns out, as Hawke is the only guest. Leliana gives up early and sits down to study a cook book. Their other roommate Morrigan, yawns dramatically, declares the party dead on arrival and blames Alistair for the failure.

Morrigan is decidedly hot, Hawke thinks, and wonders if he can manage to have her while still dating Leliana. Dating two roommates at the same time would require some finesse, but Hawke thinks it could be well worth the effort.

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Challenge Notes:
So Hawke has had woohoo with Leliana in his bed, and in her building elevator. I'm not sure if either location will count for the 5 partners in 5 different locations requirement for his LTW. I remember having a discussion with someone who was trying for this LTW but it wasn't registering the woohoos in residential elevators. If this LTW gets too complicated, I might change Hawke's LTW to something skill related. Since the Fulfilled goal means he has to achieve a LTW.
And now I remember Hawk's traits properly, Flirty, Commitment Issues, Daredevil, Virtuoso and Party Animal.
Eleanor actually rolled a wish to woohoo with Emilio right after their first kiss. It's nice when they want to do what I'm going to make them do anyway.