Gala

Using her phone Jodie checked over her makeup and hair to make sure everything was perfect before exiting the car for the charity gala. Earlier that day she had spent hours at the salon changing her red hair back to something close to her original dark locks. Being a redhead had been enjoyable, but with her hair being naturally so dark they always had to use chemicals to lighten it before adding the color, otherwise her dark hair would just drink in the red for little effect. In the phone she could see her updo held perfectly, with the few wisps of curled hair dangling down to help frame her face. Between the eyeliner, mascara and dark blue eyeshadow full of glitter Jodie’s naturally piercing blue eyes stood out like they could have been a movie special effect. She pressed her lips together taking in the effect of the lip plumper the salon attendant insisted would make her lips pop. Even with the nude lipstick she wore to keep the attention to her eyes, her lips looked so soft and kissable now that she had a natural looking pillowy pout. “Are you ready my dear?”

She gave a Adam a smile that touched her eyes, her hand reaching over and patting the top of his. “I’m like really nervous, but yeah this will be my first gala.” The edge Jodie had been on the last few days was gone after the session with Adam’s cock the previous night, and that morning. All she had to do was tell him she needed his cock and he relented. Stepping out of the vehicle in her stormy blue dress, and five inch silver sparkling heels Jodie felt like all was right with the world as she turned heads. All her life she wanted to be the center of attention, not the person ignored, she wanted to have someone in her life that loved her and she wanted to be doing music. Right now she had all of that, and while it might have once been hard for her to walk in five inch heels, right now it was like she was gliding across a cloud.

Adam often kept a hand on her as he moved them around the room to introduce himself or get acquainted with those he already knew. Always he drew attention to Jodie, at one point she even made her blush. “Reginald, where are my manners. This lovely woman at my side is my better half, Jodie Applegate.” Jodie could feel the thin almost skeletal looking man that looked to be about Adam’s age check her out. His eyes stopped briefly on her chest. “I don’t see a ring on her Adam.” The man’s slate gray eyes met Jodies as he smiled at her, it was a smile meant for Adam not her. To provoke a response of one predator as another came into their territory. “Your beauty and grace outshine us all my dear, if you are willing to step away from the brute and played your cards right you could be Mrs. Westmount before Christmas.”

Splaying her hand Jodie looked at her left hand, mostly looking at her nails, she bit her lip and looked over at Adam for just a second, before giving a little frown to the thin man. “I’m like not very good at cards, but I think I have a winning hand to be a Wesker…” Today had been so wonderful with Adam, but Jodie needed to remember her goal. She wanted him to break up with her and if Adam disliked talking about marriage with his parents, she knew he would hate that she brought up them getting married at such a public event.

“Reggie, it has been a pleasure to see you again, but many more people to meet. You know how it goes.” Adam put his hand on Jodie’s lower back to escort her away from one of his old college classmates. He wished she hadn’t said that, he was going to ask her, but not here and not now. Word of what she said was going to get back to his mother and she was going to be furious that Jodie had so little decorum to advertise their personal lives like that. “Jodie, honey, my love. Remember you aren’t supposed to talk about weddings or marriage.”

She was well aware, but instead of saying so Jodie cocked her head to the side and fluttered her lashes at Adam as she blinked. “Oh, umm oopsie. Sorry, I forgot.”

Jodie had lost count of how many people she was being paraded in front of and was very much wondering when she would get a chance to sit and try some of the delicious food she got to try with Iris. She was looking over her shoulder to see how many people were taking their seats when Adam started to introduce her again to someone. “This is Candace Best, the head of social media for Mega Corps charity division, Better Living.” Turning to look Jodie saw a young woman around her age and height. She had her golden blonde hair pulled back into a tight braid that clung to her till it left the neck going down to the middle of her shoulder blades. Jodie noticed that her makeup must have taken hours with how one shade faded to another and she wished she had that kind of skill. Earlier she was so proud of how her blue eyes looked, but it was nothing compared to how this young woman’s green eyes shone.

“Thank you Mr. Wesker, but it is Connors-Best. Oh my god I love your shoes!” The blonde woman said, her business like demeanor slipping as she looked down at Jodie’s heels. “We totally match!” She said moving her foot out from her dress to show a silver sandal with silive sparkling sequins on the straps.

“My mistake, and where might your sister be?” He glanced about the area before turning to Jodie who he saw had a large smile on her face as she looked down holding her heeled foot up next to Candace’s. “Twin girls in her department, and if I recall only one guy. Such a lucky fellow.”

“She isn’t here tonight, we figured only one of us needed to miss Thanksgiving and she won the bet, but joke is on her. I get to be here with all this free food. I’m going to send her sooo many photos of it all and tell her I was just too stuffed after the salad course to eat anky of it.”

Jodie laughed and giggled along with Candace, imagining Tiffany teasing her. “She must love food and like do the both of you run your department?”

“Hmm, not exactly. My sister is a bit of a catch all, she will answer the phones, fetch us coffee and file.”

Jodie pointed to herself interrupting. “I do that, I’m Adam’s secretary. It is so awesome that she is able to get the little things out of your way so that you can focus on the big picture!”

“Well she does do some of the social media work herself, she can really backfill anyone in the department, small as it is. I don’t think I would do the job without her, in a place like Best Living it is sooo important to know you have someone who has your back.”

“That is part of the corporate game, to network and you meant Better Living, or are you working on a rebranding?” Adam said, plucking an orderve from a tray of a passing waiter. As he took a bite Jodie looked at him sadly, wishing she could both continue to talk to this nice girl and run off to follow the waiter to claim his tray.

“Yes, Better Living is our name, along with our motto of Better Living through Mega Corp. But around my team we like to call it Best Living, it sounds better.” Seeing someone behind Adam, Candace raised her hand and waved him over. “I don’t believe you have met my husband.”

Her husband was a person he very much wanted to meet and get in the good graces of. Adam turned and took a step back to make room and gave a side glance to Jodie who had snached the rest of his food from his hand. “This is my husband Senator Davis.”

Giving the man a firm handshake Adam was happy he had come along with his wife. A newly elected Senator in his first term was a good person to meet, Adam could do much for his fundraising and later he could do much for him in return. “Pleased to meet you Senator Davis, I’m Adam Wesker and this is my lovely date Jodie Applegate.”

The tall brown haired man was a little younger than Adam and slightly taller, but even though he was younger the few streaks of gray hair made him seem much older. “None of that tonight, just call me Ryan. You would be surprised how tiring being called Senator is and how quickly it got to that point.” The man gave his wife a kiss, moving beside her and recognizing the look Jodie was giving him as she looked between the two. “Trying to puzzle out the last name difference?”

When Jodie nodded, it was Candace who spoke up. “I already have two amazing last names, I told my love here he could have me, but I would not be taking his name.”

“I heard you ran into a little trouble with that on the campaign trail.” Adam added, but Ryan just waved it off. “The only real problem is when we were discussing our possible names for our baby.”

Jodie’s eyes lit up, this girl was about the same height as her and she didn’t look like she had seen a day of pregnancy. “You have a little one?”

“We do, her name is Alicia Ann Connors-Best, her first name is from my mom and her middle name is the same as mine and my sisters. Wanted to keep that going, it was too cute not to do it.”

Adam watched as the young Senator rolled his eyes. “It is like I don’t exist at all.” Candace bumped him with her hip and gave him a wink. “Get better at debating if you want to win.”

Pretty soon the two had to go mingle more themselves and Jodie found herself alone with Adam once more. “She is a good person to know, head of her own department with a great head for PR, husband who is a sitting Senator, mother who is one of our Directors of finance and a father who is about to head up one of Mega Corps most ambitious projects. Her office is out here in Long Island, you could do worse for friends.”

“Yeah all that and she seems really nice.” It was Adam’s turn to roll his eyes at his partner. “Yes and she seems nice.”

After another half hour of mingling Adam excused himself when a phone call came through, leaving Jodie by herself. She considered going to find Candace, but decided instead to head towards the other end of the room to be closer to the kitchen and where she would have easier access to the amazing food. She wasn’t sure when the next time she would be able to eat like a rich person and intended to make the most of it. Once there she spent the next few minutes getting select bits from different trays, giving no heed to the fact that the dinner course hadn’t started yet.

Moving over to one of the girls who carried a tray of white wine she stopped as she rounded a corner seeing why the girl wasn’t moving. A large walrus of a man she had met earlier, though she couldn’t recall his name was in the middle of dressing down the teen girl. “Your job is to serve, do you think you are here as a guest or something? No, you don’t get to join in on a conversation because you think you know something about the current trade values. You shouldn’t even deem yourself worthy to look me in the eye. Is it that you just don’t want this job? I could help you with that if that is what you want. Entitled people of your generation don’t even know the value of hard work.”

“Umm like excuse me, sir could you not…” Jodie said interrupting the man’s lecture, but before she could continue the teen girl thrust the tray of drinks into Jodie’s chest and she had no choice other than to take hold.

“Look what you've done, gone and scared her off when I was trying to teach her about social standing and work ethic.” The large man scoffed and went off in the same direction as the waitress. Jodie didn’t want to give the cruel man another chance at the girl, but as she looked for a place to put down the tray someone came up to her and put an empty glass on the tray and pulled a full one. “I was going to grab another for my husband, but it looks like most of these have spilled. If you could, please go fetch us some more.”

The woman who spoke looked to be in her sixties and Jodie was shocked that she thought Jodie worked here. She wasn’ t wearing anything close to the uniforms and the only other reason she could fathom was because she just wanted to be mean. “Lady I don’t work here, you go get your own drink.” Jodie said, stepping up to her and thrusting the tray into her hands, causing more of the wine to splash about. Walking away from the now upset woman, Jodie made a bee line right for Adam who she saw coming in from a balcony. Moving up to him she slipped her arm through his and let out a sigh. “Some people here can be like so mean and like they do it just to be mean.”

Adam was about to agree with her when his mother came up to him, moving with a purpose. “Adam, your little harlot here just insulted Victoria Von Kronz, while splashing her with wine. Do you have any idea what sort of damage control I am going to have to do, because of her?” Jodie’s jaw fell open, she thought Iris liked her and yet she had just called her a harlot.

“No, like Mr. Umm Walrus man was being mean to a waitress and I got him to stop and she gave me her tray and…”

“Walrus man…” Iris gave Jodie a hard look and then turned her gaze back to her son for bringing the brain dead girl here, let alone him considering bringing her into the family. “I believe I have heard enough from her, sort this out.” At no point in the conversation did Iris bring her voice over a loud whisper before she went off to try and fix what she deemed to be wrong about the evening.

“She called me a harlot… Adam. Why didn’t you like say something to her!?” A lot ran through Adam’s mind with what just happened and Jodie’s question. If he stood up to his mother it would only make a scene, and another scene would only make things worse. Jodie didn’t seem to grasp the idea of not advertising your personal life, she had already caused gossip and now it was worse. Mrs. Von Kronz was one of the wealthiest donors to the charity and had to qualms about using that as a weapon to get what she wanted.

“Jodie, honey. This just isn’t the place for this, we can talk more when we get back.” He said as gently as he could, it didn’t bother him that she was slow to pick things up, but right then at that moment he wished his girlfriend was a little brighter to see the ramifications in this social circle. He was like a boiling pot ready to blow himself, but he couldn’t do that here. Something like that would damage his and his families reputation.

“Honey nothing, I want to go home. If you can’t talk to me here, then I don’t want to be here.”