Hope and Sue: Mayhem on the dancefloor

[x-invisiblegirl.livejournal.com]

A Keller Foundation fundraiser Hope and Sue are attending goes horribly wrong when drama, intrigue and betrayal all play out on the dancefloor.

There was something special about walking into a ball room, or any gathering of the social elite, the way everyone's eyes swiveled to size up the newest entrant t the room, how they judged you and how the entire room would shift ever slow slightly as the newest person made their way into the room, the way you could actually see the social politics at work. And that was the small fish, when a major player, or the representative of a major family made their way into the room you could see the ripples bouncing around the room. It was, honestly, the most fun part of all these social events she went to. She might have been just making her way into the world, but the Storm family was certainly powerful enough to cause more than a few ripples. The blonde gave a shark's grin as she surveyed the room before making her way down the stairs, Julian's staff had doe a pretty good job of doing the place up for this event. It was certainly gonna be a memorable night.

Smoothing down her black cocktail dress, worn with a sedate pearl choker and tear drop earrings, Hope stopped to speak with the chief waiter before going on her way again. Spotting a familiar blond head, she stopped once more. "It is good to see you here, Ms. Storm. I do hope you have not come to steal Mr. Keller away again?"

"Julian's PA right?," Sue's smile didn't falter, "I wouldn't dream of stealing him away after all the work that's gone into setting up tonight. I have to say I'm quite looking forward to it, although I can't give you any promises about what might happen later or if the entertainment proves to be...less than adequate," she teased, "You know me, always need something new and shiny to keep my attention."

Hope returned her smile. "Hope Abbott. And I am quite sure that the entertainment will be entertaining... I cannot make such promises about the speakers later on though. That is always a surprise."

"You're still young and full of hope," Sue objected with a smile, "When the speakers start most people find a reason to be thinking about something else. I mean it's not like they're presenting the latest developments in nanotechnology or in quantum mechanics." the blonde pointed out, "And I can say this as one of those speakers...apart from Mrs Keller, she is amazing," Sue glanced around the room and winked conspiratorially at Hope, "And she terrifies me." Sue confided in a whisper.

"It's truly good to know our guests will at least have two inspirational speakers to listen to then." Hope replied dryly without blinking. "That is half already!" Finally she allowed a small smile to creep through. "And the other one is handing out the award, so probably quite short."

"You haven't been to many of these, have you? The award presentation is never short."Sue blinked and laughed wryly, "and now I'm starting to sound a lot like Warren. I think I need a drink...and again...I just can't seem to get away from that. Well the first time I ever talked to a crowd like this they were all enraptured," she agreed before grinning, "but then you know 16 year old girl presenting a paper to a scientific conference so it could just have been the novelty of the thing."

"I know because I was part of the committee who set the time limit." Hope volleyed back and she gestured over a waiter so he could take Sue order or she could take a glass from the tray he was carrying. "Here you go."

Sue took a glass of the champagne and nodded at Hope, "You're assuming that any of us stay within the time limit, last time I timed the speech it came up to maybe twice the time limit, and I don't love the sound of my voice as much as some of the people here here." the blonde smirked, "However long you've budgeted for this event, double it then you're in the right ballpark."

"I still think it will be less then half the time set for it over the limit." Hope maintained, as she took a tonic from the gray. "At least for the awards presenter... Do you often attend events like this, Ms. Storm?" Seeing someone gesture at her, she quickly excused herself for a moment and stepped away, only to return a moment later. "My apologies."

"It's your party, you're meant to be running all over the room, it wouldn't be real if you weren't wearing a groove on the floor," the blonde allowed tipping her drink at Hope in a salute before taking a sip of the champagne, "You know how the social calendar is, there's something like this at least two or three times a week. sometimes it's impossible to keep up with everything. There's so much to do with work and all the social things, one wonders where you have time for a life between them,"

"No..." Hope shook her head with s small smirk. "Not my party, not yet. And I have not yet been attending that many events. So far it is all work related. And excuse me again." She ducked away to accept the phone from one of the wait staff. Five minutes later she returned. "Ms. Storm, how hard would it be for you to overrun your speech?"

"I get to run over officially?" Sue grinned, "Let me put in an embarrassing story or two about Julian and I think I could do that...as long as you run interference from Mrs Keller anyway."

"I'll do the best I can, but I give no guarantees. Mrs. Keller... I think 'force of nature' is quite an apt description. We only need ten minutes or so... if the traffic cooperates." Hope pulled out a small notebook, scribbling down a note before sending it of with one of her staff.

"This is New York Sweetie," Sue pointed out, "The traffic here never co-operates. You're lucky if it deigns to ever move in the direction you want at this time of the night," she noted as she glanced down at her watch. 3..2..1..a high pitched yelling and screaming echoes across the ballroom, "It kinda sounds like you have bigger things to worry about than the traffic right now."

"Oh goodness, what now?!?!" Hope twirled around, weaving her way through the murmuring crowd. She stopped straight when she saw an angry young blonde woman yelling at a young man, another woman with dark hair and dressed in deep red at his side. She frowned when something about a broken vow was yelled out. "Do you by any chance know these people?" She addressed Sue who had shown up just behind her.

Sue leaned against a nearby table an amused smile on her lips as she took a sip of her champagne, "Ah socialite drama, where would we be without it? There you have Kevin Freedman, he's a VP of Angleman Pic, one of their 'rising stars." Sue informed Hope making quotation marks in the air, "He's tipped to take over the company when the old man retires, not really a great guy, he was caught up in some dodgy dealings a few months back but the old man got him out because...yup, that angry blonde looks like his fiancee Melissa Angleman herself. She doesn't look too happy, does she? I have no idea who the other girl is, probably his latest mistress." Sue noted offhand.

"Thank you." Hope replied with a quick nod, glad she had at least something of an idea what was going on here. When she saw the first tears appear on the cheeks of Melissa Angleman, it was time to step in. "Ms. Angleman, may I escort you to one of the side rooms? You will be able to freshen up there."

The blonde didn't follow Hope into the middle of that particular conflict more than happy to stay on the sidelines watching as Melissa pushed the young girl away as she screamed at Kevin, berating him loudly and publicly for being a lying cheating...well Sue certainly wouldn't be using that language around her father, even now. He'd probably create a robot to scrub her tongue out with soap.

Stifling a sigh, Hope caught the sneer on the face of the dark haired woman and caught the eye of two staff members. They came forward, discretely urging the woman away, Kevin following her. "Ms. Angleman, please, let's just step into one of the side rooms" She gently urged her.

Sue shook hear head sadly as the dark haired woman pulled herself away from the staff members with a sneer and draped her arms around Kevin's shoulders giving him a salacious kiss before smirking at Melissa and gesturing her away, "Yes run along Melissa dear, wouldn't want to ruin your make up now. Don't worry about Kevin...I'll take good care of him for you."

Hope stifled a growl, aggrieved to see security appearing in the door openings. This only could make the situation worse. Leaving Ms. Angleman in the hands of her mother who had shown up next to them, she gestured to the security to leave before waiving another waitstaff over, giving the quiet order to have the band start playing a little early and get the attention of the crowd. Ignoring the mistress, she stepped over to the man, who was looking distinctly uncomfortable. "Mr. Freedman, it might be better if you quietly slip away. I can arrange for you to use a side entrance or a hotel room to wait in till you can leave unharnessed by the paparazzi."

Sue suppressed a grimace as Kevin played up to the crowd slipping his hand around his companion's waist and pulling her in for a long and very over the top kiss before giving the room a smarmy smile and pulling himself to his feet, "Well then lead on," he told Hope dismissively with a wave of his hand. "I have a far more pleasant...plan for the rest of the night and I'd like to get down to it as soon as possible." The blonde did let herself shudder, but there for luck went she.

Without thinking Hope kept the smile on her face as she escorted them quickly to a side entrance usually only used by the staff. "Mr. Petrov will escort you to your vehicle." The hotel room they could forget, especially after something like what they just said. Not on going to happen on her watch.

Sue watched Julian's PA leave with the happy couple, her phone out along with much of the rest of the crowd. The news was already spreading on the twittersphere as the socialites started spreading the news of the altercation, and not just them it looked like more than a few business men had seized upon the news she noted dropping her phone back into her purse. The blonde wouldn't be surprised if this was all the talk in th boardrooms and offices tomorrow, a VP being involved in such a public scandal was novel by dint of it's rarity, especially a VP who had been tapped to be as powerful as Kevin.

***

"That was a wonderful speech by the way. Thank you." Hope approached Sue, who had been standing alone for the moment. "Everything looks all calm and peaceful at the moment..." She remarked with her eyebrow up.

"I think they're all still in shock form that little stunt earlier," Sue noted with an amused smirk, "when they're loud then you know everything's ok, but when everything is this peaceful it means that everyone is salivating over the latest piece of gossip and spreading it around and around blowing it up out of all proportion. Just wait, tomorrow morning Kevin will have been surrounded by a bevy of exotic dancers and Melissa will have been trying to attack him with a dessert spoon."

"Rumors run wild... I know how it goes." Hope confirmed with a nod. "It's terrible for Melissa Angleman though... I think she never suspected it. And what it will mean for the company..."

Sue arched an eyebrow at Hope, "Interesting that your first thought was what it would do to the company," Sue noted taking a sip of her drink, "In the end Melissa will be ok, she would have found out sooner or later, at least this way it was before any permanent damage could be done past a bruised ego. She'll go home and cry for a week and then her friends will take her out and she'll get over Kevin. The company..." Sue smiled, "That's gonna be a lot more interesting to watch, the blood's in the water and the sharks will be circling."

"Sharks were already circling long before this." Hope commented with an raised eyebrow. "There has been interest in Angleman Inc for a while from various parties."

"You've done your research," Sue noted arching an eyebrow at Hope, "You're right there has been interest but no-one could really make a play with the Old Man around, he controlled the board to tightly. But succession is always a weak time for a company and when the chosen successor proves to be somewhat less than a wholesome character the board is going to have to stop and think again."

"And look into other options of course..." Hope's other eyebrow joined the other one. "Like someone from the outside coming in... Or perhaps a merger... Many ways that can go. And like I said, there are several interested parties already who would love to take over..."

"Under the best of circumstances the board would be divided on the question, but now...if they were left to their own devices I'm not sure they'd ever decide on a path out of this mess. And without controlling shares I don't think even the old man could wrangle them now. There may be companies out there that want to go after them, but after today it'd be like trying to walk over broken glass barefoot."

"Unless one is very determined and really wants the company? I heard they are active in property development... I think I heard and active in District X... Rather a specific niche, is it not?"

"It is, but that's the problem, it's too niche. The old man controls his company absolutely and the board isn't going to risk going against him, especially not now their handpicked candidate turned out to be a public relations nightmare. He gave in the first time cause his daughter who he dotes on wasn't interested in the property business, but now? How do you convince him to let you in?"

"Realistically he might not have a choice here. Their chosen successor is probably out..." Hope commented. "But the current CEO cannot keep doing this eternally."

"I need to introduce you to my grandfather at some point," Sue noted with a laugh, "Men like that, given no choice they'll keep doing what they do until they die, it's the way people like us are built."

"But they also often care about their legacy. With Ms. Angleman not interested, the first option falling through, he will be looking for another alternative. Very carefully looking for another alternative."

"Knowing him, he'll probably tell the board screws it and just run with it himself until something comes up. If only to spite all the sharks circling the water." Sue admitted with a small smile, "Men like that hate being forced to do anything."

"And what if he does not have a choice anymore? Not even men like him are immortal..."

Sue looked around conspiratorially, "You know that, and I know that but you'll never convince them of that," she confided, "people like that they need to be doing something otherwise they just waste away."

"Very true." Hope allowed, then had to turn as another staff member caught her. "Excuse me, I have to see what it going on. I hope to talk to you again, Sue." With a smile and nod Hope headed of to deal with this moment's issue.