The light peeked through her balcony doors and with a moan she rolled over and burrowed deeper beneath her pillows. She was asleep again in seconds.

An hour later her phone rang and she shot forth a hand to dig it out of the pile of her clothes that had been dropped next to her bed last night, "Yea?"

"Miss Shantalaine. You have a meeting in one hour at the Plaza." The clear, crisp business tones of JhaiNein greeted her and before she could even emit a groan of despair or a whining complaint she found herself disconnected.

"Efficient as always." She muttered before sitting up in a pouty flounce. Dressed in a well-worn Landon Donovan jersey that hit her about midthigh, she padded into her kitchen to discover that grocery shopping had obviously not been on her agenda since her cooking fiasco. Resigned to stopping and grabbing a bite to eat on the way to the Plaza, she spun the lock on her confiscated lockers that served as dressers.

Last night hadn't gone as planned but had turned out to be a delightfully strange evening as was the norm in the great land of RhyDin. She'd hoped to hook up with some girlfriends, the problem being that her girlfriends were all in varying stages of hooks already: pregnant, engaged, married, on the prowl, and just plain odd. But it was good to see Icer, Vexi, and Riley, and even Aja.

And then Sevier had shown up. His gentlemanly ways were a real turn on, she wouldn't lie. But there was something about his chilly eyes, and those damned gloved hands that made her wary. Of course, Riley's intense reaction had only underscored the necessity of careful treading.

The walk home from the Inn had been enjoyable. The air had just started to cool and the stars were brilliant. Sevier wasn't one of those guys who loved the sound of his own voice and wanted a girl to bow down to his greatness. Companionable silence was usually interrupted by her own streaming tangents which he didn't apparently mind.

Surprisingly they weren't bothered in the WestEnd. The one lone mugger had taken one look at Sevier's bland reaction to his presence and recognized that same chilly edge she had. Getting the key from her office she'd shown him to his room and had spent an amusing hour of helping him set up where certain furnishings might go. She'd had leftover takeout from the Cafe and they'd shared it on his barren floor with a bottle of wine she'd been given by a very happy customer.

On the verge of being tipsy she'd excused herself and he'd escorted her to her door, whispering a farewell in his native tongue that sounded like poetry and music.

All in all, not the evening she'd planned, but a good one all the same.

Dressed for the business day:

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-set/BQcDAAAAAwoDanBnAAAABC5vdXQKFnRvdGkxU1BZM1JHM1ZJYmFkaTlfaVEAAAACaWQKAWUAAAAEc2l6ZQ.jpg

Mindy Mcknight's BabyShower


What a night! She'd never understood the strange rituals that many RhyDinites took for granted. The BDSM flavor that influenced birthdays had always made her a little wary: Spankings anybody? And what was with the voodoo doll stuffed full of candy? And why celebrate that you'd made it a whole extra year. Seriously? You hadn't done anything special but managed to live. RhyDin had to be an extra specially dangerous place to make people think they needed to celebrate each year as a success just for breathing.

Where she came from they celebrated the Mother on the day of your birth, after all she'd done all the hard work, hadn't she?

But it wasn't a birthday at all that they had celebrated so successfully but a babyshower. Which was yet another strange custom that she'd known little about. When Mindy had mentioned that she'd made no plans for a babyshower, she'd felt honorbound to help the girl out. After all they were friends, and that was just what friends did, right?

Commandeering a babyshower in the middle of the Red Dragon wasn't anywhere near as difficult as she'd thought it would be. Well, if she'd thought about it. Which she hadn't. Elessaria had been a delightful good sport allowing their hilarity to take place during her shift and even the quiet friend of hers had given a few suggestions to help fuel her imagination.

But the real stars of the show were her newfound friends Audrey and Jase, and of course Jatari. They'd barely given her a questioning glance when she'd set them to work making everything perfect for Mindy. Jase had drawn the Donkey for pin the tail, or was that knock up the... no wait...hit the Donkey on the tail? Whatever, she still wasn't sure what a Donkey had to do with a birthday/babyshower party but she wanted Mindy to have the games that such a celebration demanded (And she was really thrilled to discover that you didn't really take the baby out and give it a bath and then find a way to put it back in the new Mom). She'd made up a song to some ritualistic music (We Wish you a Merry Baby! We Wish you a Merrry Baby! We Wish you a Merrry Baby and a Happy Set of Twins!) and they'd played "Go Strip."

She still wasn't sure how ending up half naked was part of celebrating a baby's new arrival but that Danny guy had mentioned that it was probably good babymaking ideas. Anything to help Mindy bake those babies good.

The only glitch had been the cake. The idea of baking left her with kind of a petrification seconded only by the sight of certain people in the Inn known for their insanity. But no one had said what kind of cake and judging by Mindy's giggles the cake of soap with the candled gouged down inside it had been a raging success. She sure hoped the Inn hadn't had too hard of a time cleaning up the scorched/melted disaster from the bartop. Leave it to her to burn even a cake of soap.

Shaking her head in bemusement she grinned a dimpled flash of happiness. Mindy had left in good spirits and Jase had agreed to paint her a nursery mural so the Gift part of the shower had been covered.

She'd been quite tipsy and in good spirits herself when she'd made her way back to the Plaza. In her giddy state she'd known better than to attempt the walk back to the Gardens so late at night and had instead crashed on her couch in her office. If JhaiNein was going to be such a good sport about dressing her and there was a shower that was good enough for an impromptu sleepover.

Humming the catchy tune to herself she whispered, "For you Mindy!"

(*Special Thanks to all those who allowed themselves to be shanghaied into the impromptu celebration and to Mindy of course! You guys and gals totally rock my world!)

She couldn't stop sneezing.

And she wasn't a one-time sneeze kinda gal. Nope. Whenever the tickle started to build up in her nose she quickly looked to hide her face as the series of sneezes that would shake her small frame took over with a vengeance. It was always a minimum of three and had progressed clear to eight on one occasion.

"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo! Snff! Achoo! ACHOO!"

She twitched her head sending russet curls flying as the last attack made her eyes water and her body jerk.

JhaiNein had taken one look at her this morning and sent her packing. The honeyed tea that Elessaria had sent her home with last night was steeping on the stove and she had lunch warming up. Of course, the chicken noodle soup suggested by Maranya had been misconstrued as the Doc had been also talking to the guy that hung out in the rafters all the time about his peanut throwing abilities. Somehow, Fiora had overheard "honeyroasted chicken noodle soup." Seeing as how she couldn't quite find that she just added a few squirts of honey to the soup as it heated.

Last night had been a bit of a blessing actually. Down in the dumps about missing the festival, she'd headed to the Inn in hopes of a little pick me up. The resulting good times had done wonders for her bruised soul. Elessaria had been in a decorating frenzy and the box of goodies had been fun to play with, she'd even decorated Vexi's gorgeous neck with a garland that had looked stunning on the red dragon. Rooting around in the box with Quinn, she'd met Ollie Granger and even saw her neighbor Katt for a little bit. David had gotten her an orange juice and she'd met a nice guy named Michael who helped answer some of her Christmas questions with the assistance of the young woman whose name she never caught.

On her way out she'd even seen Lirssa and Taneth. All in all, a relaxing evening well spent.

The tea warned her that it was done and she poured herself a cup. There upon her mantle was one of her stockings. The actual nylon looked rather decadent there but she shrugged. Who knew maybe she'd get some candy and goodies? Moving to her balcony with her tea cup in hand she opened it long enough to wrestle in the ficus she'd picked up. She wasn't about to put a tree in her loft. It just seemed odd. From the streets she saw a few more of those men wearing their red suits. She had grown awfully tired of telling them "no thanks" to their desire to have her sit in their lap and spill her naughty secrets.

But it was all worth it with how friendly everybody was being. Perfect strangers had been singsonging, "Good day! Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!" and a normally dour young woman had even sang, "VITH YOU!" at her while she'd been shopping for her groceries yesterday.

Sipping the tea gratefully she set the ficus near the fireplace and began to carefully place the bouncy balls she'd collected upon its leaves, "There."

Dimples flashed, "Looks good, A Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday Vith you too!" She sang before the timer went off on her honeyed chicken soup.

Time to eat.

She opened the door and stumbled back from the entourage that poured through. Her mouth had fallen open and stayed in such an undignified expression as she was maneuvered, administered to, and tucked within the sweet confines of a fleece blanket.

Her stomach rumbled at the sight of the soup, and her eyes lit at the sight of the cookies but her lips finally came together in a big ol grin that sent dimples careening dangerously deep at the sight of SANDWICHES!

Tears sparkled in her cerulean eyes at the pure thoughtfulness of it all, the card perused so she knew who her culprit of pleasure was.

As Dmitri set up to play she was overcome by the final present. So eager to watch it it took all of her control to sit idly through the gorgeous and sweet playing of the skilled violinist. Her cultured tastes leant more toward Darcy's guitar strumming and she gave him a thumbs up for his troubles. Refined taste not necessarily her ace.

She patted the foot of her couch with her feet and grinned up at him as she devoured a sandwich, "That was just right gorgeous, ye want to join me for the game?" Motioning to the disc she was dying to watch. "Or do ye want to go back and tell yer boss that he most assuredly won me over with this thoughtfulness?"

Her wicked wink accompanied the clarification, "As in he better be prepared for what comes next in our 'relationship' cuz he just made it one."