[ nikola, on the other hand, doesn't care much for them. oh, it's true that he used to attend his fair share of social events, bumping elbows with the social elite, a variety of politians, bankers, and even nobility. he'd been friends with jj astor before the man went down with the titanic, and had frequented a number of get togethers as a favor and courtesy to one of his most prominent financial backers. but, in the decades following the death he faked (the death helen faked for him), he hasn't really seen the need to put himself in the middle of the public eye. especially when you're supposed to be dead and are trying not to bring unnecessary attention to oneself.
he's only here to keep an eye on helen, to be completely honest. he's been concerned about her state of being since he got the truth of her temporal origins out of her, having seen her at her worst on more than one occasion. rebekah only gets approached out of [a] boredom, and [b] because he's seen the little blonde fluttering about the woman in question. ]
Blueberry? [ he knows it's blackberry, but deliberately stating a wrong assumption so the floor's opened up for someone to correct you is one of the oldest conversation starter tricks in the book. ]