Morningstar Manor

Yes the gossip was flowing this morning. Especially in the Mocha.

Eris had overheard Joy on the phone while she'd been at the counter getting her coffee. She'd stared at Joy for a moment then burst out laughing as she took her cup and headed for a couch.

***

Demitri did his best to ignore the gossip, because really he didn't care who was screwing who. So he tuned out Joy's babbling and just got his coffee and muffin and found a table.

***

Jack, of course, had to listen to the whole story when he came for his morning fix. Joy wanted reassurance that he'd never do a think like that - to which Jack obligingly told her of course not before getting his coffee and going to sit with Demitri.

24-hours later and Jazz was taking a catalog of what she was feeling.

Wearing nothing but a towel wrapped tightly around her body she wiped steam from her bathroom mirror with the flat of her hand and stared at herself critically. She'd made the right choice, she thought, in calling in sick.
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Niles had awakened this morning to a sea of  surgically altered female bodies in his bed, a pounding in his head, and a bad taste in his mouth. He hadn't wasted any time getting the women out of his apartment and after he'd recieved four kisses that tasted like too much lipstick, he'd went back to his bathroom and promptly vomited.
He'd also walked down to the Mocha to get a cup of coffee, but it didn't take too long to catch onto all the stares and whispers being directed at him. He'd heard Emma's name and knew what all of this was about. Good news really did travel fast, didn't it?
He'd rolled his eyes as he left the Mocha without coffee and drove to the store to buy the stuff to make his own. It was ridiculous that anyone even cared, as far as he was concerned. Who ever cared when two consenting adults had sex? She was over the age, apparently old enough to live on her own and hold down a job, but she somehow was too young to pick her own sex partners? It was a bunch of drama for drama's sake and he could give two fuck's less what almost anyone thought of him. 
So now he was sitting in the gardens, tucked far away from almost anyone, with his favorite girl Lola chasing butterflies in front of him and his acoustic guitar in his lap.

Amarie didn't have to be in work until after lunch today and had intended just to stooge around but Vincenzo had come off his shift in 'mood' and had told her something that had made her stare.

"So," he had finished, "you are to avoid that man, and I think you might be well advised to stay away from Emma as well."

"Oh what!" Amarie howled. "For a start 'that man' wouldn't look at me even if I was wearing a funny hat. And if Emma did get him, so what? Good for her."

And that was when she got grounded.

But there was nothing in the rules to say that she couldn't take her Wyrm to the Mocha and get a drink and the dirt from Joy. Even better she got to listen in to Joy talking to Evans, who was the one who had been monitoring the cameras and so had broken the news.

"How many's that then?" Joy was asking.

"Sheesh, we lost count," Evans chuckled. "But she has to be the youngest."

Joy sniffed and told Amarie to be careful unless she wanted to end up like Emma.

Amarie nodded and took her chocolate to the conservatory and sat on a bench and giggled and giggled.

Alec wasn't sure what he'd been thinking, going into the Mocha like that given the bombshell Emma had nonchalantly dropped at Sunday dinner. Of course it would be all over by now; gossip was like blood in this building. Constantly flowing. But somehow it still caught him by surprise, hearing Emma's name hissed in whispers by complete strangers.

Joy had even dropped several hints that the man in question, Niles SomethingOrOther, had recently passed through and gone out to the garden. Alec wasn't sure she could have been more obviously looking for a fight than if she'd been selling tickets while pouring his coffee.

But he'd already gone around with Ang over it more than once and her stance on the subject meant he stood to lose his wife as well as Emma if he said anything...harsh. So he grit his teeth and left Joy disappointed, leading Faith resolutely away from the doors to the gardens and out through the lobby instead.

Riverwalk Park was bound to be a safer bet.

Smith was in the gym, shirtless but still lookng mostly clothed to to his excessive tattoos wearing nothing but a pair of low- slung black gym shorts. He was punching the hell out of a punching bag, working through those anger issues the one shrink he'd ever seen had told him he had, and glad to be away from all the wagging tongues in this place today.

Jack was working the Lamb tonight and was beginning to wish he wasn't. Of course if he hadn't opened his mouth it might have been a more pleasant evening. How he had managed to not know that Kara had been seeing Niles he didn't know. But surely she knew the guy was making his way through all the women in the Manor. Right?

Well even if she did - apparently she hadn't heard about Emma. At least not by the look on her face when Jack was laughingly telling Molly about it and Kara had walked by.

"Shit," Jack murmured as Kara put down a tray of glasses and went back to her office, the door shutting firmly. He looked at Molly who was looking at him with wide eyes. "Well how was I supposed to know?"

"God... Jack," Molly said and shook her head and went to go check on her boss.

Spencer had his list mostly completed. He wanted it to be small and cosy, not enormous and stupid. After all, he knew Roxy was conscious of the lack of family on her side. So he had tried to keep his list down to immediate family, very close friends. He sighed, "Roxy, how's your wedding list going? I think mine's about as done as I can get it."

He sipped at the beer he'd been nursing through this job, then shrugged lightly and downed the rest of it. He had so not enjoyed this job.