Morningstar Manor

All the boxes had been emptied, and the ball room was full of clothes and clothes and clothes, on racks and on chairs and in stacks and in bags.

There were a few makeshift curtains between the pillars, and Lewis was hopping between them like a goblin, bringing new suggestions for outfits, or parading his makeshift models in front of a big mirror.

He was being followed by a calm woman in her fifties who was wordlessly scribbling on a large pad, Andras who was snapping the 'winning' outfits with a compact camera, and a little girl of about five who just gaped at everything and tried to stay out of the way.

When Andras almost fell over her, he just turned, grabbed her, put them on his shoulders before she could even squeal, and just carried on working as if she wasn't there.

Into the Mocha they went and Kris looked around, seeing a few of the gorgeous faces and bodies he had hoped to see, and he cleared his throat and tapped on a table to attract their attention.

"Um - ladies, gentlemen," he said, "we are in - frankly - awful trouble and are hoping some of you might be kind enough to help us out. The fact is - we have a designer and a complete collection of clothing but the photographer and all the models are stuck in Switzerland. So - would you be prepared to wear Lewis's clothes and have photos taken? What do you say?"

He looked round hopefully. "Anyone?"

Robbie stepped out of the Slaughtered Lamb and lit a cigarette as he headed towards the Manor. Once again he had played a game of pool and had only a couple of beers with someone he barely knew, and once again he was heading to his apartment that was too big for him, and there was no one waiting for him at home.

He was getting tired of being lonely, but he didn't really know how not to be lonely anymore.

*

Emily sat in the Mocha with a big coffee mug in her hands, and was flipping through some clothes magazines looking for dresses. The wedding magazines she had hidden in her apartment away from Vincenzo's eyes, but this time she was looking for a dress to the rumored Valentine's Day ball.

*

Thomas also stopped by in the Mocha in the evening after work. He carefully chose a blend of tea that he approved of and sat down by the window to watch people.

Del, at a loose end, lounged on one of the couches reading a novel in Spanish and sipping iced coffee and dreaming of white beaches, brilliant sunshine and girls in hardly anything at all. Winter - he hated it. Not that he wanted to go anywhere - his job for De Rossi was still fun - but some sun would be nice.

~

Brendan had come down to buy a bag of coffee beans because, while Zack was still too poorly to drink much of it, Brendan needed the bursts of caffeine to keep him going. He thought the crisis was past, thank God, but Zack didn't seem to be improving quickly. Between tiredness and worry Brendan needed all the help he could get.

~

Andy had come home from work early with a crashing headache and a general down on the entire world. It was just one of those days and she didn't much care who knew it. With her aching forehead propped on his fist, she flipped through a copy of Smashing that someone had left there and thought snide things about the glamour pusses within.

~

Finally Allan breezed in to the Mocha with his duffle bag on his shoulder, having dumped the rest of his luggage on a trolley in the lobby. Someone from maintenance would be along to help him move in just now, he had been assured. Meantime - coffee!

Despite living in the building, Emily had only visited the spa in the bottom level only once - when Kris did her hair and makeup for the Halloween ball. Usually she thought that beauty spas were for someone who actually could enjoy long lovely nails and beautiful hairdos, unlike a chef, but Vincenzo's suggestion that she could pamper herself with a massage at the very least did appeal to her. So she appeared in the Spa, looking a little lost, with her long brown hair free on her shoulder and dressed in blue knit top and a dark brown skirt.

After a morning shift at work, Emily headed to the Michael's Bros department store to do some long over-due shopping - the cat needed new food bowls, she needed warm leggings, and batteries and a lightbulb and so on - the sort of things that you otherwise forget in the grocery store. Before making her way to the tills, she stopped by the check the magazine shelves in case for something interesting in the cookery magazines. After a while she found herself standing in the aisle with a number of Food and Wine in her hands, but actually staring at the thick, glossy wedding magazines still in the shelf, deep in thought.

We are going to be closed for July anyway, we'd have good time to arrange everything then, but I wonder if the churches are all reserved for the summer already, but what's it like for Catholic's though? And besides everyone is away on Holiday then anyway...

Emily clicked "send" on her email program and sighed of relief. Gourmet magazine's February's column was finally written and sent to the editor. The new menu for the restuarant only needed a couple of more test runs to perfect it. It felt like work was finally giving her a little room to breath after a hectic Holiday season. The managers were worried about the quiet winter months but Emily couldn't help but feel relieved that they had pulled off the season successfully once again. The numbers and the reviews had been phenomenal, so Emily felt like she could treat herself a little.

Perhaps go to the spa downstairs? Or buy an ice-cream machine from the sales? She leaned back in her chair at the back of the Mocha thinking of her options, and turned off the laptop on the table in front of her.

Somehow Emily always managed to find time for a little extra baking, no matter how tired and busy she was because of work. Last year she had brought Christmas cupcakes as thanks for the staff, and this year she had made a couple of rather traditional but beautiful fruit cakes. On Monday afternoon she carried one cake down to the basement where she knew the maids and some of the handymen had their little corner of the Manor, and with the cake she left a card with Holiday greetings and thanks.

The other cake she brought up to the lobby and presented it at the security desk. Knowing the guards she was certain the cake would be destroyed by tomorrow, but they also got a card with the same greetings and thanks. To any staffers she saw going around the Manor she was sure to tell to go and have a slice of the cake before it was all gone - because Emily knew for a fact that her cakes were really that good.

Thomas had pulled on his knee-lenght black jacket and was having a cigarette in the cramped little courtyard behind La Fee Verte by the employees entrance. He took every small chance to have a cigarette since those chances came very rarely, and he sure needed the nicotine to get through without snapping at the customers or the waiters. What really did not help his blood pressure was the fact that he had not seen his dear bonita in a long while properly and this week, he had realized, did not even know what was going on with her or where she was. What was even worse was that he was on the phone with his sister Beatrix. Thomas paced up and down in the courtyard arguing with her - she had apparently decided to come and visit him and her son Lucas some time soon, and Thomas really could not be very thrilled about the news.

*

Wearing her chef's whites and her long hair on a bun, Emily sat down heavily on the chair in the kitchen office of La Fee Verte. She held a big coffee mug between her hands and stared at the paperwork on her desk and the emails that needed answering. When would she have time to do all those? She needed to be making mise en place for the Christmas specials and finishing the orders for the New Year's specials. She felt like every year the Christmas season got harder and busier and more taxing than the last one, and always at this time of the year she found herself wondering if she should quit or she might get a serious case of burn-out.

Absent-mindedly Emily sipped her coffee, and flinched right away. She cursed under her breath - she had not realized to wait for the coffee to cool down enough and had instead burnt her tongue. Great. She really needed a day off, or even better, a short holiday. She had no had time to go dancing with Vincenzo in a while, or even spend time with him properly other than crawling to bed to sleep next to him for a few hours before one of them needed to go to work again. Just a couple more weeks, Emily thought, and it would be January and a lot quieter.

*

Lucas was idly stirring a cup of karma chai at home. During the last few months the new kind of tea had become a habit for him and he had a cup or two every day. Last night's party, however, got the young man slightly suspicious of it. What kind a tea could also be injected and used like a legal drug? He wondered how soon the papers would be full of demands for making karma chai illegal, but then again, he had not noticed any real harmful symptoms of it. Not really - the dreams had to be because of stress, anyway. Right?

*

Walking down the street watching all the shop windows full of seasonal decorations, and all the families busying themselves together shopping for Christmas on the last weekend before the holiday itself, Robbie thought he should have taken up the offer from his family and travel home to Ireland for Christmas. Stubbornly he had decided to stay in the City, concentrate on getting some over-due things done for work, and spend Christmas alone. What more was it anyway than a few extra days off, that's all. Except that everyone else was with their families, their children and wives and insufferable mother-in-laws. Robbie had no idea what he would do over Christmas, other than watch classic films from TV that he had seen a hundred times. Where was the point in making any Christmas food or putting up decorations either when you were alone?

*

Laura had decided to spend her day off wrapping Christmas presents. No matter how much she despised the holiday, she could not deny the fact that she made neat and beautiful gift wrappings. She was going to drive to New York next week to spend Christmas with her family, and she had had to get gifts for her parents and cousins and grand-parents and practically the whole family. She still had not remembered to ask Smith what he was doing on Christmas, but seeing as the difficult and potentially dangerous situation with his job had not yet been cleared, Laura doubted he would agree to come with her to New York. Nevertheless, Laura wrapped his Christmas present in a stylish silver-and-blue paper and without even realizing it herself, was humming a mix of Christmas songs.

(OOC: Mun shows she is still not dead and that the people in her head are also alive, and starting to chatter amongst each other again. I might activate again soon!)

With Emily's parents out for a while, Vinnie was taking the opportunity to help her around the apartment.
( The Brandons are visiting again over Thanksgiving )

In the afternoon after getting his laundry to the washer, Robbie went to the games room next door and picked up a pool stick. While waiting he entertained himself in a lonely game of pool.

*

Emily chatted up Lucas in the queue of the Mocha and interviewed him about working at the Flamingo Lounge and what kind of a boss Gil was. After they both got their orders, Lucas headed outside to the Gardens for a cigarette to go with his coffee, while Emily headed towards the coffeeshop with her cappuccino looking for a table.

*

Thomas hadn't had a chance to check his mail in several days so now in the evening on Sunday, coming home from work, he stopped by in the lobby floor to see if had received anything of interest. He stood there in the mail room going through the pile in his dark suit, sorting them in appropriate piles.

*

Laura had decided that a good way to end the weekend was a long yoga excercise topped off with a swim on the roof. Having done all that, she descended into the hot tub in her white bikini, laid back, and relaxed.

Vincenzo got to La Fee in good time and left his car nearby then went round to the kitchen door to wait. As he did he looked around the yard and smiled to think that, Michelin stars or no Michelin stars, every restaurant needed somewhere to put the trash. Garbage was a kind of equality, even if the original ingredients were more expensive.

He was quite happy philosophising, and prepared to wait as long as it took.

"Hey honey, is it today you go back to work? If it is please let me know because I'll make arrangements to take you and come and pick you up afterwards. Lemme know huh?"

Even Emily on her sick leave had heard the news. She felt distressed that she could not right away do something delightful for the happy couple, but feeling that she had to do something, she decided to send a pink bouquet of flowers instead and attached a special little pink card to it.

Horrified and saddened when she heard about it in the Mocha that morning, Jazz used her lunch break at work to stop by a local bakery and requested a selection she hoped would make Emily smile.

Later that afternoon the basket of cookies was delivered with a note.

My best wishes for a speedy recovery. ~Jazz

After Anastasia had delivered Charlie's present, she stopped at the store and bought a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates, and a big bottle of wine before heading home and up to Emily's. She'd heard that her friend had been hurt, but she didn't know how and she felt horrible for not going to check on her sooner. Holding her bag of goodies in one hand and her flowers in the other, she knocked.

Chad had gone ahead and done his part of submitting the interviews for review then come home to get a shower and go back in to look over the rest of her case. It seemed like home and work were the only places he ever went, so the side trip to the flower shop was fun today.

He picked up an autumny looking bouquet and a box of cookies then took them up to Emily's apartment.

Amarie watched Emily's neighbour, Mr Avilar, heading for the lifts. She appraised his back view thoughtfully, blushed and grinned when he caught her at it and gave him a cheeky little wave. then she tapped on Emily's door and gave Vincenzo's pass key, borrowed from his dresser, a thoughtful jingle.

With bruises all over her skin and visible scrapes on her cheek and her left arm held in a sling against her chest, Emily felt that she was in no condition to see absolutely anyone (especially not the journalists asking for interviews due to the Michelin stars). She had spent a very miserable morning after very little sleep calling to her bank, the restaurant and her phone service provider about losing the cards, keys and the phone. It was all too much work and a horrible hassle and left her completely exhausted.

After a three-hour nap over the lunch hours, she finally woke feeling just as bad as before. She was supposed to be on sick leave for at least the rest of the week, so eventually she came to examine the package she had received from Gregori the other day.

She put the DVD in the player and sat back on her yellow sofa and watched some of the auditions with Wayne. She shook her head feeling rather uncomfortable, paused the DVD and reached for her phone. She still had Gregori's phone number, so she decided to call him. She didn't know how to behave with him anymore after all that had happened between them, but she had to at the very least thank him.

Emily sat in an examination room alone, sniffling a little since she felt completely miserable, while the doctor had gone to get her X-ray results. She had a feeling that there really was a thing like karma - she had been all too successful and happy lately so naturally something horrible had to happen to even it out. The pain in her left shoulder was constantly in the back of her head even after it had been popped back on its place and the arm was held in a triangle sling. She was certain she had never felt anything as painful as dislocating a shoulder and then also returning it back - she had not held back the screams on either times. Like the shoulder would not have been enough, she also had scrapes on her left cheek from when her head had hit the ground, and on her leg from when it had been trapped under the scooter. Her jeans were ripped and the new trench coat was ruined - not to mention that her dear Vespa needed attention as well.

That was the least of her worries, however, since the muggers had taken her bag, and along with it all her keys except for the scooter key - including the keys to her apartment and the restaurant - her wallet with her cards and ID and some money and her cell phone. She did not even want to think about all the trouble losing them would bring her - and she did not get a chance to either since the doctor returned to the room.

( A doctor, a police officer and a boyfriend )