Luc & Amanda: around 3:45, just before the fun stops
Austin in the late summer was truly miserable. It had to be in the high 90s today, at least, and the heat showed no signs of letting up. After toiling through the morning Amanda had finally surrendered, releasing her assistant for the afternoon just so she could also slack off. Or, rather, the official story was that someone needed to ‘assess’ the broken water hydrant, and she had simply assigned the task to herself. Seize the day and all that.
Now, after a thorough inspection of the situation (which involved wading barefoot through the water for upwards of an hour and venturing into the farthest reaches of the spray several times) she could confirm that, yes, the hydrant sure was broken. And with her blazer and shoes shed at the earliest opportunity -- and the rest of her outfit now dampened -- she felt quite a bit cooler and less likely to bite someone’s head off out of pure cussedness. A whole herd of motorcycle-riding outlaws could have crashed the party and Amanda wasn’t even sure she would have cared at the moment, as long as they didn’t start trouble. They probably would have fit right in with this crowd, actually, which seemed to include people from every district in the city, as near as she could tell. Of course, the number of people that Amanda recognized were far outshadowed by those she didn’t.
As she scanned the crowd, a dark-haired man who’d stripped down to his underpants for the occasion caught her eye, and Amanda slid her sunglasses down her nose to take a better look at his backside. He turned, simultaneously catching her and revealing a familiar face, and Amanda broke into an unrepentant smile. “Mr. Flores, is this the new standard uniform for Capitol bodyguards? I may have to request one be assigned to me, if so.”
Far from being embarrassed at his state of undress, Luc returned Amanda’s friendly (if slightly wicked) grin with great enthusiasm before strolling over to join her.
“You know, I thought about putting in a request in to make it official,” Luc said, wicking some of the moisture from his hair with a swipe through of his hand. Amanda followed the motion with her eyes, then pushed her sunglasses back up into place. “It’s streamline. Fashionable. The only negative is that it doesn’t really lend itself carrying a weapon but I reckon it’s a work in progress. Once I work out all the kinks, I will be sure to send someone over to your office. Safety first.”
It wasn’t as if he was the only person running through the makeshift sprinkler in his unmentionables; it seemed as if half the city had converged in the LBJ district to take advantage of busted fire hydrant. Amanda hadn’t stripped down to her skivvies as Luc and some of the more bold citizens had opted to do but she did appear decidedly more casual. He was used to the government liaison looking like the absolute epitome of the modern, vogue business professional so seeing Amanda barefoot, sans jacket, hair tousled by the spray and eyes brightened with mirth delighted Luc. In fact, he found he liked looking at her this way just as much, if not more, than some of her more polished looks. If he wasn’t mistaken, he would bet Amanda approved of his dressed down attire as well.
“I’d ask you what brought you down to our neck of the woods but I suspect it has less to do with taking in the local culture and more to do with the giant geyser?”