Chapter 23: Is this a Halloween party!?

So… I was punished to sleep on the floor.

How did this happen you may ask? Simple answer really.

I got into a fight with Claire… and lost.

Well… you may expect this huge fight that was devastating to our relationship, but, nope.

It was about what we were going to be doing on Halloween. I mean the festival just ended, do we really need such an action packed life? What about school? The focus really has been shifted from school quite a bit… my English mark… my poor, poor English mark.

Anyways, Claire wanted to go to a party at one of her father’s friend’s house. I mean, I would love to go, but it was this mix and mingle where you were to wear a mask and enter the room separately from whoever you came with, and find them by asking the other party questions…

I really didn’t like the idea of this, so I suggested that we spend time with just the two of us, maybe try a quiet path just to walk on together, and maybe a few scares along the way.

I was incredibly surprised to learn that the upper class doesn’t care at all for the frights of Halloween. It made me feel a little sad, and I really don’t like the idea of other people possibly mistaking Claire for someone else, or worse, someone who pretended to be me, and took Claire from me.

After presenting the facts… I was given two options. Go to the party with her, or sleep on the floor. I chose to sleep on the floor. If it stops her from going to the party that raises nothing but bad flags, I will do almost anything!

So… I slept the night on the floor with nothing but a blanket and a pillow. End of October on a naturally cold floor… I can safely say I was not warm most of the night. I don’t know how Claire felt… but I hope this was enough to convince her.

“Good morning Logan… I can’t believe you didn’t want to go to the party so much that you would actually sleep the entire night on the floor… I was going to let you come back into the bed if you got too cold. You know… after you told me the facts, it made me realise how silly the idea was in the first place. I am sorry, Logan. I want to spend the day with you and you may plan where to go.” Claire leans over the bed, presumably after she heard me moving around on the floor.

“Thanks Claire… but I don’t know anything around here… wait… what would you like to do, other than the party?”

“Um… If we go to the party it is possible that you might be able to make friends in the business world that will make dealing with other businesses when you become the owner of the Northson Company in the future.”

“I see.” I slowly stand up from the ground and get ready to have a shower, “I really don’t like the idea of going to a place where Ryan may show up. He hasn’t made any appearances recently and I am getting more and more nervous as he doesn’t show up. My faith in Saunderson has also dropped to almost zero.”

“Makes sense after he ran away when you clearly were in a position where running would have been the best option.”

“So… a party… Are there any parties that don’t involve masks that a few influential people will be going to?”

“Probably, it is Halloween. Rich people do what rich people do.” As Claire says this she winks at me and heads into the bathroom to hop in the shower. I will follow her in after I make a quick phone call.

……

Claire and I had gotten ready in some casual clothes and were now on the way to the Old Man’s mansion in order to pick out some fancy clothes for a party.

I had managed to convince the Old Man to take us to a different party where there would be no masks and it was pretty far away, so we had to leave at around noon in order to arrive by the late afternoon.

“Logan… why do you not want to go the mask party?” Claire holds my hand tightly as we walk side by side.

“Well, I really didn’t want to have someone else who was not me take you away from me.” I smile at Claire as I say this.

“So… jealousy?” Claire laughs slightly as she says this.

“Honestly… yep. It is one hundred percent jealousy. I want my wife to be my wife. I’m sure you know that by now.” I quickly lean over and kiss her while walking forwards.

“Not surprising… I was expecting that answer… so I don’t know why I even asked.” Claire looks away.

“Claire? Is something wrong?” I look at her with a hint on confusion in my expression.

“I… love you a lot Logan.” She looks me in the eye and stops walking.

I stand in front of her and turn to face her.

“I love you a lot too, Claire. I have for a while now. Why the hesitation after we are this far into the relationship?”

“I just want you to know that I really didn’t want to go to the mask party either.”

“Oh, why is that?” I look at Claire as she smiles slightly.

“I get jealous when you talk to other girls you know.” She looks down slightly while blushing. I hug her and she jumps slightly as she didn’t see me move, but she relaxes and hugs me back.

“I think you should just honestly accept the jealousy. At least, if we both know that we get jealous easily, we can make sure that we talk it through so we can make sure misunderstandings don’t come up, and thankfully, not many have come up yet.”

“Yeah.” Claire nods as she kisses me. “Shall we continue?”

“We shall.” Claire and I continue to walk towards the Old Man’s mansion.

……

“So… I think Claire should wear something that will match with Logan. How about we get Claire to wear a blue dress and Logan can wear just a blue dress shirt with a black tie and black pants. Get Claire to wear black leggings and get her some black heels while you’re at it. This will work!”

The Old Man is getting slightly worked up as he decides what we are wearing before even consulting myself and Claire. I don’t mind too much as I have almost no idea what looks good to the rich crowds.

“Okay then! It’s decided! We will be leaving in thirty minutes! Go people go!” The Old Man claps his hands a few times as servants lead Claire and I towards rooms to change.

……

We were now traveling in a limo towards our destination, at the party. I was told it was just a regular party… but what is a regular party for a rich person?

I also found out that the reason Claire suggested the mask party was because of the Old Man. It was apparently a test.

“So… what do you normally do during the ride to other places?” I question the two other people sitting with me, the Old Man, and Claire.

“Silence, and if there are any preparations to make, we talk about that.” The Old Man casually responds to my question.

“That’s really it… now that I think about it, it is a little boring.” Claire sighs as she leans on me from her seat.

“Well,” The old man laughs slightly, “We have preparations to make. We need to discuss proper attitude during a party like this.”

“I see…” I slowly nod my head, expecting a long list of rules.

“First, don’t worry about it, everyone going to this party is friendly and I have never had a problem, most of the people attending are high ranking staff from the Northson Company, so there are no worries on that end. The rest of the people are trusted business partners of the Northson Company. This is just a party to hang out and have fun. Oh yeah, the Scott family is in charge of security, so Saunderson might be there.”

“Why is an assassin family in charge of security?”

“If people don’t see the security guards, they tend to relax a bit more. It makes for better business deals. Anyways, you should be fine if you just act normally. Oh, and one last thing. There will be a lot of people trying to curry favour with you as you are going to be the next owner of the Northson Company, so just be wary of that, they are already paid way above normal salaries at the Northson Company, so a raise is out of the question unless someone proves themselves through hard work.”

“I have a lot to learn… don’t I?”

“Well, you weren’t born rich, so you will just have to learn how to act it.”

“I think you’ll do fine Logan.” Claire smiles at me as she says that, and starts to lean on me a bit more, but staying wary of her hair, as it would be a hassle to try and fix it.

……

The three of us step out of the limo and are greeted by a large amount of maids and butlers. They took our jackets and guided us to where everyone was currently hanging out.

“Hey, Greg’s here!”

“Woo!”

“Crack the champagne!”

The Old Man looks to me and just shrugs his shoulders.

“I told you not to worry about these people. They are more laid back than a reclining chair.”

“Yeah,” I smile slightly, “I guess this is going to be fun. Right Claire?” I look around… “Claire?”

The Old Man points to the far wall where there was some wine glasses that had already been poured… isn’t Claire bad with alcohol?

“Hey, Old Man, isn’t Claire really bad with alcohol?”

“No… when did you get that impression?”

“At the wedding…”

“Oh that. It was just her testing you. She can handle alcohol better than most men. Just hurry up before people think she is alone.” The Old Man nudges me forwards and I start to walk to Claire.

As I arrive there is a thick scent of fragrant wines that almost makes me nauseous… these are high quality? Well, I don’t drink very often or really at all, so I guess this was to be expected.

“You going to stare at them, or are you going to grab one?” Claire sees me struggling.

“Uh… I don’t know if I really enjoy wine all that much, for me, all wines have this weird after taste that makes me want to eat almost anything to get rid of the taste.”

“Then how about this?” Claire takes a fairly large sip from her glass and kisses me, giving me the wine mouth to mouth.

I swallow it down with a smile.

“That’s a dirty trick. It did taste sweeter than normal though.”

A bunch of people in the room whistle and I see the Old Man just shakes his head as he looks away.

“Too showy?” Claire smiles and nudges me to get my attention back.

“Not at all.” I shrug my shoulders and grab a glass of wine. It wasn’t too bad getting it from Claire, but doing so in the middle of a conversation might be a little rude to the other people that I would be talking to.

“Shall we go and talk to some actual people then?” Claire motions towards the crowd with her head.

“Yeah, getting some new friends might be nice for a change. I hope they are somewhat normal people though.” I lightly laugh as I start walking into the crowd with Claire at my side.

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Hello everyone!

I have nothing to say!

Have a great day/night!