Snippet #2820058

Hugo was glad for Adrien to interrupt his moment with Elena. He took the offered drink with a gracious, ”Great timing.” There tended to be only so much “small talk” he could take. Like many men, he wasn’t really all that fond of being in the presence of women. Pursuing them was certainly a fun little game, though.

"And who is the latest woman on your list? Can't say I've met her."

Hugo smiled at Adrien’s question, answering with a quick and simple, ”Elena,” He took a sip from his whiskey, ”Just moved to town, she’s a teacher or something,” He shrugged, ”Truth be told, she’s a little dull, but I get the sense that she’s eager to please.” And that suited Hugo just fine; he wasn’t generally interested in women for their personalities. Sure, the ability to hold an interesting conversation was a plus, and would keep a woman in a more… Regular rotation, as far as flirting was concerned, but a pretty face and a nice rack could get a lady anywhere as far as Hugo was concerned.

He glanced around the room, most of the ladies looked nice, though there were a few… Questionable outfits. Not as if it mattered, but it did make him question some people’s mental stability. ”And what about you?” Talking with Adrien was an art, not a science, and Hugo tried to carefully tread the line between familiarity and not giving too much away. They were friends, yes, but with men such as them there was always going to be that inherent power struggle. ”You and Liesl looked pretty cozy,” The tone was appreciative, approving. Liesl was a good choice when you wanted something easy and fun.

He was just thinking about how boring the auction was, and even considered lamenting on how these events were never as exciting as he would like, when he spotted Liesl with Ricardo Trujillo. If there was one thing Hugo was aware of, it was Adrien’s general distaste for Ricardo. And as Ricardo sidled up to Adrian’s assistant (Lauren, right?), Hugo knew things had the potential to get interesting. A sideways glance at Adrien, How’s he going to handle this? It was hard to guess if Adrien would let it go or push the matter. Hugo had never found Adrien to be a particularly forgiving sort, though.

”Well isn’t that interesting,” He mused aloud, taking another sip of his drink.

"Good evening, Mr. Thompson. I see you've found something?”

Ben about jumped out of his skin when he heard Dr. Fines. He’d been so engrossed in his thoughts about the pocket watch he hadn’t even heard the man approaching. ”Dr. Fines,” He said, returning the greeting, and then he glance back at the pocket watch, ”Yeah,” He shrugged, turning his attention back to the doctor, ”It’s an interesting piece.” He knew that wasn’t the answer that Henry wanted, the doctor would probably love it if Ben would go into detail about his decision to bid on an antique pocket watch despite how they both knew clocks bothered him.

If Ben were being honest, he didn’t understand it, himself. What was he going to do with the thing? Put it on the mantle to remind him of the clocks that counted down to losing his hand? He certainly wasn't going to fix it up and use it.

"You haven't been by in some time. How are you handling things?

This was where Ben had to be careful with how he handled himself. The wrong answer, and he was fairly sure the doctor would insist Ben stop in within the next day or so to discuss his feelings or… Something. He wasn’t sure if Dr. Fines was probing him to try to figure out his mental state or just making a poor attempt at small talk, but he didn’t like it either way. Truth be told, Ben’s handle on “things” was shaky at best on the most ideal of days; despite the years it had been, he still held a lot of bitterness and anger towards the loss of his hand, which was often the focus of their scattered sessions.

”About as well as I generally do, Henry.” Ben could be difficult, in that way that he liked to remind people what he thought of them. ”And how are you handling things?” He raised an eyebrow in a mocking way, then shook his head, waving off his own comment with his right hand. He didn’t care. As much as he liked to pretend it annoyed him, he liked talking about himself and his thoughts, and would rather focus on that.

”Some of the items are very strange, don’t you think?” If the doctor wanted to talk to Ben, he would indulge the man. For a moment, anyway. ”What do you think it says about someone who bids on something useless?” He smiled, but there was a bit of wickedness in his grin. Ben wondered if Henry would give him some sort of speech about nothing being useless if someone attached value to it (boring), or told him he couldn’t possibly diagnose someone based on their shopping habits (even more boring), but either way he liked asking questions that put the attention anywhere besides his own fucked up head. When he wanted to see the doctor about his problems, he’d go on his own accord. Surely the doctor would have time in his schedule for Ben.