all_inclusive | Gathering: New Year's Eve Gala

The annual Nexus New Year's Eve gala began at 8 in the evening. Too grand to be contained by the lobby or dining hall, the gardens at the front of the hotel were employed, with long strings of white lights forming a twinkling canopy from the front doors all the way to the hedge maze. The weather was temperate and calm, and the night perfectly clear.

Drinks were served at various bars set up throughout the gardens and lobby, with champagne cocktails being the specialty of the night. Wheeling through the crowd was a bartender with golden cart providing warm drinks on the go: Tom and Jerrys, rum punch, negus, and Irish coffee.

Crisply-dressed wait staff wove through the collected guests with an abundance of hors d'oeuvres for all different tastes. The Bistro remained open with a limited selection of items for those who were wanting something more substantial.

Above the front doors was hung a large, gold-rimmed clock counting down the last hours, minutes, and seconds of the current year.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"The rumors that Rachel Zane is a complete stick in the mud are true," Rachel says, laughing a little. "Given it's taking me this long to accept an invitation to do drugs illegal in my home jurisdiction. I don't know. I think it might blow off some steam and you're not exactly someone who is going to take advantage of me. You have a weird sort of honor when it comes to what's wrong and right. I've always been a little confused and fascinated by that."

One eyebrow creeps up his brow. "'Weird sort of honor'?" he asks. He's vaguely amused by this statement. And maybe by it coming from Rachel.

"Well, on the face, you're a womanizer," Rachel says, gesturing with her wine glass while she speaks. "But yet, you'd do anything for someone you cared about. You take care of Mike, and Donna, and any other person you truly care about even though you act like you don't care about anything but money. See what I mean? It doesn't all fit together. It doesn't make sense. I like figuring out the things that don't make sense. I guess that's why I want to be a lawyer so badly."

He frowns at her. "That is a very cheap way of interpreting my social life," he says. "Who says I care about money?" Yes, he did skip over all of the other parts of what she said. That was deliberate.

"I said that you act that way," Rachel clarifies. "Deep down, I think it's a front to hide the fact that you have a big heart."

Rachel has seen that in action more than once. "Just look at how you treat Mike. He's like a brother to you - if you only cared about money, you wouldn't care about Mike."

"I have no heart. The Grinch has me beat," he comments. It's all bullshit and he knows that she knows it, but that front she was talking about, it's still there.

"And yet you aren't green," Rachel says, laughing a little and hiding it behind her hand. "Come on. You promised me something else that's green and I've yet to see it."

Granted, Rachel doesn't think Harvey's the type to do that right out in public but, when in Rome...

"No, I'm not," he says. Then he gives her a curious expression. "I don't believe I promised anything. I might have mentioned that it was a possibility."

And she's right, he wouldn't smoke weed in the midst of a crowd. That's a little too blasé even for him.

"But, if you'd like to walk with me to the garden..." he leads, starting in that direction with a brief stop at the bar for a refill on his drink.

"I would absolutely love to walk with you to the gardens, Mr. Specter," Rachel says lightly. This is a weird place, sure, but she already feels more relaxed and unwound than she has in ages. The weight of everything is lifted, even momentarily, and it feels good.

"Let's go."

"Stop with the 'Mr. Specter' bit. I'm not your teacher," he says as he weaves through people and around hedges until he finds a spot a little bit away from the crowd and the direct view of the building. He doesn't want everyone trying to Bogart his stash.

He lights the joint and takes a generous hit. As he hands it over to her, he asks, "You have done this before, right?"

"Smoked, never marijuana," Rachel admits. "Is there anything I ought to know?" Rachel knows that Mike spent a lot of his early twenties smoking weed regularly but she's always been too Type A for that.

"It's not going to make me go crazy or anything, is it?"

He gives her a look. "Don't smoke it like a cigarette." Before she does anything dangerous, he gives her a demonstration of how to properly take a hit, then hands the joint over.

As he blows smoke into the air, he shakes his head. "It might make you want to eat a house though."

"I think I can manage," Rachel says, taking a hit and smiling a little when it just seems to relax her some instead of making her go insane or, as Harvey had described, making her want to eat a house. Maybe that comes later.

"How long does it take the hunger to set in usually?"

He grins at her question. "That depends on how much of a lightweight you are."

"I am so not a lightweight," Rachel scoffs. She doesn't know if she will be or not as this is her first time but something that makes her up as much as her eyes or her freckles or the timbre of her voice is her tenacity and inability to back down from a challenge. This isn't exactly the type of challenge she normally tackles but her competitive spirit puts a gleam in her eyes all the same.

"I could go toe to toe with you, I bet."

His eyebrow goes up when she declares she's not a lightweight. We'll see.

Then he full on laughs when she says she could match him toe-to-toe. "I fucking doubt it," he says. He's had practice. Rachel has not. "This isn't one of those times when enthusiasm is just as important as skill."

"I wouldn't be a Zane if I just threw in the towel," Rachel admits."So I have to show some bluster or otherwise you'd think I got my brain transplanted or something. But, I think, just this once, that I can concede this one."

He's still chuckling at her. "Feel free to prove me wrong, but I'll warn you now, you'll still have to walk on your own back to your room. I am not carrying your ass."

Gathering: New Year's Eve Gala

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