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rainbowfic2017-02-01 11:52 pm
kay_brooke) wrote in rainbowfic2017-02-01 11:52 pm
Argent #2, Heart Gold #1
Name: kay_brooke
Story: Unusual Florida
Colors: Argent #2 (Sincerity), Heart Gold #1 (I love you - those three words have my life in them. - Tsarina Alexandra)
Styles/Supplies: Canvas, Charcoal
Word Count: 817
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; no standard warnings apply.
Summary: Robert meets Kevin and Karen.
Note: Constructive criticism is welcome, either through comments or PM.
The man he found a bit too full of bluster. Robert had grown up with businessmen visiting his parents, trying to make them sell their land, and he knew the type. Talked a good game. Big expressions, flamboyant body language, as if they'd never been more excited by anything in their life. Promises of monetary compensation. His mama had told him to be especially wary of those, since usually they'd try to cheat you out of their promise as soon as the deal was sealed.
Of course Robert wasn't a country bumpkin, not anymore and not for a long time. He'd gotten his own business degree from the university, and now owned his own business that was doing very well, thank you. He'd been through a marriage, a divorce, and unendurable heartbreak. Lessons learned at his mama's knee seemed lifetimes ago. But education just made him more wary, because now he had the learning to back up what his mama had told him all those years ago.
And now her voice echoed in his head while Kevin Breaker waved his hands at him, brimming over with delight. Robert barely heard a word he said.
The woman, though, she was far more interesting.
She seemed ten, maybe fifteen years younger than him. Complete opposite of Vicki: small, pale, demure, letting her husband give the big gestures and make the big promises. But she wasn't an appendage, oh no. Robert saw the fierce intelligence in her eyes. He saw that she wasn't just sitting back and letting her husband take over because he was the master and she the student. She was listening, watching for Robert's reaction, categorizing every tiny expression he made for use in a complex mental calculation that boiled down to one thing: how much can we get from this guy for as little money as possible?
And he admired it, he really did. Robert was all about women's lib. Equality. He'd tried to convince Vicki to go back to school for a degree, back when they were first married. But she didn't have the drive. She was fine with being a secretary and then a homemaker once she had a family of her own. He'd had to respect that, too, though he'd thought it was a waste of a good mind. His mama hadn't much liked her, either. Too headstrong, she'd said. Too opinionated, with nothing to back it up.
Robert thought his mama would have liked Karen Breaker.
Too bad she was already married to the blustery man.
"So what do you think?" Breaker finished his pitch and sat grinning like an idiot. Robert half expected him to loll around with his tongue out, like an excited golden retriever puppy.
Robert didn't say anything, replaying in his head the parts of the pitch he had actually heard. It wasn't much; he'd stopped listening pretty early on.
In the silence, Karen spoke up, the first time he had heard her voice.
"Do you know how we found this place?" she asked softly. "We were looking at a map. Private land, private land, park. All along the coast. Then Holden Point Resort." She gave him a small smile, one he found unbearably more dazzling than Kevin's thousand-watt grin. "I felt drawn here. The feeling only got stronger when we went through those front gates and saw that beach for the first time. And the courtyard." She gave a sigh that Robert would have found indecent in any other situation. As it was, it only focused his attention even more. "I've never seen anything so beautiful. You know that feeling, when something's just perfect and right, that everything else is a pale imitation? That's what this place is to me, Mr. Holden. Those other beaches, the entire rest of the coast, none of them feel the way this does."
He knew manipulation when he saw it, and he'd already figured Karen for a shrewd mind. But the thing of it was, all she was saying was what he believed. He knew his land was special, and not just because the beach kept it in high demand. Before the resort, before the influx of tourists to his little part of the world, it had been special. It went deeper than money. So much deeper.
None of the businessmen he'd met growing up had seen it. Breaker hadn't seen it. All of them, they just wanted to use the land. But Karen saw. Robert knew she was telling the truth, even if she was using it to flatter him.
It excited him, to be perfectly honest. That, and the likelihood of seeing Karen again.
"Mrs. Breaker," he said, letting a little of his old accent slip through, the one he'd worked so hard to lose during college. "I'd be proud to let you use my resort for your movie."
kay_brookeStory: Unusual Florida
Colors: Argent #2 (Sincerity), Heart Gold #1 (I love you - those three words have my life in them. - Tsarina Alexandra)
Styles/Supplies: Canvas, Charcoal
Word Count: 817
Rating/Warnings: PG-13; no standard warnings apply.
Summary: Robert meets Kevin and Karen.
Note: Constructive criticism is welcome, either through comments or PM.
The man he found a bit too full of bluster. Robert had grown up with businessmen visiting his parents, trying to make them sell their land, and he knew the type. Talked a good game. Big expressions, flamboyant body language, as if they'd never been more excited by anything in their life. Promises of monetary compensation. His mama had told him to be especially wary of those, since usually they'd try to cheat you out of their promise as soon as the deal was sealed.
Of course Robert wasn't a country bumpkin, not anymore and not for a long time. He'd gotten his own business degree from the university, and now owned his own business that was doing very well, thank you. He'd been through a marriage, a divorce, and unendurable heartbreak. Lessons learned at his mama's knee seemed lifetimes ago. But education just made him more wary, because now he had the learning to back up what his mama had told him all those years ago.
And now her voice echoed in his head while Kevin Breaker waved his hands at him, brimming over with delight. Robert barely heard a word he said.
The woman, though, she was far more interesting.
She seemed ten, maybe fifteen years younger than him. Complete opposite of Vicki: small, pale, demure, letting her husband give the big gestures and make the big promises. But she wasn't an appendage, oh no. Robert saw the fierce intelligence in her eyes. He saw that she wasn't just sitting back and letting her husband take over because he was the master and she the student. She was listening, watching for Robert's reaction, categorizing every tiny expression he made for use in a complex mental calculation that boiled down to one thing: how much can we get from this guy for as little money as possible?
And he admired it, he really did. Robert was all about women's lib. Equality. He'd tried to convince Vicki to go back to school for a degree, back when they were first married. But she didn't have the drive. She was fine with being a secretary and then a homemaker once she had a family of her own. He'd had to respect that, too, though he'd thought it was a waste of a good mind. His mama hadn't much liked her, either. Too headstrong, she'd said. Too opinionated, with nothing to back it up.
Robert thought his mama would have liked Karen Breaker.
Too bad she was already married to the blustery man.
"So what do you think?" Breaker finished his pitch and sat grinning like an idiot. Robert half expected him to loll around with his tongue out, like an excited golden retriever puppy.
Robert didn't say anything, replaying in his head the parts of the pitch he had actually heard. It wasn't much; he'd stopped listening pretty early on.
In the silence, Karen spoke up, the first time he had heard her voice.
"Do you know how we found this place?" she asked softly. "We were looking at a map. Private land, private land, park. All along the coast. Then Holden Point Resort." She gave him a small smile, one he found unbearably more dazzling than Kevin's thousand-watt grin. "I felt drawn here. The feeling only got stronger when we went through those front gates and saw that beach for the first time. And the courtyard." She gave a sigh that Robert would have found indecent in any other situation. As it was, it only focused his attention even more. "I've never seen anything so beautiful. You know that feeling, when something's just perfect and right, that everything else is a pale imitation? That's what this place is to me, Mr. Holden. Those other beaches, the entire rest of the coast, none of them feel the way this does."
He knew manipulation when he saw it, and he'd already figured Karen for a shrewd mind. But the thing of it was, all she was saying was what he believed. He knew his land was special, and not just because the beach kept it in high demand. Before the resort, before the influx of tourists to his little part of the world, it had been special. It went deeper than money. So much deeper.
None of the businessmen he'd met growing up had seen it. Breaker hadn't seen it. All of them, they just wanted to use the land. But Karen saw. Robert knew she was telling the truth, even if she was using it to flatter him.
It excited him, to be perfectly honest. That, and the likelihood of seeing Karen again.
"Mrs. Breaker," he said, letting a little of his old accent slip through, the one he'd worked so hard to lose during college. "I'd be proud to let you use my resort for your movie."
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Thanks for reading!
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It is interesting to see the Breaker parents when they're younger.
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This was a fascinating one; out of context it stands well... but I feel like I could say that jumping in at just about any point.