2009-11-15: The Walk of Shame

Starring:

Hallis_V4icon.pngSydney_V4icon.png

Date: November 15, 2009

Summary:

Sydney's morning after is in need of a cure, fortunately Hallis is prepared with the cowbell.


"The Walk of Shame"

Greenwich Village, NYC - The High Rise Apartments

WHAT WAS THAT? Sydney's more than a little jarred after her encounter with Eric last night. Not that he isn't pleasant. Not that he isn't cute. In fact, quite the opposite. He seems nice enough. But the whole jumping into bed with a virtual stranger thing is not her. AND it's happened twice in one week. Once with Ivory (but honestly, who could resist Senator Ivory Wynn?) and once with Eric. "Who am I?" she murmurs to herself as she closes the door behind her. She's officially doing the walk of shame: dressed in yesterday's clothes. Not that anyone here will notice, right?

Coming out of her apartment is none other than the woman she left last night while wearing yesterday's clothes. "My goodness! Are you.. still in the same outfit you were in last night?" Little details like that don't pass Hallis by, she is dressed in a thing long sleeved T-shirt, black leggings, a cashmere wrap tossed around her thin frame, and a pair of fabulous Jimmy Choos. Looking around the hallway, Hallis gives the other blonde a very puzzled gaze. "Did you sleep on my doorstep or something? Or…" Then a slow smile creeps across her face, "Oh my god! You hooked up with someone!"

"…" the look of horror and shock at being recognized and spotted in yesterday's clothes is enough to mortify Sydney. This is not something she's ever done. Like Kelly Clarkson, she doesn't hook up. She gapes at Hallis a moment as her face flushes involuntarily, "I …" She looks at the door uncomfortably and then back to Hallis as she tries to regain her composure. Clearing her throat she begins, "I… uh…" Forced smile, "Hi… Hallis…" Glance at door. Glance at Hallis while still avoiding eye contact.

Hallis widens her smile and looks around the hallway, "Do you want to come in and borrow some clothes? You're a bit bigger than me, but I think I can probably find you a different shirt at least…" She proceeds to unlock her door and swings it open. "George isn't here, don't worry." She waits in the doorway for the therapist to take her invitation. "You have to tell me who. I promise I won't say a word."

"I…" Sydney glances towards the end of the hallway and then back at Hallis. She nods a bit with a smile of concession, still beet red, before she finally manages words, and even tries to sound professional, "I… I would appreciate that, Hallis." And then she adds in her own defense, "I never do this. Seriously, I NEVER do this." She has butterflies in her stomach. What was she thinking?! She glances at the door she's come out of.

Hallis looks at the door down the hall that Sydney just glanced at and wrinkles her nose. "Who lives there? I never see anyone come in or out. Ohmygod, you HAVE to tell me." Swinging the door closed behind her, she leads the other woman into her closet, which would be the kitchen, except its been gutted and replaced by the 'dressing' room. "Just pick out anything you want, I think the tees will fit. I have some shawls and wraps too, that way no one will notice… hee hee…" She can't help but giggle, and she peeks out to the bedroom which is still in quite the disarray from her own activities the night before.

"Do you know a man by the name of Eric Lancaster?" Sydney quirks an eyebrow after walking into Hallis' apartment. "I don't know what came over me. I have never done that before… such little amounts of talking before…" She frowns. "And what will Ivory think?! I'm such an idiot." But Gene told her not to listen to Ivory. But Ivory is so… convincing. She arches an eyebrow at the disarray but says nothing. She reaches for a black t-shirt. "This will be fine. I swear I'll get it back to you…"

Hallis' jaw just drops and she stands there… stunned. "Eric Lancaster? ohmygod… I need to tell someone. Please can I just tell George?" Looking around the apartment, she finds a set of keys that look quite different than the ones she had before. "Who is Ivory? Is that a girlfriend of yours?" Hallis walks around the apartment, straightening up little things here and there. Finding a pair of unmentionables tosses asunder, she tucks them behind a pillow.

"I guess… I don't know what happened. I don't know if it means anything OR if I'm just crazy… or what…" Sydney closes her eyes in shame. "Ivory …" She opens her eyes to look at Hallis, trying to decide whether to cross this professional boundary "…is the Senator I slept with earlier this week." Her face brightens with flush.

As Sydney changes, Hallis putters around the apartment trying to busy herself. Reaching into the small fridge, she grips a bottle of water and opens it. She was just taking her first drink when the other blonde says the words 'senator I slept with' and is promptly showered with a mouthful of Hallis' water spray. "Oh My God! I'm so sorry!! You can shower and change and use anything you want! Oh my god! Seriously? Senator Wynn?!" Then Hallis pauses and looks a little confused, "What state is he from again?"

"I… I showered at Eric's. Needed… needed to wash myself of all of this," Sydney exasperates into the air. "Seriously. I need to talk to my therapist. I've never… never been so erratic in my life…" She sighs a bit as she thinks about Ivory, "Well, he's from New York. Spends most of his time in DC. And… I think he's wonderful… except… Gene… and now Eric… what is wrong with me?! Augh!"

Wiping her mouth, Hallis tries to recover from the shock of Sydney's revelation. To find out that she'd had carnal relations with a senator put a smile on the younger blonde's face. "Wow… A Senator and a Lancaster! Personally, I'd pick Eric. One, he's hot, two, he's from one of the best families in New York, and three, ohmygod!!" The little piece of gossip will burn in Hallis mind until the end of time, that's for sure.

Hand is raised to her forehead as Sydney fails to suppress a sigh. "But Ivory is so… wonderful. He is working so hard. Every day. All day. Work. Work. Work." Ivory on the brain and she just hooked up with Eric. "I barely know Eric. We'd met once before last night. And there really was no real talking last night… nothing of substance, anyways." Another sigh. She's mortified. Still.

"George is like that," Hallis says softly, finding a connection in their man problems. "Did you know him before… Well… how many times did you meet the Senator?" She's trying her best not to wear her Team Eric shirt, but it's a little difficult since she knows him and not Ivory. "Because, I know that it's hard to date a man who lives far away… you know?"

"Um… only once?" Sydney tilts her head in thought. "But it was a very very productive encounter. We talked for a very very long time," Okay, not that long. "Okay, maybe I know them equally well…" But then she adds, "But Eric and I have a mutual friend. AND neither of us do this. We're really… I don't know." She sighs.

Grinning, Hallis definitely puts her Team Eric shirt on for good. "Great! Then it won't be too hard to drop the Senator. I know Eric and I know his family, you couldn't do any better. Seriously." She climbs into the large leather chair usually reserved for her significant other and curls into it. "If you want, I could ask my grandmother to host something for Thanksgiving. I'm going to make George take a day off to go. You and Eric should come too!"

"But we're not… I don't think we're… that's not how it works is it? I mean you don't just get into bed with someone and a relationship comes out of that, does it?" Not that Sydney would know. Having that awkward morning after conversation was awkward enough. "I don't know what will happen…"

"Of course that's how it works! At least everyone I know works like that. You wouldn't believe what George and I did the first day we met." Hallis giggles, it's naughty little secret time and she's completely enjoying it. "I was having a late lunch or early dinner with my grandmother and George was sitting at the next table." Her eyes sparkle as she remembers their first meeting. She points to the lounge, indicating that the therapist really should sit for the story.

"Really? So … relationships come out of getting into bed?" Huh. Sydney never knew. "I had no idea. Well, I really don't know what's going to happen with Eric. If anything… I mean… there's still Ivory…" Oh Ivory on the brain working his magic. regardless, she pads to the lounge and has a seat in an armchair, prepared to listen to Hallis' story.

"Seriously, it was the hottest thing ever. Probably what lit the fire in me for him." Hallis admits, giving her therapist a sly grin. "We were having dinner with Grandmother and his hands were all over me, right in front of her." For some odd reason, the young socialite is quite proud of the fact that something happened right under the Van Cortlandt Matriarch's nose. She raises one of her hands to her mouth and begins chewing on the fingernail of her index finger. Her face actually flushes in memory of the incident.

There's a curiosity in this for Sydney. "And what did your grandmother think? Anything?" Perhaps she just leads an entirely different life when compared to the rich and famous. She forces a strained smile. "I don't really know what will happen. Seriously. Neither of us were exactly… comfortable with it this morning…"

Laughing, Hallis twists sideways in the large armchair and hangs her feet off the end. "That's the most exciting part! Grandmother didn't even realize what was going on!" She takes in a deep breath and lets it loose in a long and very dreamy sigh. "She's got very bad eyes and she refuses to wear glasses because she thinks they make her look old."

Sydney chuckles lightly at Hallis' comment. "So… does your grandmother like George then? Or does she think he's trouble?" There was always something appealing about the guy that troubles family members. She offers a strained smile. All things considered she seems to be doing rather well.

Shaking her head, Hallis lifts one shoulder in a shrug. "He was talking to her the whole time, asnwering her questions and everything. I think the only reason that she wouldn't like him is because he's a Democrat." Old money and old families, in this part of the country most of them are Republican, it's a well known fact. "But she said she would have a fund raiser for him, so… Daddy really wasn't happy that he's a Democrat, but he told Mother to tell me that he approves."

"Well, that bodes well on the family front then," Sydney offers a tight smile. Talking about Hallis' relationship seems to soothe her, but then, this is one of the reason she became a therapist: to deal with other peoples problems rather than her own. "So, a fundraiser for George? How is that relationship going, anyways?" Yes, all-out therapist mode.

Biting her lower lip, Hallis tries to hide her smile, giving her a general air of shyness. "I think it's going really well," she breathes, obviously still in the honeymoon phase of new love. "He told me that he loves me last night, before you left. This morning when he got up he told me again. I think that maybe he's the one, the guy." A dreamy expression covers her face and it would be easy for the other blonde to pick up on all the giddy lovestruck emotions coming from the young deb. "He's so wonderful, so.. so… wonderful."

Sydney's smile broadens into a generally warm expression. "You seem really happy," She observes, still smiling. "And so you love him then?" She imagines as much if he's the guy. "Is he at all you'd envisioned? Or something entirely different?"

"Of course I love him, and no… He's everything that I'm not. He's hard working, straight, never in trouble… He's what I used to think was boring, but he's not, he's just wonderful!" Hallis swings her legs a little as she sings the praises of the congressman that captured her. "I always thought that I'd end up with Trenton Hawthorne, this guy that graduated with Eric. We'd been seeing each other off and on since I was thirteen. But then George came along. And he was so bad… but sooooo good!"

"Well I think that's great, even if he's not what you'd envisioned. In fact, I think it's better that way. People are designed to equal each other out in some ways. That's not to say opposites are perfect together. I just think people need to be similar enough to get along and different enough to keep it interesting," Sydney observes with a quirky smile. "Of course, that's not my professional opinion…"

"My professional opinion is that I think you need to come out with George and I one night. I'll invite Eric and we'll make it a double date." Hallis is rather commanding in this request which is not quite a request. Once again the subject is turned back to Sydney's personal life and Hallis is taking charge. "I'll even foot the bill, even though we both know that Eric and George could more than pay for it. But since it's my idea, I'll be generous." She turns a sly eye back to Sydney and grins widely, "I'm not going to take no for an answer, by the way… So you might as well say yes right now and save us both the headache."

Realizing there's no way Hallis is going to be diverted from her plan, Sydney nods slightly, "Alright. We can do that, but just make sure he wants to do it. I don't know if he'll like me after last night. Not that it was bad… just… I think I instigated it." She shrugs. "I really don't know what came over me after I left here."

With that said, Hallis slides from her chair and smiles at the other woman. "Good! It's settled then. I'll arrange the details and let you know." She stretches out and grins to the older blonde. "But! I have to meet my friend Alex, I have to tell her all about me and George. She's never going to believe it. I mean, just the other day she was telling me to confront him with my feelings. I was scared that I was just arm candy, can you believe it? Now we're in love…" A long sigh is let off and the socialite twirls around like she's a prima ballerina.

"Alex," as in Syd's friend Alex. She doesn't press this or ask more today. ""Yes, and I should go home…" Sydney smile warily. "I'll make sure you get the shirt back, I promise," she chimes as she rises to her feet. "Thank you, for that." She hobbles a little towards the door, the swelling returning to her ankle, but she manages to continue to smile. "And thanks for… the pep talk, I guess." That said, the therapist opens the door. "Have a wonderful day, Hallis."

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