The Thrill of the Chase

thirty six

The Holiday Season and its influx of society parties arrived quicker than anyone wanted, and soon none of the group had much time to spare as they all were suffering as family requested, well really demanded, their presence. For Rory and Robert the first weekend in December was when it all began for them, the Hayden Firm Party. It was being held in Boston, so it was a slightly different set of society than they normally had to contend with around Hartford.

Once again Robert found them a great hotel and they arranged to stay the full weekend, although they avoided telling any of the family that as they didn't want to be forced into attending other events over the course of the weekend. Friday night they arrived in Boston late, with Robert having drove them up himself after classes ended for the day. They both had finished that day for Winter break so they were happy to be able to attempt to relax. Soon they were all checked into the hotel, and on their way up to the room, Rory was getting suspicious of Robert; he had a smug smirk on his face, which she had no idea about as they had no plans for that night. When they reached the door, he unlocked it and signaled for Rory to enter the room first. She walked through the suite, the kitchenette and living room, looking nice, normal, like a standard hotel room. When she reached the bedroom, Rory was shocked to find the lights already on but set to dim. The bed had been turned down already, but instead of there being bedtime mints on their pillows, she saw that there were three trays set at the bottom of the bed. One was covered in chocolate snacks, hershey kisses, m&m's, twixs, chocolate covered pretzels, etc; the second tray was covered in salty, savory snacks, popcorn, pretzel rods, peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets, chips; the third had small bowls of ice cream toppings and sauces, mini marshmallows and sprinkles, different syrups, and sauces, with a note stating that the ice cream was in the freezer.

"Robert?"

"Yes?"

"Did you do this?"

"This as in all the snacks? Yes, that was me. You said that you wanted to just relax when we arrived and have a movie night, so I decided to supply the snacks."

"Thank you, this is awesome," she said with a grin, giving him a quick kiss. "I'm going to change."

"Okay, did you want pizza or Chinese to eat with the movie?"

"How about pizza? I don't feel like eating fried rice in bed." Rory shouted over her shoulder on her way into the bathroom.

"Okay I'll order it, then we can start the movie."

Rory was shocked when she came out of the bathroom to find that Robert had already managed to change and was in the bed with a Yale t-shirt and basketball shorts on. As she walked out he hit a button beside the bed and a screen started to come down from the ceiling.

"It's a projector?" Rory asked as she climbed into bed beside him, Robert raising his arm automatically for her to snuggle in.

"Yep."

"Awesome, thank you for organizing all this. It's perfect."

The next day was spent with Rory showing Robert around Boston as she had been there more times than him. He agreed that he liked it, as it was a slightly more relaxed atmosphere than Manhattan had, but that Manhattan probably still had an edge over it, as he had all his regular places and favorite haunts there.

That evening it was time for the Hayden holiday party which opened the season for Rory and Robert. Rory wore the blush and gold dress that she had picked up with Marissa, while Robert just wore a black suit, with a gold handkerchief in his pocket for a hint of coordination, without being too obvious.

As the party was in Boston, it had a different set of attendees than Rory and Robert were used to, which led to more introductions for the couple. Rory in particular was expected to interact with the employees and board members who were there. Overall the party went smoothly, no surprises or shocks, and they managed to make Francine and Straub happy with the image that they projected. A nice way to ease them into a, hopefully not false, sense of security.