A week after the trip to Monaco.
"Finn! Fiiinnnn!"
I raised my head from the stack of paperwork as I heard a voice calling my name. I instantly knew who it was.
"Finn!"
"Quiet down, you fool." I scolded her.
After Lynn ran towards me, she tried to catch her breath, clearly exhausted from running. Right now, we"re in the Daily Bugle building. Early in the morning after I arrived in her cubicle, Lynn instantly bolted out saying that she got something important to do. It"s 12:00nn now; meaning, I"ve been doing all the paperwork that she was supposed to do for the past 5 hours.
"Where have you been? If you can"t give me a good explanation..." I made a cutting motion on my neck as I slowly said those words.
"Fufu~" Lynn smiled proudly. Flashing a small black envelope, she jerked her head upwards. "See this? See this? This is what I"ve been working on!"
"Who died? What"s that mourning card for?"
"It"s not a mourning card! It"s a birthday invitation card!"
"Oh, okay. Have fun." I curtly replied, uninterested.
"Heh. No, no, no. I"m not going alone." Shaking her head, Lynn pointed at me. "You"re coming with me! Because this is Tony Stark"s birthday party!"
Ah, so that"s why she was this cheerful over a piece of paper. And that explains why she was out this whole morning. I can see the fatigue built up in her, resulting in those bags underneath her eyes. So she worked this hard, just so she could get an invitation...
But I couldn"t care less because I already have a gaming schedule tonight. It"s just a birthday party anyway, so nothing bad should happen, right?
....Right?
In the end, I reluctantly agreed about coming with her. Don"t get me wrong. I"m just accompanying her to make sure she doesn"t die, that"s all. Because if she dies, there"s a chance that I may lose my job too. (What a f*cking tsundere)
"*sigh* Fine. But we"ll be back early, and no drinking. If you can promise me those, I"ll go along with you."
"Alright then! Let"s go! It would take 6 hours from here to Malibu so we shouldn"t dawdle any longer."
As she finished talking, a question suddenly popped in my mind.
"Wait, how rich is this girl anyway?"
Last week, all the expenses we incurred for the trip to Monaco came from her personal allowance. That"s including the airplane tickets, hotel"s rent fee, Grand Prix tickets, all our foods plus that Jet Ski. Now that I think about it, the items inside her three pieces of luggage were all branded. Even her pet dogs; one is a little Chow Chow, and the other is a Pomeranian.
And now this time too. If she can dish out this amount of money in a short span of time, why is she still working on Daily Bugle as a simple journalist? I was curious, but I didn"t dwell too much about it. She"ll tell me when the time comes.
We arrived at the airport at exactly 6:30 pm. A butler-looking guy immediately greeted us and led us to a limousine. Lynn and I followed him inside as though it was only normal; though, in my mind, I was slightly surprised. Moreover, it was a Rolls Royce limousine.
Peeping in the driver"s window, the butler respectfully said. "Shall we head straight to Mr. Stark"s mansion, Young Miss?"
"Hmm~ wait a second." Lynn sized me up, scrutinizing me from the top down to the bottom. She then shook her head, sighing. "That"s no good. You can"t go to a billionaire"s birthday party dressed up like that."
"Whose fault is it that we have to hurry here without changing clothes anyway?"
Hearing nothing, Lynn turned towards the driver. "Uncle, before we go to Mr. Stark"s mansion, can we please dropped by somewhere else?"
"Understood, Young Miss." The driver then started driving.
According to Lynn, it should take roughly an hour drive from Long Beach Airport to Point Dume coast, the location of Stark"s mansion. But because we"re stopping by somewhere, we might arrive a little late than the agreed time.
After pa.s.sing by the Malibu Lagoon, the limousine exited the Pacific coast highway, finally stopping at a Sh.e.l.l gas station. We went out of the car as Lynn led the way like she knew where everything is.
We first stopped by a clothing store called Maxfield. Lynn picked a variety of clothes while I tried them all. In the end, we took the black, semi-formal suit paired with a gray necktie.
Next, Lynn went inside a high-end women"s clothing line called INTERMIX. I gotta say though; standing for 30 minutes while waiting for a woman to pick a dress is not something I"d like to experience again. Lynn finally decided on a gorgeous but simple black vintage dress and coat set.
Another 20 minutes later did we only get to see Stark"s Mansion. It is a multi-level mansion built atop a cliff overlooking the view of the Pacific Ocean. The exterior exhibits a modern design with a lot of spirals and flat surfaces. When we arrived inside, it seems like the party has already started.
While I was expecting a more formal birthday party, like clinking with each other"s wine gla.s.s while seated on a round table, what greeted us instead was a chaotic party. Stark is wearing his iconic Iron Man suit, obviously drunk as he wreaked havoc on the stage.
Lynn and I watched him stumbled towards a wine shelf, breaking a gla.s.s or two.
"You gotta be kidding me." Besides us, I can hear a black man talking to Ms. Potts. "That"s it, I"m making…"
"No, no, no. Don"t call anyone." Ms. Potts tried to stop the man.
"Pepper. This is ridiculous. I just stuck my neck out for this guy!"
It seems like the man is angry at Stark"s behavior. Obviously, wearing the Iron Man suit while drunk is clearly not a rational decision.
"I know. I know. I get it. I"m gonna handle it, okay. Just let me handle it."
"Handle it. Or I"m gonna have to."
Ms. Potts then strode towards the stage.