Let's See How Far We've Come [REUNION!!!]

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The stage hadn’t changed a bit. Mia couldn’t help but take comfort in that, as she wandered around it, imagining a time when she was just a girl, really, just a girl dreams in her heart and a voice that could take her somewhere, but luck that wasn’t proportional to those big dreams. I mean, really, every year she had a new love potion thrown at her that drove her life topsy turvy, there were times when she really wondered if she would ever look back on her life and think it was…well, one that she could think about with a smile.

Yet look at her now, gazing around the auditorium with nostalgia…and she had really come so far from the girl who ran through the woods and wound up in a completely different world. Even further than when she first decided what she really wanted to do with her new freedom to do whatever she wanted. Now? She was releasing hit single after hit single, and she was about to start recording her newest album this coming Monday. Even without the fame, she would’ve been happy though, because she was singing her heart out for the entire world to hear…and speaking of her heart, to top it all off, she managed to find true love after all…

Speaking of, she was going to have to get out of Memory Lane. Chances were her husband was already done parking. She hopped off the stage and started following the music that was probably coming from the ballroom, where the reunion was taking place…gods, to think it had been fifteen years. She would probably be thinking that a lot as the night went on.

Standing by the doorway, she pulled out her cell phone, said, “Tulio,” for the voice activated call and awaited her husband’s response. “Honey, you’ve got the car parked? I’d hate to have to go into this thing all by myself,” she asked, a wry smile crossing her lips.

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SCREEEEEEEEECH

That was the first sound that greeted Hermia through the phone when the call was answered. Luckily, instead of a loud crash, the sound of screaming tires was followed by silence that was broken by a single word.

“Yup.”

Next there was the slam of a car door, and slight crackling of wind blowing through the phone, muffling his words slightly. “If they’re going to allow cars they should get rid of the carriages. That horse was determined to play chicken with me, I swear.”

The wind stopped, another door closed, and his voice became clearer, louder.

“You might as well walk in there by yourself,” Tulio continued. The door from the hall opened and finally he could see her standing there, just outside the ballroom. Even though they were now in the same room, he didn’t hang up. He kept talking on the phone, even as he drew close, grinning widely. His long, curly hair was drawn back and tied with a ribbon, and he was wearing a suit, but besides a bit of grey at his temples which he swore made him look more distinguished, he really didn’t look all that different. “With you in that dress, nobody is even going to notice me.”

[hatter]

"For the last time, the sale needs to be completed in time for us to launch the new season's designs at the new store, if we leave it any later it will ruin the release. Tell them that if they can't make this thing happen now, we'll find someone else to work with. Hell, we'll find somewhere else to buy if they can't deliver." Theodore snapped the phone shut as he stepped out of the car, slamming the door behind him and striding towards the door without even glancing backwards to see if his business partner was following him.

This event had been carefully scheduled into their evening, after having decided that new investors, customers and even models could be on the cards, with the kind of people they'd gone to school with.
Besides, a certain someone had grown tired of her last prince and was on the lookout for another, at least that seemed the way of things, Theodore didn't really pay much attention until the money arrived.

His phone rang again and, without missing a beat, he flipped it open as he walked into the building.
"Milliner here, go." He greeted the person on the other end abruptly. "What do you mean there's a problem with the shipping? Isn't that why we pay you? So there aren't any of these little problems?"

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In some ways, Charlotte LaBouff was an old fashioned gal... well, at least when it came to men. Men were supposed to pay, and walk on the outside and hold get her car door for her; these were the standards she held all men to. Well, all men except Theo Milliner. He was her business associate, had been for years, and he simply didn’t count. She knew he could be a gentleman when he wanted to be, but it was hardly important for someone as busy as him, for every moment he spent busy meant more money for them, and Lord knew she liked money.

Besides... they had a chauffeur to open the door for her.

Stepping out of the coach, her movements were slow and deliberate, and once she was settled upon her four inch heels, she stood a moment to let anyone lingering outside get a good look at her. She was dressed from head to toe in the shiniest, sparkliest red dress in existence, long in the hem but with a very high cut slit up the leg and very low cut neckline in both the front and the back. Diamonds glittered on ears, fingers and wrists, her eyes were smokey and her lips red, and the finishing touch was, of course, a very unique hat, a one of a kind by her most favourite hat designer: Theo himself.

Following him into the building, she drew her own tiny phone from her purse when it rang. “Yes? You know you’re not supposed to call me tonight. I’m... working” she said a bit crossly. Once in the lobby, she noted the other couple gathered there and felt right at home.

They were also both currently on their phones.

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It was a good thing Hermia knew her husband, otherwise that screeching sound would have given her a heart attack, and damn it all, she was still too young for that! Instead, she rolled her eyes with a wry smile once he started going on about the carriages. "Oh is that so? I certainly hope you gave that horse what for then," she quipped. 

Letting out a laugh, she waited patiently for him to turn up, and when he came into view, she couldn't help but laugh a bit more at how he was still on his phone. 

"Oh hush, it's not as if you aren't looking every bit as incredible," she teased before finally hanging up so she could draw him closer. He really was, in her opinion, every bit as gorgeous as he was when they met. Meanwhile the sort of bright eyed ingenue look she had going for her had faded with age, but she had learned how to wield her looks, as it were, and she rarely looked any less pretty when she went out than she intended. So that comment about her newest purple dress that the papparazzi was probably dying to snap a photo of? Was precisely what she was going for.

Grinning up at him as she straightened out his tie, she continued with, "Besides, you're here now. Might as well come with me." She vaguely noticed the other two new arrivals, but she didn't quite recognize them, and they seemed busy, so she just led herself and her husband into the ballroom.

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Maybe Hermia didn’t have that same beauty that had first drawn him to her (or, well, that he remembered her having when he had first met her, before... everything had happened), but she had grown into a more mature beauty now. Besides, she had the most infectious laugh he had ever heard, the kind that made him want to act a fool more often just to hear it... which he normally did.

“I have to go, my wife is here,” he said into his phone even after she had hung up on him. Closing his own cell, he slipped it into the inside pocket of his coat and stood obligingly still while she fixed his tie. “I do look pretty good, don’t I?” Smoothing a hand back over his hair, Tulio grinned at his wife before turning to offer a smile at the couple that had entered behind them.

And boy, what a couple.

The female was definitely a femme fatale, and despite his wife being beside him, he couldn’t help but stare at her a moment. Obviously that was what the outfit was specifically chosen for. The dress was... wow, what a dress, though the hat was an odd choice. And if the woman was decked out to be eye catching, her husband appeared to be more apt to blend into the crowd. He was all business, despite the jaunty hat. The only thing similar about the two was the severe way they conversed on their phones.

There was something familiar about them, though, like they were important people somehow...

“Right, um, yeah... let’s get in there. These shoes were made for dancing,” Tulio managed to tear his eyes away from the odd couple and return his attention to his wife. There had been a strange time when he literally had been unable to take his eyes off of her, and even now that feeling had the ability to pop back up every now and then.