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Hale hadn’t known her then, though he’d seen the video (yeah, it was that famous). He’d met her since through mutual acquaintances, and they’d become friends.
They had because she’d seemed lost and vulnerable, and since most of her friends had betrayed her, she needed some.
And he liked her. There was something cool about being a part of someone’s life as she realized she’d lost her way and was trying to find the way back. It was like watching a hibernating tree blosssom.
That said, what made it interesting was that Blake had thorns.
She was not his type, he was not hers, and that helped make their friendship work.
But that night, she was reappearing in a world she used to inhabit but had avoided for a very long time.
He got her nerves.
But once they were through the step and repeat, he hoped she’d settle into it, and it’d begin to feel like what it was. A welcome back to the life she should be living.
“Youdolook stunning, my dear,” Ned said.
Blake took in a big breath.
“And it’s an open bar,” Hale reminded her.
That did it.
She shot a radiant smile his way.
Within ten minutes, they were crawling behind a line of limousines and town cars in Midtown waiting for their turn to arrive at the red carpet outside Gotham Hall.
Eventually, they did. The car door opened, and Ned alighted first, then Hale, which meant that Blake came out to the wall of sound that accompanied Hale’s appearance.
As he always did, he ignored it as ushers guided them to the front of a line of waiting socialites and celebrities (one of the rare benefits of being Hale Wheeler) to the step and repeat that had the long red carpet, the velvet rope, and the Blazing the Trail/Trail Blazer logoed backdrop.
Ned and Hale sandwiched Blake in her red satin, halter neck dress that had an open back and a wide slit and some gathering at the hip. A dress that suited her perfectly, being stylish and also racy.
However, it was only Hale who held her hand.
It took until the third stop, when a photographer shouted, “Blake! Are you and Hale an item?” And she shouted back, “No. But he’s the best friend a girl could have!” that she indicated she’d relaxed into it.
But hearing her words, he gave her hand a squeeze.
Another indication she’d be okay was she gave that group of paparazzi a sultry side tilt of her head and a smile before they stepped to the next.
And finally, thank fuck, they were through that ridiculous quagmire and had made it inside.
“I need a drink,” Ned announced.
“Hundred percent,” Hale agreed.
But Blake turned to him, got up on her toes, touched her cheek to his and whispered, “You’re the greatest.” She moved away and did the same to her dad, saying, “You’re the greatest too, Dad.”
Then she rushed off in the direction of where Alex was standing with Chloe and Mika.
Ned and Hale headed to the bar.
They’d barely taken their place in the short line when Nora descended on them, and both men did a double take when they saw her in a cream column of a gown with some sheerness, a subtly plunging neckline, and such exquisite beading, even Hale was impressed.
It suited her perfectly, managing to be stately and feminine and edgy and sophisticated, all at once.
Seeing her like that, it was far from the first time he wondered why Jamie hadn’t woken up to the beauty he had in his hands and done something about it (a subject he’d never broached with his friend, because it wasn’t his business, also because the last woman in Jamie’s life he’d worshiped, and he’d had to watch as she died a slow, painful death).
