Two cosmopolitans in and this party was still not anymore enjoyable. For the most part, it was filled with rich assholes bragging about their children. Oh, my child is top of their class at Harvard Law. Well my child just got a grant at Oxford for research in anthropology. La di da, Eliana gave exactly no shits about these people and their children. And when she politely answered any questions she gave them it was met with some judgemental gaze, like studying economics wasn’t good enough for them. Doesn’t your uncle run those little casinos? Like they didn’t see the Kassotis name all up and down the Vegas strip when they were there blowing their slush fund on hookers and cocaine.



Honestly, Eliana had no intention to return to her family this holiday break. She hadn’t the past two, making excuses like she was interning or working for some sorority. She hated being with her family for various reasons (Yes, she was a girl with daddy issues- back off), and these parties were one of the many problems she had with the Kassotis. If they were hosts Eliana could tolerate it. The one thing the Kassotis knew was how to throw a party. But this wasn’t a Kassotis party. To be honest, she had no idea who was hosting it. All she knew was that it was boring as hell and she wanted nothing to do with it.



But she hadn’t been given a choice. If there was one thing her father knew how to do it was how to follow through on a threat. Had she not returned home for the holidays she could kiss her tuition goodbye. Eliana was 20 years old. She wasn’t prepared to be alone and cut off from her family. She needed their money- and their unlimited credit card.



So here she was at a party that Rhea had already managed to ditch and Pallas having found the first two pretty ladies he could find was off entertaining them elsewhere. The majority of everyone left was boring, judgemental adults or other people her age that looked to be clones of their parents in all the worst ways. Yeah- she needed a third cocktail.



As she was waiting for her third drink to be poured, her father’s secretary walked to Eliana in her far too-tight dress and heels that she could break an ankle on. Eliana didn’t bother to remember the girl’s name, just her face and the last four digits of her cell phone number so she knew what call to never pick up. Anything more would mean spending more time with her father than she was willing to give him, “Your father wanted to see you talk to someone.” Her plastic face turned towards a man. “Silanos Valoraitis.”



Oh fuck no. Eliana groaned. First, she didn’t want to get set up with any man her father wanted. Second, she didn’t necessarily want to talk with Sil. She remembered being forced to talk to him when they were children. He was… well… she just didn’t want to go there. And in fact, she was about to snap no when she noticed the girl wasn’t even looking at her. She was too busy scrolling through her phone. “Oh, and he said you don’t have to do this. He’d just want the platinum card back.”



With that, she walked away, leaving Eliana in a mood that was worsening by the second. For half a second she contemplated throwing her credit card at her father, but that would leave her up shit creek and with nothing to support herself. She had no savings, all she had was the cash in her wallet. She took her third drink (after asking for another shot of vodka) then made her way onto the balcony and towards Sil. She leaned against it, taking a sip of her cosmopolitan. “Can you look like you’re flirting with me for… fifteen minutes. That should be fine.”