i look at all the lonely people

[bennettxrigby-blog]

andy-james:

She thought it over, biting her lip. “I might take you up on all of that. I have a terrible sense of direction. I’m sure to get lost. Clearly, I can’t walk.” She laughed, making fun of her own self. “And likewise. Baked goods, yoga or dance lessons… anything else.” She shrugged, smilin at the man.

“Well, I do have quite a sense of direction,” Bennett teased, pleased that she could laugh at herself. It was a good sense of humor that truly made a person charming. “Well, I’m not much of a dancer, but I never could turn down a baked good or two. How about this.” He dug into his pocket, pulling out his business card, and he passed it to her. “You come in to Mangon’s for a meal, and you can bring me a muffin or other baked good of choice.”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

fayyebaker:

A smirk moved to her lips, shaking her head at what he spoke. “It could be. We don’t have to play if you don’t want to,” she offered although she hoped it wasn’t the case. “My palate is wonderful thank you very much, and you’re right I am aware,” Faye retorts before letting out a laugh. “Off limits? Nothing.” Hearing the clinking and clanking of dishes,she hears him place a dish in front of her. She inhaled the scent. Humming in response to his fingers playing with her hair. She opens her mouth in expectation.

Bennett cut into the dish so that there was a bit of each ingredient on the fork. And with Faye’s parted lips, he eased the fork between them, letting her take the bite. “Go on,” he urged her. He hadn’t played a game like this in some time, and he hadn’t been intimate with anyone in what seemed like longer. Bennett hadn’t thought he would be the kind of man who gave himself over to a place like this, and yet here he was, caught up in the sensuality of his young, beautiful boss. “Well...?”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

fayyebaker:

Faye rolled her eyes, she wasn’t the most patient of people but allowed him to blindfold her. His lips making her skin rise and her spine shiver as she, the heat rising in her body again as she spoke. “I wouldn’t call your boss a slave, Chef Rigby.” A smirk tugging at the corner of her lips as she felt the cup in her hand. Bringing it to her nose, she smiled at the familiar smell. She had loved the juice from a young age, it used to be a treat for her whenever her parents cam back from visiting here. She takes a long sip, focusing fully on the taste of it. It was almost like the first time she had tried it all over again. His words made her laugh a little. “I can’t really say I do, but I’m sure it’s difficult,” she teases. Once finishing off the drink, she placed it down carefully. Inhaling, she tried to smell what he was making before an idea popped into her mind. “I’ve got a fun game we could play. With every ingredient I guess correctly, I get a kiss. And it doesn’t have to be on the lips if you don’t want it to be.” 

“You’re absolutely right, Miss Baker,” Bennett mused as he worked. “I should never refer to my boss in such a subordinate way. She may like it too much, and then where would we be?” He would have winked but... it would have been a pointless gesture, given her current state. As he worked on his food preparation, he lifted a brow at her suggestion of a game. “This game could be quite dangerous,” he said, amused. “You’ve not answered my e-mails, but you seem to be aware of what’s on the menu, or at least what’s offered. Though... who’s to say what your palate is like. Very well, you’re on. You must tell me, however, what areas of the kiss are off limits. I do tend to wander.” Plating up the first dish -- a lobster tail tarteletter -- he set it in front of her. He cut a small bite onto the fork and with his free hand gently toying with her hair, he urged her, voice low, “Lips open.”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

andy-james:

Andy playfully narrowed her eyes at him as he acted as though he was going to guide her, swatting them away. “I promise I will get wherever I am going just fine.” She let out a light laugh before extending her hand to him. “I’m Andy.”

Bennett took the woman’s proffered hand, giving it a warm squeeze. “Andy, it’s a pleasure. I’m Bennett. If there’s anything I can do for you... give directions, be a human cane, whatever, please. Do let me know, won’t you?”

[wastrident]

Do you see that? Makes me feel so insecure about my Swedish. I don’t think that’s Swedish.

[bennettxrigby-blog]

fayyebaker:

She slid her hand into his, looking at him with a smirk before walking alongside him. As they entered the restaurant, she squeezed each doorway as they passed, just as her mother would do each time she entered and exited the space. Faye shook her head, “Wouldn’t that be sad? Even if it was an uncommon food or spice. I would always wonder what it would taste like.” Sliding off her heels, she grabs a stool and brings it towards the steel and marble work space. “Don’t worry about that. My vendors come each morning with a fresh order. You’re doing me a favor really, because I always feel guilty having to throw things away. Most of the time I end up composting or giving it away anyway,” she shares. 

“It would be tragic,” Bennett said, drawing out pans and knives. “Now. I have promised to a surprise, so...” His tie, which was loose around his throat, was about as good of a blindfold as he would get. He tugged it off completely, holding it up to display to Faye before he wound it around her eyes a few times and tied it off behind her head. His lips met her ears to murmur, “Now you’re a slave to my whims, Miss Baker.” He drew away, only to pour a glass of in-house elderflower juice, which he slid into her hand. “Here... start with this. Nice and fragrant to cleanse your palate while I work.” And he did set to work, sharpening the knives, slicing a perfectly portioned section of each ingredient, working as he mused, “Do you have any idea how hard it is to cook while you look like that?”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

fayyebaker:

“No, if your shift ends at eleven, I expect you to stay until twelve.” She gives him a smile, seeing that guilty look on his face, Faye shook her head. “I do not care what you think, and whether they are specials. Specials, seasonals, and staples to my restaurant are to be approved by me. From your resume, you have worked at a variety of fine dining establishments, and maybe they allowed you to do this, but you and I have not built that level of trust. I can assure you that all of the dishes I’ve tasted so far are divine, so I would have absolutely built them into my menu if you had simply shared it with me.” She retorted, unsure if she was making herself clear. Raising her brows, she stepped forward. Grinning as he spoke, she knew what he meant when he said cooking. It was a love language. It almost was better than sex. As he stepped forward, the tension she had built up melted away as he spoke in her ear. “Fuck,” she murmured as she felt her body tingling. Her eyes shutting as she let her hand return back to his ass, and squeezing it. “I think you just made my panties drop.”

Bennett wanted to complain. He wanted to remind her that he’d e-mailed her... maybe a dozen times, trying to get a meeting with her. But none of that really mattered. He wasn’t too proud to take criticism about how things were run, and although there wasn’t any true remorse in his tone, he at least acquiesced with a small nod, and a response of, “I understand. Won’t happen again.” He watched as her eyes fluttered closed when he spoke, could feel the way her body responded to his tone, and when her hands fell to his ass again... he shivered. His cock roused, slightly, just barely twitching in his trousers, her words sending a shockwave through his body. He murmured, “Good...” as he drew back and offered her his hand. He took charge, leading them both back to Mangon’s, and used his own keys to unlock the front door. He locked the door back behind him and left the lights off in the dining area, only flipping on the lights in the kitchen and by the bar. “Allergies?” he asked, as he could think of no worse way to end the night. He slipped the empty bottle into the recycling bin and tossed a smile her way as he fired up the burners. “Not to worry... you can take the price for the food out of my pay.”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

fayyebaker:

She found his facial expressions endearing, almost as if he was a dog trapped in a human body. Grinning a bit, she nods her head, “I know when your shift ends, I made the schedule. I just got there a few minutes after twelve, so I guess you’re prompt. The head chef before you was lazy, hence why he was fired and you were hired. Not to mention your food is good, although don’t think I don’t see some dishes I didn’t approve in there. That’s rather ballsy.” She teases him. Faye treated the restaurant like her child, or what she thought a child would be treated. So, any slight change or movement that she wasn’t made aware of always rubbed her the wrong way. Letting out another snort, she shook her head, “Thank you, I suppose.” She rolled her eyes, “Yes, yes, I know. I’d be happy to go back there now.” It seemed he had a one track mind, or maybe not. Tilting her head to the side, she looks up at him, “What are you thinking about then, Chef Rigby?”

Bennett’s eyebrows tucked a little tighter for a few moments. “Prompt is leaving an hour late? I’m thorough, I assure you...” Bennett was definitely guilty as charged as she commented on the unapproved dishes. He grimaced, exaggerated, as though he slipped his hand into the cookie jar only to have it bitten off. “They accentuate what’s already on there, and they’re only approved as specials, I promise you. But there are some holes in your menu. Some proteins that are popular in this area that aren’t featured, and I’ve been hired for a reason, yeah?” But ballsy he was, when it came to his job. He held up a finger and then turned it... and crooked it. “I know exactly what I’m thinking about. I’m thinking about getting you back into the empty restaurant... and cooking for you.” Whiskey making him bold, he took a step forward and leaned in to murmur at her ear, “I’ll make you wear a blindfold so you can fully experience every morsel that passes your lips.”

[wastrident]

[bennettxrigby-blog]

fayyebaker:

She could tell he was interested, or at least his body language was telling her so. That is until he became spastic. Her eyebrows furrowing, “Um, are you alright?” Faye had no clue how her name could have such an effect on someone. Or maybe it was the whole murderer thing? After a few moments he took the bottle from her. “Um?” He sounded as if he was a spy or something, or at least how detectives in movies sounded. But then, once he shared who he was she let out an amused laugh. “Well isn’t that just kismet. I literally just came from the restaurant, thinking I would find you there and finally get you to stop nipping at my heels. And now I know why the bottle looks so familiar now too.” Shaking her head in amusement, she looks at him, “Glad you’re not some snooty old man that I imagined you out to be though.”

Of course he wasn’t all right. This whole thing was so bizarre, and Bennett couldn’t really wrap his head around it. Out of all the places in the whole resort... she’d picked the one where Bennett was. And the look of Faye was... well, confusing. She was beautiful, yes, but she seemed so young to be so esteemed and established. How brilliant she must be. How talented. And no wonder she’d had the guts to grab his ass in the middle of the wide open air. She had to be forward. Not just the owner of one of the most highly rated restaurants in which he’d worked, but young, and a kickass woman at that. Bennett’s breath was trapped momentarily in his chest until he forced himself to exhale. “My shift ended around eleven,” he said, feeling the need to explain himself suddenly. “I closed down around midnight. I...” He let out a breath of a laugh, rubbing the back of his neck briefly. “Not to be indelicate, but I’m glad you aren’t some stuck-up bitch who’s too good to drink whiskey past midnight at a lake with a stranger. I have... so many ideas for menu alterations and...” Now wasn’t the time for that. He glanced around for a recycling bin, but found none, so he simply clung to the neck of the bottle, letting it dangle. “And yet that’s... not what I’m thinking about at all right now.”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

fayyebaker:

Faye gives a shrug towards him, unsure of the answer to that. Some staff did, and then there were some staff that did not. Smiling, glad that he was not the type of man to put up a fight when he was wrong. “See, so does it really even matter?” It was a rhetorical question, because there was no shadow of doubt in her mind that it didn’t matter. The alcohol was dwindling as she downed the rest. She let out a laugh, “Oh no, you are definitely attractive, very sexy.” A hand moving to squeeze his ass. One would presume this gesture only came from alcohol, but the truth is Faye would absolutely would do this sober as well. Giving a wink, she leaned against the railing, facing him. “Well, you don’t even know my name yet. What if the reason why I’m not scared is because I’m the murderer? Or what if you’re the murderer?” She raises her brows before leaning forward a bit. “Faye Baker.” 

The act of the woman squeezing his ass caught Bennett off guard for a few moments. He blinked, his head cocking, eyebrows knitting in near confusion, like a befuddled puppy dog. She was forward. He had to respect that. He liked it. Forward, and she thought he was sexy. His sexual experience since leaving London had been thin at best, and maybe, he thought, he should let go. Maybe he should sink into what this place had to offer. He hadn’t been here long, but he did know that he liked what was in front of him. Until she said her name. He coughed, nearly choking on his own breath, instantly wondering what the hell he’d done to deserve this. One of the first women here he’d actually wanted to screw, and she was his boss. Bloody fucking brilliant. He collected himself enough that he could speak, and he took the empty bottle from her to dispose of later. “Miss Baker. You’re a hard woman to reach.” He hoped his expression wasn’t too dumb and his words weren’t too slurred as he said, “I’m Bennett Rigby. Your new head chef. And don’t worry.” He lifted the bottle to shake it a little. “I did actually pay for this.”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

fayyebaker:

Faye knew there were plenty of places to get bottles of alcohol,for some reason this one seemed familiar to her, but she thought nothing of it as she let out a small laugh. “You are working somewhere where excess doesn’t exist to most,” she points out. “Glad to be of assistance though,” she gives him another grin as she lets him take the bottle. Snorting a bit at his words, she shook her head. “Then why were you?” Faye counters as she raises a challenging brow. Taking another gulp, she shook her head, “Of course I’ve heard. I’ve lived here for four years now. I don’t believe in fear. But you can definitely come along with me, handsome.” 

“Yes, well, I’m working, as you said. Doesn’t that imply that I should have more impulse control than the rest of the heathens in this place?” Still, Bennett smiled as she pointed out that he was in the same position as he was. He put up his hands in surrender. “You’ve caught me. Breaking my own rules.” He waited until she’d taken another sip to take one for himself, the liquor burning, but getting easier with each sip. His chest started to feel warm, spreading out, making him more comfortable. More talkative. “Handsome? You must be mistaking me for a much more attractive fellow, but... I’m happy to accompany you wherever you wish to go.”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

fayyebaker:

After plans fell through for the evening, she had thought maybe this new head chef would stop nagging her via e-mail and she could finally meet with him. Of course his food was delicious whenever she had gotten a chance to taste it. But, he was persistent. When she got to the kitchen though, it had seemed he must have left for the night. Letting out a frustrated sigh. 

Faye decided the night was still young, and she was still dressed nicely from the date she was supposed to be on right now. She decided to head over to Prohibition and see how it was going over there. As she made her way, she passed the lake, noticing a man just on the sidewalk, somewhat in her way. Taking a moment to look him over, she realized he was quite handsome. It made her grin a bit once he had noticed her, “Oh, well I’m glad to hear that. Then, don’t mind if I do.” Taking the bottle, she raised it up, “Now, where did you get this from?” Asking before taking a long swig.

The woman who joined him was pretty. Young, yes, but that hardly defined her beauty. There was something feverishly confident about her, the way she smiled and accepted the bottle without hesitation and gave way to teasing. Don’t mind if I do. Bennett smiled a bit at that, nodding, and gave her a small motion. “Take as much of that as you’d like. I purchased it from work before leaving. A bit excessive, probably, but lucky me... I was able to share.”

Much better than the alternative, which would have been guzzling the whole thing before staggering back to his cabin and falling asleep while the room spun around him. “It’s not safe to be out alone,” he said, finally, and took the bottle back for a swallow. He passed it back immediately, as though he’d taken something that didn’t belong to him anymore. “You’ve heard what’s happened, yes? I’m happy to walk you to wherever you’re going.”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

andy-james:

Andy smiled as the man steadied her. “Oh, its kicked in. About two coffees ago. Unfortunately for everyone here, I’m a giant clutz.” It was just her luck that she’d make a fool of herself to everyone. But for some reason, she’d always gotten by and people found her charming. “Can I make it up somehow?”

“Well. If it’s in your nature, I believe you can be forgiven.” Bennett’s hands lingered on the brunette’s arms, making sure she was steady before finally backing up. He kept his hands up slightly, however, as though ready to guide a toddler walking for the first time. “You can make it up to me by getting to where you’re going in one piece, yeah?”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

Bennett hadn’t quite been able to rearrange the menu at Mangon’s as he’d liked yet. That was mostly his fault; getting Faye Baker’s attention for a full day to sit down and try out all of the dishes he’d like to bring in was proving to be something of a task. Their schedules hadn’t quite aligned as of yet. Still, he’d managed to slip in a few dishes here and there, mostly as specials, and he was thrilled when they seemed to be doing well.

At the end of his shift, close to midnight as he closed down the kitchen, he decided to treat himself. He purchased a bottle of bourbon from the bar and set out on a stroll down the streets of the Resort, taking it all in. Bennett took a swig straight from the bottle, letting out a breath, in thought.

Murderers loose. Well. That was nothing new for him to deal with. He paused to overlook the lake, taking another elongated drink. He only paused when he noticed he wasn’t alone, and held out the bottle in offering. “I don’t have cooties,” he commented. “Here. Feel free.”

[bleedsunlightandichor]

Sweet Little Unforgettable Thing

New job. New place. Hopefully somewhere where he wouldn’t be condemned for his online work.

Ra was surprised by his first meeting with a client being so soon after his arrival. He had thought that it would take a bit longer.

Not that he was upset, just a bit nervous. After all, this was what he’d come here for. For new experiences and for learning new things.

The note said to meet at Kings, third booth from the back. He found the place easily, ordering a frozen tiramisu cocktail and settling in the seat.

Except, he was still there, alone in the booth an hour later, his second glass in his hands and his eyes drifting from the stage to examine the audience in the club.

Finally accepting that he’d been stood up the Egyptian-American moved to sit at the bar, offering the bartender a sheepish smile as he ordered his third drink. He could at least enjoy his surroundings and make the best of his night, even if it hadn’t started off quite like he’d expected.

[bennettxrigby-blog]

Not having arrived at Arcadia recently himself, Bennett could more than recognize the sight of someone who was out of his element and new. Drinking hadn’t quite become a norm for Bennett, but he did find it easier to sleep with a bourbon or two warming his belly.

He watched as the man waited, drank, sucking back some sugary and frozen concoction, and finally asked the bartender, “Who’s the kid?” The bartender responded to check the wrist, which Bennett did, letting out an, “Ah,” of a noise and returning to his own beverage.

The other man finally seemed to give up and saddled up at the bar, and gave a motion to the bartender. “Put his drink on my tab, please.” Bennett’s eyes glanced over at his unwitting companion, offering as an explanation of his charity, “You moved from the booth to the bar. Must be representative of a rough night.”

[andy-james]

Andy found herself walking around the resort, coffee in hand. It was her only addiction; besides dance. Her eyes wandered the many different stores, taking in how absolutely beautiful it was. She was lost in thought, when she bumped into someone, eyes widening and glad that no coffee spilled on them. It would be such a waste of coffee. “I’m so sorry! Got a little spaced out.”

[bennettxrigby-blog]

Bennett could see the girl coming, and yet he hadn’t quite expected to run into her. He assumed she’d wobbled where he weaved, and yet... there they were, colliding. He reached out to steady her, trying to keep a good-humored smile, let her know that there was no harm nor foul. “Spaced is understandable, especially if this...” He tapped her coffee cup. “...hasn’t kicked in yet.”