Disclaimer: I think we all know that "The OC" is not mine.
A/N: I come up with stories/plot lines randomly. And it's set in the future. (Because, really, I don't write much of anything else.) So everything that happened in the show stands.
This isn't a multi-chapter story. More like a two or three-parter. We'll see. And who knows when I'll finish the next part – hopefully before I leave for my semester abroad because I'd hate to leave you all up in the air for four months. So I guess the next part will be up whenever my next random writing mood hits me.
Review, please. :)
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Seth sat at the bar, chatting with a few of his old college buddies. They did this often – meeting up numerous times throughout the month in random bars in the city to just catch up. To exchange war stories about their budding careers or dish about the latest goings-on in the news world. It was refreshing and it was the one thing Seth had always wanted when he jet set off to New York City for law school at Columbia University six years prior.
College at the Rhode Island School of Design had been interesting but he realized well into his junior year it wasn't exactly what he wanted for a career. In fact, come the fall semester of senior year he still wasn't sure what he wanted out of his life so postponing the inevitable choice and instead applying to law schools to procrastinate his decision? Yeah, that worked out much better.
Being twenty-eight was fun. Seth loved every minute of it. (Even though he had only been twenty-eight for precisely 44 hours.) He was no longer in college or law school, instead working for a corporate firm in downtown Manhattan while getting decent money to afford half the rent on an apartment he was occupying in Brooklyn. He wasn't trying to find friends or impress girls – he was just living. As difficult as it was to finally settle back into a routine of the nine-to-five days he had long forgotten about since his high school years, it was the only hard transition he had discovered when school had ended and his adult life began.
He just loved his life. And that was simply all there was to it.
"Cohen," Ben Larkin, a fellow graduate of Columbia's law school and an entertainment lawyer for Ada Adleid, one of the most famous television actresses in America, spoke to Seth, "so how goes it downtown?"
Seth lifted his beer to his lips, taking a sip as he glanced quickly at the television mounted up in the bar searching for the time before turning towards Ben. "Good. Hard. I don't know."
"Still not what you expected?" Dan, another fellow Columbia graduate and civil rights lawyer in the Bronx, asked.
Seth nodded his head. "Yeah… not what I expected. It's just… well, I like it, but I'm not sure it's what I want for the rest of my life. But I'm satisfied with it for now so I'm not worrying about it."
"Just stay there for a few years and get some experience under your belt and then go do what you want," Ben replied. "That's what I'm doing. And speaking of which… Ada's been asking about you, Cohen. She's still into that whole corporate lawyer thing."
Seth laughed lightly as the other two men joined him knowingly. "I'm sure she is."
"She's not that bad looking…" Dan tried, waving his beer in his hand in the direction of Seth. "Might be worth a shot. Or just a night."
"Yeah, well, somehow I think Summer wouldn't approve of that," Seth laughed, glancing back up at the television checking the time for what felt like the billionth time that night.
"You don't think so?" Ben laughed sardonically. "You know, cause, I always thought Summer might be up for that three-way thing. She's always been that sassy type."
Seth laughed out loud from deep inside his chest. "I don't know… something to look into."
The three grown men laughed at their comments, settling back into their beers and the television in front of them. Seth had known for quite some time now that the A-list actress, Ada Adleid, had a thing for him. Ever since he first met her one of the first times he went to Ben's firm to meet Ben for lunch, she had always randomly shown up to outings that was supposed to be "just the guys." Claiming she always had a "lawyer emergency," only for the "emergency" to be cleaned up in a mere five minutes and to spend the next two hours chatting it up with the three of them.
That had started nearly two years ago. And it really didn't seem like it was letting up anytime soon.
Summer and he had been dating continually – and partly off and on – since his undergraduate years in Rhode Island. There was one big break they took that lasted a little over a year, but that was a difficult time for both of them when Summer had made the decision to study in Washington, DC her junior year while he was still up in Rhode Island. It wasn't a bad break-up – they had grown up way too much to have that kind of drama come flooding back into their lives – but it was hard nonetheless. Seth had tried to date and even came close to developing a relationship with a girl name Sarah before Summer had announced she was moving back up to Providence for her senior year. She hadn't asked Seth to stop dating other women but Seth had made the decision himself, hoping to have Summer back in his life. It only took a few months of realizing they couldn't just be friends without having their attraction towards each other interfering so a few weeks before Seth's twenty-second birthday they officially got back together and had been together since.
Summer hadn't reacted to Ada's own affection for Seth very well when she first found out. But Seth understood. Because if the tables were turned and some gorgeous NBA player had been hitting on her, he wouldn't have been too pleased either. A lot of arguments had stemmed because of Ada and finally Seth realized he had had enough of arguing with Summer about Ada and a year ago he proposed to her. And she said yes. And Seth really couldn't remember ever being that happy.
Since then, their arguments had died down immensely. Seth would sometimes joke with Summer saying he should have proposed to her earlier so that a lot of their arguments would have been avoided but she'd just roll her eyes and call him an ass.
He loved that about her.
Well, he actually loved everything about her which was the reason he decided to propose that they spend the rest of their lives together. But still. She was just too adorable when she was calling him an ass.
"Wasn't Summer supposed to be here, like," Dan glanced at his watch, "twenty minutes ago?"
"Yeah," Seth replied. "Not quite sure what happened to her. She probably got tied up at work."
Summer had been working diligently for the same organization since she graduated Brown University six years prior. She had initially wanted to work in California for an environmental non-profit – and had been offered a decent entry job position as well as a respectable starting pay – but when Seth had been accepted into Columbia University's graduate law program, she made the decision to move to New York City to be with Seth and respectfully declined her job offer in California. In turn, she ended up landing a dream job of hers – working within the city's government system to help adopt more friendly and efficient ways of preserving the environment in the city swarming with eight million inhabitants. She loved her job more than anything and the people she worked with turned out to be some of the most inspiring people she had ever met in her life, helping her accomplish her goals and make her job feel worthwhile. Summer worked overtime many nights due to her passion for her career and it was because of this that Seth had rarely seen her lately – especially since she began helping to construct the project of installing solar panels on top many of the Big Apple's finest buildings for the past year. With Seth working hard to put his foot in the corporate law door, and Summer helping to save the world one solar panel at a time, their relationship – and as a result, the planning of their future wedding – had been put on the backburner for some months now.
That wasn't saying they didn't want to get married or were testing their relationship to make sure it would work or anything of that sort. It simply meant they were too busy to plan the wedding of their dreams and wanted to wait until their lives became less hectic so they could invest their hearts and souls into planning the perfect wedding, and in turn, the perfect married life.
"Cohen! Benjamin! Daniel!"
Seth swerved in his seat, breaking his thoughts and turning towards the voice he had just heard yell for him. Ada bounded up in her black and white dress, moving her unnecessary sunglasses (because it was December and the sun had set two hours beforehand) up to her light brown flowing hair.
"Hey, Ada," Seth greeted, smiling. "What brings you here?"
"Yeah, Ada," Ben turned toward his client, "What does bring you here?"
"I have an emergency, Benjamin. These paparazzi here," Ada spoke to Ben, waving her hand behind her to indicate the massive amounts of people standing outside the bar with their cameras in hand, waiting for Ada to exit, "have been following me all day and caught me drinking a can of Coke. I need you to make sure those pictures don't get leaked or else I'll lose my endorsement with Pepsi. Please Benjamin," Ada pleaded with her lawyer. "If you don't fix this it will ruin me."
Seth snorted at this. Ada was always so dramatic – even in her everyday life. Sometimes he wondered why anyone would want to become an actor or actress and then he met Ada and realized that she really was destined to have a career as such. Ada simply wouldn't do well in anything but the entertainment industry and she was lucky enough that other people thought this too, turning her into an A-list actress.
Ada placed her hands on her waist, glancing at Seth. "What are you laughing at, Cohen?" She didn't say it with distaste but rather with sincere infatuation.
"Nothing. Just…" Seth glanced between Ben and Dan, wondering if he should he even ask the question that was running through all their minds, "how does drinking a can of Coke ruin your entire career?"
"Oh, Seth!" Ada laughed as she lightly tugged on Ben's sleeve indicating that he needed to vacate his seat to go take care of Ada's "issues" and so she could sit down and talk with Seth. "You wouldn't get it but it is a huge deal to the people out there," she indicated again to the paparazzi standing outside, "and because of that I have to make sure nothing jeopardizes all that I work hard for."
"Jeopardizes," Dan nodded. "Nice word."
"Thanks," Ada smiled sincerely. "I'm trying to increase my everyday vocabulary. Shows the people out there," again her hand motioned towards the door, "that I'm not stupid and can stand on my own two feet without the help of anybody else."
Seth's eyes drifted to the door and he noticed a petite woman arguing with a newly arrived bouncer and tripping in her heels as a result of all the water dripping from her body and onto the floor. "Speaking of standing on your own two feet…" Seth trailed as he stood up walking towards the bouncer and the petite woman.
Ada and Dan both turned around to see what Seth was referring to and as soon as they saw, Dan leaned in, speaking to Ada. "How about the word fiancé? Would that word help increase your vocabulary too? It's a French word but I hear it speaks high volumes in the English language."
Ada scowled at Dan for a split second before following Seth.
"Summer!" Seth shouted as he walked closer to the door, making eye contact with her. He saw her shoulders heave in a sigh of relief when she pointed over to him, her lips moving as she tried explaining herself to the bouncer.
The bouncer turned around, taking notice of Seth, but then immediately taking notice of Ada, ignoring both Seth and Summer all together. "Ada Adleid," the bouncer greeted politely. "How is everything for you tonight?"
"Good," Ada replied warmly. "It's been a terrific evening so far, thank you very much."
"No problem, Miss Adleid," the bouncer replied. "I'm Nate, by the way."
"Nate," Ada reached out her hand to shake Nate's. "It's nice to meet you."
Summer stood there with her arms crossed over her chest, rolling her eyes continually and then finally sighed loudly. "Great. Nate, Ada. Ada, Nate. Introductions are done. Can you just move and let me through now? I'm already a half-hour late due to this two-hundred person entourage parking themselves outside this place."
Seth smirked at Summer, feeling all sorts of happiness flow through his veins at simply seeing her.
"I'm sorry, miss, but like I've told you before I have been instructed not let anyone else into the bar at this moment," Nate spoke calmly to Summer.
"Seth!" Summer shouted angrily, snapping Seth out of his trance. "A little help here!"
"Umm… yeah… she's with me," Seth told Nate. Nate simply looked at him oddly, trying to figure out who he was and then Seth just continued on knowing he wasn't going to figure out anything anytime soon. "And I'm a friend of Ada's."
Ada looked over to Seth, trying to plead with her eyes as she had tried many times before to just spend a little alone "talk" time with him but Seth was in no mood for it and by the glare etching across Summer's face, Summer wasn't in the mood for it either.
Ada sighed lightly – knowing that Seth wasn't going to give in to her wishes, and glanced back at Nate, resuming her smile. "Yeah, you can let her in."
Nate nodded and then apologized to Summer and Summer walked towards them. "Jesus, it's like getting into freaking Fort Knox around here."
"Nice to see you too, baby," Seth held out his arms for her to hug him but Summer just simply rolled her eyes.
"Ew," Summer scrunched up her face. "I thought I told you never to call me by pet names." Summer searched around the small room, in search of the bathrooms. "Any idea where the bathrooms are in this place? It's pouring out there and I accidentally left my umbrella at the apartment this morning."
"Clearly," Seth smirked.
"Don't be an ass," Summer pushed her hand against Seth's chest and before she could pull it away to go clean herself up, Seth grabbed a hold of it, pulling her in and giving her a quick kiss on the lips.
Seth let his lips linger for a few moments before he heard someone clear their throat, and he tore his eyes away to see that Ada was still standing there, watching them.
Summer rolled her eyes again, pulling her hand out of Seth's grasp. "I'm going to try and clean up. Save me a seat?"
"Is that a question or an order?" Seth cheekily replied as Summer gave him a fake smile and the middle finger as she walked off.
"She's just so endearing," Ada began as soon as Summer was out of hearing range.
Seth shrugged his shoulders, letting his eyes follow Summer until she disappeared from his sight. "It's what I love about her."
"You could do so much better, Seth," Ada let her hand stroke his arm, snapping him into her focus. "You deserve so much better."
Seth smiled, walking back towards the bar without replying to Ada. He had learned by this point that saying anything to refute her attempts at brainwashing him into breaking up with Summer would only further her excursions into why he should be with her instead. So cutting her off before she even had the chance to try to explain them again? Well, that just worked for him better.
"Hey guys," Dan nodded to both Seth and Ada as they approached the bar once again. "Everything all right with Summer?"
"Yeah, she's just in the bathroom cleaning herself up," Seth told him, motioning for the bartender to give him another beer.
"Yeah, Lindsey just called and told me she'd just see me when I got back to the apartment tonight because she doesn't want to go back out in this weather. You're lucky you've got a girl brave enough to go out in the rain," Dan joked, comparing Summer to his own fiancé of two years, Lindsey.
Ada snickered, offering a retort, "I don't think lucky is the word I'd use to describe Seth's relationship with Summer… And I don't think brave is the right word to describe Summer either."
"Jeez," Seth scrunched up his face, "big on the usage of certain words tonight, aren't you?"
Ada grinned up at him as she took a sip from her cosmopolitan. "Well, it's something I need to work on."
"Among other things," Dan muttered causing a stifled laugh from Seth and another glare from Ada.
Just as Ada was about to reply, Ben appeared again with an agitated look upon his face and his phone, PDA, and a big folder of scrambled papers hanging from his arms. "Ada," he breathed heavily, "everything should be taken care of now."
"Should be?" Ada's eyebrows rose.
"Are," Ben corrected himself. "Are taken care of."
"Wonderful," Ada clapped her hands, reaching out to hug him. "You're the best, Benjamin!"
At this hug, a bunch of the papers fell out of their place in the folder and onto the floor. Ada stood back, apologizing as Seth and Dan leaned down to the floor to help Ben gather everything.
"Yeah," Ben muttered to his friends, "$250,000 later and no one will ever know that Miss Actress here loves Coke better than she does Pepsi." The other two chuckled at his statement, still gathering his papers. "I seriously don't know what I was thinking when I decided I wanted to become an entertainment lawyer."
"Better you than me," Dan replied.
"Ditto," Seth laughed, handing papers back to Ben.
"What're you guys doing?" a voice entered the mix, glancing down at the grown men kneeling on the ground.
Seth looked up and saw his beautiful fiancé standing with her hands on her hips, still clearly wet from being outside earlier but not soaking as she was before, staring down to the ground.
"Benjamin dropped some papers," Ada explained to Summer.
Ben groaned as he stood, knowing fully well that it was Ada that caused the papers to fall. Seth and Dan followed his movements.
"Hey, Summer," Ben enveloped Summer in a hug. "Nice to see you again."
"Yeah, hey, Summer," Dan waved at her.
"Hi," Summer smiled, making a movement to stand next to Seth. "How are you guys? And Dan – where's Lindsey?"
"She hates the rain. She claims she's like the Wicked Witch of the West and will melt in this weather," Dan told her. "But I'm good."
"And I'm tired," Ben added. "And so wishing my vacation would come sooner than a week from now."
Ada pushed Ben's shoulder teasingly. "I'm not that bad."
"Have you tried to work for yourself?" Ben asked Ada bewildered. "Coke, Pepsi – it's not a matter of life and death!"
Ada rolled her eyes, swinging herself casually back into her seat. "You guys don't know what my life consists of. It's hard work pleasing the world."
"I thought you were an actress. Not a world peace activist," Summer replied, expressionless. Ada looked at her in disgust before turning back to her drink. Seth let his arm fall loosely around Summer's waist, picking her a few inches off of the floor and setting her in his lap. Summer smiled at him, kissing his lips briefly as a token of gratitude.
"I'm sorry I was bitchy," Summer whispered to him.
"To me or to her?" Seth grinned, knowing fully well she had meant what she said to Ada. She didn't exactly have reason to like her, seeing as Ada still insisted on hitting on her fiancé every chance she got – even when Summer was present.
"Oh, shut up, Cohen," Summer nudged his chest, turning around in his lap towards the bar to order a drink of her own.
"So, Dan," Seth shouted a few seats down to Dan, still keeping his arms wrapped around Summer as he held his bottle of beer on the bar, "any luck finding Ben a date for your wedding?"
"Nope," Dan laughed. "And every girl Lindsey and I ask seems keen on the idea until we show them a picture of him."
"Oh, har-dee-har-har," Ben grumbled. "You two are just so fucking hilarious."
"I was just asking because it's kind of getting down to the wire," Seth continued. "Only less than a month left till Resurrection Day."
"Yeah," Dan laughed. "But if all else fails, he can just go with Ada. They basically live together as it is."
"For your information, Daniel," Ada spoke to Dan, "I already have someone lined up to take me to your wedding."
"And who is that?" Ben asked warily, already seeing different messes he'd have to clean up when things turned sour with Ada's next prey.
"Lyle Tourteum," Ada responded, and then turned towards Seth, eyeing him flirtatiously. "But if another offer came up I'd be willing to reconsider."
Summer's mouth stood agape at Ada's words. She really didn't have any sense of moral, did she? "Are you kidding me?"
Seth pulled Summer closer in his arms. "That's good to know. But I don't know if you're gonna get anyone better than Lyle Tourteum. He's a fantastic football player. I don't even watch football but I know he's right up there with the greats," Seth tried to pretend he knew what he was talking about.
"Cohen, he's a baseball player for the Yankees," Summer told him.
"Right!" Seth tried to cover his obvious mistake. "Gotta love the New England states! All them Yankees honoring our country the way our ancestors would want them to."
"The New YorkYankees," Summer stressed.
"Oh," Seth mumbled. "Guess I should shut up now, huh?"
Summer laughed, leaning in closer to him. Sometimes he was just too cute for his own good. "Yeah, probably." Summer let her lips graze his softly, massaging hers against his.
Seth hadn't seen much of Summer lately. Their schedules had been nearly opposite for the past two weeks – when he was getting in, she was leaving for a meeting and when she was getting in, he was already asleep. He missed her. It was like he had an imaginary fiancé. But finally he was getting the chance to spend some quality time with her and his friends for a casual twenty-eighth birthday gathering. Not a party – just an excuse to gather all of his good friends in one room for the night.
Seth pulled away from his mini-make out session with Summer when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He groaned inwardly, causing a small smile to develop on Summer's swollen lips, and turned to see the intruder.
"Hey, sorry to break it up but I think I'm gonna head back to the apartment," Dan motioned animatedly with hands. "Haven't seen Lindsey in awhile."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Seth smirked at Summer.
"I knew you'd understand," Dan patted him on the back. "Happy birthday, buddy."
"Thanks, Dan. And have a good Christmas if I don't see you."
"Oh, yes, a great Christmas in Montana with Lindsey's family. Should be swell," Dan gave them both two thumbs up sardonically causing both Seth and Summer to laugh. "You guys have a good Christmas too."
"Chrismukkah," Seth corrected.
"Oh, whatever," Dan shooed his hand into mid-air, "Bye Cohen, Summer."
"Bye Dan," Summer waved, letting her other hand hang around Seth's shoulders. "Are you having a good party?"
"This classifies as a party?" Seth asked.
"Well… a belated birthday trip to the bar?" Summer replied.
Seth reached his lips up to hers. "So far, so good." Summer closed the distance and kissed him again. This time another voice interrupted them – and Summer was kind of getting sick of it. "Oh my God!"
"Sorry," Ada haughtily replied to Summer's shout, speaking to Seth. "Cohen -"
"I would appreciate it if you didn't call him that," Summer interrupted.
"That's his name."
"His last name," Summer glowered at her.
Ada threw the glower right back at Summer. "You call him Cohen."
"That's because I'm his fiancé," Summer spit out bitingly at her.
"Whatever," Ada rolled her eyes. "No need to claim your territory, Summer."
Seth couldn't handle the fight he knew was coming as a result of anger rising in Summer's blood. Plus he knew how bad her rage blackouts were. In fact, if he were keeping track, she probably had already had three or four intense ones directed towards Ada before and he didn't really want to have another one on his birthday celebration – of sorts – night.
"So, umm," Seth cut in, "what was it you wanted, Ada?"
Ada broke eye contact with Summer and looked at Seth sweetly. "Benjamin and I are buying you four shots for your birthday."
"Why four?" Seth questioned.
"Because we know that's all you can handle, buddy," Ben leaned his head over the bar, looking down to Seth, laughing.
"Hey," Seth held up his hands in defense, "I can hold my liquor." Summer snorted at this remark as she drank her own clear liquid. "It's true! I'm not a lightweight anymore."
"Cohen…" Ben eyed him, "don't lie."
"I can!"
"Then prove it," Ada pushed a shot of Southern Comfort down to him.
Seth picked it up, throwing it back into his mouth, letting it burn the back of his throat. He slammed the glass back down on the bar, eyeing Ben, Ada, and Summer, trying to hold back a cough creeping up inside of his chest. "See?"
"All right…" Ada replied, turning towards the bartender. "I guess he'll have five."