AN: Charli and Diana's adventure. No Charles or Liza, but this fic is more than just them it's the WHOLE Youngerverse. Josh makes an appearance too, and Claire sort of. Next chapter will feature Charles and Charli, and maybe Maggie's birthday party Liza will find out about Claire and the baby at Maggie's party...DRAMA
Charli's POV
"Razzle dazzle 'em
And they'll never catch wise!
Give 'em the old Razzle Dazzle
Razzle dazzle 'em
Give 'em a show that's so splendiferous"
Charli was accompanied by Diana, Enzo the Adonis-like seriously Charli would be jealous if they weren't such a perfect couple-and no less than 100 of the most gleefully enthusiastic group of people in the entire city. She and Diana were perched atop a piano singing out to the spirited crowd and she was having a great time on the surface, she'd think about the shit-uation she's in tomorrow. She'd put her best Scarlett O'Hara foot forward and get stuff done tomorrow. The song wrapped up and Diana grabs her arm for support as she slides off the piano, Enzo is instantly there to catch her before she could go face first into the bosom of "Bette Didler" a voluminous drag queen.
"Come on down Charlotte." She holds her hand out for her to take and Enzo the beautiful also holds a hand out to her, she hops down without taking either outstretched hand. She'd had half a vodka where Diana and Enzo had down multiple drinks, so many that she lost count between the two. She took in Diana's disheveled appearance and her heart swelled, she was glad to have her friend by her side tonight of all nights. Upon further investigation she noticed that Diana's right eyebrow was melting down her face...
"Diana-" Charli rises her hand to her own eyebrow when she speaks to Diana, "your uh eyebrow is sliding away?" Diana's hand shoots to her brow in embarrassment and she shrieks at Enzo.
"Do you have my backup eyebrow pen? I left mine at work!"
"I had it but Bette Didler had a brow emergency earlier and-" Diana cut him while simultaneously covering her dissolved brow.
Charli watched as Diana chided her man for giving away her emergency brow pen. It was hard to hear entirely but she caught the gist of it, apparently Diana had lost her brow a couple of months ago during a bar-b-q accident hosted by Enzo's brother. Every morning she draws on her brow and lives in fear of sudden rain showers. She looks at Charli, hand still covering the smugged space above her eye.
"Do you know how many pillow cases I've ruined? Or how much I've spent in CoverGirl brow pens?" She was drunk and was a little too hysterical. "Do you have a brow pen, dark brown?" Charli shook her head and watched the party leave Diana. She grabbed Enzo with her free hand and marched through the crowd, Charli wasn't ready to go but she didn't want to be there without a familiar face. They reach the street and Enzo hails a taxi.
"Diana, don't go I'm sure there's someone in there that has an eyebrow pencil you could borrow." Charli was desperate to keep her troubles at bay for a little while longer.
"I'm sure they'll lend me their pink eye too! I'm sorry Charlotte but I don't want to be seen this way." Enzo holds the cab door open for his lady and Diana invites her to share their cab. She wasn't going in Diana's direction but she climbed in anyway. All three jammed into the backseat sitting knee to knee and an idea pops into Charli's head, it's a long shot and she doubts Diana will agree to it but she's just drunk enough Charli could talk her into entertaining the idea.
"Hey Di, have you ever thought of getting your eyebrow micro-bladed on?"
"Micro-chipped no I don't want to be tagged like a house cat."
"Not micro-chipped, micro-bladed. It's like a tattoo, well it is a tattoo of an eyebrow. It's all the rage in Nashville, no more drawing your face on everyday." Diana chews this over and asks quietly.
"I could go to the gym without losing apart of my face? I could go swimming...if I swam in pools..."
"Exactly! Sweat away, swim away! and you'll have something in common with Mike Tyson."
"Ok let's do it!" Diana leans forward and gives the driver a Brooklyn address, as she sits back she brags "We'll go to my tattoo guy."
"You have a tattoo guy?" Charli smiles in disbelief and shakes her head. Enzo is snoring softly on the other side of Diana, unaware of the change of trajectory. They arrive outside a trendy tattoo shop in Brooklyn it appears to be closed but Diana is relentless to her reasoning and leaps over Enzo and out to the street. She's knocking on the locked door of the dark shop.
"Diana!" Charli hisses "C'mon this place is closed you'll wake the entire block!" She leaves the cab to drag Diana back. "We can come back another night!" Diana pouts whines loudly and still refuses to leave with Charli. Behind her the cab pulls away with the snoozing Enzo still seated in the backseat, she catches the movement out of the corner of her eye and shrieks at the sight of Diana's intoxicated fella slipping away from her. She must have yelled too loudly because next thing she knew the was a handsome tattooed boy-no man- was poking his head out of the window directly above them.
"Are you ok?" His voice was laced in concern, and Diana answers for her.
"Josh! Come down and micro-chip my face!"
"Diana! We have to find Enzo, and-and uh"
"I'll be right down." Before Charli could protest she saw him back away speak to a petite blond that was standing behind him and he was out on the street next her. He was taller than she'd thought, not Chucky tall but much taller than her own 5'2. "What's going? Diana." He says as a greeting to Diana and then he focuses on Charli and her mouth goes dry. "Hi, Josh." He holds his hand out. She takes it and very nearly jumps at the shock of his soft but firm grip.
"Hi, Charli Brooks. I'm so sorry we woke you, we'll be on our way come on Diana. We've got to find Enzo."
"Enzo's fine! I got him micro-bladed months ago and I'm here to get micro-chipped! Josh I'm here so you can fix my face." She lean forward and shows him her missing eyebrow. "Can you fix it?" The man called "Josh" leaned in and examined her forehead, and nods in agreement.
"Hmm you're wanting to be micro'ed huh. Uh I'm closed but for a friend I could open up for a bit." To Charli he asks, "Who's Enzo, should we be worried? Does he have a collar and tag?"
"He's Diana's boyfriend, he's drunk and asleep in the cab that just left." She sighs "I'll have to call the cab company."
"For Lost and Found?" He flashes a white smile over his shoulder to Charli as he opens the door to his shop and ushers them in. "Come in you can call about your missing pet from inside." Diana pushes in and bee lines to Josh's chair.
"Let's do this bitch!"
"She's drunk, you can't tattoo her like this." Charli says this as she's dialing the cab company. She walks into the corner to ask about Enzo's whereabouts. Josh's regards her and focuses on Diana, he draws on a perfect eyebrow, while Charli locates the runaway cab and redirects it to them. "Whew! He's being returned, the cabbie thought he was taking him back to Manhattan. Okay, let's go wait for him outside and I can get you two drunkards home. Again I am so sorry for disturbing you and your uh lady friend." She awkwardly squeaked out that last part.
"Uh wife...and we were awake. So-" he quickly changed the subject. "So we doing this thing?" He asked with no real intent.
"Yes!" Diana, had been admiring the blue eyebrow Josh had drawn on for her.
"Your inebriated Diana. We're going home." she says borrowing Charles' best parent voice.
She pouts and Josh who looks like he's trying to stall from going back upstairs sighs and complies. "She's right Diana I can't legally tattoo you if you've been drinking. Alcohol thins the blood and the tatt can't heal properly. Which is not ideal for face tattoo's." She expected Diana to argue but instead she heard snoring from the chair.
"Unbelievable...at least I don't have to wrestle her out of here kicking and screaming. Do you mind if we hang out here till our lost property returns?"
"Yeah, anything for Diana. She's a character, huh? Are you her sister?" Charli snorted.
"No, she's a friend. An old family friend, she worked for my dad now works for my big brother. Worked, he stepped down last week... It's a whole thing. How do you know Diana? Did you do her massive back tattoo?" He smiled doubting that Diana had one tattoo let alone a full Ben Affleck on her back, and shook his head looking back at the sleeping Diana.
"She was my girlfriends boss. Charlie Brooks? Like that lawyer?"
"Yeah that one. Uh your wife worked for Diana?"
" Wife? oh, uh no. My ex Liza. Wait, Charles Brooks is your brother?" The look he gives her is hard to read, but if Liza was his ex Charli assumed there was bad blood between the two. He was married, had bad history with Chucky, and was incredibly cute...just her type. "I've seen you on the news, and that youtube video where you yelled at the judge?"
"Not my finest moment, but effective. Charles is in fact my big bad brother."
"Lucky you. He isn't at Empirical anymore?"
"It's a whole thing." She spots a book of Josh's tattoo's and starts flipping through it and stops short when she recognizes a portrait of Caroline Canning the "Queen of modern Country music" and Alvin's murdered wife. "You did this?!" Josh leans over and examines the photo.
"Oh yeah, L.A. AL he came in about 4 years ago one of my first big customers turned out great. I knew he couldn't have done it, he loved his wife."
"This" she points the the picture, "this kept Alvin going, when the world was against him and thought that he was guilty he would look at this-your work and he'd find some small bit of peace. Thank you." She held his gaze.
"I didn't do it for you..."
"No, but giving him hope however small helped me help him." She smiled down at the tattoo she knew so well and sighed. "Small world, huh?"
He was watching her with an open curiosity. They were suddenly interrupted by a drunk Enzo tripping through the door looking for his Diana, and just like that Charli was in charge of wrangling two toddlers. It took both Josh and Charli to get the two back into the cab, once they were safely deposited in the back and openly pawing each other Charli looked back to Josh. "thanks...I think I'll sit up front, lest I join the in on the fun." She wagged her eyebrows suggestively causing Josh to laugh out it was pure sex and she was thankful for the dark so he couldn't see the blush spreading from her chest upwards.
"You bring Diana back when she's sober and I'll fix that eyebrow free of charge. Good night Charli Brooks." He nods his head at her and she says her awkward goodbye as she slides into the front seat. In the car she turns around and swats at the two love birds. "Stop that!" to the cabbie she says. "keep your eyes forward, not in the back seat."
Charli was dead tired, the day had been a long one she'd woken up in Nashville and she now was leaving Brooklyn. Tomorrow she had her first two TV interviews as the public "face" of her firm. She shoved that thought down and reminded herself that was future Charli's problem, present Charli had her hands full keeping Diana off of Enzo.
End