"Oh Linda! Yea she is very professional."

I walk over to the liquor cabinet and pour us both a drink. I slide Vito his drink as I take a seat behind my desk.

"So Vito... what brings you here?...I take its business not pleasure."

Her salad was brought over to her, and she excused herself from the conversation with John in order to shove as much of it in her face as possible. She devoured it. If she was able to unhinge her jaw, she probably would have as she was bloody starving. Once she cleared her plate she looked around and realized that everyone had vanished. With a shrug she picked up her glass and tossed it back, before motioning to the bartender that she'd like another. 

Vito sips at his drink a few times making sure to try to savor it. He'd been drinking too much alcohol lately. He knew it was regular in this business but if he was being honest he was getting tired of alcohol. But he appreciated the drink nonetheless.

"That's right, it is business unfortunately, though not serious business just need to address something with a friend of ours. Tony told me she seemed upset and then there was that awkward introduction to our guest from outta town. I'd just like to speak to her to clear the air about it, So I ask the lovely.... Linda was it? I asked her to direct me to your girl's residence so I could speak with her privately just like I did with Tommy."

The phone rang. Thomas noticed it beeped for Noto's office, but since he handled most of the staff issues he answered just in case.

"T'anks fer callin' Paragon Tower, John Noto's offices, this be Thomas O'Shannon. How can we help yeh taday?"

"I call for Mr. Noto."

"Tá, ask who be callin'?"

"I work for Vito Scaletta."

"Ah, okay, fer Mr. Scaletta. An' what be tha nature of t'is call?"

"Mr. Scaletta is trying to get in touch with Ms. Faegan. If she is unavailable, Mr. Scaletta requests permission to wait in her room, or somewhere that is available."

"If Mr. Scaletta be so inclined, he may wait on floor eleven in one o' tha Paragon suites, on tha house, or in tha lounge on floor ten. However, Ms. Faegan's room be her private residence an' is nae ta be disturbed wit'out HER consent. Please give me regards ta Mr. Scaletta an' let him know that we be doin' everythin' ta accommodate 'is needs."

Thomas hung up, "Wait in Billie's room. T'as funny." He shook his head and went back to his paperwork.

Kate walked into The Paragon Tower with Mercedes_Kompressor next to her. She moves to the front desk, looking to find either Noto or Thomas_OShannon for assistance. She grins at Mercedes as she waits.

Mercedes stood next to Kate, her sparse belongings in the back of the car idling out front, driver ready to haul them up as soon as he's signalled to do so.

This was going to look strange, and she was curious as to how Kate would explain the circumstances to her employees.

I walked through the front doors of the tower to see Ms. Logan and Mercedes standing at the receptionist desk. I approach both of them.

"Ms. Logan... Mercedes, always nice to see the two of you. Anything I can assist you with?."

Kate smiled at Noto as he appeared.

"'evening, old friend. I need a favor. Another one of the keys to let the elevator to get to the top floor. I have one. Jack has one. You have one. I'd like one made for Mercedes as well. The distillery is near some of the disappearances of our associates- that... uncomfortable body part business. It makes more sense for Mercedes to stay in one of my guest bedrooms."

She leaned forward on the counter, business-like.

"Now how quickly could this key be made?"

"No worries Ms. Logan, I can have one made before the end of the day. However in this time of urgency I think it would be best if Mercedes takes my key. I can wait for another one to be made."

I fetch the key from my office and return back to Ms. Logan, placing the key in her hand.

"Everything else ok in the penthouse?... if not I can have maintenance up there in 5 minutes." 

Kate smiled wide at Noto.

"You're the best, my friend. I was hoping you'd say that. Everything else in the penthouse is perfect, thanks."

Kate nodded to Noto, thanking him again as she handed the key to Mercedes and they headed to the elevator. Mercedes hesitantly inserted her key and hit the button for the 12th floor and the elevator jerked into motion. The doors opened and Kate winked at Jack.

"Jack, we've got some things down in the car. Please bring them all up here as soon as you can.

Nodding, the large man entered the elevator as Kate and Mercedes heading down the hall and through the double doors. Winking, Kate glanced at Mercedes.

"Welcome home."

Billie was relaxing in her room when she received the call from Linda that a 'friend' was waiting for her downstairs. For a moment Billie contemplated her options as she stared dismally down at bare feet. 'Friend' meant family, and family meant business when all she wanted was one day to herself. She'd given Linda instructions not to let anyone up and to cancel her appointments for the day, but as usual, it seemed her voice carried little weight off stage.

"Okay," she sighed, "I'll be down as soon as I'm dressed. No more than 5 minutes." Billie moved to slam the receiver down but had second thoughts, picking it back up quickly before the receptionist could hang up. "Thank you, Linda... you're... just, thank you." Billie stammered. The woman on the other end chuckled, "Anytime, Ms Faegan. Good evening."  The other end of the line clicked off, and Billie nestled the receiver back in it's hook with a huff. She was a mess, undressed down to her silk brasier and tap pants, sheer peignoir draped lightly over her shoulders, a carton of ice cream in one hand spoon in the other. 

With a groan, she tossed the carton - spoon and all - back into the miniature refrigerator behind the bar and made her way to the bedroom. She'd already wasted 2 minutes just pouting. Staring into her closet she sighed and shook her head. There was no way she could get dressed in 5 minutes. Normally it took her at least an hour. What with all the things she wore to look pristine: hosiery, garter belt, bustier, slip... it was a long list. "Oh well," she mumbled softly to herself, pulling a mint green wrap dress from her closet. "Tonight, Billie my dear, you're a thoroughly modern woman."  Shrugging off her peignoir she slipped the dress on over her paper thin undergarments, tying a perfectly pretty little bow just above her waist to cinch it closed.

Flying into the bathroom she raked her messy curls up into a frizzy pom-pom ponytail atop her head. It wasn't pretty, but it would do. As she whisked her way back to the closet for shoes, Billie noted the pale pink roses Noto recently sent her. Snatching one from the vase, she compared it to her dress. And smiled at the complimentary colours with an approving nod. Turning back to the bathroom, she snapped the stem off, and carefully nestled the remaining stem snugly into her ponytail, bobby pinning it carefully to one side before digging through her jewellery box for a matching set of powder pink pearls that would do nicely.

3 minutes down, and she was rather impressed with herself. There was no time for full makeup. So she haphazardly powdered her nose and applied a single layer of pale pink lipstick before leaving the bathroom, for good this time.  Digging through her closet, she came up with an almost matching pair of pastel pink heels. They were just a shade or two lighter than the rest, but overall you couldn't really tell. So she threw them on anyway and headed for the door. 

4 minutes. She was in the elevator headed for the ground floor. Thad to be a world record. The elevator dinged softly as it lurched to a pause, opening to the lobby in all of its splendour. Billie didn't even have to approach the front desk. Linda saw her from the elevator, and simply pointed toward the office; never skipping a beat with the customer she was addressing. Billie shook her head. People were so impatient. 

Making her way through the small waiting room, Billie tapped lightly on the inner door to Noto's office, mumbling softly to herself. Part of her wanted to just barge in. Another part wanted to yell through the door. But she remained quiet, waiting politely. 

Vito was just getting ready to exit Noto's office when he heard a light knock on the door. Figuring this was the perfect time to make his escape so he can go onto the real reason for his visit. He opened the door and poked his head out into the waiting area and came face to face with said reason for his visit. Not how he had planned this at all, he couldn't hide the look of surprise from his face, but he wasn't new to things not going as expected nor was he inexperienced at improvising when they didn't. He quickly schooled his features into a neutral look with a slight smile on his face as he looked back over his shoulder to his friend and said.

"I got this one John."

With that he closed the door to Noto's office and was then standing face to face with Billie. He stared at her for a few seconds as he tried to figure out how to handle and start this conversation. Then after a few seconds of thought he grinned slightly at Billie and relaxed his facial features.

"Well hello Billie, seems getting ahold of you isn't quite as easy as I thought, when you're not performing at the restaurant."

"Vito." Billie greeted him with a polite nod of her head. "It's not so hard... especially if you call ahead." She gave him one of those 'you should have known that' kind of looks; almost scalding, but not. She indicated one of the many posh chairs in the waiting room with a gentle smile, "So, is there something I can help you with? Or would you like to take our conversation elsewhere?"

Vito gave a flat stare at the look she gave him when telling him he pretty much should've called ahead. He thought to mumble something but he let it go. Besides making announced visits wasn't really his style, he liked to keep people guessing for the most part. His face took on a slight look of relief when offered to take the conversation elsewhere. But he decided to see how it played out first maybe it wouldn't call for that.

"Well that all depends on you actually my friend. I was just coming to make sure we were still cool after that whole....scene, at the restaurant the other night. The one with my guest from outta town. Tony said he saw you glaring a hole in her and then glaring daggers at me too. So I just came to make sure we were all cool. Or if we had something you wanted to discuss?"

Vito raised an eyebrow as he asked the question with a straight face, wondering just how this would turn out.

Billie laughed aloud, "Daggers? Not hardly. I was just curious as to why you were spit polishing her ass with your tongue." She smiled at him, no harm meant and no hard feelings. "I'm sorry if anyone was off-put. I certainly didn't mean to make any kind of 'scene'. I simply wanted to offer my services for the duration of her stay in our city. I thought she might benefit from a touch of personal hospitality... and our family from having eyes close. Makes sense, doesn't it?" She looked at him expectantly, hoping that much was true. 

I swirl the liquor around in my glass, taking a sip I nearly choke on the comment about spit shining an asshole.

"Don't mind me you two."

Vito frowned hard at the spit polishing an asshole comment. This is what he was afraid of, surprisingly though his temper was bothering him too bad. He couldn't help the the cold look that appeared on his face though or the dropping of his eyebrows though he tried not to let them drop into glaring territory. He also managed to keep his voice even though you could hear it dip from time to time.

"I don't believe I was spit polishing anything at all. If anything I was doing my job as an owner and insuring the satisfaction of a paying customer who had requested certain things. It's the same kind of treatment any other customer who requests a VIP type of treatment would receive Family or non family included. What you did was what you did, I have no problem with it, same as I'd wish you'd have no problem with what I did. But your comments are not appreciated and aren't ones I expect to hear from a personal friend of mine."

Billie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, shaking her head.  "Well, I'm sorry that you don't appreciate my honesty with you, Vito. I don't hold back with my friends. I think they deserve the fullness of truth from me - they're the only ones who will ever see it because they're the  only ones who can handle it. If that's untrue for you, I'll be more than happy to... colour my divulgences in whatever way you feel would be most comfortable for you. But bare with me for just a moment, if you can, Vito." 

Billie walked back into Noto's office and poured two glasses of scotch before returning to the waiting room and offering one to Vito. 

She took a deep breath,  "I've seen you with a lot of VIPs, Vito. Even performed for a few. But you were distinctly more... attentive," she chose the word carefully highlighting her previous comment,  "It put me on high alert, yes. But I have no problem with it. And I am truly sorry if I have offended your delicate sensibilities. So, if we could chalk this all up to learning how to have a relationship with each other, I would appreciate it. Because there are better things we could both be putting our energy toward. You think?" 

She perked a brow looking exhausted and slightly annoyed as she sipped her glass of scotch. 

Vito took the offered glass of alcohol. He gave a snort at the "delicate sensibilities" part. He thought to respond to it but following the trend of the conversation he figured it pointless. So instead he just clinked glasses with her and drunk the glass of scotch. He then put the glass down on a table he spotted outta the corner of his eye. He looked at Billie and said simply.

"Don't worry about it. It's settled."

He looked over to Noto who was watching closely.

"I'll catch up with ya later John. This truly is a nice place ya got here"

And gave him a nod. Then he turned back to Billie .

"I'll see you Billie, and thanks for taking the time to come down here."

With that he turned around and exited the waiting area of Noto's office, then proceeded to exit the building entirely

"Billie, sweetie... don't worry about it! Vito just wanted to clear the air, I'm sure he will cool off. Besides he is good at what he does, I'm sure he will focus on bigger things. Just like you will."

I walk over and give Billie a kiss.

"I'm just finishing some paper work, then ill meet you up in your room ok?."