forfoxsake (Clifford/Knox)
@forfoxsake continued from (x)
Everyone at this terrible party kept talking about the guest of honor like he was some impossible snob. Knox spent the last hour mentally preparing to deal with a massive diva. Instead, he got a polite guy who was just…huge, currently apologizing like he hadn’t just hit Knox with all the subtlety of a brick wall.
“You’re fine,” Knox said, rubbing his chest. “Though seriously, what do they feed you? You’re solid. Let me guess, you played football?”
Escaping the dance line made perfect sense. The guests out there were stiff. Half of them looked miserable. If Knox had to stand in a lineup shaking hands with them, he would have started a fire an hour ago just to get out of it. He was not about to make this guy go back out there.
Knox leaned past the guy’s arm, grabbing two glasses of champagne off a nearby tray. He pushed one directly into the massive guy’s hand.
“I’m Knox. If you’re actually trying to hide, you need a new spot right now. You’re too big.” He gestured with his own glass toward the back of the room. “There are doors behind that giant ice swan. Probably a patio. Or an alley, I don’t know, it doesn’t matter. Let’s go. I need air anyway, if that’s alright with you.”
“Is my football past that obvious?” Clifford exclaimed with a faux-shocked face, a little chuckle coming out. Going from a line full of people who seemed to carefully pick every single syllable that came out of their mouths to someone who just talked to him like a human being was actually a really nice change.”Damn, and here I thought I was hiding that past so well”
Clifford watched with a curious little smile as Knox leaned past him to grab the champagne and handed it over, the undeniable confidence that just oozed from the other man was hard to ignore. So many people there seemed like they were scared to even look in Cliff’s direction so this kind of confidence was intriguing to say the least.
He looked over to the doors that were being gestured to “Yeah, those would lead to the patio… might be a little hard to sneak my big ass out there but I’m sure we’ll make it work” he joked, sipping his drink before making the trip through the room, sticking by the wall and avoiding the bigger areas of the crowd until they got to the door and opened it, holding it open for Knox before slipping out after him.
The cool night air hit them almost instantly, chilly enough to make a burst of Clifford’s breath visible. “Hmm, definitely needed to get out of that room… so stuffy, it’s big but after a while it just feels so stuffy” he moved over to a large stone bench and sat down, legs spread just a little as he finally relaxed “So, how’ve you been enjoying the party? I know it’s probably not the norm to be invited to a party intended to meet a potential husband… probably not the most fun night of them all” he said, giving the man a little half smile “By the way, Knox, that suit looks really good on you… might be the best dressed guy I’ve seen all night”
