#gchqevent

As he had already promised, he would stay late, he would dance with his friends, he would send them safely home, and he would help Emily out whenever she needed a break to go have some fun. Honestly, she's probably know how to have more fun than he did anyways, he was put to better use as helping hands to keep the bride and groom enjoying themselves too. They certainly had proper bartenders doing the drinks, so Ashton simply situated himself to help get them out once they were done. "Espresso Martini? We got a non-alcoholic option too." Ash pushed up his jacket sleeves so they didn't get wet as he greeted the next person coming up to the bar, "I've tried the latter only but know they're equally delicious."

"Well this here is my famous raspberry Rhubarb pie. It's sweet n' tart and like a touch'a spring you can put in your mouth." Never much of a sales woman, Birch was doing her best to win the contest, having put her heart and soul into the pies that had been cut into bite sized pieces and were handed out in little cups with wooden spoons to those who were testing the pies at the booths before placing their votes.

Everything had been going so well, until certain people. Claudio sat, at the edge of their seat with a plate balanced in their lap, eyes big and wide, caught staring. Every so often, they lifted another fresh raspberry to their mouth, mindlessly chewing their a decent handful of them already.

Hattie. Just seeing her now, caused their heart to sink into a miserable depth. There was no denying a certain allure, despite a severity to her somehow. Sharp, dark features flattered by equally dark clothes; the dress was amazing on her. Better than anything would ever look on them. She never really smiled. Didn't exactly have happiness spewing out of her. Asher and she couldn't have been more different than the moon and sun, and Claudio thought, doleful, that might be why they made perfect sense. Why the sun sought the moon's shadowed glow. Opposites attract, as they say, like magnets.

The longer they stared, the more forlorn their features twisted. Unaware, even, that they were pressing the raspberries against their lips firmly, squishing them, their fingers painting the red stain across their full bottom lip. Lipstick but not. They wanted to be pretty like that. They wanted to be wanted like that. Hattie was so unapologetically herself, she didn't care what anyone thought. Or, she certainly gave the perception of such. Claudio couldn't stop letting in the doubts, the fears, the negativity. The comparisons of everything they weren't and would never be. Wetting their lips, tongue wiping away the carcass of that fruit, their lips stained pinker for it. As did their fingertips.

Finally, their gaze shifted just some. March had showed up. For Ashton. And Ashton... He looked so happy. Claudio could imagine the tears in his eyes from where they sat, only a spectator now. A certain nostalgia tugging inside because, at one time, he used to look at them that way. And that all just made things heavier somehow. It was okay he didn't anymore. That kind of pain had lessened years ago. It was more a sense of loss, of what could have been, that they truly mourned over. If only these insecurities hadn't eaten them alive back then, too. Inwardly, the dichotomy of genuinely being glad this person they cared for so much was finally moving on, and yet feeling left behind somehow, warred.