#oceanfrontsally

So these two are coworkers!!! And I feel like Stephen LOVES Sally. He honestly probably spends more time with her than anyone else? And I can see her being really welcoming to him when he moved to VA Beach and helping him get situated and things like that???

Goddamit, Natalie. 

He thought this was going to be just the Connors, the Selznicks, and Drew, but it wasn’t. In the past few days since she had invited him, it had somehow gone from a quiet dinner, to a picnic on the lawn. 

Owen wouldn’t have come at all, if he had known. But he’d shown up early with his brothers and, he’d been too distracted fixing the lock on the back door (with Seth has his assistant -- which meant it took him twice as long as it would have to do it on his own) to notice that they were setting up for a much larger crowd. And then it was too late. 

It wasn’t that he hadn’t just up and left their parties before, because he had. Most of the time, he felt like it wouldn’t matter to anyone anyway if he stayed or left, but, Natalie had taken the time to go up to him and tell him how happy she was that he was there and ... he just couldn’t bring himself to leave. 

He sat on the porch with a beer and his thoughts, thankful that everyone was leaving him alone. That is, until Sally came up on the porch. 

“So, this lunch thing with your mum tomorrow ... there wasn’t very much thought put into this whole thing, was there?” He asked, taking a seat up on her desk, absentmindedly tossing her stress ball back and forth between his hands, “I mean, there’s the obvious question: how on earth did someone like you get someone like me to go out with you? I was thinking, perhaps, I’ve just come out of a como or maybe I was stranded on a desert island and you were the first girl I’ve seen in ten years or something? Your thoughts on this? I just, really think we need to make this believable, you know? Can’t have your mum suspecting anything." 

He scratched his forehead, “Also, how long have we been dating? How did we meet? And where are we in the relationship? Obviously, we’re having sex. I know you wouldn’t be able to resist all of this,” He said, gesturing to himself, “You probably live at my place most of the time. I can only assume that you live in an apartment that’s filled with empty pizza boxes and too many cats.” He paused, “Should I make it a point to stress how rich I am? That way your mum will know that, at least, you will be taken care of financially if we are married and then divorced. Is there going to be a marriage, by the way? Give the old girl something to live for? That isn’t exactly what I signed up for, but ... I’ve never been married. Not even fake married, so ... what the hell. I’m game if you are, love,” He winked. 

He was having more fun with this than he thought he would. Ward Eastwood was someone who was always up for anything. As someone who had the world at his fingertips, there was rarely anything he couldn’t do; nothing he couldn’t buy. So when an opportunity came round where he could try something new, he wasn’t going to say no. And pretending to be someone’s fake boyfriend wasn’t something he’d done before.There was also the added bonus of being able to try to get a rise out of Sally, and knowing that she would have to put up with him. 

Annie was plopped down on Sally’s bedroom floor looking through the photos she’d taken earlier in the day. She hadn’t finished looking them at work, so she brought the with her to Sally’s. 

They were photos of the new football studio - nothing too special, but she still had to decide which ones she’d use for the paper this week. 

“Sally,” she called out, cause the girl was in the bathroom. “Literally how long does it take one to pee??” She said, gaze on the photos with a sigh, Annie leaned back, letting her weight fall on her hand holding her up from the floor. 

“By the way,” she says, “Did I tell you, I have to go out to Selznick Outdoors to take photos of their grounds? I’m really hoping I run into Chris, well, he’s suppose to meet me for the tour of the grounds...” Her voice ran off because she was positive Sally knew what she was hinting at. 

Annie hadn’t seen much of Owen but that is because she hasn’t tried. She’s avoided the places she used to find him all the time and taken a break from her pursuit - besides, lately, all she could think about was Drew and she was sure soon enough she’d be trying to find ways to speak to him.

Yo, yo. Your boss in the house. Soooo. Has Sally ever told Nick that her mom is dying? Because I feel like Nick might actually give her ~kind of a break if he knew.

Though, on the other hand, Nick doesn’t get along with his family and doesn’t understand the concept of having a life outside of work (even though that’s literally all he does is spend all his money, hahaha) and so he might not entirely understand and give her the “I’m rich so I pay people to do all the things I don’t want to do. You’re one of the people I pay. So when I have things I don’t want to do, guess who gets to do them?” And in the first year of the company I could see Sally having LITERALLY been at Nick’s beck and call at all hours of the night. Though now since the company is running pretty smoothly and is vastly successful I could see things maybe slowing down a bit so that Nick doesn’t need Sally quite so much?

sally: o my god annie don't