Guest House, Dolly's Room
Post-Gala
4:00 AM

This was the birthday that would not end! She had lingered as long as she could possibly stand after her peptalk from Tappy. It had helped, she hadn't had a full fledged meltdown yet but that was mostly because Dolly St. James did not come apart at the seams in public. She knew it would be hard for people to believe she was really done with Dominik. After all how many times had she claimed this very thing only to end up back in his arms when he needed her? Too many times to count was really the only answer she could come up with. She had earned her skeptics, she accepted that. The hard part was knowing what motivated people. She had trusted Nora to respect her wishes, well that wasn't totally true. She knew that there would be some stunt pulling, but nothing like what had happened. It was so final now, that fleeting kiss on his cheek the last nail in their coffin. He would never understand who she actually was or the hand he had played in creating the walls she now used to keep him out.

It was lonely at the top; wasn't that how the saying went? After everything that had happened in the last year she was too tired to keep holding onto the past. She had reached a point in her life where shared history was not enough of a reason to keep someone around. One by one those who had been afforded her trust broke it and she felt the walls closing in. She'd simply have to piece herself back together. She'd done it before, she could do it again. Reinvention was something she thrived on, she'd been being someone else for so long she didn't know any other way to be. Even as she sat before the vanity mirror and went through the motions of twisting her hair into a knot and removing the night's war paint, her reflection was strange to her. It felt as though she were watching someone else, someone inherently separate from the person she had believed herself to be.

As she changed into her night clothes she could still hear the band playing, the far off laughter of lost souls still dragging themselves around the big tent, unwilling to let the night rest. It wasn't so very long ago that she'd have been one of them. How was it possible to feel so much older than twenty-seven? Of course there was that nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her to stop being a drama queen and just go to bed. Thinking too much just wasn't healthy for a person like Dolly. She was an action kind of girl (still unable to think of herself as a grown woman in some respects). She was just getting ready to crawl between the freshly starched sheets of her bed when a knock sounded at the door. Her first instinct was to ignore it, wagering it was either some lost drunk party goer - or worse a seething wounded Dominik. When the soft tapping sounded again she sighed and slipped on her robe, "Just a moment," the smile she'd been forcing all night back in place as she unlocked the door and opened it a crack, suddenly bashful, "Oh! El, hi".

Elliot hung around the party as long as he needed to in order to make an appropriate appearance but with the activities winding down and the remaining guests too drunk to notice, Elliot was able to take his leave.  He wandered along the outskirts for a while, sipping his drink and winding down, enjoying a little bit of time alone.  It was very late, of very early, depending on how you looked at it.  The world was beginning to get those fuzzy soft edges that came with the need for sleep but before Elliot could take up a room for the night he ought to look in on Dolly.  Just in case.

As he wandered towards the guest house, Elliot had to fight back the niggling feeling that Dolly might have company.  How truly disappointing it would be if she answered and had bleary-eyed Dom looking over her shoulder.  But that possibility was not enough to sway him.  He'd dealt with more potent disappointments during his relationship with Dolly.  Anyone she might have with her tonight would be but a drop in the bucket.

He rapped on the door, aware that he might be intruding but uncaring.  Birthdays and social events like this warranted a check-in from him no matter the inconvenience.  It was one of those duties that had ended up blurred between his role as her publisher and his role as her boyfriend.  Whichever one it came from, he knocked again when there was no answer.  She finally answered, her bright, manufactured smile disappearing when she saw him.  She looked slightly embarrassed for some reason.  He quirked an eyebrow.  "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

She should have expected a check in. They always came, like clockwork. Tonight would have been no different, though she was vaguely aware that he might have gotten the wrong idea when Nora pulled the dance stunt and she had kissed Dominik's cheek before vacating the tent to get air. If there was a single person in the world who had the unquestionable right to assume the worst about Dolly it was Elliot. She'd given him ample reason to doubt her abilities to tell anyone no, but most of all to really turn Dominik away. As the thought occurred to her, and her conversation with Tappy replayed in her head her eyes grew a little sad before she stepped away from the door, allowing Elliot easy entrance if he wanted it.

"No, not interrupting. I was worried maybe you were Nora and come to give some stupid excuse for forcing me to dance with your idiot offspring; or worse yet the idiot offspring," she tried to keep her voice light as she picked up her cigarette case, turning to look at the only man on the entire planet to know all of her secrets, even the ones she hadn't meant to share. "You lasted much longer with the drunks tonight than I thought you would. Time was more than an hour of that nonsense and you'd want to obliviate your own brain. You've learned to shmooze Darling, it's very impressive," her tone was light and teasing as she took a seat in one of the arm chairs near the fire place. She was trying to gauge what kind of visit this was, but she wasn't as in tune with his judgments as she once had been.

"I would say I'd forgotten how terribly tedious these gatherings were when not six different kinds of drunk, but you and I both know that I've never done an event sober. Limiting myself to Champagne tonight was a mistake. I was not nearly sloshed enough to deal with Wiedman antics," she sounded tired as she sort of let her muscles melt into the plush fabric of the chair, toying with an unlit cigarette, bottom lip caught between her teeth. She wanted to broach the subject but it was difficult. She didn't feel she had a right to cry on Elliot's shoulder about wasted years... when she finally looked up she let out a long breath, "I told him I changed the locks. He didn't take it well. On the plus side I go maybe another chapter out of it for the novel".

It was easier to be glib, she couldn't let herself cry. Gesturing toward the chair across from her she rested her hands over her abdomen, "I hope you at least mildly enjoyed yourself, I noticed one of the girls from Witch Weekly sizing you up. She was pretty cute if you like women with red hair and freckles". She was doing it again, the incessant talking to keep from thinking about the actual events of the night. She also didn't want to think about the fact that she'd been rather happy to see him standing at her door when she opened it. It wasn't just relief that it wasn't Dom, or Daz, or Nora, it was...a genuine feeling of being happy to see his face, even if he looked like he suspected he'd find her shagging someone. She'd had three days to realize how much she had missed that face popping in and out of her daily life.

Elliot entered and was quiet for awhile as she talked.  It was her way, he knew.  When something was bothering her, she talked to fill the void of wandering thoughts.  Besides which, his patience often allowed him to think of the most appropriate response and pick an choose what he was going to reply to.  The comment about the Witch Weekly woman, for example, was deliberately ignored because although he liked the woman well enough, she was nothing he'd risk upsetting Dolly over. 

Instead, he sat down across from her and sipped on the tumbler of brandy he'd brought with him from the party.  With the other hand, he tugged at the bow tie of his tuxedo and freed it deftly.  He just grinned at her and shook his head slowly.  "I've always been better at socializing than you realized.  How else would I have made partner?  As much as I hate to admit it, it probably wasn't being good at my job that earned me a promotion.  Although, over an hour still makes me want to obliviate myself," he finished wryly.

"Just how upset was Dom?" he asked.  It was of personal interest, because he was glad Dolly was finally getting wise about that bastard but it was also of professional interest.  He was concerned that Dom might make a scene or try to break in, hurting Dolly, even if it was only an accident.   His primary concern would be keeping Dolly safe, but his secondary one would be spinning the events in a way that promoted Dolly's novel.  Emotional drama in her personal life translated to drama in her books, which could easily translate into hype and excitement and sales. 

Dolly's lips twitched upwards for a moment as his wry since of humor. It felt familiar to be sitting there, talking to him about the night's events, unwinding. They'd done it a million times before...though usually it was pillow talk as they cuddled down under her sheets, a trail of formal wear leading to the bed. She pushed the mental image away finally lighting her cigarette with the tip of her wand. Talking to Tappy had helped, it had allowed her to form the thoughts on why it all felt so painfully final. She knew his heart and head were occupied by the desire to protect her. Elliot...Elliot was a business man. He wouldn't want her in any kind of danger but a public fall out would generate interest in her work. She knew how the game was played...she just hadn't considered before tonight she was tired of playing it.

"Wounded, indignant, typical Dominik. Utterly incredulous that I would dare suggest he had ever made me feel unsafe in my own home. I doubt he even remembers what he said to me that night. It isn't as though he was sober when he called me a whore. Of course he doesn't remember using or imply that word so, that should tell you how many brain cells he has left working," she paused, inhaling deeply as her blue eyes drifted to the fire. There was so much she wanted to tell him, so many things she felt the need to apologize for. There weren't words though, not really, that could ever express how sorry she was for all the ways that she hadn't been able to love him enough. When she finally exhaled she slowly raised her gaze to Elliot's face, "it's over now. There isn't anything left for either of us to say. He won't ever understand".

She let out a long breath, flicking the gathering tears from the corner of her left eye, "He's with Niobe, and though it took me a decade and unfortunately hurting people I loved very much, I realized tonight the Dominik I loved isn't ever coming back". Twisting her finger around a wayward curl she slouched lower in the arm char, head tilted back as she swallowed hard, "I expected hijinks you know, spells or potions. I'd even braced myself for Nora and Dazmond to lock us in the basement till we killed one another or kissed and made up. I didn't expect that she would use the past against me, that she would do it in public - judging ever little move I made. Despite everything Nora has ever told me... tonight she proved that he will always come first. I didn't just have give up on this childhood fantasy of happily ever after tonight Ell, I lost the closest thing to a mother I'd ever had".