RP:A Pact With The Devil

Part of the Through A Glass, Darkly Arc

Summary: Candice Snow pays an unscheduled visit to Hudson's office after their run in at their children's school to ask him about keeping the press away from her daughter, Aubree.

Landon Real Estate Office

Hudson had thought about his encounter with Candice Snow several times since it had happened. He still couldn't quite get a read on her personality, the way she oscillated between cool and flirty. She was a literal actress so part of him projected his own duplicity onto her, and wondered if she had been trying to dupe him. Then another part of him entirely wanted to believe her as a cautiously friendly woman, not distant but merely respectful that he was a married man, ignorant to his role in perhaps ending her career in infamy. But then again: how could she not know? Surely Sterling would have told her ... In any event, one of Milo's associates had found her current address and was learning her and Aubree's day to day schedule. After that it was only a matter of reaching out to Meri and the three of them entering and searching her home when she was not expected to be back for several hours. Milo had reported that she mostly goes shopping, or to the gym a lot, and Hudson had started to worry that he'd be wasting everyone's time with his overcautiousness. Well, if there's nothing to see, they'll figure that out quite quickly.

He's at the headquarters of his real estate operation and in the process of writing Meri word to meet when Joanie knocks on his office door and lets herself inside. "I have a Candice Snow here for you?" she is giving him a hard look. "She's very pretty and doesn't have an appointment."

Hudson glances up from the note, pulling a magazine slightly over it. "She's a former actress. Was checking out the kids' school. I told her she could reach out if she had questions."

"Mm-hm," intones Joanie. He probably should have briefed her about the operation. She's judging him.

"Well, let her in, thanks."

Candice was an attentive and doting mother to Aubree. Her daughter aided her mother further by acting as a barrier, keeping a certain type of people away from her. Men intimidated by the fear of children, commitment, and empowered, beautiful women. Female columnists. Understanding former fans. So when Candice did venture out without Aubree, it took her longer to get from one place to another. Lying low had its perks but some still remembered or wanted to gush about her make up techniques or her clothes. Especially in Cenril.

She's trapped in one such conversation, with an overly perfumed painted clown in a garish yellow dress, when Joanie summons her back to Hudson's office. Candice held her opinions, offered a polite good-bye, and blessed the Stars for Hudson secretary. Joanie was attractive, in her own put together way, but she wasn't the sort of assistant she'd expect a powerful man like Hudson Landon to hire. Sterling had a new tanned interim in a mini skirt fielding calls every summer. Maybe Hudson's wife put up a fuss and Joanie was the compromise.

Joanie opened the door again, ushering Candice in, and slipping out after a polite offer for coffee or water. Candice declined both but lit up the room like a fresh streak of sunlight across the office windows. She smiled at Hudson with familiarity and thanked Joanie before she left. “Sorry to call without warning,” she shrugged her manicured eyebrows.

Hudson's gaze swings between Joanie and Candice as the latter declines the former's offer of a drink. "Thanks, Joanie," he says as his assistant leaves them. "Candice," he says the actress' name with pleasure. She is very well put together and has a satisfied air about her, a certain relaxed energy in sitting across the table from him that he doesn't see all that often. Maybe she really doesn't know what it is he does for a living, because she seems too comfortable in being familiar. ... Or maybe she's just used to behaving however she pleases because she's a beautiful woman. His money is on the latter. His business card had made it apparent enough that he's a powerful man, and she's connected enough to know that things are more than what they seem. "You're fine, welcome." He rises from his chair to extend a hand, shaking hers, before sitting again. "Good to see you," he says, his tone genial. "I take it, since you're here, that little Aubree got into the school." He steeples his hands, canting his head to consider her. He wonders, yet again, what she knows. If she knows. If she cares. And, whether she does, or she doesn't: is she trying to get close to him for the same reason she tried to get close to Sterling? No -- she just wants to know about the school, and he's the only one she knows, the closest thing to a peer. "How can I help?" he asks her. "You guys moving to Cenril yet?"

Hudson’s hand easily envelops hers. Her painted eyes note his easy nature. He’s king of the castle here. Why wouldn’t he be? “Hudson,” she repeats his name back like an amusing guessing game. It sounded, like everything about Candice, well practiced and perfected. The way her lips could purr around his name so fluidly. “Thank you for taking the time to see me.” Her tone is polite but there’s a dash of humor. The idea that he’d turn her away was unthinkable. Her platinum blonde hair bobs as she nods. “We did indeed, how do you like that?” He’s regarding her with curious eyes but she stares back, unbothered by the attention. Candice attractiveness only seems to blossom further under the direct stare of another. “So we will be needing a place in Cenril after all. Well, at least we’d like to peruse. You mentioned some nicer properties in your area of town? Is there anything you could show any time soon?” Even though she’s asking about the houses, there’s an undercurrent of obscure questions. “How are the after school programs?” She cants her head, moving back to the subject of the school. “Do your children participate?”

Hudson's smile stays warm, but Candice immediately begins unleashing a wife-levels torrent of assignments to him. He lifts his eyebrows at the unexpected barrage. A variety of topics. The home one a heavy lift, the school questions softballs. Sterling definitely not in the picture, he decides, and she's definitely not as uninformed as she acts. She's here to talk to him, because he's a man who can get things done, and he's flattered. "Pretty good," he tackles the after school question first. "One of my girls does the art program and then the other was doing gymnastics but she recently qualified for a more advanced program and got a personal trainer and, you know," he waves away explaining further. "There's a variety of stuff for whatever your daughter could be interested in. Roller skating on Fridays, which can be good if you have plans .. whatever." He lets that statement hang a bit to see what she'll say and spins through his business card holder, plucking out a card which he extends to her. "For your house, tell her I sent you, she'll take good care of you." He leans back after that, considering her. "Is there anything I could show?" he repeats her question back to her with some amusement. He rubs his jaw, cracking a grin. "The famous Candice Snow," he addresses her, deciding to drop a bit of pretense. "You know, some guys would pretend they didn't realize you were asking for a referral. You may not be on stage anymore but you're still very famous. Has the press picked up you've been around here yet?"

Candice is rather pleased with the expression on Hudson’s face as she pelts him with questions. She wants to set the bar for how the rest of the exchange will go. This is as bad as it’ll get and that’s at her decree. He quickly answers the real question layered under the superficial preface. She looks pleased with herself when she takes the card he offers. Her outlined eyes scan the print like a lazy typewriter before tucking it away in her purse. Hudson holds her gaze unflinchingly. “You -are- the boss.” She answers casually. The Landon’s have never inspired thoughts of mediocrity. Hudson couldn’t be considered ‘some guy’. His question about the press shines a light on a microscopic crack in her otherwise flawless demeanor. Her lip twitches but she picks up the momentum a breath later. “There have been ‘sightings’ reported ever since I moved.” Tactfully replaced ‘fled with a married man’s child’ to ‘moved’. “That’s old news, really. People love to exaggerate other people’s lives to make a quick silver or two. I think your family’s been victim to this cruelty as well.” She lofts a brow. It isn’t a dig so much as a note of awareness. She’d mentioned it before. Reading about Alvina’s trial in the paper. “I hope I can ask you to keep confidence about my visiting your office. I’d like the press to stay away from me and my family.” She pauses, breaking eye contact and biting her bottom lip sorrowfully. “You’re a loving father with beautiful children. Don’t you want to protect them more than anything? That’s how I feel about Aubree. You understand, don’t you?” Her voice goes high in pitch, playing the damsel in distress.

Candice calls him the boss and Hudson drums his fingers on the desk, continuing to consider her. He cants his head as she points out that they've something in common where the press is concerned. They're going to be honest now, he likes her more now that she's leveling with him. They're not just parents at the same school anymore. He's someone powerful and she has approached him to protect her. That's .. just about what he thought. "Yeah, the press can be rough but we generally have a good relationship. I guess they want to stay on my good side," he says, offering her a sly smile that suggests sometimes coercion is involved. Sometimes there's no stopping the press, sometimes the better approach is to shape the stories that come out, to plant good stories to drown out the bad ones. That had been the case with Alvina's arrest. A lot of puff pieces had come out about how she manages their beautiful family and where she shops. Candice, being no stranger to fame, would know how it works. Perhaps she even knew his role in tarnishing her image, before. In any event, he suspects her comments here are to ask him to extend to her the same treatment. His eyes gleam with understanding. "I do understand," he reassures her, holding her gaze. He drums his fingers on his desk, letting a pause expand in the room. In that moment a mischief gets into him. He smiles at her, suggesting that he'll assent but not without making it crystal clear that she owes him. Maybe a little power play is irresistible sometimes. "So for clarification," he says carefully, "You're not really asking about today. You want me to do you a favor and ask the press to leave you and Aubree alone."

Candice is no stranger to asking for favors and finds her allure and position to be viable bargaining chips. Hudson’ll feel like a big strong man protecting her, alpha dog barking to keep the reporters off her lawn, and she’ll potentially be paying a price for it in the future. Potentially. She thinks men like him just enjoy throwing their weight around for the sake of it. Gotta make sure everyone knows who is the most endowed. She has no illusion why the press would stay on his good side, why anyone would want to stay on his good side, or his heavy influence with the media. Candice holds Hudson’s gaze with a strong but pleading air. Hudson sees an opportunity and nonchalantly (and metaphorically) flops himself down on that high horse of his. Gods bless her that she’s an actress. She flicks her eyelashes at him obediently. “I’d appreciate if today was included.” She smiles sweetly, not wanting to say the follow up line. Really, if she knew about his role in running her out of town, he’d owe it to her. “But yes, if you could persuade them to be so kind.” This, more than after school sports or the housing market, is what brought her in to see him. “I don’t want my daughter getting caught up in any of this mess. She deserves every chance I can afford to give her.” And that was all she could say in the way of accepting his offer. He was doing her a favor and she’d be, uncomfortably indebted, for a time but not forever.

Hudson doesn't have any inappropriate fantasies about himself and Candice's relationship, nor does he intend to ask anything of her in return, but he gets a thrill from knowing that he could, he just chooses not to. This moment right here, where she realizes that he's demanding she ask him explicitly and in return she's a little uncomfortable, where she swallows her pride and looks at him doe-eyed and bats her eyelashes and asks him very nicely to pretty please do this mildly annoying thing for her -- this is his favorite. He'd worked to disparage her reputation in the city and now she's pleading with him to preserve it. Power is fun, corrupting too, just not too corrupting in this instance. "Just wanted to clarify," he says genially. "Of course, I can help you out, Candice. I'll get in touch with my contacts as soon as you leave." He smiles knowingly at her. He wonders what she does for money, or perhaps she still has considerable savings from her time in the limelight. "If you're relocating, are you looking for work?" he asks her. The idea had just popped into his head. He isn't sure he trusts her yet, but he would like to keep her under his thumb, given her link to Sterling and also because it feels gratuitous to keep a renowned actress in your employ at a lesser prestigious position just because you can. "I could probably arrange for you to get a job if you wanted one. Showing apartments, whatever."

Candice smiles amicably, appearing grateful but nursing her wounded pride beneath the surface. If this falls through, heads will roll. Of course he loves having her say ‘pretty please’ and dominate the room. The air is thick with smug satisfaction, making it hard to breathe normally. He goes on, saying her name pleasantly enough, like they’ve arranged an official business deal. “Thank you, Hudson.” She says his name sweetly but feels it curdled under her tongue. His offer for work knocks another brick of her pride loose. It was for a good cause, she reminded herself, before appraising him again. The actress felt like she’d been lowered to a serving class and she’d rather die! “Aren’t you generous?” She purrs without clarification about her current job or financial situation. “I’d love to -” do a job that, in her opinion, a teenager in over-sized heels could do “-contribute and work with you.” Candice stresses the -with- instead of applying -for- but they both know it’s a technicality. She isn’t dumb. She knows he wants to keep her around because of her former affairs and she’s not about to say ‘no’ after he’s agreed to deal with the press. Maybe he’ll repeat Sterling’s misstep and she can consider her debt paid.

"Aren't you generous," she says, but the words feel woolen, wrapped in flattery. If his offer hurt her pride, she's being very gracious about it. She knows that surely he can't just give her a hand out. Her wording - work 'with' him - is precise. He'll acknowledge that it must be somewhat difficult for her. "I know a lot of people, I'm sure it would just be temporary until we figured out something better," he says. He cracks a grin at her, adding, "Unless you love being a real estate agent for whatever reason. I don't know. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to fade into a different career and take it easy." And with that, he presses a button under his desk, summoning Joanie, who knocks on the door before entering, knowing she has been invited, a beat later. Hudson rises from his seat, gesturing at Candice. "Can you get Miss Snow in touch with Susan? She's looking for a house but I think was interested in helping Susan out a little bit too. Until she finds something a little more interesting." Winking isn't his style, but he lifts his eyebrows at Candice. He extends a hand for her to shake, indicating that their meeting is at an end. "Going seeing you again, Candice," he says her name warmly. "Probably be seeing you around a bit more, eh? Congratulations again on Aubree getting in."