Song: Jazz Tango by Pablo Ziegler Trio

Ambrose raised a hand to flag down the bartender. His eyes widened when he saw who was dressed to the nines in the 1920's get up. "Max?"

Max wiped the inside of a crystal glass with a bit of a smirk resting upon his lips. "Betty said you didn't know we were working tonight, eh?"

He shook his head. "I guess it makes sense, though."

"Saves time having to find new staff." Max set the glass down and leaned against the mahogany surface. "Plus it pays well so we can't complain." Max tipped his hat at Lilah as she settled into the chair beside Ambrose. "You look as beautiful as ever, Miss Carmichael."

Lilah lowered her eyes and the warm light caused her makeup to shimmer. "Thanks, Max."

The dark skinned man watched her for a second more, remembering the few stolen kisses they shared a year ago. Nothing ever came from it except a fleeting summer romance. Still, it was a fond memory for him that he liked to reflect on whenever her presence graced him

"So—" He turned back to Ambrose who'd been watching the quiet exchange. "What kind of bathtub gin can I get you two?"

Ambrose snorted, amused by the era's term regarding the illegal sale of alcohol. "They give you a script or something?"

Max's face scrunched up. "There's a whole list of things you gotta say every now and then to keep it realistic."

Ambrose half smiled, shoving his hands into his pockets. He shifted to stand closer to Lilah when he clocked Simon making his way towards them out of the corner of his eye. This guy just didn't give up.

Clueless to the incoming missile, Lilah eyed the hard liquor before her with a lack of interest. "Is there anything sweet I can drink? Something fruity."

"There's a few cocktails you might like," Max replied. "The Princess Kaiulani has gin, orgeat, lemon juice, and pineapple juice."

"Orgeat?" Ambrose mumbled, confused by the new term.

"French," Lilah muttered as she rested her laced fingers before her mouth. "Means almond liqueur."

Ambrose hummed, glancing at the top shelf liquor with intrigue.

"Buck's Fizz has champagne and orange juice," Max continued, missing the interaction. "The El Presidente is a mix of white rum, dry vermouth, orange curacao, and a dash of grenadine. It'll be garnished with an orange peel strip. Please don't eat it if you get super drunk later. The amount of people I've seen..."

Lilah giggled when Max rambled on about drunk people not listening to him. "I promise I won't be one of those people." Tapping her nails against the polished wood, she mulled her options over then chose. "The Princess Kaiulani. That one sounds good."

Max nodded then turned to Ambrose, shaking his luscious locs. "Ambrose?"

"Whiskey. Neat."

His father always did say that you could tell a lot about a man based on how he took his whiskey.

Did he take it neat? Without anything to dilute the bold flavor. Or did he take it on the rocks? Like a pussy needing ice to cool the fire of the alcohol to a more controlled taste.

When they got their drinks Simon pulled up on the other side of Lilah. "I'll take a whiskey. On the rocks."

Ambrose concealed his scoff by taking a sip from his glass.

"Enjoying the wedding?" Simon asked, shifting his gaze towards the stiff woman beside him.

"About as well as anyone possibly could. Given the fact that I don't know the bride or groom," Ambrose replied. Lilah let out a breathy laugh beside him then ducked her head to drink from her cocktail. "Are you enjoying the wedding?"

Simon's agitated eyes settled on Ambrose. "It's great."

Ambrose nodded. "Great."

A tense silence descended upon them like the grim reaper. It killed all traces of mirth. Ambrose stared back at Simon, stoic and frigid. It tickled him on the inside that this seemed to further annoy the other man.

"Nice suit," Simon said, drinking a mouthful of whiskey. He winced when the sharp tang assaulted his delicate palate. Swallowing a cough, he set the glass down and ordered Max to add a third ice cube.

"Thanks."

"Couldn't afford one of your own?" Simon asked, smirking at the ensemble and specific tailoring to the Carmichael family.

Lilah slammed her drink on the counter, forgetting where she was for a moment. She speared Simon with a lethal glare and hissed, "What the hell is your problem?"

Ambrose drained the last of his whiskey then asked Max for a refill. Nodding in thanks once he had a fresh drink, he turned his attention to Simon. There was nothing more he wanted to do than knock that smug look off his face. But, unfortunately, he knew better than to do so.

Caius could fight him all he wanted because he had family and money to save his ass at every turn.

Ambrose, on the other hand, wasn't born with that sort of silver spoon in his mouth.

If he swung then he'd be buried and Cameron would suffer the most in the end. So Ambrose took a sip from the whiskey, savored the bold flavor, and switched tactics.

"Nope."

Simon's smug expression faltered, as if he wasn't expecting Ambrose to admit to it. "What?"

"I can't afford my own suit. Not on my salary." Ambrose motioned at his body with a lick of laughter coloring his dark eyes. "Only thing that's mine are the glasses. Oh, and the boxers." He chuckled, leaning closer to place a hand on the back of Lilah's chair. His hand gripped the glossy wooden material. Lilah jolted when she felt it against her back. "It's kind of hot, though. Don't you think so?"

Simon's face fell. His expression lost all of its pompous shades. Suspicion took shape in singular brush strokes. "What do you mean?"

Ambrose glanced at Lilah and how confused she looked. He tried to hint with his eyes to follow his lead as he placed a steady hand on the nape of her neck. Her breath caught. It was audible and there was no doubt in his mind that Simon had heard it.

"Women who stake their claim on their man." Ambrose spoke in a blasé tone as he addressed Simon but never broke eye contact with Lilah. "It's obvious who I belong to tonight, right? I don't think she could've made it any clearer."

Lilah gripped the stem of her glass, feeling her mouth go dry. That wasn't her intent. That wasn't her intention at all.

She gave him everything because she knew that he wouldn't have been able to afford it otherwise. The last thing she wanted was for him to waste money. Thus the loan of family heirlooms.

Yet as her startled gaze swept over him, she realized her error. When they looked at him, then saw her hanging off his arm, the message was louder than any bomb could ever be.

She'd (unintentionally) marked Ambrose as hers.

Lilah knocked back the rest of the sweet cocktail in one go. She pasted on a cheery smile as she ordered a second drink. It was a cold war as Simon glared at Ambrose and Ambrose kept his sights set on her. The only warmth to be found in the frigid standoff was the hand Ambrose kept on the back of her neck.

It was hot.

The temperature.

Shaking her head, Lilah accepted the fresh cocktail with a gracious grin and took a gulp. "We should probably get—"

"Whiskey," came a saccharine voice. Simon stiffened but didn't move as Caius said, "Neat." Propping himself up on the bar, Caius gave Ambrose a quick nod of approval. "Smart choice."

"You too," Ambrose replied. Simon's jaw clenched when Caius moved closer towards him in proximity. "Is dinner almost ready?"

"First course will be out soon." Caius took a long sip of the dark liquid. He closed his eyes and savored the strong taste before swallowing. When he opened his eyes again he set the drink down and looked at his sister. "Mom wants to talk to you."

Lilah sighed, tracing the rim of the glass with her pointer finger. "This about Lonnie and Adrian again?"

"Isn't everything about them these days?"

The siblings snickered, eyes flashing with shared knowledge. She polished off the last of her drink and Ambrose held her elbow as she slid off the chair. Her eyes met his chest then flicked upwards with a silent but loud show of thanks.

"Ambrose can find his way back later," Caius said with a tone of finality.

Ambrose had to admit, he was curious about what was about to go down. So he nodded at Lilah and didn't take his eyes off of her until she was seated.

Caius got a refill and Ambrose started on his third. Simon, that wee lamb, continued to power through his first drink as the ice melted inside. It was more like flavored water at this point than the powerhouse whiskey it was supposed to represent. Of that Ambrose was certain.

"You seem to have a hard time understanding things after they've been told to you." Caius' voice was firm and low. He kept his eyes trained on the wall of liquor before them as he swirled the alcohol around in a languid dance. "I feel like that shouldn't be happening given you have the highest IQ in the room and the most degrees."

Simon waved Max over, making him add a fourth ice cube to the neglected glass. "We have company. Do you really want to have this conversation now? Out in the open?"

"Ambrose is her boyfriend." Caius's lips twitched. "I think he should be aware when some miserable prick tries to make moves on... his girl."

Ambrose pressed his lips into a thin line when he saw a fiery spark in those striking honey eyes. Caius may not have known the full story. But he knew something was up and he wasn't scared to "say" it right to Ambrose's face.

Now why did that (oddly enough) make him like the kid even though he kinda had Ambrose by the balls right now?

"All I want is a chance—"

"The answer was no," Caius interrupted. There was a sharp inflection to his words. "She said it once. Once is enough. Stop making her repeat herself or you and I are gonna have a repeat of what happened last time."

Ambrose covered his laugh with a cough as he recalled Simon's ruffled appearance the day Caius left. There was a mutter of scalding curses before an older lady called Simon's name. He slunk away with a serpentine smile and it made Ambrose shake his head.

"Why do I get the feeling that he's one of those guys that enjoys the sound of his own voice?"

"Because he is." Caius snorted, finishing the rest of his drink in the blink of an eye and turning to face Ambrose. "What's your game?"

"My game?" Ambrose repeated. "I don't know what you mean."

Caius placed his hands in his pockets. His shoes clicked against the floor as he stepped closer so that he stood beside Lilah's empty chair.

"Jason used to look at Lilah like she made the world go round." Caius nodded towards a man seated at another table. He was talking to Simon from where he sat at the table behind him. "Simon looked at Lilah like she belonged to him. Both of them were... in love with her in their own pathetic ways. I could see it in their eyes."

Ambrose drank the last drop, shaking his head when Max offered him a refill. "And what do you see when you look at mine?"

"Nothing."

Well. Caius had him there.

"I don't fall in love easily. Especially not with women I've barely just met," Ambrose replied.

It was the truth. Whether or not Caius believed him or not was up to him.

"Then why are you with her?" Caius asked, cocking his head to the side. "You don't date. You don't do serious relationships. The last time you went out with a woman was three years, six months, and fifteen days ago."

Ambrose whistled lowly. He was unnerved (because what the fuck?) but he wasn't about to let that show. "Do you know the hours, minutes, and seconds too?"

That got a chuckle out of Caius and he leaned backwards a little. "I can arrange to have that found out."

"I don't doubt that. There's probably a lot that you can find out, yeah?"

Caius nodded. "So, let me ask you again. What kind of game are you playing with my sister?"

"The kind where I help her out whenever she needs me."

"Wow. Vincent told us you were amazing but he didn't say you were Superman."

Ambrose bit the inside of his cheek. "If he had, would you have believed him?"

"No," Caius said flatly. The indifferent expression he was used to seeing by now resurfaced. "I feel like I don't need to tell you to tread lightly with her."

"No. That message was loud and clear before."

"Good." Caius nodded then walked away without sparing him a second glance.

Ambrose let out a heavy breath, wondering what the hell he got himself into. Once he was composed he took a seat beside Lilah and placed the napkin on his lap.

"Everything ok?"

He turned to look at her and found she was leaning closer. Her eyes were glazed and he knew then that she was a lightweight.

"Mhm."

"Why don't we ask Ambrose?" Lonnie's warm voice shattered their bubble. The first course, soup, was served while she stared at him. "What do you think is the most priceless thing in the world? We're all at a disagreement on the matter."

Ambrose unbuttoned his jacket as he sat upright when the whole table turned to look at him. At first his mind went to the obvious things like art, jewelry, or artifacts. But in the end, he settled for something a little more... metaphorical.

"Time."

Lonnie's brows became knitted. "Time?"

Ambrose nodded, holding her gaze and wondering why no one was eating. "Once you give it away you can't get it back. So I think its value can't be determined. It's priceless."

A low hum went around the table. Then Mrs. Carmichael (he recognized her from the pictures his zia kept) raised her soup spoon and ate. The rest followed. He was quick to join in.

"So, Ambrose, you work here?" Mrs. Carmichael asked with a kind smile.

She already knew the answer, as did everyone else in this room. But she asked anyway, eager to talk with the man her daughter had been seeing for only God knows how long.

Ambrose wiped the corner of his mouth and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"And is that how you two met?"

Lilah's spoon froze in the air. Their first meeting flashed in her mind. It took everything in her not to grimace at the less than savory memory.

"Uh, no," Ambrose replied. "We met back in September for the first time. She came to my old shop."

Mrs. Carmichael took a sip from her lemon water, intrigued since they had a family mechanic. "You worked on her car?"

"I sent Lilah there to get my tennis gear," Kiki interrupted, finishing his soup first since he hadn't eaten all day. "I forgot it when me and Vincent went to see him."

"And... you've been seeing each other since then?" she asked, prodding deeper into their romantic story.

Sue her for her curiosity but she was a mother for Christ's sake. She was well within her rights to know more about the man that brought Lilah out of a dating rut that lasted years.

"Well, no." Ambrose decided to settle for the truth, thinking it'd be easier to reiterate in the long run. "We ran into each other a lot before and after I moved in with Vincent. We didn't really start dating until recently."

And the instagram posts were there for proof.

Conversation resumed once Mrs. Carmichael was satisfied. The topics were light and nothing at all like the atmosphere from before. Ambrose guessed that whatever talk she'd had with her kids kept them in check. The only snark to be passed around were through the eyes when Mrs. Carmichael wasn't looking.

He stuck to Lilah's side like glue, bored out of his mind as she led him around. He met more people than he cared to. Took more pictures than he ever did in his entire life. And was even forced to endure the drunk charades and dance contest going on in the back of the room.

The party favor being a well crafted liquor flask with his name engraved on it was cool, though. Even he had to admit that as he slid it inside his jacket pocket.

At one point in the night they separated. Lilah and Caius danced to the swinging jazz. He recognized the fox-trot and charleston but blanked on all the others. After finishing a game of bridge, and a few hundred dollars richer, Ambrose found himself at the bar again.

It was flooded with people and noisier than before. He nursed his fourth glass of whiskey and watched Lilah dance without a care in the world.

Her cheeks were flushed as she swayed in time to the fast music. The way her dress flashed with every jump and shake was mesmerizing. Whoever crafted it pulled no punches whatsoever.

He finished his drink the second Kiki and his red faced date plowed into him. "Ambrose! I was just looking for you!"

Ambrose steadied the other man to keep him from teetering over. "You look like a tomato."

"It's called the Asian flush!" He smiled widely in his drunken stupor. "Have a drink with Kitty and me!"

Kiki drunkenly flagged Max down and ordered nine shots of straight gin. Ambrose looked at Kitty and the brunette just shook her head with a silly smile on her face.

"You need to loosen up!" Kiki yelled in an effort to be heard over the blaring music. He pushed three shots towards Ambrose then he and Kitty took theirs. "Come on! Do something fun for yourself for once!"

Something inside of him snapped when he heard that. Before he knew what was happening, he was downing the shots with them and ordering another round.

Fifteen shots of pure alcohol later and Ambrose was feeling fantastic.

He fell over himself with laughter, leaning on Kiki for balance. Kitty had tears streaming from her baby blue eyes. Streaks of mascara painted her face black but she couldn't be bothered to wipe them away. Laughter howled from the three of them like twittering hyenas.

They laughed and laughed because when you were this gone everything was funny.

Kiki gasped, pointing at the ceiling when he heard the music shift. "Tango!" He grasped Ambrose by the bowtie and belted, "It's a tango you son of a bitch!"

"I know!" Ambrose shouted back, eyes widening when the world shifted and two Kiki's took shape.

"Dance with Lilah! You said you would!"

Ambrose didn't recall saying that. Yet he stumbled when Kiki pushed him to his feet and found himself agreeing. "Ok!"

He set off towards the restrooms and Kitty fell over with laughter again. They each grabbed an arm and dragged him to the center of the dance floor. Caius was nowhere to be found, leaving Lilah to dance with a group of women. When she saw them coming her glossy eyes widened and she met them halfway.

"Here!" Lilah squealed when Ambrose was practically thrown at her. Kiki took his friend in his arms and they did their best to follow the music. "You're welcome!"

Ambrose blinked over and over again until all of the multiple Lilah's settled into one person. "Hi."

"Hi." Lilah leaned up on her tippy toes and asked, "Are you drunk?"

Ambrose wanted to say no. After all, he hadn't been drunk in years! It wasn't ok to get drunk when you had a kid to raise!

Then he looked at the second Lilah and frowned. "I might be."

A laugh of pure disbelief tumbled past Lilah's lips. She couldn't believe what she was seeing right now.

Ambrose's stormy eyes were pale and out of focus. His hair was slightly disheveled, leaving a single strand to curl over his forehead. The color of his face resembled a fresh cherry. It looked like all the lights were on but no one was home as she took in his intoxicated expression.

"You should sit down," she said, grabbing his arm and trying to steer them back to their table.

"We're gonna do the tango."

Lilah raised a brow, yanking him again but that stupid tree of a man didn't even budge. "Are you asking or telling?"

"Telling."

Lilah's mouth fell open, suddenly sober as Ambrose gently grabbed her waist and pulled her close. "I—I don't know how to do the tango."

"That's ok." Ambrose's large hand engulfed hers and he fixed her posture. "I can lead."

Lilah didn't have time to wrench herself free as Ambrose raised her arm. His fingers flexed against the middle of her back. The sound of the upbeat music shifted into something more lively and then they were off.

Ambrose led her in an energetic dance, body twisting and dipping in time with the rhythmic tunes. The world spun and all she saw were twinkling lights and flashes of gold and silver. Her breath came out labored, shocked by how easily he guided her into following his commands.

A laugh emerged from her. She couldn't contain it in her tipsy state as she glided on air. The way they danced was as smooth as the whiskey Caius goaded her into drinking earlier.

The twirling slowed into a gentle sway as the music melted into something more sensual. Ambrose adjusted accordingly, loosening his hold on her to match the tender mood. His demeanor was still that of a drunk man. But he was careful, Lilah noticed, with the way he handled her.

"Who taught you how to dance?" she asked when the music wasn't so loud.

Ambrose looked down and they shared air. He smiled that same boyish smile she'd seen him grant others the opportunity to bask in. It was hard to breathe when it was directed at her. He looked so young when he didn't carry the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"My mom. She was the best." Lilah swallowed thickly when Ambrose's hand drew her closer so that they were chest to chest. "Hm."

"What?"

"You're pretty... when you're not being annoying."

Lilah let out a stunned laugh. "I don't know if I should be flattered or offended."

"Both."

"Ok."

"Ok," Ambrose repeated quietly.

The music picked up again but the intoxicated pair in the middle didn't react. Ambrose's glazed ocean eyes were too hypnotizing to break free from. So Lilah blamed the alcohol, really, she wouldn't be acting this way if she wasn't a lightweight, and stayed in his arms. Swaying to the too fast music, they danced like that until midnight arrived and stole all of the magic away.

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QOTD: What do you make of Caius' interactions with Simon and Ambrose? Did you enjoy watching Ambrose let loose towards the end? Thoughts on the drunken moments he and Lilah shared before the party ended for them?