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𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

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To say Greg was living minimalistic was perhaps an overstatement. As Cora entered the room, surveying her surroundings, her eyes fell on the ground where a futon sat, the bottom of it covered by some stray clothes. A lone dresser was propped up against a nearby wall, though it had a distinct slant to it, as though whatever instructions Ikea had shipped with it hadn't exactly been followed. Light streamed through the window nearby, unburdened by curtains, and beside the mattress was a lamp, balanced on top of a copy of Anna Karenina.

"Sorry, haven't had much time to clean since I got here." Greg said under his breath as he began heaping the clothes off of the end of the mattress. Cora watched him with arms folded across her chest, cocking an eyebrow.

"You can't pay someone to ... fix it up? Or buy more furniture?" She said, snickering under her breath. Greg flushed, shaking his head.

"Uh no, unfortunately not. I kinda gotta stagger my salary out, like in terms of spending. I, uh, used to be pretty bad with money and I have a lot of credit card de-"

"Just have both of your wealthy parents die." Cora replied. "That simple."

There was a moment of awkward silence, Greg looking as though he had said the wrong things, before Cora let out soft giggle. She dropped onto the mattress softly and causing some of the remaining clothes to slide off the end.

"Sorry, it was meant to be a joke. A bad one, obviously. I just like an odd 'dead parents' joke here and there, you know?" She assured him. She patted the mattress, looking up at him with a mischievous grin. "C'mon. We have, what, thirty minutes before Kendall rocks up here?"

"Uh ... " Greg looked down at his wrist, checking his watch. "Yeah, about that."

"So ... Gotta be quick, right?"

She started on her blouse, plucking the buttons open. This time she'd thought ahead and worn lingerie, a white lace bra peeking out from the gap of her shirt. Greg watched her for a moment with hungry eyes before he cleared his throat, slowly lowering himself to sit beside her on the mattress.

"Uh, yeah, about this," Greg started, pressing his lips together. Cora frowned, pausing.

"What about this? Do you ... not want to anymore?"

"No! No. I do, I really want to." His tone was sheepish as he gathered his thoughts. "It's just ... You don't wanna go get dinner or something? I mean, I just feel a little weird just ... Doing it like this, y'know, all randomly and stu-"

"Why would you want to take me to dinner?" She said, raising an eyebrow. "It's not like we're dating. You're not trying to woo me. I'm already wooed, I'm pre-wooed."

"So, uh, you wouldn't ever want to just get dinner? Another hotdog?" Greg joked, but she could see he was clearly a little confused. She made herself to take a breath, to relax her posture and let her hands fall to her sides. Leaning her body towards his, she playfully bumped her shoulder against his. He glanced to her, dark eyes soft and cautious. She felt like tugging his head down towards her own and meeting his lips but she let them simmer in the silence for a moment, aware of the shallow tone of his breathing.

"I mean, Greg, you really don't have to do anything like that for me. I'm not a girl from a dating app or whatever, I already know you and clearly I'm attracted to you." She shrugged. "You don't have to spend money on me."

Greg squinted his eyes at her, thinking for a moment. "So you don't want to get dinner because ... You're what, rich?"

"Exactly. And I'm rich in the way that I have everything I could ever want and have experienced everything meaningful that a human can experience. I don't need to be impressed or courted or whatever, I can just go do all of that stuff myself." Cora couldn't fathom what the problem was. For most men she'd had anything to do with, this was a dream scenario. No strings attached, none of them, not even invisible ones that only made themselves seen to both parties at the most inconvenient of moments. "So any idea you have about obligations, you can just let go of it."

Under his breath, Greg hummed, as if weighing her words. Finally he slowly nodded. "Yeah ... Yeah, ok."

"Yeah, ok." She repeated, sighing with relief. She moved her hand to clasp at his wrist, bringing it to the front of her blouse. "So, let's do this."

A few minutes later and she'd been successfully relieved of her shirt, lying on her back as Greg pulled her heels from her stocking clad feet. As he moved to hover on top of her, he slid his hand from her knee to rest on her upper thigh, hitching up the material of her black pencil skirt. His other hand steadied himself on the mattress beside her head, he looked down at her, his lips slightly parted as she shifted beneath him.

"This one has a front clasp." Her voice came out breathy and light. Greg chuckled, nodding softly as his eyes skimmed down her body. He slowly moved his hand upwards, grazing the side of her hip, the surface of her stomach. Distantly the click of the front door unlocking sounded, barely perceptible. For a few blissful seconds, she let herself assume that she had simply imagined the intrusion, an echo of what had stopped them at the Pierce's. Greg didn't seem to notice, his fingers readying at the metal hook at the front of her lingerie.

"Greg, Cora! You two here?"

Kendall's voice boomed in the space of the apartment outside, echoing against the walls. Greg froze above her, wide eyes flickering to the door of his bedroom. Cora swore under her breath, rolling her eyes.

"Are you fucking serious?" She hissed under her breath as the sound of Kendall's shoes bounced off of the walls. "He has a key?"

"I mean, it is his apartment ... "

"I knew we should've done my place, fuck." Plausible deniability would be hard, but as long as she got her shirt back on and fixed her hair, maybe she could come up with something on the spot. Greg remained still as Kendall's footsteps drew closer, his voice bellowing beneath the crack in the door.

"Greg, you jerking off or something? Where the fuck you at?" The door knob jostled. Cora shot Greg a look, bumping her elbow against him. In her haste, she misjudged her movement, accidentally hitting him square in the side. He let out a sharp exhalation, shooting her a look.

"Hey, what was that fo-"

"You guys playing hide and seek or something?"

"Uh, sorry! I'll be out in a second! Uh ... Just getting changed!" Greg called out. Cora's jaw fell open, squinting at him as she shook her head. His eyes widened, raising his head to speak again. "I mean, I'm not!"

"Ok! You're acting really fucking weird right now but cool!" Kendall replied. Cora rolled out from underneath Greg, sitting up as she grabbed her shirt from where she'd strewn it across the pillow. Of course that had panned out that way. Greg straightened up, standing as he quickly buttoned up his shirt before mouthing "I'm sorry" towards Cora. She shot him an icy glare, rolling her eyes when he turned away and reached for the door. Quickly he slid out into the apartment, closing the door sharply behind him.

"Hey! Sorry. I lost something and I was just, y'know, finding it. And also getting dressed."

"Where's Cora?" Kendall asked a little too quickly. Cora hurriedly began to fix her blouse, standing to tuck it beneath her skirt as she listened to the conversation through the door.

"Oh! She was also just helping me find something, actually. Yeah. She's just finishing up in there. Finding the thing."

Cora tugged her end of her skirt, straightening it out. She slipped her feet back into her shoes, before turning to the door and taking a deep breath in.

"F-" Kendall stopped short to let out a strained, unnatural chuckle. "Finding the thing? What was ... Was she finding your dick? Why are you acting so fucked right now?"

"I-I'm not acting fucked, I'm acting actually pretty unfucked. The opposite of fucked, whatever that is. Celibate. I am acting very celibate."

She pushed the door open, almost managing to scrape Greg in the back from his proximity to the entrance. She stopped it short, quickly squeezing behind the tall man to join the conversation. Her cheeks were flushed as she nodding towards Kendall, her lips pulled thin.

"Morning Ken." She chirped, as though she hadn't been listening to the entire conversation.

"What the fuck's going on here?" There was that uneasy chuckle again. He was looking from Greg to Cora, dark eyes flickering back and forth. "Yo- No. No. You're fucking kidding me right now. You're no-"

"So what if we are?" Cora interjected. She had resolved the best way to handle an impossible situation was through radical acceptance of it. She shot him a challenging look, her dark eyes dancing. She couldn't help the smug swell of her chest as she saw the genuine confusion spread across his face. "We're both adults."

Kendall ran a hand through his hair as he looked at her through narrowed eyes. After a beat, he scoffed, shrugging his shoulders. He cast his eyes towards the living room windows, out onto the street outside. Greg and Cora waited in stilted silence as he processed the information.

Finally he turned back, his expression illegible. Cora felt slightly taken aback at the sudden shift he'd had. His face looked still, tranquil even. Slowly a smile spread across his lips, no, a shit eating grin. He was grinning at her like she'd just told him the lottery.

"Congratulations then, you two." Kendall said, nodding. He suddenly reached forwards to clamp a hand on either of their shoulders. Cora opened her mouth but nothing came out. "Can't wait to share the news."

"N-No you don't have t-" Greg started.

"It's not like that Ken-"

"No, really. You kids have fun." Kendall said quickly. "But sadly, lovebirds, Greg here has to go to Waystar this morning instead of coming with you and I, Cora. So Greg I'd suggest you rush on down to the subway."

"Wai- But I thought I was meant to come with you guys?" Greg said, frowning. Cora scoffed, she could clearly see through Kendall's actions. She considered opening her mouth to call him on his shit, but stopped short. Chances were that if she forced the issue, that he'd start opening his mouth, and she needed an opportunity to prevent him from blabbering to everyone else. The last thing she needed during a business conference was fielding side eyes for her personal choices.

"Nope. Tom called me just before I got here and said he needs you for something ATN related. Guess you guys will have to reunite over dinner tonight, how romantic."

Cora could feel Greg's eyes on her. She sighed, moving away from them and into the nearby kitchen where her bag was slumped on the bench. As she began to rifle through it for her phone, Kendall turned back to Greg, giving him yet another firm pat on the arm.

"We're gonna go now, if we have your blessing."

Silently Cora jerked her handbag off of the countertop and strung it over her shoulder. Her lips were knitted together as she waited in stony silence for Kendall to accompany her. Panic in his brown eyes, Greg remained frozen, his mouth hanging ajar.

"Right. Yeah, sure, you guys go ... Have fun. Um, I'll catch you later maybe?" He tried to meet Cora's eyes but she kept her gaze levelled at the bench, her arms folded against her chest.

"Yup! Have fun." Kendall replied.

Cora remained silent as they made their way out of the building, her head cast down as she beelined for the company car. She paused for the driver to open the door for her, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end as she heard the sound of Kendall's footsteps drawing closer. Before she ducked her head to enter the car, she glanced over her shoulder to shoot him a contemptuous glare, quickly making her escape into the open door.

"So," Kendall started, after sliding into the backseat. "What the fuck?"

"Why are you being a such dick about this?"

"What, I'm not supposed to feel a little strange about you deciding to fuck my cousin? Was that information that I'm meant to be ok with?"

"Well if you'd just knocked on the front door and stayed outside, this wouldn't be an issue at all." She could feel his eyes boring into the side of her head. "Why even bother giving him that apartment if you're going to act like you still live in it?"

He scoffed. "Me knowing makes no difference to the actual problem, which again to remind you, is the fact that you are fucking my cousin."

"So?" Cora shifted in her seat to face him. "Why does it matter?"

"My cousin, Cora, that's why it matters."

"You keep saying that like it's going to suddenly start mattering."

"Well it's fucked up that you don't think it matters." Kendall replied, sitting forward and resting his arms against his legs. For a brief moment, he ran his hands through his hair, tilting his head forward into his lap.

"Are you jealous, Kendall? Is that what the problem is?" Cora said, shooting him a challenging glare.

"Don't be fucking disgusting." He snapped, jerking upwards suddenly.

"Disgusting?!"

"Yes, disgusting. I resent the implication. I think it's fairly obvious that I think your continued insistence on weaselling your way into my family's busi-"

"Weaselling?!" Cora's voice came out higher than she had meant it to, wincing at the sound of her own outcry. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the partition between the back seat and the front of the car slowly begin to rise. "God do you ever get sick of shirking any inch of responsibility? I am not the reason for whatever midlife crisis bullshit you're going through, no matter how much you and Shiv want to paint me that way."

"Shiv?" Kendall said abruptly. "What do you mean Shiv?"

"I mean she picked a fight with me at the Pierce's because she thinks I'm the reason you're going off the rails." Cora replied, tensing her jaw. "Because you've very clearly going through something."

Suddenly he was silent, shifting in his car seat. He threw his gaze out the window, propping his chin onto his hand as he lost himself in thought. Cora remained leaning forward for a moment before she slumped backwards, huffing under her breath. It was clear that whatever was happening with him wasn't going to be solved in a car ride, and frankly, she couldn't care less. It was hard not to feel like Kendall was having a tantrum in slow motion, one that threatened to pull her into the centre of whatever personal mess he was harbouring within himself. Internally she assured herself that it wasn't worth letting him get to her, subconsciously her thumb stroked the surface of her thigh as she tried to soothe the rapid pace her heartbeat had taken.

Kendall finally broke the silence as the car slowed at their destination. He cleared his throat at first, shifting beside her in the uncomfortable air of the backseat.

"I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to." He said slowly. Softly she nodded, slowly letting out the air that she had been holding in her lungs.

"Ok, well thank you because I would appreciate that." Cora murmured, the sensation of relief slowly washing through her. At least maybe she wouldn't have to field a bunch of questions that she would rather not answer. "It's not serious, by the way. If you were wondering. He knows it too."

He nodded. "Sure. But if you're going to mess around with him, can you just not fuck him over or anything like that? I like Greg, I don't want to see him upset."

"Why is your automatic assumption that I'd be the one to do that?" Cora muttered.

He chuckled, catching her off guard. Eyes narrowed, she waited for Kendall to finish, pursing her lips. There was a dark glint in his pupils when he met her gaze again, as if invigorated by a sudden sense of assuredness.

"Because I know what I'd do."

With that, he opened the car door and climbed out into the daylight sun. Cora blinked rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the sudden glare. For a moment she considered unpacking what he had said but quickly stopped herself. No, she thought, why even bother if he was just trying to mess with her? Because that was what that was, right? Before she could ponder it any further, she sighed, opening her car door to follow after him.

________

Cora spent most of the flight to the business retreat sitting by herself with her AirPods on transparency mode, half-listening to the conversation Logan was steering and half-ignoring Kendall as aggressively as one can ignore a person.

After everything at the Pierce's, she was happy to fade into the background, even if it was just for a morning. By now it had spread that an imminent story, an expose, was to be dropped on their lap, though the timing of it was up in the air. She'd tried her best to stop herself from wondering just how bad things were but it had been difficult, her mind defaulting to the seemingly endless possible ways things could play out badly.

One good thing had come of it at least; she'd began running again, something she'd neglected ever since starting at Waystar. After she'd left rehab, running had been one of the few ways she'd resisted reverting back to her old ways. Though she'd never have admitted it, Cora had been drawn to it because of the infamous "runner's high", which sounded almost too good to be true, and in part she'd been correct. Yes it was nothing like doing lines and yes it was hardly a second or even third best, but she couldn't discount the effect the endorphins had had in keeping her cravings at bay. When her feet were thudding against the concrete and she had Doja Cat screaming in her ears at full volume it was hard to think about anything, let alone relapsing.

The incoming article hadn't been the other thing that Cora had neglected to allow herself a second thought about. Her last conversation with Nan Pierce, the morning after the dinner, had been haunting the recesses of her mind since she had arrived back in New York. As she remembered that she'd more than likely come face to face with the woman again at the retreat, she felt herself wince reflexively.

The jet landed with little event and eventually Cora found herself in belly of the Argestes business conference. With Shiv still in New York, Cora and Gerri were two of a handful of women in the a sea of dark suited men in various stages of balding. Cora could feel several sets of eyes steadied on her as she stood beside Gerri and tried to look engaged. As she let her eyes wander through the crowd, she spotted a familiar face in conversation. With a small jolt, she recognised it as Stewy Hosseini, animatedly gesticulating towards his conversation partner. For a split second he seemed to sense her eyes on him, and he glanced in her direction, meeting her gaze. Quickly she cleared her throat, shifting her concentration to a blonde woman who was explaining something about budgeting to the rest of the group.

Her attention was roused once again when an unfamiliar dark haired man with a small round head waved in Gerri's direction, beckoning her to follow him. Confused, Cora opened her mouth to ask Gerri who he was, but the older woman was already pre-emptively responding.

"Hugo Baker. From Cruises," she muttered. Gerri politely excused herself from the group of women before signalling for Cora to follow.

"Is this abou-"

"Mmhmm." Gerri replied quickly as they trailed after Hugo. Further along Cora spied the back of Logan's head as they were ushered into a hallway, a side door opening to grant them access to the kitchen. As Cora and Gerri met with the doorway, a group of catering staff awkwardly shuffled past them, clearly disrupted by the impromptu meeting.

"This is the room?" Logan scoffed, looking at the surrounding kitchen.

Roman was already leaning against a centre island, lined with steel bowls, glad wrap and large chopping boards. Unsure of where to position herself, Cora walked over to the nearby bench, adjacent to the sink and hopped herself onto the countertop, sliding her bag from her shoulder and down beside her. She found herself exchanging a look with him, his eyebrows rising as his gaze flickered down to her legs.

Gerri had began to fiddle with her phone, her fingers flying across the screen. Behind her, Kendall arrived in the room, a dark frown creasing his forehead.

"Well, it was short notice." Hugo said sheepishly, clearing his throat. "So the magazine contacted Cruises directly."

"Dirty fuckin' bastards." Logan muttered under his breath. "We were told we had two weeks."

"Well it sounds like they wanted to go low, hit below the belt, hope someone squealed." Hugo said. "Luckily I had everyone briefed."

Cora heard the sound of her phone pulsating in her bag. She reached in and pulled it out, checking the phone screen. Shiv's name appeared before her. She frowned, slowly bringing the phone to her ear.

"Uh ... Hello?"

"Yeah hi, it's me." Shiv said abruptly, her voice slightly muffled from the noise on her end of the line. Wherever she was calling from was busy and evidently public. Cora planted a hand against her other ear to better hear the other woman. "What's going on there? Gerri texted."

"There's a meeting." Cora replied, trying to keep her voice low enough to not risk interrupting Logan's discussion. "About the article."

"What article?"

For a second, Cora was almost too stunned to speak. "I ... The article."

"I don't ... Anyway, how much do you know?" She said quickly. Cora pulled her lips into a thin line.

"Enough."

"Enough to know I should be in this discussion, right?" There was a note of desperation in Shiv's tone, the smallest hint of a tremor. Despite everything, Cora felt a pang in her chest. She glanced upwards, letting her eyes flicker from Logan to Hugo as she considered her answer. For a moment she let herself look in Kendall's direction. His expression was unreadable, yet she felt in her gut that Shiv had been disincluded from the conversation for a reason.

Narrowing her eyes, she bit her lip. "Yeah, probably."

"So ... "

"Are you asking me to put you on speaker phone?"

There was a beat where all Cora could hear were the sounds of a coffee shop; squeaking chair legs, the beat of a coffee filter basket to relinquish a used puck of grind, the disparate tones of the cash register sliding open then closed. Finally Shiv cleared her throat.

"I'd appreciate it."

"No problems." Cora replied, keeping her voice even. She hopped down from the counter, moving closer to the conversation as she propped her phone in her hand and hit the speaker button. The conversation halted suddenly, everyone's eyes finding her as she cleared her throat. "Shiv you're on speaker."

"Hello? Can everyone hear me?"

Roman made a loud noise that sounded like an attempt at the garbled feedback of a walkie-talkie. "Loud and clear!"

"Ok. So what the fuck's going on? How did all this shit happen?" Shiv barked through the phone speaker as Cora placed it down on the nearby island.

"It's just a tip-off Shiv." Gerri called out suddenly, a strangely nervous tone to her voice. Cora shot her a look but held her tongue. "About a possible expose. They were asking for comment."

"So it's not possible, it's probable. Hell, it's not even probable." Shiv replied. "Why do you do this dad? Why do you insist on hoarding this information?"

Logan, who looked clearly unimpressed, sighed in exasperation. "What you don't know can't hurt you."

"Well, you'd think." Kendall muttered.

"When's this even dropping?" Cora said quickly in order to distract herself from Kendall's comment. Hugo turned to her, shrugging his shoulders.

"We've been told ... Thirty-six to forty-eight hours. Definitely not two weeks, evidently."

"So this sinks the Pierce deal, dad, if this gets out. There's no way in hell Nan Pierce lets the acquisition go forward if our shit stinks." She paused. "Cora back me up here."

Cora felt heat rush to her cheeks. She cleared her throat, arms crossing against her chest as she met Logan's expectant gaze. "She's right. Nan tends to not like bullshit."

"Neither do fucking I!" Logan suddenly exclaimed. Cora jerked backwards, her chest tightening at the sudden outburst. "Neither do fucking I."

"Can we just kill it?" Kendall interjected, suddenly beside her.

"No, we can't." Shiv replied.

"Oh, I can kill it." Logan said, a dark look clouding his features. Cora felt a sudden sense of foreboding flooding her chest.

"Are you sure you can really kill something this big?" She said without thinking. Logan's attention quickly shifted back to her. He poked a finger towards her, a scowl on his lips.

"How much do you actually know?"

Again, Kendall cut into the conversation, taking a step in front of her. "Respectfully you two are a little new to this, alright? We need to scare the shit out of them."

"Uh, outsiders perspective? Hello? This stinks of male buffoonery. I wouldn't be turning down our help." Shiv snapped.

Quickly the conversation devolved into a flurry of suggestions. Kendall remained in front of her as he continued to posture against Shiv, and Cora found herself watching him as she attempted to follow each counter point that was flung. It wasn't until he and Logan had settled to strong arm the approach that he glanced over his shoulder to acknowledge her. She quickly averted her gaze, looking down at her phone, her lips pursed as she attempted to focus back on the conversation.

" ... just fly down here Shiv, we need all hands on fucking deck, you hear?" Logan said gruffly. "And that goes for the lot of you. Find something useful to do, alright? No fucking around next to the bar and jerking yourselves off in your rooms, got it?"

With that he left the room, closely followed by Hugo. Kendall paused to survey the room, giving a curt nod to Roman and Gerri before departing. With a sigh, Cora picked her phone back off the bench, taking it off of speaker.

"Your dad's gone."

"Yeah, I figured. I guess I'm on the first flight down." There was a hitch in her voice, as though she'd stopped herself short of saying something else. After a half-hearted chuckle, she heard Shiv sigh. "And thank you, for letting me in on the conversation. It's appreciated."

"No problem. Sorry I couldn't help out more."

"Well, it'll be a different playing ground when I'm there." Shiv replied. "Ok, bye now."

"Bye." Cora hung up, turning to see that Gerri and Roman were both staring at her. Feeling suddenly exhausted, her shoulders slumping, she let out a defeated sigh. "So I'm gonna go find my room so I can not jerk myself off in it."

"Hang on." Gerri said. "I might have a project. For the both of you."