#86: Cocktails.

Although Zoe had very much enjoyed her day of shopping, she was quite nervous about having people over for cocktails,

because she was unsure of exactly what role she was supposed to play.

'I don't even freakin' live here!' she said to herself.

"Corazon--you look marvelous!" Rafael exclaimed, hugging her.  "But please put a smile on your face--our guests are arriving soon."

There was a knock at the door.

"Hello!" Rafael said exuberantly.  "Thank you so much for coming!"

"This is quite a place!" Peter said admiringly.

"Zoe will show you around, Peter, while I entertain your lovely 'roommate'," Rafael said.

"Yes, let me show you around, Peter," Zoe said, somewhat uncomfortably.

Rafael led Lou to the bar.

"I have followed your career with great interest, Miss Last," Rafael complimented Lou.

"I have always been a fan of your skating, first when you were in competition, and later when you were performing in ice shows."

Lou was more than a bit vain, and was flattered that Rafael knew so much about her life before Willow Creek.

"It was terrible about your career-ending injury, of course," he continued, "but I understand that you are now doing computer programming, and are quite successful at it."

Lou wasn't sure who had told Rafael about her current career path, but she figured it had been Alice. 

(The truth was that Rafael had used the same private investigator he had hired to find Alice also to do some research on all of her friends.)

_______________

Peter and Zoe had finished touring the second floor.

"Well, this could be a great house, but the space really isn't used well," Peter remarked.

"I don't really know anything about that," Zoe admitted.  "All I know is that Rafael is frustrated by it."

 "So, what's on the third floor?" Peter asked.

 "I assume it's Rafael's bedroom, but I've never been up here before," Zoe admitted.

"Oh, look," she said, obviously surprised.  "A piano!"

Zoe sat down to play,

while Peter continued to examine the artwork in the house.

_______________

Lou went upstairs to find Peter.

"So, what do you think?" she asked him.

"I think I've never seen such a inefficient use of space in an otherwise good house," he stated flatly.  "And the lighting is horrendous."

"I'm going downstairs to talk to Rafael," he said.

Lou stayed upstairs to listen to Zoe play.

"This seems like a nice place to practice," she opined.

"Yeah, but I sure could do without the pink lighting," Zoe responded.  "I think I'm going blind here!"

_______________

"So," Rafael asked, "have you come to any conclusions?"

Peter took a seat.  "I have a plan for the artwork, although you might want to redo some of the furniture arrangements before the artwork goes up."

"Please--make any recommendations you wish!" Rafael said enthusiastically.

________________

After Peter and Lou had left, Zoe sat down to watch TV.  She clicked it on, to whichever channel Rafael had most recently watched.

"Oh my God, Rafael!" she cried.  "This guy on TV looks just like you!!!"

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Custom content credits--thanks to:

ekinege for Zoe's dress

KanoYa for Zoe's earrings

NataliS for Zoe's nails

MJ95 for Zoe's shoes

Pinkzombiecupcakes for Lou's dress

NataliS for Lou's bracelet and Lou's shoes