braxvanderford-blog

[braxvanderford-blog]

Hebe: I'll mark you down as forever thorn in my side, darling.

Hebe: I know... but at least this time it wasn't aimed at anyone's head, right? That's an improvement.

Hebe: I'll try harder...

abraxas: i guess that's one way to call it.

abraxas: but yes, please, try a little harder. i ended up installing a new on the work floor to divert attention, but i can't just give them all gifts every time you throw a tantrum.

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abraxas vanderford impression: cruise ship party.

more here.

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rosromano:

“forgive him,” rosalie interrupted, herself, coming to stand beside the men. she rested a delicate hand on the forearm of the ‘friend’ who had joined her that day for company, rather one of the men her father employed to check in on his darling girl. this one was an old man with a knack for telling tales people lost interest in - a quirk rosalie found adorable, and a little irksome. “he rambles when he’s nervous,” the redhead said with a gentle smile, eyes lifting to the italian man’s face. “puoi portarmi qualcosa da bere, per favore?” she asked of him. and the man seemed all too willing to comply, bobbing his head a few good times. “would you like anything to drink, mr. vanderford? - that is your name, correct? or have i gotten it wrong?” 

a redhead walked up to the pair of them, and abraxas was all too happy that she was forming a welcome distraction from whichever story the man was telling.  today, his bullshit meter was on a low. he listened - though didn’t understand - as the woman spoke to the man, but the inferred from context what she’d said as he shook his head. “no, thank you, i’m fine,” he said before looking after the man as he left. with a sigh, he scratched the back of his head and then looked at the woman once more. “sorry, i could’ve handled that better. it’s been a long day,” he said, despite everything still well aware of his image. “but yes, that is my name. abraxas vanderford, nice to meet you,” he said, automatically extending his hand. “ i don’t believe i know you - miss ... ?”

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philliplangham:

Phillip had texted Brax that he would be a little late coming to the meeting they were having. Maybe it was not such a good idea to leave Brax alone with the couple who supposedly had a deal to make for the two businessmen, because he could see Brax’s unamused face from a mile away before he arrived to the table. Hearing the younger man’s snide comment, Phillip cleared his throat before taking a seat. “Sorry for being late,” he strike up a more cheerful tone than Brax. “What did I miss?” Phillip asked as he sat down, trying to lighten the mood.

it was a good thing phillip sat down when he did, because even as he’d said the words he knew they’d been the wrong thing to say. but brax was far from perfect and with tensions at work ( thanks to hebe’s recent outburst ) and things not exactly running smoothly at home, he’d been too preoccupied with that to consider niceties. “not a problem,” brax said as he offered their business guests a smile that would hopefully salvage things a little bit. “but not much, mr. rochefort was just telling me why the business deal with his previous jeweler had gone south.” he shot phillip a knownig glance, hoping he’d take over from brax and take the lead today. he didn’t usually back down, but he knew very well that the deal was more important than his ego - and that he’d already put it in jeopardy.

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lexiofsommers:

Lexi choked on her glass of water as she heard Abraxas get straight to the point. She was used to people being blunt but he just nipped it into the butt. “What he means is that people can be very busy,” She said to the guy who was in the middle of his tall tale. “I mean you would too if you knew time equals money,”

"exactly what i meant,” abraxas chimed in, realizing he could’ve been slightly more friendly than he had been. he offered the talking man a reassuring smile to let him know that he wasn’t all rude cut-ins, then faced the woman as the man made his goodbyes and left the table. “thank you,” he said, glad she’d cut in when she had. “that was not my finest moment.”

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Hebe: So I got a new phone because the last one took a flight across my office & into the wall but for some reasons names didn't transfer with numbers

Hebe: if you can let me know who you are and if either of us should care if you're in my phone i'd be grateful.

abraxas: this is me, your brother.

abraxas: abraxas vanderford.

abraxas: i heard about your little loss of control in the office.

abraxas: we've talked about keeping your emotions under control, hebe.

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knowingmisssmith:

Georgia could often get carried away when she got talking to someone and sometimes would miss any clues they were giving out that told her they really had enough of the conversation. She had seen Abraxas once or twice over the last week or so, and even though they weren’t really friends, she found an excuse to talk to him as soon as she saw him, she even sat right next to him.  “So this guy he stood right in front of me right? Not that it’s a crime but it’s the way he did it, as if he was better than me, some sort of god, plus he almost knocked me over and he stepped on my new shoes,  now they are expensive right but he just stepped on them and covered them in whatever he’d just stepped in.  He was acting like I wasn’t even there, he just went about talking to the person in front of him while they waited to be served, I mean come on, how hard is it to stop and think about the people around you?” Stopping for a moment she looks at him. “I am getting there.”

georgia - abraxas had learned by now - continued talking, only stopping for a second to answer his question. he raised his eyebrows, slightly annoyed, then waited for her to get to the point of the story about an arrogant man. if she’d get this flustered every time she was faced with arrogance in new york, this may not be the city for her. he even waved his hand, to signal to her that she was absolutely allowed to continue to conclude her story. “please, continue.”

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——— THELIA VANDERFORD  ——— @theliavanderford  

“well, well,” abraxas said, an amused smile on his face at the sight in front of him. he’d been reading the paper at the long dinner table of the vanderford home, but he knew the sound of his sister’s footsteps on the stairs all too well and didn’t even need to look up to know it was thelia. his sisters had spent the night at their parental home, he’d learned, and his mother had asked him to join them for lunch. which, for thelia, turned out to be breakfast, it seemed. with her hair messed up and some of the mascara still sticking to her lashes, she truly was a sight to see.

“good morning, thelia. you look refreshed,” he mocked. despite his usual aloofness, she was still his little sister, and he didn’t pass up many opportunities to taunt her. “i trust you had a good night’s sleep?”

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mvanguard:

“I’m sorry, my dear. I don’t mean to ramble.” Molly glanced past Abraxas toward the clock on the wall, realizing she had gone on a ten minute rant about Scott yet again. She had a tendency to lose track of time when talking about her ex-fiance, and for a moment, was almost worried she had fallen in love with him. It took a beat for her to remember that she’d nearly cried after the two shared a kiss. Her eyes met the other’s. She gave him an apologetic simper. “I’d like to know something about you, though.” the Brit wasn’t sure as to why she found it so easy to speak to Brax. Perhaps due to the fact that for the most part, she knew the man was aloof - somewhat quiet in his own right - at least this was her impression of him. Albeit this was her favourite type of personality - a perfect offset to her own.

She took a drink of her chardonnay. “Are you busy planning the upcoming birthday party?” the woman began “are you remembering to take time to rest?”

abraxas smiled politely to accept her apology, then raised his shoulders slightly to before she continued talking. he had only met her once before, and she’d been very drunk that night, but had excused herself profusely the next day and done it with such grace that abraxas felt it had been sincere. and, all in all, it had been fun when he’d helped her sober up. he usually wasn’t a fan of drunken behavior, but she had a funny way of speech when she’d been drinking. she reminded her a little bit of his sisters — felt protective of her after her drunken episode. “ask away,” he told her with a nod of his head, although the chances that he would actually reveal something personal were slim to none. he wasn’t really into sharing.

“i mapped out the big idea, but i have people for that,” he replied earnestly, though the thought of his birthday brought a smile to his face. all in all, he was vain, and any celebration of that could only be lauded by him. “i will not let something as trivial as a birthday party mess with my health, don’t worry.”

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his conversation partner had started talking over ten minutes ago, and it was about eight minutes ago that abraxas had lost interest. he’d nodded when the other’s voice called for it, smiled occasionally ( though less and less as time passed ), and had even cleared his throat a few times in the hopes of speeding the other’s tale. but, to no avail. and while he could usually deal with this sort of situation well, it had been a day of disappointments at work, and the last thing he wanted was for his evening to be spoiled as well. “i’m sorry,” he interrupted eventually, deciding his time could be much better spent. “is there a point to this story? or were you simply never taught not to ramble?”

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princextor:

Tor had gotten up early that morning and slipped out of the hotel almost unseen. Almost, being the key word. As per usual, he had his bodyguard with him. But, as Tor had made a point of mentioning he was going for a jog, the guard had chosen to wear shorts and a t-shirt instead of his usual suit. This helped them blend in as they moved about the city. As he ran, Tor was surprised at how many people were already up. Or hadn’t been to bed yet, possibly. Apparently New York really was the city that never slept. Stopping inside of a coffee shop, he sighed when he saw the length of the line. “Does everybody in the city come here for coffee?” he asked the person in line in front of him. “Or are the baristas just exceptionally slow here?” He would have gotten out of line and gone back to the hotel, but he figured his guard could use the break to catch his breath. And frankly, he could too.

abraxas had always been an early riser. as a child, it had driven his nannies crazy, always up long before dawn and never tired when bedtime came around. as an adult, he reveled in the fact that he didn’t need much sleep. he liked staying up late, because he always needed some time to cool off from work before he could go to bed, and he loved waking up early for a good breakfast and a brisk morning walk. today, he’d done his regular walk in central park, but after the event from yesterday he still hadn’t felt fully recovered from the full day. so, rather than going straight back home — where adriana usually rose around this time, he ducked inside one of his favorite coffee shops, not caring that there was a long line. abraxas was often stressed out, but with coffee like the kind they made here, it was worth the wait. so, when a male accented voice spoke up behind him, he turned around, despite not being one to make small talk if it wasn’t necessary. “everyone who knows new york comes here,” he corrected the other, with just the hint of a smile on his lips. “believe me, it’s worth the wait.”

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barbaratuckerlee:

barbara sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror. her left ear was bugging her today. it could be better tomorrow or it could stay like this forever. some days she felt completely fine and other days, all she could do was stay in bed and hope that the vertigo and the nausea would go away. she had been fine, until a few months ago. it had started suddenly, without warning and for the last month, she had a name for it. meniere’s disease. no real cure. that was pretty much all she heard.

she stood at the sink of a new vegan restaurant. not that she was vegan but she heard the food was good. it was a little alternative, a little too alternative for her taste with their flat, natural stone ‘plates’ and their unisex toilets but the food was delicious. if only she could enjoy it. ever since she got her diagnosis, it was like the joy had been sucked out of her life. she loathed it. she wanted to be her happy self again, go back to her wife and children - and their nanny - and just have a nice evening. instead, she was here, close to tears.  she straightened her back. she may feel like she was crumbling, but she couldn’t show it. she never had before and she wouldn’t start now. disease be damned, she thought and grabbed her lipstick from her purse. she was just dragging it across her lower lip when someone entered the bathroom and she glanced at them through the mirror. 

it didn’t happen often that brax did badly in a meeting. he exuded confidence, knew everything there was to know about the company and its competition. he could dazzle his partners with numbers he knew by heart - statistics that they couldn’t ignore, and he did it all without making the other fee incompetent — even if he often thought they were.

when a potential ally had asked to meet him here for a meeting, he’d already known it wouldn’t be a regular meeting. the hip, new restaurant showed all the signs of what abraxas sometimes called the ‘new youth’, the radical environmentalists intent on changing the planet by convincing individual people to stop using plastic straws. they seemed too .. silicon valley. he didn’t care much for people like that, he had been too much a part of the ruthless business world to ever truly believe in causes like that. but, if one of those causes could serve to be a good partner for vanderford, he’d simply have to go for it.

so far, his potential partner had not been impressed. abraxas had thrown everything he had at him, but the bespectacled hipster hadn’t taken any of his bait yet. so, excusing himself forty-five minutes into the meeting, he dashed to the bathroom, mentally cursing himself for getting flustered. get it together, brax, he thought to himself as he opened the bathroom door, then immediately wanted to close it again when he saw a woman inside. “oh, excuse me, i am so sorry, i thought—” he said, taking another look at the sign on the bathroom door before realizing he was in fact in the right one. “sorry,” he then said again, for barging in this time, “i didn’t know someone was in here.”

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adrianareinaldi:

she would have gladly stared at her undressing husband-to-be, but given last night’s hot mess, adriana quietly allowed him to undress without her looking, feigning a certain nonchalant look to make herself seem more natural, although failing miserably at doing so – she couldn’t just simply not care, and when it came to abraxas, she couldn’t simply not want him. 

and gossip girl knew it. whoever this person was and whatever they wanted, they were around to mess with adriana and her family. blood boiled into her veins as she thought long and hard about it, but the sound of abraxas’ voice was enough to soothe her down, even if she’d never admit to it. 

taking one long look at abraxas, she frowned, tilting her head to the side. “mhm– your tie… it’s not quite right,” adriana took a few steps closer, enough to feel his hot breath against her cheek. she focused on doing his tie, albeit there were more interesting things she wanted to focus on – like the way the light was reflected in his green eyes, the way the suit perfectly followed his silhouette and how she could see his chest through the shirt under his suit. but she pretended not to, and while she was a good pretender, it seemed she was no better than abraxas, whom had taken on a seemingly perfect iron facade.

“there you go,” an embarrassed smile took over her features as she stepped away, glancing at him one more time. “as good as new,” the embarrassment faded away as the sound of laughter outside interrupted the silence between them. “hopefully the media will notice our happy guests rather than my last mistake. i can distract them if you talk to ethan, but if it’s too personal to you, i’ll do it myself.”

she walked closer to him, and abraxas wanted to step back to keep his distance until he realized what she was about to do. it felt weirdly intimate, and he wasn’t sure where to look while she arranged his tie, so he kept his gaze fixed on the wall behind her while she expertly worked on making him look presentable once more. strangely, the longer it took, the more comfortable he felt, as if he eased into the situation and almost wanted her so close to him — to the point where it felt strangely cold once she stepped back again. it was an emotion he couldn’t really address.

“thank you,” he said instead, smoothing the tie so that he could close his vest over it. when the laughter from outside ruptured the private bubble they’d engaged in for the past few minutes, abraxas followed the source of the sound with his eyes and looked at the door before nodding back to adriana. he really didn’t want to talk to ethan, but this was not the time for juvenile arguments or stubbornness. “i can talk to him.”

her previous words rang in his ears, however, and suddenly, he had an idea so cliche that it might just actually work. “actually,” he said, a little unsure how to approach the proposition, “i think i know how to make sure no one will talk about the .. drink accident,” he said, still just slightly bitter - despite knowing that a faceless entity had been behind her actions. then, he started to pull at his perfectly knotted tie, trying to loosen it up just slightly. “run your hand through your hair,” he almost ordered her while he did the same. 

if they came out of the room looking slightly ... ruffled, they’d look like two people in love who hadn’t been able to keep their hands to themselves. it would be the prime topic of conversation, but it would be socially acceptable. some would even say it was endearing to see them stumble out, he guessed. “you should look less.. composed,” he continued when she didn’t seem to get the hint immediately. “you know- like we.. you know, ... “ he said, though he left the last part of the sentence open. she’d understand what he meant.

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adrianareinaldi:

once he took the tissue from her fingers, she felt at peace knowing the blood would, at the very least, cease a little – it felt like caring for him the way he should be cared for, the way she could never care for him. but oh, she did, how she did. he had his own reasoning to be so guarded, but last night he didn’t. and it kept her slightly puzzled as to which abraxas was the real one: the one who did behind formality or the one who placed soft kisses upon her cheeks. perhaps both were real, which made him all the more alluring to her, although she would have never admitted to it, of course.

she looked up at his gleaming, passionate eyes as he spoke. she was wrong? there was an us? and as he spoke, she quietly gave in to the thought of their maybes and what ifs. there could be an us. there could be a ‘we’ in their sentences. with a hopeful gleam in her eyes, she listened carefully, cautiously as not to miss any words. 

he was right. it hit her like lightning, like thunder.

he was right all along. there was an us, even if they hadn’t fully committed to it, even if they hadn’t fully wanted it before, now there was an us. and abraxas was just as family as celeste was. now he was her husband-to-be, and she didn’t quite know how to feel, but she knew how to do what she did best: conceal her feelings and keep everything under control. it was only a matter of time until gossip girl was found. 

“i have a plan,” she stated, sighing, “but we may need help from unexpected places, abraxas,” she stepped forward, “ethan jarsdel is one of the best private investigators in this city, we may have to put our feelings aside and give him a chance if we ever wish to find out gossip girl’s identity. i know he can do it. he’s just as smart and obnoxious as gossip girl herself.” a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, “his soul can be bought, like hers.”

he started to feel more like himself again — more like the person he envisioned himself to be, although the name ethan jarsdel induced a slight shake of his head as he crossed his arms. “no,” he said, but nearly immediately realized that this was not the time for personal vendettas. 

“i have no doubt in my mind ethan can do it,” he agreed with adriana, although there was not a hint of respect in his voice. “but is he necessary, adriana? the last thing i want is to give any indication that i in any way stand behind his previous actions.” he hadn’t actually shared much about his friendship with ethan with adriana, but ethan’s betrayal had been public enough that abraxas figured she would understand enough. “if we have any other options—”

just then, a knock on the door interrupted abraxas, but before he could allow the stranger in, the door opened and the server from before entered again, this time holding a tom ford bag. a bit more calm than before, abraxas thanked the young man generously, slipped him two $100 bills, but then quickly ushered him out. 

and then, as he took the suit out of the bag to make sure it was up to par ( simple, black, always a good choice ), but then hesitated once he’d taken off his suit vest. yesterday evening, he’d let adriana undress him all too eagerly, but after everything that had transpired in less than 24 hours, it almost felt wrong to change in front of her.

the hesitation only lasted a second, though, because there were more pressing matters at hand; they needed to bring down gossip girl, and they needed to salvage the pristine image of their relationship. he could worry about their privacy boundaries later. abraxas undressed in silence, folding the wet suit and putting on the table before changing into the new one, and then looked back at adriana while he was tying his tie.

“is this good?” he said, the question purely asked because he needed to look professional and ready. 

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jarsdcl:

ethan raised his eyebrows and did his best to hide any discomfort under brax’s hand. “strong words, abraxas. i didn’t take you for much of a patriot, or a believer.” he flashed his teeth at brax in a humourless smile. 

family was everything to the vanderford’s, and ethan knew that. hell, his mother wouldn’t shut up about how much brax and his family helped her in the wake of ethan’s very public renunciation. most of the upper east side had since moved on to better and juicier scandals, but clearly a few still felt the sting.

his smile grew tight. “in any case, if you wouldn’t mind taking your hand off me, i’m sure our mothers would love if we spent this time catching up, and i’d really like to keep this conversation civil. for everyone’s sake.”

“and here i was thinking we were always on the same page when it came to family,” he started, the fake smile still plastered on his face. “— though, i was proven wrong about that a long time ago.” even though ethan hadn’t betrayed abraxas, per se, he might as well have. ethan had been a friend, ally and confidant for brax for years, and the fact that it had been so easy for him to renounce his family had cut in deep with the vanderford.

at ethan’s request, abraxas reluctantly let go of the man’s shoulder, but not before squeezing it one last time. unfortunately, the ceo knew that ethan was right — his mother would expect abraxas to make small talk with the other, if only for it to be caught on film so that there was proof of the continuing friendly relationship between the vanderford’s and the jarsdels. brax was bitter, but considering that things were still difficult with adriana, it wasn’t like he had much other options. “of course,” he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “i’d love to catch up.”