Gala Troubles
Chapter 21: Gala Troubles
Cindy resisted the urge to adjust the tailored dress Peter had commissioned for her as she weaved through the crowd at the Stark Industries gala. Physically, it was a perfect fit, and it was more expensive than what she can afford before meeting Peter. But for her, it feels like she was revealing herself without even doing so.
As she looked through the crowd of people, she noticed everyone else was wearing equally extravagant clothing, but they seemed to look natural on them. To Cindy, it was something that she would never get to experience until now. But to them, it was normal.
Cindy felt like she didn’t belong here in front of all these rich people. Even with a day of etiquette training with Peter and Anna, she still felt out of place here. Everyone here was rich, she was not.
However, she had to endure her nervousness, for Peter’s sake. After all, she is his fiancé, and she was determined to support him to the bitter end. That’s why Cindy was here to begin with. She agreed to go with Peter when he was invited to a Stark Industries gala event.
“You okay Cindy?”
Cindy let out a breath of relief and turned to see Peter standing to the side of the room. She then came up to him and gave him a tight hug.
“Cindy?”
“Peter, I’m scared. It feels like everyone is looking at me. I’m not sure if I can handle all these gazes. It’s making my senses go haywire.”
Peter rubbed her head and calmed her down. “Shh, it’s okay Cindy. When it comes to events like this, people would get nervous on their first try. Believe me, I know.”
“How so?” Cindy asked.
“I’ll tell you this. The first time when I went to a gala, I nearly lost myself in the crowd. I had people coming up on me, asking me questions about my life and such.”
“What did you do?”
Peter let out a chuckle. “Simple, I acted like I was busy with something. Trust me, it works.”
“How do you act like you’re busy with something?” Cindy asked.
“Here’s one way to do it. Just walk around and pretend ignorance. It usually works for me.”
“I see. Thanks Peter.”
“Your welcome. By the way Cindy...”
“Hm?”
“Can you please let go? You’re kind of crushing me here...” Peter said weakly.
“Oh! Sorry Peter,” Cindy said sheepishly as she released him.
Peter chuckled and patted her on the head. “We might want to move or else we’ll be swarmed with people with questions about us.”
“Good idea.”
And the two started moving together. As Peter and Cindy were walking through the crowds of people, they were holding each other’s hands, feeling each other’s warmth and protection from each other. They didn’t notice the stares and gazes they were receiving from other people as they were in their own little world. Peter and Cindy eventually stopped at one of the drink bars.
“What will you have sir?” the bartender asked.
“Just a glass of water.”
“Very well. And you miss?”
“I’ll have the same as him.”
“As you wish ma’am,” the bartender said as he poured a pitcher of ice-cold water into two glass cups. “Here you go.”
“Thank you,” Peter and Cindy said.
As the bartender left to make another drink for another person, Peter and Cindy turned around to see the mass of people in front of them.
“You know something Peter?”
“Huh?”
“Never in my entire life I would ever expect myself to come to a place like this. I mean, this place itself is way bigger than what I can afford. Heck, even the food itself is more expensive than a normal person’s salary,” Cindy jokingly said.
“I know right? In fact, before all of this happened, I never thought myself to be in this type of place as well. In all my years, I would expect myself to be working as a scientist in a lab or something. But a CEO? That’s something I would never expect. Not even within a hundred years.”
“You and me both,” Cindy said with a giggle. Then she felt her stomach growl. “I’m going to hit the food table for a moment.”
“Go ahead. And remember what I taught you. If people try to go up to you, just look busy, walk around, and pretend ignorance.”
“Got it.” And then Cindy left for the food table, leaving Peter alone sitting on a stool. As Peter was sitting at the drink bar gathering his thoughts, he didn’t notice a familiar person sitting next to him just now.
“Hey Peter. Enjoying the party?”
Peter then turned around to hear who was the person that called him. As he turned around, the person that called him out was Tony Stark himself with a glass of bourbon. While most people would kill just to talk with Tony Stark, Peter however was not one of those type of guys, considering his long history with him.
Peter let out a sigh after looking at him. “Hey Tony.”
Then an awkward silence came between the two, as they were not on the best of terms considering their long history together in the world of superheroes.
“You’re still mad at me huh?”
“Not quite, but yeah. A little bit angry at you.”
Tony let out a sigh after hearing Peter’s explanation. “I know. What I did to you in the past probably won’t make you forgive me, and what I’m going to say probably won’t change your mind as well, but can we put all of this behind, forget our past grudges at each other, and just move on with our lives ahead. Is that okay with you?”
Peter was surprised to hear these words from Tony, considering the man who he is.
“What’s with the apology?” he asked.
“Well...after the last time we met, I felt bad for saying that your success is false. That wasn’t true and it was stupid of me to say that. I was just jealous of your quick earned fame and success at the time. So yeah,” Tony replied.
After thinking of his answer, he said, “Sure, but on one condition.”
“And that is?”
“Just don’t do anything that will turn the world upside down.”
Tony chuckled after hearing Peter’s answer. “Deal,” he said.
“Good,” Peter said.
(At the food table...)
Cindy was tasting one of each delicacy that was on the table. As she was in the middle of eating something, she bumped into a certain someone from Stark Industries.
“Oh! Sorry!”
“It’s okay...Cindy was it?”
Cindy was surprised at what the person said and turned around to see Pepper Potts.
“Who are you?” Cindy asked.
“I’m Pepper Potts. Nice to meet you Cindy.”
“N-Nice to meet you too Pepper,” Cindy stuttered as she was meeting one of the key members of Stark Industries. “But how did you know me?”
“We’ll discuss that once we find a better place to talk, because it’s crowded here.” Pepper replied.
“Good idea.”
As Cindy and Pepper moved away from the table of food, they moved around until eventually they found a corner to have a chat together.
“Anyway, back to what was I was saying, how did you know me?” Cindy asked.
“Simple. Jessica told me. She told me all about her little adventures with you, including the one where you two went underwear shopping and had a blast in it,” Pepper said.
Cindy blushed at what Pepper just said and replied, “She told you that?!”
“Yup.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah. Anyways, how’s the gala Cindy?”
“It’s fine. Although this is my first time ever coming to one. The food and drinks are great though.”
“I see. How’s Parker Industries these days?”
“Doing pretty well.”
“Nice. You know, me and Tony are actually surprised here.”
“At what?”
“That you and Peter actually came here.”
Cindy was intrigued at what Pepper just said. “How so?”
Pepper paused herself to take a few breaths before she said, “Well...it’s a long story before you met Peter. You see, Peter used to look up to Tony Stark as a man of science. However, due to some certain events that had happened in the past, Peter ended up having a grudge against him.”
“You’re talking about where Tony manipulated him and threatened him during Civil War right?”
This time, it was Pepper’s turn to be surprised. “How did you know?”
“Peter told me.”
Pepper then let out a huge sigh. “Yes. Ever since that day, Peter and Tony hadn’t been on the best of terms ever since that event. Sometimes, I think I can even see sparks coming out from their eyes each time they met.”
“Is it because of their rivalry or their grudge?” Cindy asked.
“Probably a mix of both,” Pepper jokingly said.
Cindy laughed at what Pepper just said. “And I hope it’s mostly their rivalry.”
“Hope so,” Pepper said with a laugh as well.
(Meanwhile at the drink bar...)
“You know, you’re a lot different than before,” Tony said.
“How so?”
“Well...it’s like this. Every time whenever I see your face on the newspaper, you never show a smile on your face. And even if you did, it’s more of a forced smile. Now these days, you’re smiling for real, and it’s not forced. Rather, it’s looks more natural.”
Peter was surprised at what Tony just said and replied, “Y-You think so?”
“Yeah. And I have a feeling it’s because of your Asian girlfriend, isn’t it? I mean, every time where there’s a picture of you two, you actually look happy for once.”
Peter let out a laugh. “Yes. She sure knows how to brighten my day.”
As Peter and Tony continued their conversation, they heard a small scream coming from the corner of the gala. As they turned around, they saw a bunch of people gathering at one corner of the gala. They then got out of their seats and pushed through the crowds of people to see what was going on in the corner. As they arrived at the scene, what they saw was Cindy standing behind of Pepper and one of the guests cradling the side of his face as he was hiding was seems to be a slap mark. And it was a hard one as well.
“Okay, what’s going on here?” Peter asked. The guest then noticed Peter and put on a angry face at him.
“Mister Parker! You need to put your secretary in line!” the guest yelled. “Look what she did to me!!”
“Hey, you started it!” Cindy rebutted.
“Everyone just calm down. Cindy, can you tell me what happened here?”
“Okay. So, I was chatting with Pepper here, and this guy came over and was trying to hit on me. Of course, I ignored him and continued talking with Pepper, but he wouldn’t listen to me. And then this happened,” Cindy said angrily.
“What happened?” Peter asked.
“That guy over there copped a feel of me on my butt!” Cindy yelled.
Peter then turned to face the guest who copped a feel on his fiancé and yelled, “You did what?!”
“Hey! I was just trying to get her attention!” the guest defended.
“By grabbing her butt?!”
“What else do you expect me to do?! And besides, why do you care?! She’s just a secretary! And one with a hot body! If anything, she shouldn’t even be a secretary, rather she looks like she should be a tart!”
At that moment, everyone stayed quiet as they all realized that what the guest said just signed his death sentence.
“Oh shit. He’s screwed,” Tony and Pepper thought.
“Excuse me, what did you just said?” Peter said in a calm, yet angry tone.
“Huh?! You don’t get it?! She looks like she should be a-”
Peter then interrupted the guest and slapped him so hard that it left a mark even worse than the one Cindy gave to him earlier. The guest then fell over onto the ground at the force of Peter’s slap.
“DON’T YOU EVER CALL MY FIANCE THAT!!” Peter yelled so loud that nearly everyone in the gala heard that, leaving them shocked at what Peter said. As the guest recovered from his slap, he saw Peter’s face and it was not pretty. Peter’s face was full of rage, anger, and fury and the guest realized he fucked up big time.
After a moment of silence, Cindy then walked up to Peter and said, “Peter? Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Peter replied as he was breathing to calm himself down. “I think we’re not welcome here anymore.”
“Shall we leave then?”
“Yeah.”
As Peter gently grabbed Cindy’s hand, they started to walk down to the entrance. Everyone stayed quiet as they learned that Peter’s wrath is something no one ever wants to deal with. Then the gala continued as Peter and Cindy left the gala.
“Did you know anything about this?” Tony asked.
“I had some suspicions after seeing the ring on her finger but didn’t know until now,” Pepper replied.
“I see. Pretty sure that after what Peter just did, he’s going to need prepare himself for a press conference. The guy’s going to need it, especially when nearly everyone here now has a scoop for the media to cash in.”
“Definitely.”
“Yeah. Also, Pepper?”
“Yes Tony?”
“Remind me to never piss Peter off.”
“Got it.”