Meeting at the Fair

Texas State Fairgrounds

The Texas State Fairgrounds is an educational and recreational complex, as well as a National Historic Landmark. Within the grounds are nine museums, six performance facilities, a beautiful blue lagoon, and the largest Ferris Wheel in North America. The most notable buildings in the area are the planetarium, the Hall of State, the D.A.R. building, and of course the Cotton Bowl.
The grounds are beautifully kept, and there are many pathways leading around and through the lagoon for those nature lovers that just want a bit of time away from the busier areas of the city.


It's early in the evening, but things never quite die down at the fairgrounds. Though certainly not as busy as during the annual fair, the museums and the planetarium keep things busy, as does the traffic to the lagoon. And tonight is busier than usual, at the midway point of the North Texas Irish Festival. Music, dancing, food and a sizable crowd have kept things moving and the lines long at the outdoor vendors peppering the fairgrounds.
Mignonette has settled into an easy routine. Step, wait, step wait, as she makes her way along the winding queue towards the funnel cake stand, Alex a quiet presence next to her, sort of. He's in the adjacent line, heading for the hot dogs. She's still dressed as though she's only just come from work, but the smile and the friendly demeanour she offers to her fellow queue-sitters seems genuine enough.

—-

Making his way along the streets Oli as always seems to be fitting in, his ability and his natural charm allowing him to mostly blend into the crowd. Then he heads into the queue that Mignonette's in.

—-

The line's still moving….slowly. But hopefully it'll be worth the wait. Then again, when isn't deep fat fried goodness, well, delicious. Certainly this southern girl isn't complaining. "Extra onions, no mustard," she calls over to Alex, who seems to be listening, mostly, in between texting on his phone. "And extra burnt!" She lifts her shoulders in a shrug at the woman standing just ahead of her, as she looks back, "I know, you have to tell them everything."

—-

Oliver stands just behind Mignonette, and he chuckles slightly as he glances around. "I'd never bring my assistants to an evening like this, they're generally not very good at it." He smiles faintly. "At least not until you've explained what you want enough times that it's easier to have got it yourself, at least that's my experience."

—-

Mignonette turns her head, glancing back at the man who just budged his way into line behind her. "He isn't my assistant." Her tone is light, but even, with no other inflection than the ones usually incurred by her cajun accent, "And he never gets my order wrong." Alex looks up, briefly, from his texting, fingers still moving on the keys, looking towards the much smaller woman, and the man now behind her, before he steps forward in line. They both have only about 3-4 people left ahead of them.

—-

Shrugging Oli grins faintly. "Then you're lucky, reliable employees in any position are hard to come by." He shrugs slowly, his shields lowering a bit to try and get a read on the situation.

—-

Mignonette mmms, stepping forward again, and in a stroke of good fortune, the trio ahead of her are together, and so it looks like she's next in line. While the group are placing their order, Mignonette seems content to wait, her thoughts standing out, perhaps for two reasons. First, she feels, not slightly off, but just something not quite, well, mundane. But her thoughts are dim, murky, hard to read, though what you do get seem to be something to do with statutes of the law. Seems work is never far from her mind. Work, and the planetarium.

—-

Nodding Oli shrugs faintly as he turns from the line and heads for the planetarium, apparently he's lost his interest in the cake, he doesn't say a thing to Mignonette, his last statement having apparently been ignored.

—-

Funnel cake and a large lemonade in hand, and Alex along for the ride with three hotdogs, the pair make their way over towards the planetarium, where there's always a show going on, it seems, and other displays even when a show is in progress. And a small waiting area in the front where you can sit and rest and eat before going inside proper. So there they settle, the smaller woman sitting beside the larger man, "Wills says he wants to come over next weekend. I've been trying to find a way to talk him out of it."

—-

Once again Oliver spots Mignonette, he heads over motioning to the seat. "This seat taken?" His shields are still down, although he's drifting at the minute, letting his thoughts look for any sign of being watched, followed or otherwise interferred with. He's the type of charming openness that only a true sociopath can fake.

—-

"Of course not." Mignonette sets down the large drink she's obviously going to share with Alex, and the funnel cake, and he hands over one of the hot dogs, setting everything out as if they were dining at a much fancier establishment. The hotdog she passes on to you, before she takes a second one from the other man for herself, "I didn't know what you liked, so I got everything on it." The other conversation seems to be set aside for the time being.

—-

Nodding slightly Oliver slips into his seat. "Thanks." He takes a glance around, his check coming up clean, and since his own friends haven't called him he's fairly certain there checks have turned up no tails. "I'm glad you agreed to meet me like this, I can understand it's not what you're used to."

—-

"We pride ourselves on being extremely flexible, at Savoy & Savoy. I have met clients in better places and in worse. And I do enjoy a good funnel cake." Which she's leaving aside for now, turning, instead, to unwrapping her hotdog, which has everything except mustard and is actually burned almost black, nice and crispy. "What is it exactly that you're looking for, from our law firm?"

—-

Taking a bite of his hotdog Oliver studies Mignonette. "Subtlty, and reliability. Both traits you possess, at least that's what my sources tell me." He smiles slightly. "My Father spoke most highly of you. I thought I should at least discuss getting a retainer, I do wonder what specialties you deal in?"

—-

"We are a full service law firm, as your sources probably also confirmed. Defense is my speciality, though I take an equal number of prosecutorial cases, when we have the right clients. Criminal and civil. I tend not to handle domestic cases, though that really depends on our workload. Normally, I would hand those off to one of my junior team members. Most of my cases, at the present are defense proceedings versus the dallas police department." Mignonette takes a bite of her hot dog, somehow managing not to get condiments smeared all over her face, or falling down on her shirt. And that takes talent, as fully loaded as it is.

—-

Nodding Oliver seems to consider that. "Then I would like to arrange a retainer, I suspect that this will take another more formal meeting, and I suspect that we won't go into the nature of my business in too much detail, I will want access to your defense services primarily, but I also buy property on ocassion, so you will of course be able to help me there?" He smiles faintly.

—-

A shake of her head, as Mignonette considers, setting down the hot dog, "A more formal meeting can certainly be arranged, and I can draw up a standard contract for you to review and revise to your liking, until we can come to a arrangement that will be mutually beneficial to both yourself and my firm. But as to the case of your business, that is another matter. My firm does not go into business with anyone blind. And it is understood that we will know the details of your business. We cannot adequately defend you, nor can we assist you in ensuring the security of your business dealing, if we do not know exactly what you are doing. A retainer with us ensures two things. The absolute privacy of attorney client privilege, and the assurance that our company will always work in your best interests. Savoy & Savoy makes no judgements based on a client's choice of business opportunities, but we provide a necessary service and that service requires information. So while you may choose not to make us fully aware of your arrangements beforehand and therefore forfeit that portion of our services, once a situation arises in which you need our assistance, secrecy will only hinder, not help you."

—-

Oliver smiles slightly, nodding very slowly. "Of course I can understand your point of view, and I can even offer that you will know anything that could lead to legal action ahead of time, but there will of course be details my associates won't like you having undisclosed information on." He shrugs. "Write up your contracts and I'll take a look at them, I'm sure we can come to an agreement." He smiles faintly.

—-

"My concern is not for your associates, but only for how I should arrange for your defense in case your business is not as satisfactory as it should be. So long as I have those details, the other details of your business and those whom you do business with are not my concern. I will have the papers drawn up in the morning, and have them ready for you on Monday, and you can come to our office and review them at your convenience." She finally reclaims her hotdog, pushing the funnel cake over to you, "You should try it, it's amazing. Extra sugar."

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