Anthony would have never been able to predict the night he was having tonight.
It started out as any other night. He'd go to some event with the governor, watch him from a far and make sure he doesn't get into any trouble such as drinking.
It's not public knowledge that Mark is a recovering alcoholic. Only a small circle of people know and take care of it.
Anthony has been proud of his friend for being so strong for two years. His surveillance of Mark has slacked because he has been strong enough to not need Anthony to really hover over him. His watch over Mark this night was so slack, that he had time to mingle with a lovely woman name Isa Rae Mendoza.
Isa had thrown Anthony for a loop, she literally had him eating from the palm of her hands the first time they met. After her best friend was honored with the award for Principal Of the Year, they spent the whole evening together talking and joking with a lot of laughter. Anthony love how light the conversations between them were. He was never a fan of smalltalk and loved that she just went straight for the punchline.
The only thing that was really irritating Anthony was Delontè. He normally invites a handful of friends to be his plus one to these prestigious events. He rotates between them or whoever's available. Delontè was never someone Anthony ever invited but he forgot about the event tonight and was calling around for someone to come through. Anthony didn't even want to call Delontè because of how overzealous he can be towards women but knew he would be the only one to come to an event like this with only a four-hour notice. Delontè is rich. Both of his parents are successful investors and became multi-millionaires in their early twenties. Delontè literally lives off their earnings without care and doesn't have much responsibility for anything on a day to day. This is the reason why he's so available.
Anthony spent half the night pulling Delontè away from women who seemed to be getting uncomfortable with his presence.
Anthony realized he should have come by himself tonight since he didn't plan ahead because Delontè was not a good fit. He just hated coming to these events alone because it can be awkward and his job is not to be obvious in watching the Governor.
Anthony even tried to ditch Delontè when he and Isa got together after the awards were handed out. Not only did Delontè not take a hint and become sparse he had the nerve to low-key cock block and try to steal all of Isa's attention from Anthony.
Delontè was awkwardly waiting for Sheri to be done with all her interviews, but it was obvious that she was the hot topic of the night so he needed to move on and find someone else. But he wouldn't, so while waiting, Delontè would interrupt Isa and Anthony's fun yet flirty conversation with a cringey joke trying to get Isa to laugh.
"Hey Isa, you have a beautiful smile..." Delontè said in his version of seduction.
Anthony and Jill look at him in irritation, but Jill politely says, "Thank you." and turns her head to give Anthony all her attention hoping he takes a hint.
He doesn't and proceeds with, "Your smile is so beautiful that I would like to share a joke with you just to make you laugh." Delontè's version of seduction just got extremely creepy.
"Anthony is doing a great job of that already so no thank yo-"
"How did the turtle cross the free way?" Delontè persisted.
"You're really starting to irritate me. So imma need you to fall back." Anthony was calm but his voice sounded like he was getting ready to mess this dude up.
Ignoring Anthony's ominous threat Delontè persist. "Com' on Isa, it doesn't hurt. How did the turtle cross the free way? To solve this, you have to take the letter f out of free and the letter f out of way..."
"Clearly your joke is broken because there's no f in way!" Anthony says, clearly done with him.
"Exactly! There's no f-ing way! No f-ing way! A turtle can't do that..." Delontè is laughing at his own joke. He eventually stops when he sees Anthony gifting him a look that would have killed him if it were possible. Anthony knew this would be the last time he ever linked up with Delontè.
Taking no care to Anthony's threatening demeanor, Delontè says "Well, it would have been funnier if you had solved it sweetness, but that's ok I have another one."
"Oh, Isa your shoelaces are untied, let's go to the bathroom to fix it." Anthony escorted Jill away in her three inch heels.
Delontè was pissed seeing how Anthony shamelessly ditched him. He was even more ticked when he looked over at Sheri, and saw the Governor shooing away the media circus from her, and all her attention went to him.
If those women had any idea how much money he had, they would have been climbing over each other to get to him. Delontè thought to himself.