A thousand dollars

"I guess so." replied Nine, his reluctance clear causing Jennifer to chuckle, she knew that he was a reserved man, but she truly got to see that shy, quiet nature firsthand. It was right now that made her notice how free and friendly he was with her.

She had only seen him act that way with his family, and for him to act that way with her, it made her feel a little bit special that he considered her family.

"It's alright, you don't have to do anything that you feel is uncomfortable." said Jennifer as she smiled.

"It's not that, I just don't want you to feel like I am holding you back." replied Nine as he looked away.

"I don't think that at all Xavier, I would never make you feel like I'm bored here, like I said, I am having such a good time, it's perfectly alright if you don't want to dance." said Jennifer.

"I'm a horrible dancer." admitted Nine as Jennifer chuckled.

"You don't have to worry about that. That makes two of us I'm not that good at dancing either." replied Jennifer as she laughed.

"I just like moving my feet, standing here the entire time is kind of tiring." she said with a smile.

"Then, let's go dance." said Nine as he stretched out his hand towards her.

"Are you sure?" she asked him and he nodded.

"I do warn you, I might accidentally step on your foot, so I apologize in advance." said Nine as Jennifer took his hand and laughed.

"Well I might be the one who will step on your foot first." she said as they made their way to the middle of the hall.

"Look who's going to dance." said Michael as he tapped Charlie on the back and pointed to the right.

"Who?" asked Charlie as he just finished stuffing his face with cake as he looked up and almost choked as he gasped with his mouth full.

"Geez, be careful Charlie, you don't want to choke now do you?" asked Michael in worry as he patted Charlie on his back gently.

"How can I not choke??! Is that Nine I see, going to dance??!" asked Charlie in shock.

"Yes it is, so is that why you want to choke?" asked Michael as he handed Charlie a glass of water.

"Yes, because my eyes must be broken because it's definitely not seeing things right anymore." said Charlie as he finally stopped coughing.

"Oh don't be like that Charlie, you better believe it, our Nine doesn't seem to be as reserved as he was before, and I have a feeling that it's because of a certain person." said Michael with a smile.

"No! This is impossible no! I don't have a date, and yet Nine does?! That's not possible, this is a dream, a terrible dream!" complained Charlie with a frown.

"Charlie can you relax, it's not his fault that your date ditched you." replied Michael with a scoff.

"Of course I don't expect you to understand because you can't even get a woman if you tried, but Nine, Nine is the one who was supposed to remain the single uncle in his old age that our children would continuously ask us why he's sad and alone." said Charlie.

"Charlie that's really mean even for you, gosh." said Michael.

"You can say whatever you want, but you know that it's the truth." said Charlie.

"I don't get how he suddenly changed, I honestly still thought that he's still hung on Lia." said Charlie with a frown.

"I never thought that for once, he learnt his lesson after he told us how he was kind of her accomplice. I think that he started to move on from that moment." said Michael.

"Well that's bad for me, I'm supposed to be the Casanova, well without the several lovers, not him." said Charlie as Michael scoffed, he could not believe what he was hearing come out of Charlie's mouth right now.

"You know what Charlie, this is very low even for you, Nine deserves to be happy, besides, I don't get why it upsets you so much." said Michael.

"It's not like he's getting married or something, he's just trying his luck in the dating scene, which he has never done before." said Michael as he sipped his wine.

"No, no, no, I tell you, there is no way Nine is going to get married before me." said Charlie as Michael laughed.

"Would you like to bet on that?" asked Michael as he chuckled, he really wanted to know how demented Charlie was just because Nine had a date and he didn't.

"How much are you willing to lose?" asked Charlie instead of backing down.

"How about a thousand dollars?" asked Michael mischievously, he felt in the mood to be playful.

"Deal, a thousand dollars it is. Nine is never going to get married before me, he's going to be the last one to get married among us." said Charlie as Michael sighed and shook his head.

"Well then, it's a deal, let's just hope that for your sake, you are right, because we all know you don't have a thousand dollars to spare." said Michael mockingly.

"Hey, watch your tone, of course I do, and I won't need to pay you anything because I'll be right." said Charlie.

"Okay then, whatever you say Charlie, whatever you say." said Michael.

"Hey, is that Lia I see over there?!" asked Charlie as he pointed ahead.

"Mhmm, that's her alright." replied Michael.

"Wait, you knew that she would be coming here?!" asked Charlie as he looked at Michael in shock.

"Well I did see her earlier when she arrived with Peter." said Michael.

"And you didn't say anything?!" asked Charlie it was obvious that he was upset.

"Of course I didn't say anything, I didn't want anyone to be uncomfortable just because she was here, we are here to enjoy a party, besides, I didn't tell you especially because you were going to overreact." said Michael.

"You should have told me so I could have warned Lulu, oh boy she's not going to be happy to see Lia here, she might tear her eyes out if she knew that Lia is here." said Charlie.

"Another reason why I didn't say anything. Honestly, I am just so tired of all the tension and how on edge everyone gets once Lia's name is mentioned. I just want things to go back to normal." said Michael with a sigh.

"Well things can't go back to normal, not after what she did. I know that things are tense, but we need more than time before mentioning Lia doesn't poke a soft spot. Besides, just think about Dom and especially Natasha, her presence here is definitely unsettling." said Charlie.

"Yes, well Dom and Natasha are not children, they should be able to handle any accidental meetings maturely." replied Michael.

"You say it as if it's that easy when it's not." replied Charlie.

"Yeah..." replied Michael.

"Anyway, I am not going to allow Nine enjoy his terrible attempt at dancing, will you join me?" asked Charlie with a smile.

"No Charlie, you're on your own for this one." replied Michael with a scoff.

"Whatever, see me on the dancefloor." replied Charlie with a wink as he rushed off and Michael shook his head and scoffed.

...

Natasha sighed as she watched the people dancing, she was really bored now, and quite frankly was starting to get a headache.

She was in the middle of her thoughts when she felt someone touch her hand and she looked up to see Dom.

"What are you doing?" she asked him while narrowing her eyes at him, she thought that he was busy with clients.

"Would you care to dance?" he asked her as she started laughing.

"Dance with you?" she asked as he nodded.

"No, you would never catch me alive dancing with you, besides, you're a terrible dancer." she so not so nicely reminded him.

"When was the last time you danced with me? I have improved since then." said Dom with a smile as Natasha stopped laughing.

"Our wedding... sorry, I meant our sham of a wedding." she replied as Dom frowned.

"Right, well we're not at a wedding right now, and it would be odd if we didn't dance in the eyes of everyone." said Dom.

"I don't care, I'm not in the mood for dancing, besides, I don't think that anyone's paying attention to us, so you can let go of my hand." said Natasha as instead of doing what she requested he brought her hand up to his face and kissed the back of her hand.

"You're wrong, people are still watching." he said smiling at her, fully aware of the cameraman visible in the corner of his eye.

"People are always watching Natasha, always, especially at events like this. All the blogs want hot gossip to post in the morning, and we can't give them that." said Dom happily as he gently let go of her hand.

"Thankfully, an event like this happens rarely and I won't ever have to pretend to be able to stand you again." she replied with smiling sweetly.