Chapter 217: June 15, 1985
The seasoned partings aside, goodbyes and endings are not the only things that happened in June.
On the 15th of June 1985, it just so happens that Ghibli was being historically founded but just so happens that someone named Courteney Cox celebrated her 21st birthday on this day as well.
She was professional with VA work all throughout though but when it came time to the script practice time at the CREED cafe area, Alexander handed her a wrapped gift.
It was something that he had requested Miss Marker to buy. She was the best lady to ask for the job, given that she knew a lot about the market and what a woman wants.
The birthday girl, who wanted to keep her special day on the wraps, could only ask the gift giver. "Wow, is this a birthday gift for me?"
"Well, as much as you try to keep it a secret, your resume data shouldn't be too falsified." Alexander explained. "Yes. It is a gift you should take. Today's your birthday after all."
Courteney was giddy from the unexpected surprise but she had doubts. "It's just that I heard that you never really gave special birthday treatment to your employees. How come I'm the only one you gave me one? Is it because I'm pretty?"
Well... it would seem that she is Cocky Cox as always. Besides, how much research and gossip gathering has gotten in the short single month or so that she's been hired?
"Well, you could say that you've been quite a great partner as a Bulma, so I gave you a gift since it is your special day." Of course, that was just lip service from him. He just wanted to get into her good graces, so that he could cut some costs in hiring her as a voice actress for future seasons.
Courteney Cox would have some of her career upgrades at some point after all and he was just making some contingencies in case the lady decides to continue the VA gig.
The girl was oblivious to his underlying discount scheme though and was just thankful for the gift. "Whatever the reason is... this big sister is quite happy with it!"
Perhaps only people like Sheldon Cooper wouldn't be happy with being handed a gift. Courteney was not a Sheldon Cooper, albeit... her happiness comes from the fact that the gift-giver was a rich boy. Surely, it would be worth quite a lot.
However, money-grubby her excitement was, she was still excited nonetheless.
She tore open the wrap of the little gift and found a customized little box. The obvious next move was to open it and the true gift was finally revealed.
It was a silver-chained necklace with a little sparkly diamond being the main accessory of it. There was no doubt about its authenticity of it at all as the custom box had markings of a dependable jewelry brand.
"Woah!!" Courteney was gobsmacked because even she felt it was too much. "Uhm... little boss Alex... little brother... how much is this worth?"
"It's a gift though. Putting a price tag on it seems inappropriate." Although Alexander was detached and seemed cold, he was quite generous... when it comes to getting a potential discount! "Like I said, it's a gift so don't do some cliche line like 'it's too much' and 'take it back'."
Only stupid, shy girls would miss out on this. How could Courteney fall in that category?
She liked it very much and acting coy and cliche didn't fit this situation at all. It isn't like the gift-giver was wooing her.
"Isn't this like more than 10 grand? 20 grand?" With no accurate price, Courteney guessed. Whatever she came up with seems overkill for a starter actress like her.
"Just a bit more than that." Alexander added with euphemism to give Cocky Cox some sense of things.
In truth, the necklace cost about 25,000 dollars. It was overkill for a birthday gift laced with hidden discount intent but he felt it was quite alright.
Besides, he was earning so much money and that necklace was practically his only non-company or non-essential spending. Being a hoarder was not too good so spending a bit for a potential talent investment was quite good.
Unaware of his future-catering calculations, Courteney was just happy at the necklace's price range.
"Hehehe!!" She grinned and snickered from being on Cloud 9. It would seem that the assumption about girls and jewelry was true.
Here foolish lady grins eventually turned to the gift-giver. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the best present for me... ever!"
"You're welcome, I guess." Alexander outwardly shrugged and was detached as usual. Inwardly, he was calculating how much this 'best present' would save him up for future Cocky Cox's Bulma voice acting.
"Oh thank you." Courteney just can't help herself and snooped down to his height to hug the detached boy. "You're cold as always but this hug should be enough to warm you up and give you a sense of how much big sis is happy with this gift."
Since he was hugged already, Alexander patted her on the back to convey that he understood. Of course, he also tried squirming out as he felt it was inappropriate to linger in that bossom-y feeling any longer. "Okay. I get what you mean but it still feels stuffy."
Coincidentally, Courteney was still caught up in her elated happiness and wanted to give the cold boy a cheek kiss to vent her thanks as a super happy big sis.
Her hug had been loosened a bit and Alexander took that chance to get out of the hug.
Well... his movement happened to tilt his head a bit... and the girl's cheek kiss happened to have been locked in a certain momentum already.
The cheek, the lips, and the nose were too close and something 'fortunate' was bound to happen from the head tilt and locked kiss momentum.
An accidental direct kiss happened... with happy Courteney being shocked silly from having to accidentally kiss a little boy's...
Nose!
----
It happened quite fast but at least someone had some quick reflexes to avoid a romantic scenario.
Yeah, well... Alexander wasn't a fan of the accidental kiss cliches and it was quite "fortunate" for him that he was able to squirm his lips from being the final target.
Well, an old-souled boy was not one to be flustered and remained objectively calm with the kiss state that they are in. The same could not be said for the opposite party though.
It was still awkward to have Cocky Cox's lips against his nose though. Even the kissing lady herself was still in a bit of a freeze from the close call and the embarrassment.
Not wanting the silence to develop some more, Alexander had to be the gentlemanly boy to help the lady out. "Erm... Miss Cox... I think I've got a lot of your thanks now... so..."
"Aahh! Why does this always happen when your involved?!" Courteney could only steel herself and be in a Bulma-esque kind of processing.
"It just happens... no worries." Alexander could only help her out. "Think on the bright side. At least we didn't kiss."
Courteney rolled her eyes at that "reasonable" appeasement. When she processed things, she chuckled from the absurdity of it all. "Haha! Alex, it seems we're always in these weird scenarios from time to time."
"True." Alexander nodded in agreement.
----
In any case and after that, the duo discussed some more on the absurdities that they've been through in a much more familiar mood to things.
From the Mrs. Creed blunder, the Voice Acting "talent" reveal, working together with the Goku-Bulma roles, the musical escapades throughout Alexander's 'music plan', and now... the recent nose kiss accident.
They hadn't discussed things with such openness before as they've always choked it up with business partnerships and the 'not-talking-about-it' strategy.
Now that they discussed it with ease and openness, it seems that they had only been a short while and had been through a lot of awkwardness with each other.
At least, by now, they were past that and were discussing it like friends about it.
By the end of their much-relaxed conversation, Alexander realized that maybe he could've saved a lot more money on the discount by being a friend.
Not that he would taint this much-eased relationship now with the gift scheme but he learned some lessons. Perhaps Old Sullivan's "socializing" and lessons on forming connections had some merit to them.
Of course, Alexander also learned that not every accidental kiss leads to all that romantic stuff. At least, a nose kiss can open up himself up to a new friend.
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Anyways, on June 15, 1985, Alexander had somehow become somewhat of a friend to Cocky Cox, a notable person whom he assigned to be someone treated with business objectivity.
He had grown his friend list much to the scrutiny of Milla, the only other friend in it. However, that was drama for another day.