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One of the tasks for a spy is to build a network of contacts with potential to allow feasible access into variety of spots. Expanding one's network of affluent contacts makes it easier to find a reasonable excuse to attend various galas and locales where targets and assets are within reach and attainable. Having marked Kaleb as a candidate to expand said network, Natasha has tracked him to a spot where she can make accidental acquaintance with him, all she needs is the right moment.
Kaleb Marshall Miller was not a difficult young man to track down. Trying to see how much money his family actually had by trying to spend it like water was an occasional past time. Unlike his twin brother he loved people to know this fact and was not at all shy about people knowing precisely who he was. Two weeks back from Europe and he already made a significant splash at the investors dinner that was invite-only at the terrace restaurant of Chateau de la Vie just earlier this week by attending with some green haired young lady that had many people speculating and talking. He was not hard to track down after that which lead to his usual afternoon habit of sitting at an outside bistro in Greenwich Village enjoying a club sandwich and sketching the city in small detail while the hippies in the park played on.
Natalie Rushman, being the PA of Tony Stark, usually had her hands full with various errands and tasks that shifted into odd hours, as well as locales on occasions. Being busy and stressed as she was, she sometimes had her mind ahead of her legs, and as she rushed down the street, carrying a folder and purse in her arms, she wasn't careful in her rushed footing. By sheer accident, no doubt, her legs stumbles against Kaleb's chair as he sits at the outside section of a bistro Natalie was rushing past, sending her tumbling to the pavement, her folder dropping to the ground with some pages scattering about, her purse falling a small distance from it. "Eeeeek," is about the only thing that comes out of her mouth, as she tries to brace for the unexpected introduction between her face and the ground.
Kaleb was bumped, coffee nearly hitting his sketchbook. His first reflex was to save it from potential damages letting it spill instead onto his half sandwich. Flicking droplets of coffee from his fingers his attention shift to someone else heading towards them on the sidewalk to assist her which got an icy and blunt command of, "/Move along/". Dropping in subtle and not so subtle tone for strangers else to leave him the hell alone. Oh yes, she found the right twin. This was not Kellan. He leaned over and grabbed the folder for her and then, after that, stood and offered her a hand. Curiosity bit him though and he asked, "We've… met? You alright?" Someone stopped like they were going to grab her purse and again, with the tone carrying the suggestion with it, "Leave it. Thank you." It really bothered him when strangers manhandled his things. Apparently that was the courtesy extended as blue-grey eyes regarded her still curious at the very least.
No wonder people were freely offering assistance to the woman who just fell, she was a looker, and was dressed as one would expect a man like Tony Stark to like his secretaries to dress. She doesn't seem to react as quickly as Kaleb, or the people who came to offer help, before being sent away by Kaleb. She was perhaps a bit dazed by falling like that, unexpectedly, and as she turns to look up at Kaleb, she murmurs a shy apology, "sorry I bumped into you, I didn't see you, I was in a rush…I have a lot on my plate," she does readily takes the offered hand as Kaleb assists her back on her feet. A smile developing on her face as she sees he got her folder and purse, "thank you so much for helping…that was my fault." She extends her hand to take back her things.
Kaleb did glance at the folder and seemed to take a short inventory of the woman. She was an interesting case, to be certain even if the young man appeared to engage with a casual disinterest as was, by file, typical. "You…" Names. People had them. Oh what a bother! Ah, he remembered though, "Ms. Rushman? Stark Enterprises?" Sure the business he can remember more readily than the name. An eyebrow arched casually as the folio was left hanging extended to her as she put herself back together. "You alright?" Now he asks. He took his seat after her things were collected and untouched. "Bit far from the central city, I'd think for you?"
The folder itself had some sheets, graphs and proposals with the Stark Industries logo and letterhead, but Natalie doesn't allow long enough to study them as she reaches her hand to take the folder back. "That's correct!" Natalie sounds excited to be recognized, "Natalie Rushman, with Stark Industries." She does take a moment to dust her dress and straighten it, a process which somehow winds up with a slight flashing of her garters, before she reaches to take back the folder and purse. "I'm fine, I just bumped myself a bit…it hurts," she puts a rather endearing frown on her face as she complaints about the pain, "but I guess I'll live, huh?" She takes a slight step and winces, bending down to rub her sore knee, "do you mind if I sit for a moment, just to relax my knee?" She does nod at the question, "indeed, I just had a meeting with an associate of Mr. Wayne, from Wayne Enterprises," she points back towards a jazz club down the block. No doubt Mr. Stark sent her for a business meeting to get a bit of leverage. Natalie visibly has the capacity to distract unprepared men who didn't expect a woman, let alone such a gorgeous one, to meet them in lieu of a man. Stark is sharp that way.
At the request to sit a moment at his table he gestured with a hand that's never seen a day's hard labour across from him. "Well one would imagine the chair is more comfortable than the ground. I don't mind." With a faint furrow of his brow he did dab at the table with a napkin so that the drips of spilled coffee were mopped up adequately. To his merit or detriment he seemed to regard her with a casual business interest rather than an object of personal interest, but then again research would highlight a history of being socially cold which the past two minutes seemed to confirm. Still though she might be absolutely one of the best in the world at what she did and that was get even him to regard her with casual human decency. With a warmer tone he asked, "Wayne Industries? Interesting. I've had the pleasure to run into him in brief passing." A faint grin of amusement seemed to hit him as he had to ask without expectation of answer, "He ask you to dinner to discuss details yet?"
Natalie laughs at Kaleb's comment, before nodding empathicly, "yes, yes, quite, the chair would definitely be more comfortable." She drags her leg a little as she moves to sit down, extending the leg with the hurting knee a little, as she reaches to knead her kneee and looks up at Kaleb. She seems a bit embarrassed about the whole incident, not quite looking directly at Kaleb's face, her cheeks flushing just a bit. "Don't you find it funny that Mr. Wayne and Mr. Stark are both successful, brilliant men, and yet the tabloids paint them as some careless playboys?" Natalie asks in the way of small talk, "what did you make of Mr. Wayne?" She tilts her head a little at the last question, a coy smile appearing on her face, but she leaves the question unanswered.
Kaleb regarded Natalie sitting back in his chair considering the question she gave him to ponder. As for her embarrassment the young man seemed to offer neither empathy or judgement towards her. The puzzle?? That he turned his interest to consider sipping his coffee. "Well let's not act like we don't know the nature of high society. Everyone's just out to get what they want. The rest is pretty much just some," His brow furrowed searching for some suitable metaphor in conversational tone, "very fancy game of chess where they move from gathering to gathering instead of from square to square. And the ladies?" He grinned faintly shaking his head, "Well, they're playing their own version of the game. In the end the tabloid feeds off whatever pittance of excitement they can while everyone else moves money around the board to see where it stops. So as for the tabloids picking them? It's nothing that they do that everyone else isn't doing from Rafferty to Worthington. To to answer your question? I don't find it funny at all. I find it disappointing that they haven't found other things to discuss in print." His head tilted and he warmed a smile offering, "I have no hard feelings against them. It's just how society is built."
"That's a true statement," Natalie has to agree, both Stark and Wayne made it as far as they have by grasping everything they ever wanted, rules and decorum be damned. Natalie seems quite surprised, however, when Kaleb discusses her question in depth, as if he just shed a light on a dark room, and suddenly everything was clear. "So you don't even think it matters what the tabloids say, it's the fact they are discussing trivialities, that makes the tabloids look bad in all of this? Huh! Fancy that! That's pretty clever, Mr…Miller is it?" As if she didn't know right away who he was.
Kaleb actually found his manners that were beaten into him in boarding school. They seemed to be pulled out on an elective basis rather than by expectations demanded from some social order. A hand extended across the table extending to her the better of his professional conduct. "I am. Kaleb Miller." He left his father's name and Capstone International out of it. Really in New York there were only so many Millers that high up the food chain and if she was with Stark the expectation seemed to fall on her to have sorted the rest out.
Objectively he offered to her, "Iiiiii think the tabloids like to focus on romanticizing the persons involved like a grandiose wishful thinking project romanticizing all the flash that's a distraction from the substance. Still, the flash is a formality and woe be to those that do not engage in it. Ends to a means I suppose. But yes, I think the tabloids are…distracted. I mean that can be good in some cases, but it doesn't much answer the underlying questions." He considered and asked curiously, "Stark planning on doing World's Faire this year?"
Natalie considers Kaleb's words in silence this time, apparently she's just had a taste of this world, and unlike Tony Stark, she doesn't quite yet swim comfortably in its waters. At least not yet. She's snapped out of her reflection by the follow up question, which she easily answers with a bright smile, "of course! That's one of the biggest events, and Stark always looks to stun and impress, it really is brilliant the things that Mr. Stark comes up with, I could never envision all of those amazing…innovations he does."
Kaleb actually seemed faintly animated in expression catching wind that they'd be there. This was apparently something worth noting to him, though given the sketch in his book he was working on was a technical draft of one of the nearby historic buildings rather than anything organic in nature that might be hardly surprising. It might also be apparent the young man knew not of how much of himself he broadcast. "I need to get over to it. I know I'm expected to go to a dinner for it but I'd rather honestly see what's coming out of the mind of Mr. Stark. You should invite Wayne out if you haven't already. People like that love personal invitations to those things even if they're already going." He shook his head and was remiss to admit that he was guilty of that too.
"I believe Mr. Stark does have personal relations with Mr. Wayne, and would likely prefer to issue a personal invitation…" Natalie starts, before looking like a lightbulb just flashed in her head, "wait a minute! You were very kind to me just now, how about I invite you as my guest to the event? I'm Mr. Stark's personal secretary, I am allowed to invite a friend." Just like that, find something that interests someone, and build on that to create contact. Takes some nurturing from there on, but at least you get the foot in the door.
Kaleb considered this and it would be a good contact for him to make. Hell if anything got him noticed by his father it might actually be doing something 'worthwhile' for the family name. And likewise the heir apparent to Capstone International was not a bad hook to have on the line. He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a small case which had a few cards in there, generally for social purposes, which he flipped over and scratched in neat, even letters with an engineer's hand a phone number and the name Lyman scratched underneath. He offered it to her and nodded trying to remain disinterested as he ought, but the fact was the bait for him was too good. "This is the number to Jeanne Lyman, my social secretary. If you could relay the information to her I will see that I find myself conveniently available. I'd be happy to go. Besides, I hear there's a new design that's got the folks on the Dymaxion Projects in a tizzy."
Natalie reaches for the card and stows it safely in her purse, smiling charmingly at Kaleb, "I'll be sure to make contact, you'll get a Stark Industries invitation to the event. I can also see about arranging a meeting with Mr. Stark if you'd like to meet him in person," she offers, "I should probably rush back for now! Thank you for your help, and for letting me join you for a moment, my knee certainly appreciates it," she grins as she gets back up after giving her knee one final rub. "I better go now, don't want Mr. Stark to be furious with me."
Kaleb smiled for the first time in the entire engagement and said genuinely, "I would be most flattered by that. That'd be…excellent in fact." Oh way to hook the architect. Well played. He put the cards back and offered in return, "I hope your day improves and good luck with the Wayne meeting."