To the lovely damaracarver on Tumbler, who I wrote this for.
This is the first chapter in a 3 or 4 chapter story with a sequel planned out.
It has been through my beta, but considering the fact that we are both human beings, there might be mistakes.
Beta: NemiNightingale
She wasn't entirely sure what had brought her to Virginia in the first place. A change of scenery, perhaps? It seemed like such a dull reason, though. There had to be more to it. And yet… There really wasn't. Turning 21 had seemed like such a big deal. It had seemed like a monumental turning point for her. So much of a turning point, actually, that she had decided she wanted to leave the comforts of home and try things out on her own for a while. Away. Far away.
And now, a year later, her dream had finally come true. She had packed her bags, kissed her mom goodbye and uprooted her entire existence in Montana to start a new life elsewhere. Why this place turned out to be Washington, Virginia, she had yet to find out. It seemed like a good destination at the time. Now she wasn't so sure.
After all, it hadn't even been a week yet, and she already missed her family and the horses she would usually ride back in Montana. And she hadn't found a job yet. Or met any interesting people, which was probably the greatest source of her frustrations, and most likely the reason she was already yearning for her old life back in Montana. The life of a recluse was so not her.
So here she was, on November 1st; the 8th day of her new so called 'adventure' in Washington, and she was bored out of her mind already.
Ashland was sitting in front of the television in her pajamas, as she had been doing for the past 6 days, thoroughly enjoying the finer male specimens of the 'The Walking Dead' cast.
"Aaaand, shirt goes off. Not bad, Shane", she mumbled as she munched on a piece of popcorn, her eyes glued to the screen where one of her favorite shows was playing. The show toned off the screen soon after, and Ashland reached for the remote, turning off the TV. She wasn't really in the mood to watch any more episodes of the show she had been watching and re-watching 2 times now in the past week. It was getting quite tedious to look at all of the constant carnage and isolation the characters were going through; it reminded her a bit too much of her own situation. Minus the carnage, of course. Granted, her apartment was in shambles, but at least she didn't have any dead bodies lying around. Thank heavens.
That would have been real proof that she was going insane, and in her current state of loneliness and frustration, she really needed something to distract her before her grievances started having a body count.
'A clear sign I need to get out of here', she thought, and pushed her bored self off the couch to do something before she did a different something. A much more drastic something.
A sigh escaped Ashland as she tapped her fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the song playing on the radio.
She had been driving around in what seemed to be a complete wasteland for about an hour now and, even then, she had yet to find anything suitable… or even livable, for that matter.
'Who knew it could be that hard to find a farmhouse?' she pondered, and turned up the radio with a sigh. At least a good song was on. The Mission Impossible theme might have been more appropriate background music than Venus by Lady Gaga, though, considering how her mission was turning out to be quite the impossible challenge.
Nevertheless, she drove on. It was not like she had anything better to be doing. Except perhaps cleaning up her rancid apartment. But trying to find a suitable place on the country seemed like the less insufferable alternative of the two options.
Humming along to the music, her eyes scanned the land she passed as she drove leisurely down the road.
The land here was great. The houses? Not so much. But eventually she would have to make do with what she found if she had any hopes of starting up her business within the next couple of years. Her parents had saved up a great deal for her over the past decade to help her get started on life when she finally moved out. And she had decided to use the money on living out her dream of starting a horse-breeding business. So she would be able to buy land if she found something nice and reasonably priced, but that wasn't exactly easy to find nowadays. And she did want to wait a bit longer before spending all of their hard-earned money, especially if it wasn't just the thing she was looking for, so it wasn't that big of a deal if she didn't find anything today.
It would probably even be better if she could find herself a job and save up some money before going out to look for a house in the country.
But right now, she needed something to distract herself with, and looking at houses was a perfectly fine distraction from her solitude. And from the looks of it, she wouldn't be buying anything anyways. This place was practically desolate. So this place posed no threat to her parents' savings.
But just as the thought of savings and hopefully affordable country homes went through her mind, she passed exactly what she had been looking for.
Speak of the devil...
Quaint-looking house. Nice land. Far enough from the city to pull down the price a bit. Perfect.
Slowing down the car, she turned down the gravel driveway to the house and stopped, examining the place from top to bottom trying to catalogue it in her mind.
The house was a white, two-story house with a rather quaint porch on the front side of the house. It had nice, large windows which would provide ample light in what she imagined would be the living room and, from the looks of it, also on the first floor of the house.
From what she had seen on the outside of the house, this had definite potential.
There was only one problem. No 'for sale'-sign in sight. Which meant she would probably not be able to see the inside of the house, let alone get to buy the place.
She sighed and took in the faded facade of the house, mumbling to herself.
"Not exactly new," she started, taking in the general state of the house. "Might be interested in selling," she pondered on, losing herself in her inquiring mind. Could she persuade the owner to sell? How much would it cost to re-paint the house? And how long might it take to trim that garden?
"Would take a while, but would be worth the effort," she muttered on, squinting her eyes in an attempt to get a glimpse at what state the large windows by the front porch were in, and if those would be needing replacements.
Her mumbling assessment of the house continued as a man stepped out onto the porch. Not noticing the owner of the house, she continued, mentally calculating costs and expenses, all while failing to notice as the man was making his way towards her car with determined but slow steps, approaching the car as you would a dog whose bite just might be worse than its bark.
It was not until he stood right outside of her car, knocking on her side window, that she was shocked out of her daze and finally realized that she was not alone in her newfound sanctuary.
Well, hopefully soon to be her sanctuary.
Blinking, she looked out of the window where she was met with the torso of a man, clad in a dark grey jacket layered over a plaid button up shirt. Her gaze quickly shot up towards the face of the man who had so abruptly ended her stream of thoughts, and she clumsily grasped towards the handle of the door, feeling embarrassed to have been caught looking at his house through her car window like some sort of creeper. Or axe murderer or something of the sort.
Well done Ashland, surely he's going to want to sell anything to someone he caught lurking on his house like some sort of weirdo, she thought to herself, her mind going through all of the curses she wanted to sprout at being caught like a deer in headlights. Had she seen him first she might have been able to introduce herself and make a good first impression instead of, well, this.
Deciding to keep her curses to herself - the aforementioned first expressions and all - she calmed herself down and grasped one final time towards the door handle.
Finally getting a firm grip, she reluctantly opened the car door to step outside. This was a conversation that was best endured on equal ground. She didn't want to give him any opportunities to look down on her - be it figuratively or literally.
Here we go, she thought, stepping out of the vehicle and putting on her most charming - but not excessively so - smile while preparing herself to dig deep in the magic box of social grace she had going for her, to try and redeem herself in what was looking to be a very awkward situation. Nothing she wouldn't be able to salvage… Hopefully.
"Apologies. I didn't mean to just sit here and stare. I was just looking at your land. Do you have any plans of selling?" she tried bluntly, reluctantly hopeful of two instances: the general outcome of conversation, and the answer to the question.
"No. I'm afraid not," he hesitated, seeming a bit put off at her rather brusque approach. "I like having… Space around me."
"Yeah, I… I understand" she replied hesitantly in disappointment, all pretenses of a happy and charming demeanor gone from her face to be replaced with a resigned calm, as she looked away briefly to assess the land in front of them.
It was a nice and quiet place, and would be ideal for horses. A much more comfortable and relaxing environment than her cramped apartment where the closest thing she came to a garden was the dying potted plant in her living room.
The bleak look of the grey sky and muddy fields was putting her off slightly, but considering the fact that it was mid-autumn it was only natural. It was a far cry from Washington though. But it was no wonder he didn't want to sell this place. It was so tranquil.
"It's nice out here," she said, breaking the short silence, a slight smile lighting up her face at the thought of living on the country like this. It would no doubt be a challenge for her, but this place held just what she needed: a change of pace.
Too bad he's not selling, Ashland thought bitterly. It was probably a long shot anyway.
Shaking her head as if it would physically propel the thoughts out of her head, she ignored the annoying nagging thought in the darker and more negative parts of her mind and put her signature-smile back on her face in the hopes of seeming like less of a creeper. If that wasn't already too late, her negative side quipped, before her more positive side mentally smothered it, and she was able to put her smiling facade back on.
Will saw the strange woman's face turn blank for a couple of seconds and despite of his empathy, he couldn't really get a good read of her. And then, as soon as the expression had come, it was gone - like she snapped back into reality from whatever thought that had hit her.
It was puzzling. Like reading a book, and then turning to a page that was completely blank, only for the story to pick back up on the next page, leaving you wondering just what the hell the author was thinking. It was both confusing and a tad unsettling.
This woman was a bit of a blank spot on his radar of emotions and motives, and despite how refreshing that would theoretically have been for him it had an annoying side effect of frustrating curiosity. And despite not always being particularly fond of this 'gift' of his, it agitated him to find that he couldn't read her very clearly, even when he was trying.
Not wanting to deal with this bizarre new occurrence of temporary radar-malfunction (because that was surely what it was) Will quickly decided to dismiss both her social blunder and weak attempt to lighten the atmosphere, instead opting for starting a proper conversation with the strange woman, who had somehow found herself parked on his property.
"It has a certain… charm, I suppose. Any specific reason you're looking for land in Wolf Trap? I heard Washington is the more popular alternative. No idea why," the man said, as his eyes shifted towards the muddy fields.
His dry sense of humor had Ashland letting out a small, slightly strained laugh as she knew as well as he did that Wolf Trap was not exactly the dream-area to live in for a young woman like her. She did like the more cultured things in life, no matter how much her messy apartment suggested otherwise - like most females of her age usually did.
"Oh yeah, this place is a real metropolitan area. I mean, why there isn't a Starbucks out here yet, is beyond me," she joked, rubbing her hands together as a cool autumn wind blew by.
She swore it wasn't this cold in the city.
The comment earned her a short chuckle, and a slight smile from the otherwise solemn stranger, which seemed like quite the accomplishment from her current point of view.
Rubbing her hands together one more time, her lips widened into a full grin and she decided now was probably the time to introduce herself.
"Ashland Vodall," she introduced, holding her hand out in greeting. "I'm looking for land as I'm planning on starting up a horse breeding business", she explained as his hand engulfed hers, immediately protecting it from the cold, much to her relief.
"That certainly sounds… like a rather big project. Will Graham, resident dog-collector," he joked again, in that deep, dry tone.
"Then I see why you need the space. Lots of space to roam," Ashland pointed out, taking back her hand to make a general gesture towards the vast amount of space around the two of them.
"For me or the dogs?" he asked, the sliver of a smirk painting itself on his face, as he put his hands back into his pockets, clearly no more immune to the harsh weather than she was.
"Both?" she laughed, mimicking Will and shoving her freezing hands into her pockets.
"Right", he chuckled letting a comfortable silence settle between the two of them.
"You know…" Will started, after a couple of seconds of quiet. "...I was just about to put on some coffee and seeing as you have already discovered that we have yet to have a Starbucks here in Wolf Trap… Well, I was wondering if you wanted to come in for the Wolf Trap take on said franchise?" Will asked, suddenly finding their general surroundings most interesting before settling his gaze nervously on Ashland.
"Provincial Starbucks. Quite the paradox," Ashland remarked with a slightly sarcastic tone to her voice, the smile on her face betraying the humor behind the statement, before continuing "but nonetheless; I'd love a cup of Wolf Trap Starbucks."
He held out his arm towards the house in a 'ladies first' gesture and followed Ashland as she nodded her head slightly and passed him.
'Crisis averted', she thought as she sighed in relief right after having passed Will, unbeknownst to her that Will was doing the exact thing right behind her.
After a few feet Will fell into step with her and sparked the conversation right back up where it had ended not even seconds ago.
"We'd probably have to rename it though. Copyright issues and all."
"Oh, right, they probably wouldn't like you stealing their name and all! How about…" Ashland dragged out, arranging her features into the most dignified thoughtful expression she could muster.
"...Will's Coffee Mill!" Ashland finished, looking half pleased with herself for coming up with a name on a whim, and half ready to burst out into a largely unattractive guffaw at the fact that she had actually managed to come up with a name that rhymed.
"….It rhymes," it came from Will in an amused voice, clearly questioning the name.
"Please, all the best names rhyme" Ashland scoffed, so not impressed with his attitude about the genius, rhyming name she had come up for with him.
"Starbucks Coffee doesn't rhyme," Will answered, raising an eyebrow at her questionable logic.
"And it doesn't even come close to being one of the best names out there," Ashland replied, relishing in their light banter.
"Then I'm sure they wouldn't mind me borrowing their name," came Will's quick retort.
"…I'm still calling this place 'Will's Coffee Mill'," Ashland decided, feeling a bit uncomfortably bold at having skipped over any and all common courtesy regarding the use of his first name, but as long as he didn't seem to mind, she wouldn't either, she decided.
"…I wouldn't really call this place a mill," Will mumbled, looking pointedly around as if to point out the lack of milling facilities in the general area.
"I would't really call this place Starbucks," Ashland muttered back, copying and exaggerating Will's previous actions in jest.
"Does this mean I shouldn't expect you to order a frappuccino?" his dry, sarcastic response came, making Ashland gape amusedly at him, not entirely believing that she had just heard the withdrawn stranger make such a sassily indirect comment about her age and status as 'big town girl'.
"It means I wouldn't expect to get one, even if I ordered one," she quipped back, meeting his challenge head on.
"Are you questioning my ability to make a frappuccino?"
His tone was as mocking as it was teasing.
"No, it means I'm questioning your ability to Starbucks."
A short silence took up the air between the two.
"...Did you just use Starbucks as a verb?"
"…Maybe."
The silence stretched between the two again as Will opened the front door before stepping inside, leaving the door open for Ashland to enter the house.
"Right… Coffee?" Will asked, sliding out of his jacket just as Ashland stepped over the threshold of the door.
"Two sugars, a splash of milk."