A/N Hello, readers! Its been forever since I've posted something on this story. So, this chapter was going to be longer, but I feel bad taking so long that I've decided to just give you guys this shorter chapter to tie you over for whenever I finish what was supposed to be the rest of chapter 9 (it would have been pretty long with this included.)

Enjoy!

November 5, 2007

Monday morning had arrived too early for Lawrence as he parked his car in front of Ravensburrow and Evans. It was his first day back at work since his father's death.

And his first day as the owner of Ravensburrow and Evans: Spells and Potions.

Lawrence wasn't sure if he was ready to run the company on his own. He was only twenty years old, after all. Most twenty year olds were still in school, pursuing an education in order to start their careers and make a name out of themselves. Some twenty year olds were in school with no plans or ideas in mind for their futures. Other twenty year olds started working right after high school, or did not even finish high school.

Other twenty year olds started a business and then counted down the days until their girlfriend's eighteenth birthday, so that they could get married and she could help run what would become the family business.

That's what Lawrence's father had done when he was twenty.

This thought process made Lawrence feel guilty about his hesitancy to take over the company. He knew what his parents had sacrificed at such a young age to build this legacy that they had left behind for him, and it was time to face it head on. It was time for him to follow in his parents' footsteps and make them proud.

Lawrence took a deep breath and opened the car door. It was time. He got out and faced the building.

From the outside, the gray building that made up Ravensburrow and Evans was not impressive. It was a short little building on Avery Street, nestled between a bakery and a woodcrafts store. The typical small town stuff.

The inside, on the other hand, was impressive. Lawrence opened the door to display the high vaulted ceiling, lined with large, framed photographs, boasting Ravensburrow and Evans's talented Specialists. There were grand bannisters that lead to the offices and rooms upstairs. Wrought iron chandeliers were suspended from the ceiling, holding realistic, but fake, candles that lit the room up a bit, but the lobby's more useful light came from the floor to ceiling windows that lined both the left and right wall.

It was always fun to stand in the lobby and wait for first-time customers to gasp at the surprise in store for them, muttering about how 'it's bigger on the inside.' The size of the inside of the shop still took even his breath away each time he walked in.

It was one of the advantages of working with many talented witches, wizards, sorcerers, or whatever they decided to call themselves. The titles seemed to be interchangeable.

"You're late." A thick Jersey accented voice spoke. It was not a question. Lawrence looked across the room to see Natasha behind her front desk. She was looking up at him from behind her computer screen with a bored expression on her face. Her long, hot pink nails click-clacked against the wooden desk instead of her keys as she stared at him in disinterest.

"I had trouble getting out of bed this morning." Lawrence shrugged.

"Your aunt had no problem getting in here on time, Mr. Boss Man." Lawrence winced. Natasha rolled her eyes and started shuffling through papers on her desk.

"Here's your schedule for the day, Lawrence." she handed him a paper, which Lawrence looked over quickly and was happy to note that he should not be expecting anyone for at least an hour.

"Thanks, Natasha." He turned to head up the staircase that would lead to his new office.

"Oh, Lawrence?"

"Yeah?"

"Your 4:20 appointment is already waiting for you upstairs." Natasha smirked as if she had said something clever. She was not as clever as she would like to think.

"Thanks, Natasha." he grimaced before he left for the stairs without looking back. He wasn't in the mood for this.

The key did not want to slide into the lock. Lawrence rolled his eyes and pushed the key in harder, but it wouldn't budge.

What the hell is wrong with this stupid key?

He tried again and again before sighing loudly. Why was this happening today? It was his first day in charge of the company and not only was he late, he couldn't unlock his own office door.

"Is everything alright, Lawrence?" a soft voice inquired. He snapped his gaze to see who was speaking to him. It was only Jen from the Divination Department. Jen looked more like she belonged in a library shelving books than she an intern of the Divination Department.

"Yeah, I'm fine." he fought to keep his irritation out of his voice. Jen did not deserve his irritation. She was only being friendly.

"Have you tried flipping the key around to make sure you are putting it in the right way?" she asked, wringing her hands together.

"Of course I'm putting it in the right way!" It was getting harder to keep the annoyance down. Jen shrank away, her eyes widening at the sudden outburst. She schooled herself and offered a small, almost teasing smile.

"Maybe you should check again."

Lawrence rolled his eyes and pulled the key out of the lock to show Jen, that he was doing it the right way.

"See? I'm holding it the right way...wait." Jen's smile grew as Lawrence looked closer at the key to see that he was, in fact, holding it upside down. He froze, embarrassed and unsure what to do as Jen kept smiling as if she were trying to hold back a giggle.

"I sensed that you would have a hard time today, Lawrence. I only wished to help." she explained though she didn't quite meet his gaze.

"Thanks, Jen." he mumbled as he turned the key around and quickly shoved it into the lock. He couldn't get out of the hall and into his office quick enough.

He let out a breath, sagging against the door and shutting his eyes once he had shut himself inside. He had never been so embarrassed.

"Wow, rough day already? You haven't even gotten started yet, kid!" His eyes immediately shot open. Sam. She was sitting in his chair with her ankles crossed on top of his desk and her hands folded behind her head.

Your 4:20 appointment is already waiting for you upstairs. He had already forgotten, yet here she was. She was as beautiful as ever as she lounged in his chair, her long blond hair was fanned out on the fabric of the chair and her combat boots were propped dangerously close to his keyboard. The holes in her jeans stretched over her bent knees and the hem of her gray t-shirt had rid up, exposing her stomach, though her black jacket was helping to cover what it could. Not that she cared if the skin was showing.

He hadn't noticed until a moment ago that she had a joint resting in the curl of her lip, a lazy smile on her face. The black eyeliner around her eyes may have amplified the green of her eyes, but it wasn't necessary to show off what he had already noticed in them.

He really should have smelled her before he saw her.

"I can't believe you brought weed in here." A half-hearted statement. Neither would actually believe that she would not sneak a joint into a place of business.

"Who was that outside, babe?"

"Oh, just Jen checking in on me. She had a feeling that I might be having a hard time." Sam snorted.

"Doesn't take a psychic to see that."

"Is that jealousy I hear?" he questioned, suddenly amused. The dread that had been clinging to him like a wet pair of jeans seemed to slip away as he crossed the room to take a seat opposite of Sam. He internally scolded himself. You have to talk to her! Don't let her charm you into a good mood so easily!

"Oh, please. I don't have to worry about that. She isn't your type."

"I wasn't aware that I had a type." he didn't notice how he had leaned toward her slightly. Stupid, stupid!

"You do." she nodded assuringly.

"And what would my type of girl be?"

"Me." Now Lawrence rolled his eyes.

"Really?" He made no attempt to hide his sarcasm.

"Yeah, babe," she grinned and removed her feet from the desk and scootched the chair closer, "we only have eyes for each other. If we ever split, you wouldn't be able to ever forget me or move on to someone else."

"You're pretty damn full of yourself today, Sam."

"Don't worry. I've saved room for you. There's always room for you, babe." now she was leaning over the desk. The neckline of her t-shirt had bunched, showing off a little cleavage. Normally, that would have done him in. He should not have even flirted with her this much. He had been wanting to talk to her for days. He couldn't lose his chance now that he was with her.

"You missed my dad's funeral." Her eyes snapped from his lips and her good mood evaporated. She sighed as she pulled away, wincing.

"Look, I'm sorry that I wasn't there, okay? I get that this is one of the worst weeks of your life, dude, but I can't just drop everything to be with you. I have my own responsibilities to handle, too."

"You were hungover that day, weren't you?" she hesitated one beat to long, averting her gaze. Lawrence sighed loudly.

"I respect that you make your own life choices, but you have to stop. You aren't even old enough to drink!"

"It was Halloween." but he could hear that her heart wasn't in it. It was a half assed excuse and she knew it. "You're right." she whispered defeatedly, hanging her head.

Lawrence's stomach clenched as he heard her confession. He wanted to reach out and hold her hand, caress her cheek, do something.

Not yet. I'm not done yet.

"I thought you would always be there for me in the same way that I've always been there for you. Now I don't know what to think." Her head snapped up, eyes wide.

"Lawrence, I know I messed up, but I promise that I will always be there for you."

"But you've already broken that promise!"

"That's why I'm here now! I want to make it up to you for not being there right away like I should have been. You have to trust me when I say that I feel awful about how I acted that night, but I didn't want to face you or your family at the funeral when I felt like shit. A hungover girlfriend doesn't make the best impression."

"A missing girlfriend doesn't make a good impression, either." only there was no malice in the comment now, and Sam picked up on it.

"I'm not missing anymore, though, am I." she smiled, and Lawrence felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards as well. This was why he had wanted to talk to her. No matter how bad things were, Sam always found a way to make him smile.

"There it is! There's that smile I love!" one time she had told him that she would make it her goal to make him smile so much that his face got stuck that way so that she could see it on him forever.

"It feels good to smile again." he admitted to her.

"How's Millie holding up?"

"Surprisingly well." Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Her faith?"

"Yeah, believing in God seems to be helping her cope a lot."

"Ok, that's good." she nodded, "And you?"

"Not so well."

"Your lack of faith?"

"No, you know that I believe in God."

"You believe that God exists, but you don't love him like your sister and your dad do." she amended.

"Close enough."

"That's understandable, though."

"I guess." They sat in silence.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"I have an hour before my next appointment."

"That's not what I meant."

"What did you mean?"

"You own a company now. A big company. How are you going to handle that?"

"I don't know."

"You should have gone to college to major in Business."

"I dropped out of college."

"I know. You can always go back and take some business classes."

"Maybe I should have just changed my major from Chemistry to Business."

"Yeah, I don't know why you wanted to major in chemistry, anyway. You don't have your dad's passion or skill for it." he wanted to fight her, give her a reason for his choices, but the words froze up in his throat. She was right, after all.

"But I don't have that kind of time, Sam. I need to know how to keep employees in line and keep the business from losing money now."

"That's another thing I wanted to talk to you about."

"What?"

"I was thinking that maybe I should apply and take business classes at the community college."

"You would do that?" he asked, incredulously.

"I told you that I would always be there to help you. I thought that that would be a good way to start."

"What about your own education?"

"There's nothing out there that interests me."

"So scraping by as a waitress is a great alternative." She feigned a dark look.

"Watch it, kid. I'm saving your ass here." He couldn't help it. He laughed at that.

"I appreciate the sentiment, really. But you flunked out of high school. How do you expect to pass college?"

"This is different." she was dead serious. It frightened him. She had never taken education seriously.

"How?"

"Because now I have a purpose, a goal. In high school I didn't give a fuck about my classes or grades, but you?" she trailed off, a far away look in her eyes. He reached out and softly laid a hand over one of hers across the desk.

"Me?" he prompted. She met his eyes with a look that pierced through his soul, making his heart clench in his chest.

"I would do anything for you and your family, our family." He drank in that look in her eyes, those words she had spoken. He wished he could capture this rare moment forever, so that he could replay it every day.

"I don't know what to say." He finally responded because he believed her. Sam had an unattainable determination. If she said that she would do this for him, then she would. He had confessed his love to her before, and she had returned it, but this felt different, deeper than any confession he could speak. She shrugged as if what she had said was not a big deal.

"It's too late to take any classes this fall. I would have to wait until the spring semester." he felt his growing hope shatter.

"What will we do until then?"

"I don't know." Lawrence gathered his face in his hands.

"I don't want to destroy this company." He felt her hand on his back, rubbing slow patterns. He leaned into her, soaking in any comfort he could get.

"You won't. We'll find a way." He wanted to believe her so badly.

A/N Yay! I've been waiting to introduce Sam to you all! I hope you liked this chapter! I've got the beginning of the next chapter started, so maybe it won't be too long until the next update.

Please review!