As for Buffy"s boutique, she had branches in Denver, Tucsan, Providence, Austin, Boston, Manhattan, Chicago, and Hartford, as well as Sunnydale, and two in San Francisco...one in the mall, the other one independent from said mall. As far as each store was concerned, she decorated all of them like she did her house...salmon pink exterior, charcoal roof, window hignes, doors, and carpetting, as well as forest green leather furniture, with track lighting in the change rooms and above the cash registers. Despite the fact that all of her sisters were doctors, their husbands ranging from engineers, college professors, lawyers, and dentists, she was very successful in her own right. At each location, wanting only 10 for now, she had 5 photographers, 5 videographers, 5 musicians (flute, saxaphone, harp, acoustic guitar, and grand piano), 2 truck drivers for various deliveries with in the state limits, as well as 3 sales clerks, who also acted as manager, assistant manager, and third key. Even though Buffy had the master key to each location, she was smart enough to have three sets of keys for each store, just in case.
In her home, she has the original copy of all of the different packages she offers for the different formal and semi-formal occasions. The minimal notice she would need for any ocassion was 30 days prior to the event, with 5 of the total cost up front, for good faith on the part of the celebrant. Once her services were booked and the money was paid, she was at the celebrant's beck-and-call, mostly through fax and e-mail, 7 of her stores weren't in California.
A year later
Being called to Newark, thankful that she had just finished with her last appointment, a big socialite son's bar mitzvah, she took Alden with her, seeing as it was a long weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn't a happy occasion...it was a funeral for Jennifer Trent Skylar and Jason Skylar. According to the family, Jennifer had been having an affair with the son of a Russian mobster. When she tried to break it off, after discovering that she was pregnant with Jason's fourth child, he kidnapped them, burning their entire house and contents to a crisp. Thank goodness Jensen and Jared, ages 5 and 2, were with Jennifer's parents at the time.
Since everything was destroyed in both explosion and fire, all that was left was what was in the safety deposit box and the two children. In the safety deposit box were 2 bundles of letters...from Jennifer to Buffy and vice versa, a small box of labelled negatives, and the original copy of the insurance policies and will. Taking the letters and the negatives, placing them in her bag right away, she went to the insurance company handling the policies as sole beneficiary. Jason's parents had died when he was 10, Jennifer wasn't close with her parents, and both were each an only child, which left Buffy. In the will, they had said that they wanted Buffy to take the children, immediate adoption. Spending a week in Newark, sending Alden back to California on Sunday night, she came home with her two newly adopted sons.
It took a while for Alden to get used to Jensen and Jared living in the house, seeing as the age difference was so big, but they eventually got to like each other as brothers. While Jared called her mommy a couple of weeks in, it took Jensen a little longer. But that didn't matter. As long as he respected her as his mom, the fact that he didn't call her mommy wasn't a problem.