With all the drama going on in their lives the girls hadn't considered having to explain to Aria's parents about their current living situation and why it had changed. It didn't even cross their minds until Christmas Eve day when Aria's parent's text her to ask for her address.
"Oh… My…God!" Aria had said.
"What?" Branwen asked, looking up from making breakfast to stare at her roommate.
Aria had looked over at Branwen, freaking out on the inside but still in shock on the outside. "My parents are coming tomorrow."
"Tomorrow is Christmas." Branwen smiled, not understanding.
"My parents are coming here, to our apartment above the club we work in wearing next to nothing to spend the day when the last they heard we were living in a condo. Said condo is now burned to the ground. How are we supposed to break these things to my parents without them going into cardiac arrest?"
Aria watched the wash of reactions play across Branwen's usually unreadable face. Thankfully Branwen did better in emergencies than Aria did because where Aria was doing her best not to have a panic attack, Branwen slowly put down the knife she was using and smiled softly.
"Don't worry. I'll take care of it. Just don't message them back until I get back." Branwen slipped on her shoes and picked her keys up from the counter before slipping her coat on. "I will be back in a little while. Just pretend your phone is dead."
Aria watched her open the door before her shock passed. "Wait, where are you going?"
Branwen smiled. "To save our asses at great personal cost. Now don't screw up my sacrifice before I get back."
And with that she disappeared. For TWO HOURS! Aria paced, hyperventilated, stared at her phone and finished preparing supper in the time it took for Branwen to get back. And heaven forbid Branwen explain herself when she got back.
She came in, shivering, and complaining about the snow before handing Aria a piece of paper. "Text that address to you parents." Putting her things on the stool by the door Branwen smiled at supper. "That looks great. We should pack it up, though. We're going to need to take stuff with us to make it look legit and we'll want to get used to it so it looks like we've been there a while."
Ignoring the piece of paper, Aria crossed her arms and shifted her weight, looking at Branwen expectantly. When Branwen only looked back, Aria muttered, "Explain yourself."
"I got us a place for the holidays that is coming pre-decorated, is similar enough to our old one to pass off in case they remember anything we told them about our last one and all we have to do is move our stuff over. It even has food in the fridge."
"That's great." Aria said, sarcastically. "But it's not an explanation." Then Aria had a suspicion that didn't sit well. "Did you use to get this for us?" she asked, holding up the paper.
Branwen rolled her eyes as she packed their supper in Tupperware. "Like I would do that."
It was true. Branwen didn't use much. She didn't like the idea of using. She thought it corrupted and made people lazy. Aria had seen Branwen use on very few occasions and it was always in the case of emergencies… like falling through the air from a second floor balcony.
"Then what the…" Aria started but Branwen glared at her.
"I told you," Branwen said, "I took care of it. I called in a favour and now you need to stop interrogating me and get your shit together so we can head over there. Can you do that or should I leave without you?"
Rolling her eyes, Aria mocked Branwen as she headed to her room. She sent her parents a quick text and apologized for it taking so long to get back to them. Her excuse being she couldn't find her charger. True to form they told her that her room better be clean by the time they got there. Smiling, Aria pulled her things out and piled them on her bed. She wondered if she should be bringing towels and pillows and all that but when she went to ask Branwen, there was only a duffle bag by the door and Branwen was putting their dinner in another bag.
So, going through the apartment and making sure she had the essentials she would need for the next two days, Aria got her things together and followed Branwen to the parking lot. They had to drive both their cars over to make it look legit and When Aria pulled her Mazda into the two-car garage on the main level, she had to wonder at what kind of favour Branwen had pulled.
The whole house, which was more townhouse than condo, was decorated with lights and even window displays. They entered through the garage but trekked back to the front door anyway so they could hang their coats in the foyer closet. They opened the only other door on that level to find a fully furnished guest suite with its own bathroom.
Next they went up the stairs to the second level. It had a living room, dining room, kitchen, powder room and study. They were all furnished. Nicely. Even the kitchen had dishes and food and Branwen commented that they'd have to memorize where all the dishes were. Aria sighed. They had just finished exams, she didn't want to study more.
The third floor had a loft and two master suites. They chose the ones that suited their style best and split up to unpack their things. The more places Aria looked the more she wondered how Branwen had pulled it off. The living room even had a fully decorated Christmas tree. There were little holiday decorations placed in all the right places.
Aria opened the closet to put her clothes away and found a closet full already in there. She looked closer at them and frowned. They were in her size. She even liked quite a bit of it. Something was wrong. It had to be.
Setting her things down, Aria went to Branwen's room to get some real answers but as she approached the slightly open door, she heard Branwen speaking to someone. Getting closer to the crack in the door, Aria strained to hear what was being said.
"… I told you just the basics." Branwen was saying to someone on the phone. "I am grateful but I need things to be realistic. This isn't exactly something we would normally afford." Branwen scoffed. "I can't say that. I'm serious. This is above and beyond what I asked." Aria watched Branwen's reflection in the mirror of the vanity in her room. Her face was turned away at first but as she got up to pace, Aria saw the furrowed brow and teeth biting into Branwen's bottom lip. A sure sign Branwen was stressed.
Branwen sighed and closed her eyes. "I understand that since you're doing me a favour you're allowed to help in the way you choose, but I have to be sure I can afford to pay the favour back. I have boundaries."
Aria really wanted to get up and tell whoever was on the phone to go shove his favours but clearly Branwen had done something big to make sure Aria's parents didn't worry about them and Aria didn't want to screw it up if it would only make it worse. She also didn't want to explain to her parents that the coven her parents still were a part of were responsible for their daughter almost being homeless. Aria wasn't happy with the coven but she didn't want them striking at her parents either.
Branwen's tone of voice drew Aria's attention. "Respect goes both ways, Nathan. Like I said, I am grateful for what you've done, even if I didn't ask for it all, but I will not be railroaded with generosity when it has strings attached. So if my boundaries are going to be a problem, tell me and I will leave now."
Don't push her, Aria thought. Whoever this Nathan was he didn't realize that Branwen was not one to be led or intimidated. Aria almost felt like pumping her fist in the air to show support for Branwen, but since she was eavesdropping behind the door, that probably wouldn't be a good idea.
"I'm glad." Branwen said. "I should finish getting unpacked. I have a house to memorize before tomorrow."
As Branwen said goodbye, Aria crept back to her room. Yes, she still wanted to know who Nathan was and what kind of deal Branwen had made, but she also didn't want to put more on her best friend. Especially not with everything they had to pull off.
So, going into her temporary room, Aria hung up her clothes, threw her bag into the bottom of the closet and closed the doors.
After saying goodbye to Aria's parents on boxing day and spending the next day putting the house back in perfect order, the last thing Branwen had wanted was to open the door on the 28th and find Nathan Gregory standing there. Sure, it was great that he had timed it during Aria's shift so she wasn't home, but it was still an added stressor. "What the…"
"Won't you invite me in?" Nathan asked, his slight southern accent immediately noticeable.
Branwen stepped back so he could enter. "It is your house."
He smiled, his perfect white teeth practically sparkling. "Well, right now it's yours."
Taking his coat, Branwen hung it up and walked up to the living room with Nathan. She offered him a drink but he waved her off. He walked over to the tree and smiled, touching a finger to the star on top. Something Branwen, at 5'4", would have required a step ladder to do. For Nathan, reaching almost 6'5", it was like child's play. Everything was.
Branwen doubted Nathan had ever been told he couldn't have something. At least not until he'd met Branwen. Not that he'd listened. He'd expected her to swoon. And she had gotten a little intoxicated by him, but she wasn't what he'd expected.
She had met Nathan when she'd moved to Texas with her mother. Another spying trip. On Nathan's coven. Only this coven wasn't exiled so they knew they were being evaluated and had invited in Branwen and her mother as guests. It had been a big change considering they had gone straight there after Ipswich.
But Nathan was just as spoiled and idolized at the Sons of Ipswich had been. He was a star and he wasn't afraid to act like it. And Branwen had transferred all her rebellious hero worship from one bad boy to the next. And Nathan had eaten it up. He had showed off for her and drove her around like she was the queen. But he'd thought that once he had her on his arm she would stay there and do as he suggested.
Well he learned quickly that wasn't who Branwen was. And when she left with her mother he hadn't been happy about it. But when she'd left the coven, he'd contacted her. He'd kept his distance but insisted that he wanted to remain friends and that she could call him if ever she needed anything.
It had left a bitter taste in her mouth to ask him for a favour, but he had the resources she'd needed.
"Funny how far the holiday season has evolved." He said.
Too stressed to deal with small talk, Branwen sighed. "Why are you here, Nathan?"
He turned, his eyes sliding over her before meeting hers. "It's the holidays. Is that not the time friends are supposed to visit?"
God, he almost said friends the way Pogue did and the idea of anyone saying it like that other than Pogue, let alone Nathan, had Branwen's stomach clenching. "Most call ahead."
He smiled. "Had I called ahead would you have let me visit?"
No. But instead of saying that she posed a question of her own. "Are you really going to try and tell me that this visit is simply a holiday visit?"
Again, he smiled. He took a step towards her and put his hands in his pockets. "I wanted to have a talk about our agreement."
"I told you I have boundaries, Nathan. Our agreement was supposed to be final." This was exactly why she didn't like relying on others. She didn't like owing favours or others having a say in what she did. It could too easily be used against her.
"It's not like that." He said, sitting down and motioning for her to sit as well. She shook her head and he smiled. "I'm not asking for payment, at least not of that sort. I have a problem and I need your help and I was hoping that we could negotiate. I'm prepared to let you and Aria stay here for the foreseeable future."
Branwen sat. The apartment above the club was fine. The only problems being that it could get a little noisy, it wasn't soothing colour-wise the way Roger had it decorated and despite saying he wouldn't, Roger was now asking them to pick up shifts all the time because they were right there. Branwen had suspected that might be a problem eventually, she'd just hoped they would be able to get out before it happened. In comparison, the town-home was fully furnished in neutral colours they could live with, it was in a quiet neighbourhood closer to school and Roger wouldn't know their every move anymore.
The problem was that the town-home was a great deal more expensive than even their own condo had been. Unlike Nathan, Branwen didn't have family money to rely on. She couldn't afford a place like this. At least not in real money. So the question was what exactly did Nathan need in exchange.
"What is it that you need from me?" Branwen asked, bracing herself for any number of answers, but not quite the one had gave her.
"I need a wife."
Branwen actually laughed until Nathan didn't join in. Then she raged. "What the…" no, don't ask questions you didn't want the answers to. "You have the nerve to suggest I should marry you just so I can live here? Are you insane?" She got up and left the room, heading to the kitchen because suddenly her mouth was dry. You sleep with a guy years ago and then ask one little favour and he thinks he can just ask anything of you.
He had the nerve to saunter into the kitchen as she poured herself a glass of water. She didn't give much thought to the fact that she had just finished the dishes and would have to wash it again. After all, she was much closer to throwing it at his head.
He looked amused at her outrage and she downed the last of the water before throwing the glass at him. The unfortunate thing about fighting with other witches was that they had powers too. Nathan's dark blue eyes shone a little too brightly and the glass slowed its movement and sat itself on the counter. Branwen considered throwing more but Nathan was very powerful and skilled and it would be a useless and childish effort.
So she settled for letting him walk up to stand in front of her and when he did that same thing he used to all those years ago, trailing the back of his knuckles down her cheek, she charged herself with full force and let go. Nathan shot across the room and crumpled against the wall. Branwen smiled, satisfied with her rebuttal.
He didn't know she could do that. She'd learned it about a year after she left his coven. Sure, it was a little dramatic, but she absolutely hated that knuckle thing. It was like he was testing her temperature or something. There was just something about it that seemed condescending. Or maybe that was just Nathan. Either way, she was in no mood to put up with his pathetic caresses. They weren't like the way Pogue would rest his open hand against her face, caressing her lip with his thumb and sinking the tips of his fingers into her hairline. She liked the feel of his hands on her. His hands were imperfect, with burns and calluses where he'd worked on his bike.
Nathan hadn't needed to work with his hands a day in his pampered life. Which was ironic, because Pogue's family probably had way more money. It said something about a person's character when they worked hard despite not having to.
It also said something that she was thinking about Pogue. She really needed to stop that until she could figure out what the hell she was supposed to do with those feelings she wasn't supposed to be having. Not to mention the darkling.
"Well, seems you've learned some things." Nathan said, shaking his head, dusting himself off and getting up. It seemed he'd also learned some things, because he didn't try to approach her.
Leveling a glare at him, Branwen slowly walked towards him. "I am very grateful you helped me out with the house for the holidays. But I think it is important for you to know that despite our past and the favour you did for me, I am not some young girl who will let you walk over her and show your affections when you see fit. I am no longer some weak child. That means I will not be intimidated, seduced or forced into doing anything I do not feel like doing. And you certainly will not touch me without my permission. Are we clear?"
His eyes softened and he gave what almost appeared to be a sincere smile. "You were never weak, Branwen."
Yes she had been. If she had been as strong as she'd needed to be she would have done a lot of things different. Shockingly enough she realized Nathan might not be one of those things. Shaking off the uncomfortable feelings of sentimentality, Branwen took another step forward. "I said, are we clear?"
Slowly, Nathan nodded. "On that, we are clear. However, I would like to clear up something else. Will you let me explain myself?"
There weren't many interpretations of "I need a wife", so she didn't see him digging himself out of that hole, but she owed him a favour. So, against her better judgement, she ignored the arrogant, self-concerned Nathan and allowed the good-hearted boy she had once been friends with to explain. She motioned for him to sit at the table. "What the hell, explain away."