All the following week, Faith had to force herself to focus on her editing work. It was far from a bad job, at least. She could wear what she wanted to unless there was an online conference, didn't have any annoying co-workers to deal with in person, and could simply do her work with minimal interruptions. The only downside was that Rowan didn't always seem to understand that just because she worked from home didn't mean she didn't still have a schedule to follow. Before she got an at-home position and she had to make a commute and be gone nine hours (sometimes more), she'd had to let her parents look after him, which often resulted in having to come home to their prying remarks about him. It had taken a couple of years of proving herself at work, but she was grateful to now have this position closer to Rowan in the case that an emergency of some sort happened.568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6a3MwJ9RZE
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Fortunately for the both of them, Rowan had taken up cooking as a hobby and was becoming rather good at it, which really helped Faith and gave her a little something to look forward to at meal times. She just hoped he wouldn't notice if she came home with a lot less groceries for the following weeks. 568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtvrZsPdmXZ
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She had ultimately decided that the best way to keep the peace around the house would be to just tell Rowan she was visiting her parents every Friday night. Her parents' house was one place she could think of that Rowan might not want to accompany her to, as he and her parents were still on bad terms.
As for actually visiting her family, Faith had been on the fence about trying again to confront them about accepting Rowan as a part of the family, but not too soon. As much as it all had continued to pain her, she wasn't sure she wanted Aaron or his underlings knowing where her parents lived. 568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWc24Mvlkbw
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When Friday did come and Faith told Rowan the "visiting family" story that evening, he fortunately believed it, though he did look a bit sullen.568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ7SBMRO1HP
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"I think I'll start visiting my parents every Friday night, if--if that's alright. And don't worry, I'll eventually talk some sense into them. I guess they just need time...you know?" 568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIpSmhos3uX
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Rowan stared up at her from the couch, the sadness becoming even more exaggerated on his face. "Um, Faith, you can go do whatever you want. I don't care. I'm just not interested in talking to them or having anything to do with them. That's all."568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ02cvGbxfS
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"No. I'm sick of this, Rowan. I can't keep doing this forever..." She sighed frustratedly, trying to compose herself again. "You know, I really look forward to when we can all just get together and be happy. We just need to be patient, I guess."568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVJPUOlaTjN
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"That'll never happen. Your family's never going to accept me for who I am," Rowan said blankly, staring straight ahead at the wall in front of him and not meeting her eyes. "Just go."568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQw8cEgltEN
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I guess he's having one of his bad days today... Faith thought as she opened the front door to leave. A part of it may have been because she still hadn't gotten back to Sherm about setting up a hang-out day. "I'll be back in a while," she said, more softly this time. Honestly, there were times when Faith was glad to be out of that house, since there was simply no way to comfort him when he was this way, except for time.
At least Sheena had agreed to go with her to Happy Scoops now, and had excitedly gone into detail about her pink pepper spray keychain earlier that week. That was okay. She needed a bit of Sheena's silliness right now.
"Hi!" Sheena grinned at Faith as she came bouncing down the steps of her apartment building and into the parking lot. She flashed her girly mace keychain before climbing into the car, almost playfully, and while Faith wanted to be annoyed at how she was treating this like a girls' night, her warm smile undeniably made her feel more at ease.568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLtCXPQCiEE
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"Ah, just like you promised," Faith commented.568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpJOs6IV6ss
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"Oh, you know it," Sheena said, placing her purse in her lap and pulling her light blonde hair into a bun. "I've got a few things for you, too. Never been opened, and I can't really use them. I've got way too much makeup in my room right now, so I'll just let you have them."
Faith noticed the lilac-colored lipstick, aqua nail polish and smoky eye shadow and knew almost right away that Sheena never had the intention of buying them for herself. This wasn't the first time to happen, but Faith was finally starting to catch on.
"Oh Sheena, you really didn't have to. It wouldn't be right, especially if you got this with Aaron's money." The closest thing Sheena really had to an income of her own was a freelance greeting card business, and even that was mainly just a hobby. The rest was probably from Aaron and/or one of Sheena's relatives.
"I want to, though," Sheena said, and Faith hoped that wasn't pity that she detected in her voice.
"I can buy my own makeup, Sheena. But I mean, I guess if you can't use them..." Faith awkwardly placed the items in her purse, unable to deny that she looked forward to a moment to herself to try them out later. "Well, I guess we'd better get going."
There wasn't much that the two of them could do against a group of thugs, but hopefully if anyone was outside the shop that didn't work there, they would at least recognize Sheena as "the boss's" girlfriend and back off.
"Sheena...if you don't mind telling me now," Faith said as she drove, "what did you mean about being under stress when we were texting last week?"
"Oh...well, it's mostly just my sister pestering me to get a "real job" and stop relying on a man for everything."
I'm gonna have to keep my mouth shut on that one, Faith thought.
"But also...Aaron just seems more distracted nowadays whenever we go out, and sometimes I feel like I'm annoying him. I know he's just trying to keep his business going and it can be tough sometimes, but he won't actually tell me about it."
"Yeah...well, have you tried making him laugh? Keeping things lighthearted until he's ready to tell you?" What are you saying, Faith? This is Aaron we're talking about, not YOUR boyfriend. Faith mainly just needed to keep a steady conversation going until they got to their destination, to keep herself calm.
"Uh, you missed that stop sign back there..."
Faith then had to go into the full story of how she got pulled over and warned not to come to any complete stops in this area, hoping she wouldn't scare Sheena away from going with her for future weeks.
"Ohhh. I'll need to stop lecturing Aaron about doing the same thing, then," Sheena said, even laughing to herself. "I thought he was just being a hot shot and trying to impress me."
"I mean, it could've been that too," Faith said truthfully. Whatever had been bothering Sheena before, at least she still seemed happy on a general level. "Well...here we are."
"Wow...it kinda hits different when we're here at night and it's just us girls, doesn't it?" Sheena said, seeming slightly nervous as she took in the surroundings which were only lit by some cool-white street lamps that were few and far between. "Uh, Faith, you brought a weapon too, right?"
"Why wouldn't I?" Faith replied as she led the way inside, with Sheena's pink pepper spray at the ready. But fortunately, no one appeared to be out here tonight. Just having another living breathing well-intentioned person--and a bit of extra pink-disguised artillery--was enough to make Faith feel more at ease.
When Tracy spotted Sheena and Faith from her perch on one of the bar stools at the counter, she hesitated at first, giving Sheena a thoroughly bitter gaze, then turned to Levi and said, "I'm goin' out for a smoke."
"Alright," Levi answered, warily eyeing Sheena's mace keychain that she'd forgotten to quit waving around once inside. Or perhaps she was just subtly trying to scare Tracy away--one or the other.
"Whoops," Sheena grinned, tucking her keys into her purse.
To Faith's relief, Levi had a sense of humor about him too. Glancing in the direction Tracy had flounced out, he joked, "I think it worked."
Faith guessed Tracy was a handful even for him sometimes. Turning to Sheena, Faith said, "Well, thanks for coming with me. I guess you can hang out here while I go drop this off..."
"Well actually, I kind of wanted to go with you and see how he's doing here. I don't really get to see him at work that often, so--"568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXgV6LaM5UL
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"Hey, um, about that," Levi interjected, looking at the both of them. "You can just leave the money with me this time and I'll give it to the boss later. He's kind of busy right now." A wave of nervousness crossed his face when he said the word 'busy.' 568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWN1avcG3oY
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"Oh...sure." As Faith handed the money to Levi, Sheena remained blissfully ignorant as she looked over the menu. "I'm getting some chocolate. Make it a cone. Faith, do you want anything?"
"Nah. I don't really do sweets." Barely trusting the loans here, she definitely didn't trust the ice cream. If Sheena eats that entire ice cream cone and doesn't act high or get sick afterward, we'll be doing alright. 568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1rBg1gFM7o
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She may not have been hungry, though she did feel like she needed to use the restroom. "Hey uh, Levi. Which way's the ladies' room?"568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmect34IZaM
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"Go in that door at the right side of this counter," he replied, "and it'll be the second door on your right." 568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1RqqOm3gIQ
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"Thanks." After heading down the hall and locating the door, she noticed it wasn't even that well kept inside, but she actually didn't mind. It was easy to want to be alone all over again, once she was safe inside a well-lit building, as opposed to being out in the dark where anyone could pop up from out of nowhere and mug her, or worse. Really, it was nice--no Rowan keeping her busy with his many problems, no Levi or Tracy watching her--it was just Faith. 568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4dHJ4R6rf1
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Once she was done and had stepped back into the hall, however, she knew she needed to get back to the front and wait for Sheena to finish her nighttime snack, and she didn't want to know what Levi had meant by 'busy', but at the same time, and very much against her better judgment...she did. 568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2nW5rvvqQe
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Using her phone as a flashlight, she looked for any other doors further down. She figured that if she was caught, she could always claim that she dropped something out of her purse and was looking for it.
She spotted two other doors down this hall: the one at the far end that Tracy had showed her to last week, and a middle one closer to her, marked "storage". As she inched closer to Aaron's office door, which was the only one that had any light coming out from under it, she began to notice a loud female voice along with Aaron's voice, both being raised at each other, and it wasn't Tracy's or Sheena's. At first it sounded like the female voice was laughing, but when she listened closer...she realized the voice was crying.568Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbV3wYk3bKR
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