"Just shine like you always do."
Gwenn Davidson has always known she was adopted, but after clearing up her stuff for her first move out of her parent's house, she finds an old blanket gifted to her by her birth mother that triggers an avalanche of...
"IT'S NOT WHAT YOU think," Gwenn began. Aura raised an eyebrow, sauntering into her kitchen with a confident ease and grabbing a glass from the cupboard.
"So he wasn't at your apartment calling you cutesy names?" Aura retorted, going to her fridge to pour fresh water from the dispenser. "Or just about to kiss you before leaving but hesitated?"
Gwenn gawked, stammering in her response. "Kiss me?" she let out in shock. "No, no, no. Okay, that's- that's not what this is."
Aura took a sip of water, unconcerned by the glossy residue on the edge of the glass. "Please, that man was about to swallow you whole and then remembered I was there." She set the glass down on the counter, narrowing her eyes at her as she crossed her arms across her chest. "You cannot deny what I see. You know I have the sight."
Gwenn chuckled. "Aura, there is nothing to see here." Rather than being subject to the uncomfortable Aura Chandler 'I can see right through you' death stare, she trudged into her kitchen and pulled out a box of strawberries, anything to keep her hands busy.
"Then why was that gorgeous man in your apartment?" her friend inquired.
Her fingers shook over the red fruit, accidentally breaking apart half a top with her nails. The fact that Aura had found him attractive settled warmly in her stomach, thundering and swirling about. Other women who looked at him saw it too, she was certain of it. She picked again at the strawberry, feigning indifference but wanting to burst from the inside.
"I'm tutoring him," Gwenn confessed. "He's in my abnormal psychology class and asked for help."
Aura gave a low hum, digesting her words. The sound traveled into her ears, worming its way to her chest. She knew what that exact frequency meant without her having to voice it with words: Aura sensed there was more to the story.
"We struck a deal," Gwenn blurted out. "It would benefit both of us." Flashes of her telling Ronan not to dare tell anyone about their exchange of services, but this was Aura, her best friend. It was impossible to lie to her, especially after she had caught them.
Her best friend gasped. "Are you two fake dating? Or you started fake dating and now you're catching feelings? You didn't tell him your couch turns into a bed, right? There's only one bed here, G. One bed."
The bite of strawberry in her mouth struggled to go down as she laughed. "Aura, we are not fake dating. I'm tutoring him because this dude was failing the class." She kept to herself the time Ronan pretended to be married to her at A Chosen Bond, but that would prompt way too much squealing. Her neighbors would complain to the front desk in no time.
"But there was an exchange," Aura pointed out, walking to the other side of the counter and plopping down on one of the stools. "So what is it?"
She sighed, knowing she would not be able to withhold the truth. "Do you remember that guy that gave me my boss's phone number at The Cream Accent?" She waited for Aura to recall Arthur Lovett on that crazed evening where they all hounded Sierra for pumpkin spice lattes.
"The one that looked miserable?" Aura quipped. Gwenn nodded. "Wait, he gave you your boss's son's phone number after you said you wanted to find your birth mom."
Gwenn munched on the remaining strawberry, avoiding her gaze. "Guess who's my boss's son."
Aura smacked her forehead hard. "Oh my gosh! That miserable guy had said it at the café. Ronan King. Holy...that's him?"
"The one and only," she mumbled.
"So...Gwenn, are you looking for your birth mom? Is that the exchange?"
Gwenn ripped the top of another strawberry. "Yes," she whispered. "And we're so close, A. He's really helped me so much, but no one else knows about this."
Aura stared at her for a second, taking in the weight of her words. "What do you mean no one?"
"My parents cannot find out," she warned. Aura blinked a few times, staring down at her glass of half-filled water. "My mother would throw a fit. I'm trying to keep things calm. I want to meet my biological mother, answer the questions I have, and move on with my life without anyone knowing."
Gwenn spaced out, looking out of the window on the far end of the living room. The afternoon sun filtered onto the room, making everything glow golden. It reminded her of her mother fawning over how nice the sunsets would look when they first checked the apartment before her move at the end of summer. Her mother had been so involved in every major decision of her life, but now so many pieces of her chessboard were moving without her knowing.
She had started a new game without supervision, one she wasn't sure if she was even winning.
"So you're keeping Ronan a secret from your parents?" Aura summarized.
Gwenn nodded. "It was supposed to be a secret from everybody." She gave a pointed stare at her friend sipping her water.
Her little snide comment didn't even faze Aura. "So you're spending a lot of time with the gorgeous Ronan King, and you're gonna tell me that there's absolutely nothing between you?"
Gwenn pursed her lips, suppressing a groan while trying to keep the heat from traveling up her neck. Their last feverish encounter lit with red and blue came back, and she almost puked at the thought of having liked it.
"Ah," Aura tipped her glass to her lips, smirk ever present. She gulped a tiny sip. "You are attracted to Mr. Tattoos." She said it like it was a fact, with no hesitation.
"I am just helping him pass psych," Gwenn offered, not liking how their relationship could be summed up. They had gone through so much trouble trying to find her biological mother and helping him pass the class. It couldn't possibly just be that between them. But she knew in her heart that it was true.
They had kissed to get out of trouble. Otherwise, Ronan would have never dared get that close to her. Whenever they were forced together, they were hiding and hoping to not get caught, or de-stressing from a long, arduous study session.
She picked at another strawberry, her stomach churning in protest. "That's all there is to it."
Aura finished her water and dropped the glass with a firm clank. "Maybe that's all it is for you, but it's most certainly not for him. You know me, G, I can sense these things. Or should I say, honey?"
Gwenn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "He wants to pass the class. That's the extent of our relationship."
"Whatever you say," Aura sang as she walked back into her kitchen, heading for the sink. "I know he'll be tangled up in you very soon."
The idea shocked her, and she didn't know how to respond. Her friend laughed as she proceeded to wash the glass she used. Before she could even try to respond, her phone pinged from the living room. Her heart leapt, hoping that maybe Ronan had messaged her already. Then she chastised herself for thinking that. She needed to stop thinking so much about him.
However, when she reached for her phone, those giddy fluttering butterflies disintegrated into ashes inside her stomach, and the strawberries she had snacked on rumbled as if they wanted to come back out the way they came from.
Wolf: Meet me in the alleyway by Birchfield now.
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