Love By Another Name

Fate Has Its Own Plan

Katie sighed as she pushed the trolley ahead of her, lazily looking through the displays of food. With only days until her mother arrived, Finn had gone into full-on freakout mode and Katie had volunteered to take care of the shopping for the week so that it was one less thing for the ginger woman to worry about.

She stopped as she glanced down at the list and then back up, trying to decide which type of pasta was better.

"Katie?"

She looked over, her eyes wide as Taylor walked up to her, smiling. She was sure a blush had come across her cheeks. Merlin, she needed to get herself under control. No matter how she felt about the man, he was Finn's best friend. And muggle. That was too much drama for her, she had decided. They could be friends but nothing more.

"Taylor. Wasn't expecting to run into you," she said, genuinely surprised to see him there. Didn't he live in another neighborhood? Why would he be shopping here?

"Thought I'd pick up provisions before popping by," he said, holding up the bottle of wine in his hand. "She still in a state?"

Katie sighed and nodded.

"She really doesn't care for her mother, does she?" Katie said. Taylor smiled sadly.

"Finn talks a big game, but her mother does appear to be her Kryptonite," he replied. "No matter how successful she is or how good things are, anytime Marguerite comes around, Finn's back to being her closed-up, insecure self."

"She really that bad, huh?" Katie asked. Taylor nodded.

"Marguerite really does know how to inflict a particularly large amount of pain with just a few words," he admitted. Katie nodded, frowning slightly.

"Suppose it's been good you've been stopping by a lot lately. Staying for dinner tonight again?" she asked, hoping he would say yes. He smiled slightly and nodded.

"Figured you'd need reinforcement," he said lightly. "Mind if I help you finish with the shopping?"

"Not at all," Katie replied.

He fell into step with her as they continued on, Katie stopping every so often to put something in the trolley, the two chatting easily. She could see how he and Finn were so close. He really was easy to talk to and appeared to really be listening to her.

"Ehm, since I have you alone, there's something I wanted to ask you," Taylor started. Katie came to a stop, her eyes wide. Was he going to ask her out? Here in the middle of the grocery store? "Just how long do you think you can keep it from Finn?"

Katie's mouth went dry as she fought to figure out what he was talking about. Surely it wasn't magic. He couldn't know, could he?

"I... what?" she asked. Taylor smiled slightly and chuckled.

"You really have been away from the muggle world awhile," he said lightly.

Katie's eyes widened further as she felt the blood drain from her face. Wait. If he knew, did that mean...

"Are you... are you..."

"A wizard? Yes," he said, a casual expression on his face as though they were talking about the weather. "Why do you think Finn and Haley never seem to understand what it is I do for a living? I just go on about numbers and symbols and they tune out. I work in Ancient Runes, actually."

"But you went to muggle university," Katie said, glancing around nervously to make sure no one was listening in.

Though she couldn't help the bit of relief that flowed through her. At least there was one less person she had to keep the secret from.