Re: Complicated Affair (CHMD XO,UC,Mature) Ch 8 5/20/14
Posted: Sun May 17, 2015 8:03 pm
Note: Ch 10 is almost done and I have the next few chapters plotted out and I'm eager to get writing on those. A Charmed marathon really helps get the creative juices flowing. Here is the next chapter. Hope everyone enjoys.
Chapter 9
The twenty minute drive from the Halliwell’s to Maria’s passed quickly. She called to make sure her friend was up and wanted visitors before dropping in, with Maria being a brand new owner of a struggling club, she worked a lot of nights, then with her part time job at a local clothing store, and then doing research for and writing her music column for The Bay Mirror, Maria spent most of her free time sleeping.
With a skip in her step she rang the doorbell to Maria’s. Her friend was all smiles when she opened the door. “Hey,” She gave Liz a hug and moved aside to let her in. “Welcome to the chaos, girl.”
Chaos was right. The living room was covered in so much paper products that Liz wondered how many forests were residing in the home. “You know we have these things called computers now.” She teased gently.
“Ha ha. Very funny. Remind me why I thought it was a good idea to try to save a failing club?”
“Because you love music and you had some great ideas to turn the fate of that place around, which are starting to pay off.” Liz explained what Maria already knew; she just needed someone else to say it every now and again.
Leaning against the door jam separating the hallway from the living room Maria tossed the dish towel she held over her shoulder and crossed her arms. “Fine, use my own words against me.” She grinned, “Last night we nearly broke even.”
“That’s great.” That deserved another hug which Maria happily accepted. “See you can do this. You’re kicking ass babe and just you wait, soon you’ll be kicking P3’s numbers.”
“Shouldn’t you be upset at that? It’s your cousin’s club you’re hoping I beat.” Maria pointed out.
Liz shrugged. “No contest, best friend I’ve known for over half my life who’s been more like a sister, or blood family I only met a few years ago. No brainer.”
“Wouldn’t advertise that to the sisters.” Maria commented.
“Add that to everything else I don’t tell them.” The two friends walked through the front hall toward the kitchen.
“Cole?” Maria went to the sink and pulled out a soapy pot. Picking up a scrub brush she got back to the dishes.
Liz didn’t say anything, just nodded. She grabbed a dry towel and took the pot when Maria was done, rinsing it out and dried it. Bending down she put the pot back where it was supposed to be.
“He broke up with Phoebe.” She told her friend who had basically known about her and Cole since the beginning.
“What? That’s great.” Maria never liked that Cole had been with Liz and continued to pursue Liz while still with Phoebe. “Are you two going to go public?”
“Not right away. He and Phoebe ended things yesterday, I think it’d be tacky to just show up on the sister’s doorstep, ‘Hey meet my new boyfriend’.” She dried a plate and put it in the cabinet.
Maria shut the water off, “I didn’t mean something like that but go out to dinner, share an actual outside in the open air date type thing.” She didn’t expect Liz to go announcing her involvement with her boss in the local paper but at least a little something that wasn’t as clandestine as quickies in the office or shadowed touches.
Liz shrugged. “Eventually we’ll do that. I’m sure we will…” She trailed off.
“Talk to me.” Maria noticed her hesitation.
Liz leaned her hip against the counter, still holding the plate she dried. “What if being public changes everything.”
“Wouldn’t it have to change?”
“In some ways. Ways I’m looking forward to.” She wanted to be able to hold Cole’s hand as they walked down the street. Wanted to be able to kiss him when she wanted and not have to wait for a moment where they were out of sight of others. She wanted to go out to dinner with him and be introduced as his girlfriend, not his fiancee’s cousin, friend, or secretary. “But what if we’re only good together in secret. What if going public kills this relationship?”
Maria put her slightly damp hands on Liz’s shoulders. “Then it wasn’t meant to be and Cole wouldn’t have been the right man for you.”
“I want him to be the right one. I love him so much.” Liz teared up and instantly was brought into a familiar and welcomed hug.
“Whatever happens, it’ll work out the way it’s supposed to. Don’t dwell on the bad.” Maria felt Liz chuckle. “I know, strange advice coming from me considering I thrive on dwelling on the bad but trust me. Take it a day at a time, go out on this path with an open mind, and hopefully you two come out of this together and stronger.”
“You’re a great friend, you know that?” Liz squeezed her tight. Maria mostly didn’t approve of how Cole was in her life. She liked him when they were friends and employer/employee, but once it turned romantic she wasn’t a supporter. ‘He can go after you all he wants once he’s not seeing Phoebe but not before.’ Maria was fond of saying to her occasionally.
Despite Maria’s dislike of the situation though, she was always there for her. Never once had she turned Liz away when she needed advice or to talk about Cole.
“I know I am.” Maria stated.
Smiling and pulling back Liz wiped at her eyes. “So humble too.” She teased.
Maria shrugged. “Not in my nature.” The two finished the last of the dishes when Liz asked if Chris was around at all.
“No, he got summoned away by Them.” Maria rolled her eyes.
“Again. What could they want this time?” Liz scoffed angry on Maria’s behalf.
The girls walked out into the living and sat on the couch. “What they want every time they seem to summon him. To tell him to stop seeing me or giving him some bogus assignment that some other Whitelighter could do in their sleep.”
Over the last year and a half Chris and Maria had dated, the Elders had tried to put a stop to their relationship. They were constantly watching their Whitelighters and in turn watching whoever they were with a daily basis. If Liz thought the stories she heard from Piper and Leo were bad, this was worse. The Elders clearly didn’t want Whitelighters dating witches or their charges, however humans…they were even stricter with when it came to those rules. Humans, according to them, had no business knowing anything about the magical world.
It was bad enough when the Elders found out Maria knew about Liz’s witch side but then to find out that she was also dating one of their newer Whitelighters, their orbs hit the fan. “This is ridiculous.” Liz squeezed the bridge of her nose trying to fight the headache the situation was bound to cause.
“No kidding.” Maria grumbled.
“Why is Chris even going along with their games? He’s never been a tow the company line kind of guy.”
Maria fidgeted uncomfortably, “It’s, at least partly, because of me.” When Liz gave her a confused cock of the eyebrow she continued. “Ok. If he gets booted from the roster up there he loses all his charges. They will assign different Whitlighters for all those witches. Despite the crap the Elders put him through he loves helping witches and setting them on the right path, showing them how to fight evil and save innocents.”
“You don’t want him to give up something he clearly loves and the way for Chris to keep his charges is to play along.” Liz finished for her.
“Exactly. How would he look at me if I made him give that up? So I keep relatively quiet about it. Chris isn’t stupid he knows I hate it every time they call him away but I’m not going to be the reason he gives up something he loves.”
Liz held onto Maria’s hand, “But, playing devil’s advocate here, how much longer will you be able to handle being in relationship where your boyfriend is hardly around?” Maria remained silent and Liz pushed on. “Tell Chris how you feel, maybe come up with a way to please both the Elders and you…as difficult as that’ll be. Because if you don’t your relationship might last much longer.”
Maria glared at her longtime friend, not really angry but annoyed that she might be right. “Tell Phoebe about you and Cole. This secret can only strain and possibly kill your relationship with her and your Warren/Halliwell side of the family.” She snapped back.
“Et tu?” Liz half joking and half hurt.
“Don’t give me truth, if you don’t want it either.” Maria smirked, any annoyance or hurt rolled away from them.
“Fair.” Liz agreed. “Why couldn’t we fall for a nice normal, and in my case, available guys?”
“That’d be too boring for us. We’ve dated aliens for heaven’s sake, we require a lot of craziness to not be bored to tears.” Maria laughed.
“Can’t argue with that. Speaking of craziness, can you tell Chris to not orb into my place during the weekend? Cole and I are spending it in.”
“Sure. And you don’t want any more surprise orbing. Gotcha.” Maria knew Liz and Cole had a couple of close calls with Chris orbing in and almost catching Cole there in Liz’s bed or in her kitchen late at night when he should have been with Phoebe. Thankfully Cole was awake at the time and saw some blue and white orbs coming from the ceiling, shimmering out before Chris was fully formed. “I’ll let him know.”
Kissing Maria on the cheek Liz hopped up from the couch. “Thank you. Now I need to go shopping. Cole’s seen all my lingerie, need some new outfits. Want to come?”
“Yea, I got a few hours before I need to head to bed. Give me a couple minutes to change.” Twenty minutes later with Maria changed, she and Liz headed out for an afternoon of shopping.
TBC
Chapter 9
The twenty minute drive from the Halliwell’s to Maria’s passed quickly. She called to make sure her friend was up and wanted visitors before dropping in, with Maria being a brand new owner of a struggling club, she worked a lot of nights, then with her part time job at a local clothing store, and then doing research for and writing her music column for The Bay Mirror, Maria spent most of her free time sleeping.
With a skip in her step she rang the doorbell to Maria’s. Her friend was all smiles when she opened the door. “Hey,” She gave Liz a hug and moved aside to let her in. “Welcome to the chaos, girl.”
Chaos was right. The living room was covered in so much paper products that Liz wondered how many forests were residing in the home. “You know we have these things called computers now.” She teased gently.
“Ha ha. Very funny. Remind me why I thought it was a good idea to try to save a failing club?”
“Because you love music and you had some great ideas to turn the fate of that place around, which are starting to pay off.” Liz explained what Maria already knew; she just needed someone else to say it every now and again.
Leaning against the door jam separating the hallway from the living room Maria tossed the dish towel she held over her shoulder and crossed her arms. “Fine, use my own words against me.” She grinned, “Last night we nearly broke even.”
“That’s great.” That deserved another hug which Maria happily accepted. “See you can do this. You’re kicking ass babe and just you wait, soon you’ll be kicking P3’s numbers.”
“Shouldn’t you be upset at that? It’s your cousin’s club you’re hoping I beat.” Maria pointed out.
Liz shrugged. “No contest, best friend I’ve known for over half my life who’s been more like a sister, or blood family I only met a few years ago. No brainer.”
“Wouldn’t advertise that to the sisters.” Maria commented.
“Add that to everything else I don’t tell them.” The two friends walked through the front hall toward the kitchen.
“Cole?” Maria went to the sink and pulled out a soapy pot. Picking up a scrub brush she got back to the dishes.
Liz didn’t say anything, just nodded. She grabbed a dry towel and took the pot when Maria was done, rinsing it out and dried it. Bending down she put the pot back where it was supposed to be.
“He broke up with Phoebe.” She told her friend who had basically known about her and Cole since the beginning.
“What? That’s great.” Maria never liked that Cole had been with Liz and continued to pursue Liz while still with Phoebe. “Are you two going to go public?”
“Not right away. He and Phoebe ended things yesterday, I think it’d be tacky to just show up on the sister’s doorstep, ‘Hey meet my new boyfriend’.” She dried a plate and put it in the cabinet.
Maria shut the water off, “I didn’t mean something like that but go out to dinner, share an actual outside in the open air date type thing.” She didn’t expect Liz to go announcing her involvement with her boss in the local paper but at least a little something that wasn’t as clandestine as quickies in the office or shadowed touches.
Liz shrugged. “Eventually we’ll do that. I’m sure we will…” She trailed off.
“Talk to me.” Maria noticed her hesitation.
Liz leaned her hip against the counter, still holding the plate she dried. “What if being public changes everything.”
“Wouldn’t it have to change?”
“In some ways. Ways I’m looking forward to.” She wanted to be able to hold Cole’s hand as they walked down the street. Wanted to be able to kiss him when she wanted and not have to wait for a moment where they were out of sight of others. She wanted to go out to dinner with him and be introduced as his girlfriend, not his fiancee’s cousin, friend, or secretary. “But what if we’re only good together in secret. What if going public kills this relationship?”
Maria put her slightly damp hands on Liz’s shoulders. “Then it wasn’t meant to be and Cole wouldn’t have been the right man for you.”
“I want him to be the right one. I love him so much.” Liz teared up and instantly was brought into a familiar and welcomed hug.
“Whatever happens, it’ll work out the way it’s supposed to. Don’t dwell on the bad.” Maria felt Liz chuckle. “I know, strange advice coming from me considering I thrive on dwelling on the bad but trust me. Take it a day at a time, go out on this path with an open mind, and hopefully you two come out of this together and stronger.”
“You’re a great friend, you know that?” Liz squeezed her tight. Maria mostly didn’t approve of how Cole was in her life. She liked him when they were friends and employer/employee, but once it turned romantic she wasn’t a supporter. ‘He can go after you all he wants once he’s not seeing Phoebe but not before.’ Maria was fond of saying to her occasionally.
Despite Maria’s dislike of the situation though, she was always there for her. Never once had she turned Liz away when she needed advice or to talk about Cole.
“I know I am.” Maria stated.
Smiling and pulling back Liz wiped at her eyes. “So humble too.” She teased.
Maria shrugged. “Not in my nature.” The two finished the last of the dishes when Liz asked if Chris was around at all.
“No, he got summoned away by Them.” Maria rolled her eyes.
“Again. What could they want this time?” Liz scoffed angry on Maria’s behalf.
The girls walked out into the living and sat on the couch. “What they want every time they seem to summon him. To tell him to stop seeing me or giving him some bogus assignment that some other Whitelighter could do in their sleep.”
Over the last year and a half Chris and Maria had dated, the Elders had tried to put a stop to their relationship. They were constantly watching their Whitelighters and in turn watching whoever they were with a daily basis. If Liz thought the stories she heard from Piper and Leo were bad, this was worse. The Elders clearly didn’t want Whitelighters dating witches or their charges, however humans…they were even stricter with when it came to those rules. Humans, according to them, had no business knowing anything about the magical world.
It was bad enough when the Elders found out Maria knew about Liz’s witch side but then to find out that she was also dating one of their newer Whitelighters, their orbs hit the fan. “This is ridiculous.” Liz squeezed the bridge of her nose trying to fight the headache the situation was bound to cause.
“No kidding.” Maria grumbled.
“Why is Chris even going along with their games? He’s never been a tow the company line kind of guy.”
Maria fidgeted uncomfortably, “It’s, at least partly, because of me.” When Liz gave her a confused cock of the eyebrow she continued. “Ok. If he gets booted from the roster up there he loses all his charges. They will assign different Whitlighters for all those witches. Despite the crap the Elders put him through he loves helping witches and setting them on the right path, showing them how to fight evil and save innocents.”
“You don’t want him to give up something he clearly loves and the way for Chris to keep his charges is to play along.” Liz finished for her.
“Exactly. How would he look at me if I made him give that up? So I keep relatively quiet about it. Chris isn’t stupid he knows I hate it every time they call him away but I’m not going to be the reason he gives up something he loves.”
Liz held onto Maria’s hand, “But, playing devil’s advocate here, how much longer will you be able to handle being in relationship where your boyfriend is hardly around?” Maria remained silent and Liz pushed on. “Tell Chris how you feel, maybe come up with a way to please both the Elders and you…as difficult as that’ll be. Because if you don’t your relationship might last much longer.”
Maria glared at her longtime friend, not really angry but annoyed that she might be right. “Tell Phoebe about you and Cole. This secret can only strain and possibly kill your relationship with her and your Warren/Halliwell side of the family.” She snapped back.
“Et tu?” Liz half joking and half hurt.
“Don’t give me truth, if you don’t want it either.” Maria smirked, any annoyance or hurt rolled away from them.
“Fair.” Liz agreed. “Why couldn’t we fall for a nice normal, and in my case, available guys?”
“That’d be too boring for us. We’ve dated aliens for heaven’s sake, we require a lot of craziness to not be bored to tears.” Maria laughed.
“Can’t argue with that. Speaking of craziness, can you tell Chris to not orb into my place during the weekend? Cole and I are spending it in.”
“Sure. And you don’t want any more surprise orbing. Gotcha.” Maria knew Liz and Cole had a couple of close calls with Chris orbing in and almost catching Cole there in Liz’s bed or in her kitchen late at night when he should have been with Phoebe. Thankfully Cole was awake at the time and saw some blue and white orbs coming from the ceiling, shimmering out before Chris was fully formed. “I’ll let him know.”
Kissing Maria on the cheek Liz hopped up from the couch. “Thank you. Now I need to go shopping. Cole’s seen all my lingerie, need some new outfits. Want to come?”
“Yea, I got a few hours before I need to head to bed. Give me a couple minutes to change.” Twenty minutes later with Maria changed, she and Liz headed out for an afternoon of shopping.
TBC