Lovely Hues | Fillie AU

Chapter Four

"Are you sure it's okay?" Millie asked her sister-in-law while the fun-loving and newly engaged girl shoved Millie's purse into her outstretched arms. "It's your first weekend with a fiancé. I love that you do this but we can skip a week. . .really."

Chloe shook her head sternly, "Nope. Jack and I have them. It's just an afternoon Mil, go do whatever it was you did before you had to care for little humans every hour of the day. Take a drive. Take a walk. Window shop—"

"Actually shop." Jack offered from behind his fiance, bouncing his soon-to-be nephew gently on his hip.

Millie couldn't help but smile, "Ugh, okay." She relented. "But I swear, when two have your own, I'm repaying this favor."

Chloe ushered Millie further out the door and said in a mocking british accent, "I fully expect you that you do, Mildred."

Millie rolled her eyes and pursed her lips. She loathed the nickname that her sister-in-law coined for her when they first met, and while she rarely used it anymore, Millie had noticed that she tended to dredge it back up when she was being difficult so she took a deep breath and said, "Seriously though, thank you. I'll be back in a few hours."

Chloe nodded, smiled, then shut the door abruptly. If it had been anyone else, the gesture would have been completely rude but Millie knew her sister-in-law well and she knew it was the best way to cut the good-bye short and prevent the kids from becoming clingy.

She turned around, looked her street up and down then set off for the main strip of the town.

The first stop she always made on these weekly outings she got to go on without her kids, was the library. It was a few blocks down from her house, just before arriving on the main drag. It was a beautiful building with white marble columns that looked so out of place in this town that Millie felt an odd sort of bond with the structure.

So often, she felt misplaced in this tiny midwestern town. She felt like she didn't belong on the wide roads, or among the farmers and truckers and steel workers. It wasn't that she felt better than them or more proper or smarter. It was just that she felt she belonged in the city. In the narrow, cobblestoned streets lined with shops and cafes. With people shouting and bustling and zipping from one place to another with urgent business to attend to. She belonged in London, and on these days, the ones she spent alone, she never felt further from home.

So it was the library, sticking out from its surroundings like a waterfall in a desert, that called to her. And as she started up the white stone steps toward the entrance, she felt excited. Excited to feel out of place with something that looked out of place.

After walking out of the temperate September day and through the massive wooden doors into the wide open space of the library, she dropped off last week's books into the receptacle near the information desk. She pulled a pamphlet for a kids group that would start meeting on Wednesdays with the hope that Louisa might be interested in some social interaction. While tossing around the idea of Louisa actually having friends that she spoke to, she spotted a wisp of flaming orange hair flit down one of the fiction aisles and made her way to her own easily recognizable friend.

"Fancy meeting you here." Millie whispered close to her friend's ear after sneaking up on light feet.

Sadie Sink squealed then covered her mouth with her hand before whacking her on the arm, "Millie!" She whispered though it was clear she was admonishing her friend. "Don't do that!"

Millie stifled a laugh and whispered back "You're just so jumpy, I can't help it."

Sadie shook her head, her face growing red to match her long locks, "I can't believe you sometimes. . ."