A Beauteous Flower

Chapter 20 - The New Roommate

The next day at breakfast, when Madison walked into the kitchen Daniel was poised over his red cell phone with a smile on his face.

"What's up?" she asked curiously.

Daniel looked up at her and then turned the phone so she could see it. It showed a video of Burt, massive and cheerful in his Wizard costume, as he knelt next to the little girl from the ice cream shop and handed her a tiny orange kitten. The little girl squealed with delight and beamed a thousand-watt smile as she clutched the kitten to her chest. Then she burst into happy tears and kissed Burt on the cheek as she chanted "thank you thank you thank you" over and over to him. Daniel smirked at the happy scene.

"He posted it on his YouTube channel," Daniel explained. "He's got friend that does pet adoptions."

Madison was vaguely impressed. She still didn't want Burt's weirdness around her and Daniel, but she could at least acknowledge that Burt had a good heart. Then she saw there were other videos available on Burt's page.

"What are those?"

Daniel smirked a bit at his phone.

"LARP videos. Mostly Burt makes complaint videos about people who don't follow the rules."

Daniel selected a video at random and Burt's face, red and contorted with anger, filled the screen as he ranted about someone's failure to follow some rule to properly initiate some kind of spell. Daniel stopped the video after a few seconds, but Madison had already confirmed to her previous opinion. She had a lot of work to do in this department. 

Daniel needed a proper set of friends if he was to be her husband; friends they could see at glamorous parties and places, not friends who dressed up in costumes and argued about silly rules in silly games. Friends like Madison's friends. In fact, her friends should become their friends. Madison made a face and then walked over to the refrigerator to get a bagel. Their first day together as a live-in couple and Madison had just gotten a look at just how far boss bitch Madison had to go to whip this place and this man into shape.  And the first thing item on the agenda was no more Burt for her, and, as soon as she could arrange it, no more Burt for Daniel either.

After that morning, it didn't take long for things at the lake house to settle into a nice rhythm between Madison and Daniel. Madison was a little surprised by some of the adjustments she had to make to live with a man, but with Daniel those adjustments weren't too difficult. Fortunately, Daniel had grown up with a sister, so he already knew the basics of bathroom and toilet etiquette. He needed work on his PMS and period etiquette, but that was an easy fix for Madison just as soon as her next bout of Period Princess mode. After that, once Daniel silently surrendered his already tenuous hold on the walk-in closet, Madison felt she had established her territory and the hardest parts of Man Herding Daniel was over.

Still, Madison was cautious. She waited a week to be sure she was firmly entrenched, and then moved the last of her stuff to what she now considered "their" house in spite of the fact she paid for exactly none of it. Her apartment move out culminated with a celebratory free style dance session with Adalina, Ivy, Moira, Kelly, Deva and Madison gyrating to the heavy beat of "Shake That" by Eminem. After hugs and kisses and well wishes, Madison turned over her keys to the apartment to Ivy and prepared for the final departure from the parking lot.

"Get that bag, boss bitch," Ivy encouraged while Adalina and Deva both nodded their agreement. Moira and Kelly both congratulated her, but as she left the apartment for the last time she ran into a reserved Cassidy. Since the Greg Something-or-other misadventure, some of the high octane fairy energy had gone out of Cassidy.

"You OK?" Madison questioned as she hugged Cassidy goodbye.

Cassidy pulled back from the hug and looked at Madison for a moment. Worry creased her little forehead.