Your Beauty Never, Ever Scared Me - Wintumn Stories

Her North Star

When you work in the same building as your significant other all day, it can be incredibly difficult to talk about anything else. It did come with its advantages. When they needed to vent the other could put a face with the name. If they needed anything throughout the day they were just a short walk down the hall. But for the most part Autumn and Winter wanted to make sure that work stayed at work.

This was much easier said than done considering that not only did they work in the same building but her father was the owner, her brother ran the sister nursery, and Reece was dating their manager. Work and their personal lives were nearly completely intertwined and this only got worse as Autumn and Reece worked on the nursery takeover.

Everyone knew the nursery would be in extremely capable hands when the siblings were in charge. The plan was for Reece and Autumn to split their father's responsibilities; Autumn would be taking over most of the business side and Reece would manage the employees. Roger had once tried to train Reece as his sole successor but he didn't have the drive to succeed his father expected. So eventually he gave up on him and taught Autumn the business. It came much easier to her as she was much more academically minded than her brother.

Neither sibling wanted to take on the full responsibility of running the business for fear of becoming like their father. Roger was always working. Whether in the head office or in his office at home he thought of nothing else. He valued his money and his standing above all. He missed his children's school activities and barely talked to his children aside from the times he was punishing them for "embarrassing him." The two made a pact at an early age that they would never become like their father.

And up to this point they had both been succeeding. But as the board meeting loomed, Autumn started bringing home stacks of papers to go through to find all the necessary evidence to bring down her father. She would spread them all out on their table and wouldn't even stop working to eat. It brought her back to her childhood, working endless hours for her school work to be perfect because if she failed there would be dire consequences. Her and Reece couldn't fail their staff, they were counting on them. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she was headed down a familiar path.

She could often be heard muttering under her breath, "I'm not him. I'll never be him."

Winter hated to see Autumn this stressed. He knew that bringing all the work home was not something she wanted to do but something she felt she had to do. Every night, when she would finally join him in bed she would grab him tightly, refusing to let go as if she was worried that when she did he would disappear before her eyes. She apologized endlessly for how wrapped up she was in it, unable to hide the frustration that caused her voice to shake as she spoke.

Friday evening, as Autumn was finally reaching the end of her piles of paperwork, Winter came up behind her and started massaging her shoulders. She allowed herself to relax into his touch and she let out a relieved sigh.

"Thank you, my sweet. Just a couple more pages and then I'll finally be done with this. Hopefully this will all have been worth it."

"My love, you've been working so hard on this, there's no way you and Reece won't be in charge soon."

"Winter," Autumn started speaking quietly without even looking up, "what if I turn into him? What if I take this position and it changes me and I become my father?" She couldn't bear to look her love in the eyes in case his reaction confirmed her biggest fear.

"I've already started changing. I've been working every night, we haven't been out in weeks, I've been neglecting you. I'm so sorry, my sweet."

She finally turned to face him and Winter noticed that she had started tearing up. He grabbed her hand and led her to the couch, pulling her down to sit on his lap.

"That's never going to happen, Autumn. Your father is a monster but his job didn't make him that way. You know that job as well as he does, there is nothing to it that made him stay all those late hours, he made that choice.

Autumn laid her head on his shoulder as he continued. "And yes, right now you have had to bring some work home and we've stayed home more but it's almost over now and I know once it is we will go back to how we were before."

He gently lifted her head so that he could look her in the eyes. It was important to him that she knew just how much he meant what he was saying.

"I know you've been under so much pressure but your reasons for taking this on are so important. Autumn you are going to help so many people when you take over and I'm so proud to be by your side as you do it."

He wiped away the tears she had been unable to choke back before leaning in to kiss her. He felt her body relax the second their lips touched. Winter knew that his kisses always had this effect on her. They were her biggest weakness and her greatest source of strength.

"Winter, let's go out tonight."

"Of course, my love. Whatever you want."

They spent the evening at their usual date night restaurant. It had been far too long since they had just been together without Autumn checking her phone or making notes to remember when she got home. But tonight they spent hours just enjoying each other's company again. Autumn didn't do any more work the rest of the weekend, she was much more interested in spending the time with Winter. For the first time in weeks, work didn't even cross her mind..

Autumn would never be like her father because she had Winter. He was her north star, guiding her back home whenever she felt lost, keeping her focused on what was important. The life they were building together was worth more than any amount of money her father ever had.