Monday morning started out normally for Marjorie, well, for the most part. She woke up, made her coffee and her usual scrambled eggs, showered, brushed her teeth and got dressed for work. The only difference in her routine was the smile on her face as she texted someone. The mystery woman from the ball she attended eight days before, AK.
A.K: Morning. I apologise for keeping you up late last night, did you manage to get any sleep?
Marjorie had been up for a majority of the night talking to AK. In fact, she had spent most of her week texting her. She had told the woman more about herself than some of the people she considered friends knew. Something about her made Marjorie unable to keep anything private, she wanted the woman to know everything about her. Even the parts of herself that she wished weren't true. She felt like this woman could see into her soul, see something in her that nobody else noticed. Something about that was comforting, knowing that someone sees you, just you and doesn't judge you for it.
Marjorie: You didn't keep me up, I wanted to be awake. And yeah, I got some sleep. Did you?
Marjorie set her phone down and went about styling her hair. She didn't allow herself to say anything else, anything emotional, no matter how badly she wanted to. As much as she was enjoying talking to AK, it was leading to some issues for her, mainly being what that meant for her. Marjorie had always been interested in men. She went from a boy crazy teenager to a woman who spent 90% of her days scrolling through men on dating apps. She'd never so much as looked at a woman and found herself attracted to them. Well, not until that Sunday night a week prior when she met the most captivating woman she had ever had the pleasure of coming across. Since that night, she had spent every waking moment of the last week agonizing over what that meant. Was she attracted to the woman or was she just curious? What did the woman think about her? Had she even thought about her? Why did she hope the woman had been thinking about her?
A.K: Yes, I slept. I enjoyed talking last night, you're a very interesting woman.
Marjorie: Interesting? I hope you mean that in a good way.
A.K: I do. Unfortunately, I have to get going. I'd much rather talk to you but I've got an extremely busy day ahead.
Marjorie: Alright, I'll talk to you later x
Placing her phone in her purse, Marjorie slipped on her shoes and grabbed her car keys. Just like AK, she also had a busy day ahead. She had to introduce herself to a new staff member, well not just a staff member. Her boss had hired his own daughter to work at the nursery Marjorie managed. The owners daughter, Autumn, was hired to be the new deputy manager and eventually, the owner of the nursery. According to the owner, this was going to be his daughter's "first real job". Marjorie had a lot of work set out for her.
Before heading into work, she was going to meet her friends Siobhan and Vivian for coffee. It had become a tradition for the 3 of them. Every Monday morning, they would meet at a local coffee shop to catch up. She parked her car across the street from the café and walked over.
"Hello Marjorie." The blonde woman, Siobhan, said as she waved Marjorie over.
Siobhan and Marjorie have known each other for almost a decade and for the majority of that time, they hated each other. They had become close about a year ago when Siobhan met Vivian, her girlfriend. Vivian brought out the best in everyone around her, especially Siobhan.
"Hey Shibby, Viv." She replied, sitting opposite the others. "Call me Shibby again and I will throw my americano on that hideous white blouse you're wearing." Marjorie stuck her tongue out and smiled at Siobhan. "I'm surprised you could make it, I heard that 'he who shall not be named' hired his own daughter to take over as your deputy manager." Vivian said, lifting her coffee to her lips. Marjorie tipped a ridiculous amount of sugar into her mug and stirred. "Yeah but she's not due to come in till 10. I'll be fine."
Marjorie sat and listened to the couple talk about what they were up to last week. She smiled and nodded but all she could truly think about was AK. "Right, why do you look like someone just hit your nan with a 10 ton truck?" Vivian asked, raising an eyebrow at Marjorie. "Aye? What are you on about?" Vivian rolled her eyes at the response, "Come on, I'm not blind. What's going on?" Marjorie just stared into her sugary coffee and tried to come up with an explanation. How could she tell the strongest people she knew that she was sulking over possibly having a crush on a woman? Even saying that in her head sounded ridiculous. "I'm just annoyed about the new deputy. Why am I expected to teach a woman with zero life skills how to be a manager? It's ridiculous." Vivian nodded and went back to talking about her weekend but when Marjorie looked at Siobhan, she could tell the woman didn't buy a word of what she said. She was just thankful that the her friend didn't call her out on it.
After a long chat and an obscene amount of coffee, the three women went their separate ways. Marjorie hopped in her car, looking up at her rear view mirror and the cross dangling from it. Though she wasn't religious anymore, she had been brought up in the church for half of her childhood. Her mother had married into high society. Her husband, Elijah Van Gould, was a Catholic man so when their families merged, Marjorie ended up going to church twice a week up until she was able to make her own decisions on faith. As she stared at the cross, she thought about something her stepfather had once said to a 12-year-old Marjorie, "Love doesn't exist. There are only two things that matter in this world, money and the word of god." She turned on her car and sighed. Her family would be so disappointed. Despite being estranged from them, a part of her would always care about what her family thought, whether she liked it or not.
Marjorie stepped through the doors to the nursery and headed to her office. She opened the door and saw a woman looking out of the window, back facing her. The new deputy was early. "Hiya my love, you must be Autumn. I'm Marjorie-" Her heart stopped as the woman turned around. The woman looked shocked for a moment as her eyes met Marjorie's but that quickly turned into a smirk. "It seems keeping our names a secret was in vain. Hello Marjorie."
AK... She should've known. She's Autumn Knight.
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A/N
I'll be focusing on this story a lot more for a couple of weeks so expect a good few chapters. 😋
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Masquerade || A Marjumn Story
FanfictionThe masquerade ball at the Knight Family Estate was set to be the same as it was every year. Autumn arrived thinking she would spend the night wallowing alone and god was she wrong.
